Sudan: The bite of Civil Disobedience shifts the ballance

[Elisabeth Janaina]

Sudan: The bite of Civil Disobedience shifts the ballance

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By Trayo A. Ali

The December 19 - 2016 Civil disobedience Action (CDA) called by the
Internet Empowered Youth (IEY) has effectively earnestly and
sucessfuly kicked off in time and across the nation. It took the
government quite unprepared, disorganized its usually preemptive
tricks, stripped her almost naked and thrown her in panick to the
point forcing to celebrate (in advance) the tradional occassion of
January first National Independence Day!!. Suffice it to discribe such
a move as quite unusual.

Resorting to this unconventional tactum (while combining with others
smart means), it has not only pumped a new spirit into opposition’s
body politica, revamped extra energy for push-up, but it gave the
opposition the advantage and leverage to push the government to the
receiving end. Such a move will definitely shift the existing ballance
of power and the entire scheme of arrangements.

This is more so when one consider the fact that the government has no
stamina to remove the root causes of the protest and/ or defuse its
trigger factor which ignited and gingered the situation. High cost of
living.

First:
Its New, peaceful and effective weapon.

The government was taken by surprise. The civil disobedience is a
qualitatively new challange to face. Peaceful in nature where as any
attempt to brutalize it shall equal to committing war crimes and
subject the perpetrator(s) to face criminal charges. Human rights
eagle eyes and live smart phone videos and pitures are there to relay,
monitor and report.
Its a new kind of a ball- game all together. The Islamist regime
buldozing tactics has seized to be effective and can not be
entertained any more. Pretty convasant with harsh tactics, the regime
is usually accustomed more with brute force and heavy handed means of
supression. Even the government’s well propagated electronic batalion
(an organized security operatives trained to wage cyber war-fare
through hackering and disinformation) has effectively turned useless.

- The civil-disobedience is an unconventional ammunition, it strikes
hard. With its ever growing tooth which bites hard it constitutes a
totally uncontrolable new challange the regime ever faces.

Second:
It shifts the power ballance
- Ever since its advent to power (in 1989) the NCP Islamist aparatus
managed to neutralize the component of peaceful resistance actors from
the battle. From the onset It brutaly crushed and almost eliminated
this segment. It effectively banned the trade unions, imprisoned,
prosecuted, exilled and even executed many of its leaders. Today not
only the trade unions are reemerging and gaining life (the medical
doctors as an example) but the internet empowered young generations of
youth are trooping to the battle by using the smart weapon provided by
social media. Thanks to Internet the face book and other associated
accessories. The hungry and angry unemployed youth are gathering the
momentum and reinforcing the battle against the status quo. They are
calling for change and nothing less than change. The ground is shaking
and the power ballance is increasingly shifting to dis-favour the
government. The government is facing the hard choice. Either to change
itself or to be changed

Third:
The message is gone deep down
- international community reacted
- The protest has decapacitated the the militia (specially the Rapid
Support Force) which were deployed to crackdown the protesters.
Operation disobedience also out smarted and detonated the so called
Electronic battalion and effectively neutralized and subsequently cut
the government into its real size. Changing the celeberation dates and
calendars that coupled with irresponsible statements uttered by many
government leader (including the president) show in no uncertain terms
how the government was panicked, desperate and confused.

The civil disobedience pushed the battle frontiers to the point of
no-return. The business is not any more as usual. The fear of unknown
is already broken and for good.

Fourth
Yet some missing links need to be fixed
The excercise of civil disobedience should be looked as an incremental
and snowball process; not as an event. You may loose a battle but
surely with more reslience you can overcome and win the war.
To make the Operation more effective and sustainable two issues shall
attrack further consideration. The leadership and participation. The
political leadership has to be ’strem-line. In this regard political
parties should resume the leadership role. Some lessons should be
learned and some very close experinces should be considered as guide
lines.

Involvement of and synchronization with the trade union is another
indispensable political requirement. This supplies the operation with
the necessary political Oxygen and gurantee the sustainabilty of the
resistence