Dr. Hashim El-Tinay *
Washington, DC,
December 09, 2010
We have witnessed how many Americans and especially those on the right were and are disenchanted by the dysfunctional behavior of their elected representatives and can’t understand why partisanship trumps serving the common good, the reason why these representatives were elected in the first place. They expressed it in the November 2010 midterm elections and gave Obama and the Democratic Party a "shellacking" by taking over the House of Representatives and changing the balance of power in Washington. The deal on taxes, just made, is a direct result of this changing landscape.
We have also been witnessing how most people in the Sudan are disenchanted by the way many Sudanese politicians in both the North and the South have been wasting precious time in small politics while the clock is ticking for a referendum on January 2011 that will determine if the Sudan, as we know it, will or will not be. In a country that has been captive to its worst demons , civil war and lack of both real stability and good governance and where the one party system imposes fear and penalizes free thought, what can we expect on January 9, 2011?
If the lessons of history are any guide, it is clear that the nation-states ,which are man-made, are like all of us humans, limited in their mission to serve the people. They clearly demonstrated that they are not meant to take us to Heaven. Rather, they are meant, with some luck, to save us from Hell, here on Earth. Alas, many keep pushing people to Hell by hawkish policies based on a violence rooted in cruelty and the dehumanization of the different other. Many states have a dismal record of practicing man's inhumanity to man, while filling the airwaves with empty lofty rhetoric.
When human beings speak and act on raw emotion and passion rooted in greed, anger, fear, hatred and malice, failing to reign in their worst demons, they are capable of causing great mischief and tragedies. Imperialism, Spain’s Inquisition, colonialism, the Crusades, slavery, apartheid, the Holocaust, the two World Wars, African wars of liberation, the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian wars, the Sudanese civil war, Bosnia, the Bush Iraq war, Kashmir, Rwanda’s Genocide, and Darfur are but a few examples.
On the other hand, when human beings speak and act on reason and thoughtful deliberation rooted in knowledge, respectful dialogue, a search for common ground, and integrity, they can unleash the power of their better angels and are capable of transcending mediocrity, narrow-mindedness, arrogance, self-righteousness and greed, the root causes of most tragedies, and by ending some of the above and humbly striving to resolving the ongoing ones, they are capable of achieving greatness.
We applauded the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that brought an end to Africa's longest running civil war in 2005. Salam Sudan Foundation (SSF) and the International Peace Quest Institute (IPQI) organized peace forums in Khartoum and Darfur in 2007 and 2008 in support of it. We also welcomed the Obama administration’s new emphasis on diplomacy and engagement with a peace rather than a war-centered approach to international relations.
We are encouraged by Secretary Hillary Clinton’s embrace of a new win-win rather than the old zero sum doctrine, as we have been advocating for years. But action speaks louder than words. It is high time for America to rethink and redefine its role in the world and dare a paradigm shift and a new politics of societal renewal for the 21st Century.
The North-South- divide, at the glocal (local and the global) level on the ongoing historic debate of how to bring authentic change and hope to peoples around the world, starting right here on Capitol Hill and over there in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, the Sudan and globally, is primordial for the future. Although unity, after all is not an end in itself, we believe that a free, united and peaceful Sudan is indeed not only possible but also necessary, for Africa, the Middle East and the world.That Sudan, in waiting, can be a solid foundation for realizing the popular dream of the United States of Africa, because "Africa Must Unite".
But in the short term conventional wisdom teaches that people usually reap what they sow.The question is will January 9th, 2011 be an hour of truth for the powers that be? Will its outcome reflect the harvest of what both the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM), the two signatories of the CPA and who have a monopoly on power, have sown through their politics and policies since 2005? Will it be truly a reflection of the free will of the people of South Sudan? What impact will the African and Middle Eastern regions, the United States, China and, above all, the court of world public opinion have?
Whatever the outcome, January 9th, 2011 will either be peaceful and a blessing or violent and a curse for the people. Are the politicians listening? Free at last? Not so fast! Not until people become aware of where their long term interests lie and organize themselves into novel grass roots movements capable of producing from their midst leaders who are committed to a genuine politics of liberation, renewal, freedom, justice and peace.
The Sudanese people are sick and tired of being held hostage by all the cynics local, regional and global who thrive by using violence and persecution as means for worldly material gains, cashing in on the misery of other people. They have been yearning for freedom, justice, peace and prosperity since the country's independence in 1956. It is indeed past time for a Sudan of the 21st Century to emerge and rise up from the ashes.
END
For more on this : please look out next week for how to order your copy of my book , "
Exiled Hope, Time for a Sudan of the 21st Century, A Vision for Societal Renewal",
just published, to be soon available on my website:
www.exiledhope.com [under construction].
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*Founder/President Salam Sudan Foundation (SSF) International Peace Quest Institute (IPQI), a Washington- DC-based 501 (C) 3 Peace Research and Education Think-Tank, salamsudandc@gmail.com
* 2010 Candidate for the Sudanese Presidency (declared November 2009 and withdrawn in February 2010)
Watch the Riz Khan Aljazeera English Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeCPd3Dxrbs
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. -- Margaret Mead
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VISION: Working for societal renewal through cross-cultural
and interfaith research, education and dialogue for freedom,
justice and peace, locally and globally .
MISSION: Promoting a more enlightened 21st century peace-centered
MISSION: Promoting a more enlightened 21st century peace-centered
approach to public policy, governance and international relations.
HISTORY: IPQI-SSF, established in Paris in 1985, is, since 2002, a
Washington, DC-based 501 (C) 3 non-profit think tank/NGO/charity
HISTORY: IPQI-SSF, established in Paris in 1985, is, since 2002, a
Washington, DC-based 501 (C) 3 non-profit think tank/NGO/charity
with grass roots presence in Paris, France and since 2005
in Khartoum, Sudan and Nairobi, Kenya.
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