In the run-up to next month’s nationwide elections, a diverse array of Sudanese opinions and perspectives on the polls abound. What follows is my ongoing attempt to filter some of the local print news sources I read on a daily basis out to the Enough Said readership. As you’ll see below, there are some great online sources of news from an inside-Sudan perspective. However, some excellent publications – such as South Sudan Business Week – are not yet available on the web. Bravo to the Sudanese journalists working to get the latest news and opinion out to fellow citizens seeking to make sense of the complex political realities of Sudan today:
“‘You can never realize you have the potential to do anything until you decide to give it a try. I used to get a lot of money and sometimes I could just brush the idea of starting a business away not until I went so broke and started looking for a mere 20 pounds [about $9].’”
— Advice from George Lomule, a small trader/businessman in Juba who lived in Juba throughout the civil war and runs a successful business in one of the city’s busiest markets. Quoted in an interview with Esther Muwombi, March 3-10 edition of South Sudan Business Week.
“Education of major development projects is the only avenue for reinstating citizens’ confidence in the serious intentions of the state even if those projects were launched for the purpose of winning citizens’ votes in the coming elections…This new railway line [linking the town of Babanusa in the northern state of X and the town of Wau in the southern state of Western Bahr el Ghazal]…sets a practical example…If the government had embarked on similar projects some years back, particularly in respects of projects that link North with South, Sudan would have taken long strides towards unity.”
— Editorial, The Citizen, “Need for transport projects to link North with South,” March 14
“Southern Sudan at its current level resembles a child who is totally malnourished. A child who needs regular nutritious supplements to regain energy lost. And for Southern Sudan to overcome this, there is a need for a national framework that aims to promote democracy at the grassroots to the top. By doing so, foreign investors could be attracted to provide capital, hence creating national building projects for a new, fresh, prosperous and a strong Southern Sudanese nation.”
— Kuol Mayiir, New Sudan Vision, “Democracy before referendum is a boon for Southern Sudan,” March 14 (available online)
“Nowadays, Juba and other major towns in Southern Sudan and the whole Sudan are beautified by photos of candidates, advertising themselves for their voters to know who they are exactly so that when that D- day comes they should be able to know who they should vote…My short message to voters is that never let your voting be swayed by these beautiful profiles full and political rhetoric without knowing who that person is exactly because you will either regret in term less than the last twenty years we spent fighting. Ahead of us are elections but the most important part is the referendum whom we have invested all our efforts whether be it government, civil society and individuals.”
— Atok Dan Baguoot, Sudan Tribune, “Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets,” March 13 (available online)
Photo: A matatu in Juba plastered with elections posters (Enough/Maggie Fick)