INTERVIEW: Mahdi & son steering NUP towards alliance with NCP, ex-SG says
May 6, 2014 (WASHINGTON) – The leader of the National Umma Party (NUP) al-Sadiq al-Mahdi and his son Abdel-Rahman are working steadfastly to move the party towards rapprochement with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), the outgoing Secretary General Ibrahim al-Amin said.
In a phone interview with Sudan Tribune on Tuesday, al-Amin lashed out at al-Mahdi and accused him of deliberately blocking any attempts to mobilize the party behind popular uprisings in the country as was the case during the September 2013 protests that broke out across the country after the government lifted fuel subsidies.
At the time, the leader of Sudan’s largest opposition party suggested that the NUP is not prepared to support any uprising against the government until political and social groups in the country agree to a clear alternative.
He took a similar line during demonstrations that erupted in the summer of 2012 after the rollout of austerity measures telling the Financial Times newspaper that “we don’t think that the time has come for us to organize such a movement until we have an alternative regime in place ... and democratic transformation".
Al-Amin asserted that the NUP chief may have personal fears leading him to adopt this position.
"There is an explanation that is being circulated, that he [al-Mahdi] thinks that if demonstrations break out [against the government], if change happens [afterwards] his chances [in governing] becomes less because the general mood turned against him," said the NUP figure who was forced out of the SG post with full backing of al-Mahdi during the Central Commission meeting last week.
"That is why he wants to arrive at some sort of alliance with the NCP and it will be a wider alliance and one with Islamic parties. If this happens, his prospects are better than if change happens through popular uprising," he added.
Al-Mahdi has critical in recent years of the NCF of which his party is a member and publicly questioned their ability to remove the regime.
He also frequently stated that he seeks to reform the NCP-led government and not topple it warning that this could trigger a civil war.
Al-Amin said the real danger is not having the NUP chief join the government but that these tactics have weakened the opposition front in the country.
"He is trying to disrupt the work of the [opposition umbrella] the National Consensus Forces (NCF) and even our relations with the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) with who we were going to forge an alliance with but in the end [former SG] Sideeg [Ismail] sabotaged it," he said.
He emphasized that he does not oppose dialogue in principle but insists on using it to induce regime change adding that al-Mahdi and some others in the NUP want to suspend anti-regime mobilization in favor of dialogue.
"This is the main political difference that exists in the NUP today," al-Amin explained.
The ex-SG also underscored the daylight between what al-Mahdi says and what he does.
As an example, al-Mahdi frequently warned against Islamist parties on the basis that they wish to install a Taliban-like government.
"He says that but practically his actions through Abdel-Rahman and with [President Omer Hassan] al-Bashir in trying isolate the civil parties and the SRF or at least weaken their presence and do something that aligns with their Islamic orientation," al-Amin said.
The NUP party is different from other Islamist parties, he said because it calls for middle-way Islamic understanding and as such they can hold dialogue with all other forces regardless of their of their ideology.
"Sudan is in decline in everything so if we [in the NCP] undermine the opposition [forces], did not establish the broad front with political and armed opposition forces, it all flows to help the regime," al-Amin said.
Al-Amin said that al-Mahdi has long been seeking to convert the NUP into an Islamic party and at one point after the 1985 uprising against late president Ja’afar Nimeiri, wanted to change the party’s name to reflect that but backed down as a result of stiff opposition.
Furthermore, the former Prime Minister during his term from 1986-1989 always insisted on letting in the National Islamic Front (NIF) join the coalition government.
"This was a cause for disaster to us [in the NUP]," he argued. "The NUP chief also gave a de facto recognition of the June 30th 1989 coup by writing in a memo that was found by the military junta stating that "we have the legitimacy and you have the power".
The NIF headed by Hassan al-Turabi orchestrated the 1989 army coup which brought president Bashir to power.
Al-Amin emphasized that all meetings or deals signed between the NUP and the NCP over the last two decades has achieved nothing for the party and dealt blows to opposition work.
"The NCP wants to weaken the NUP so that people start questioning whether the NUP is part of the opposition or the government….This will extend the life of the regime until elections are held….Any totalitarian regime has as its main priority to kill the alternative so that there is no strong party or strong alliance that could pose a strong opposition and bring it [the regime] down," al-Amin said.
He went on to say that al-Mahdi’s strategy has been to push for the election of certain figures to hold positions in the party’s various bodies who will not challenge him. This includes those who defected from other parties and are immediately being assigned top positions in the NUP.
Al-Amin recalled the disclosure that a secret committee was formed by al-Mahdi to negotiate with the NCP without anyone in the party’s top bodies knowing.
It was only after Bashir and former NUP SG spoke of an imminent deal with the NCP did the existence of a bilateral dialogue became known.
"There are institution within the party but no institutional [style of work]," al-Amin said, adding that while al-Mahdi wants the appearance of a democratic institution, he does not tolerate any dissenting views.
He highlighted al-Mahdi’s "inappropriate" remarks to the party’s base that those not happy with the NUP policies should leave and form their own parties.
Despite this, al-Amin insisted that he will not defect and will work to reconcile all NUP figures and move the NUP against any communion with the NCP.
The NUP leader asked members of the Central Commission in their meeting last week to relieve al-Amin in light of his “failure” to create a consensual secretariat among other reasons.
The meeting eventually elected the head of the party’s Political Secretariat, Sara Nugdalla, as its next secretary-general.
Al-Amin boycotted the meetings and argued that the current term of the Central Commission expired a year ago and therefore it is an interim one with no mandate except to prepare for the party’s General Convention, which is tasked with electing members of the NUP to various bodies.
Observers say that al-Mahdi has been uneasy with the election of al-Amin in 2012 over Ismail who is viewed suspiciously by the NUP base as being close to the NCP but is strongly backed by al-Mahdi.
"Our main aim is to stay in the party and move within the framework of the party and work to mobilize the people." al-Amin said.
The NUP figure also criticized the Ansar Affairs Commission headed Abdel-Mahmood Abo saying it is simply serving the aims of al-Mahdi and that they have drifted away from their religious mission to meddle into political issues and have turned into an alternative secretariat of the NUP.
"They represent the alternative secretariat [of the NUP]," he said.
The Ansar is the religious sect that has historically formed the base of the NUP.
Al-Mahdi’s ultimate goal is to groom Abdel-Rahman as his successor through allowing him to gain influence by being in the government.
"But this is met with total rejection by the party’s base…because of his personality and his participation with the regime," al-Amin said.
He gave an example of recent remarks made by Abdel-Rahman in which he affirmed the presidency’s confidence in Khartoum governor after a major corruption scandal involving two people working in his office was uncovered.
"Not even the presidency or anyone in the government made such a statement," al-Amin said.
Despite initially distancing himself from his eldest son’s Abdel-Rahman decision in 2011 to become president Bashir’s assistant, al-Mahdi later praised his son’s qualifications to fill this role.
In a related issue, the leading NUP figure Mubarak al-Fadil returned to Khartoum on Tuesday after staying abroad for two years.
Al-Fadil, who is considered al-Mahdi’s main adversary in the party, told reporters that his main priority now is to bring about reconciliation within the NUP and end disagreements between him and the NUP leader.
He said he does not mind meeting al-Mahdi him but criticized recent decisions to expel and dismiss a number of party members because they held opposing views.
His second goal is to seek solutions to end a war stressing that national dialogue called for by Bashir in late January cannot be fruitful without doing so.
In a public letter to al-Mahdi last week, al-Fadil urged him to step down to give room to a new generation and play a symbolic role in the background.
But during the Central Commission meeting, al-Mahdi gave a subtle response saying that those who call for his resignation are "jealous" people who want to destroy the party.
(ST)
