Sudanese go to the polls in less than two weeks

Sudan goes to the polls in less than two weeks in what seems to be an exciting prospect for the country that has been under one party rule for 21 years.

Both the Northerners and Southerners will be taking part in elections on April 11.

Among those who are seeking to end President Omar al-Bashir’s rule is Yasser Saaeed Arman, 49.

Vying under the Sudan People Liberation Movement, Arman, will battle it out with nine other candidates approved by the National Elections Commission.

He is currently the SPLM Deputy Secretary General for the Northern Sector, and its parliamentary block leader.

“I am confident that the SPLM will win both in the south and the nationwide. I will be up to the challenge and the confidence of the party leadership. This is a serious part of the struggle we have been engaged in for the last 27 years,” he said after he was declared the party’s candidate.

Speaking to the Nation, Mr Arman said he epitomizes the struggle facing Sudan to the struggle to integrate multiple identities and to embrace a citizenship of equal enjoyment of rights and freedom. He will be banking on this to sway votes.

Military college

Mr Arman was born in 1961 in the central Sudan State of Jazeera to a father who worked as a primary teacher and school principal and a home-maker mother.

He currently lives with his two daughters and his wife Awar Deng Majok from the Southern Sudan’s Ngok Dinka tribe of Abyie.
Mr Arman studied law at the Khartoum branch of Cairo University, where he was among the student movement’s leaders.

He joined the SPLM in 1987 and was among the first Northerners to join the movement and to graduate from its military college.

As a military officer who rose quickly to the rank of General, he had a responsibility for the armed struggle, commanding missions to Blue Nile and South Sudan.

He later joined the SPLM radio service, addressing Sudanese people across the country and played an important role in challenging the polarized political climate.

“That time, it was new and striking for Northern Sudanese, to hear a Northerner addressing issues of justice and the rights of the people of Sudan in both the north and the southern parts of the country,” he recalls.

In 1990, Arman was promoted into the senior SPLM leadership team joining the John Garang, Edward Lino, Yousif Kowa and the current SPLM President Salva Kiir. Mr Kiir who is Sudan’s First Vice President will contest for president of south Sudan in April elections.

“Yasir Arman is a long term SPLM cadre and a capable leader and our best candidate for the position of the president of the republic,” said SPLM Secretary-General, Mr Pagan Amum, when he announced the candidature of Mr Arman.

In the mid 1990s Mr Arman took on the task of re-uniting SPLM, which was then under tremendous pressure with signs of fragmentation. During this time, he established strategic relationships for the SPLM with internationals and Sudan opposition leaders.

Mr Arman was deeply involved in striving for a peaceful agreement between the SPLM and the current National Congress Party, culminating in the signing of the landmark Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005.

“Garang’s vision of the New Sudan based on principles of just democratic transformation and self-determination for the people of South Sudan has led me throughout,” he told the Nation.

After the signing of the CPA, Arman moved to Iowa State University in the United States and was awarded his PhD from that University.

“I spent my time there researching and writing several papers about the experiences of nation builders during the sixties and fifties,” he said.

Mr Arman’s vision for Sudan is influenced by his study of the approaches of charismatic leaders and thinkers about the means of democratic transformation around Africa, among them, Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Leopold Senghor of Senegal.

He speaks regularly about Sudan in the African context, quoting from African philosophers and referring to African culture and history.
Mr Arman is using his Muslim heritage as a critical loadstone of his regional and spiritual identity.

After the signing of the CPA he was appointed as the head of the SPLM block in the national parliament and turned the position into a platform to voice the concerns and reflect the hardships of ordinary Sudanese people under an Islamic fundamentalist regime.

In his advocacy for the rights of all under the Interim Constitution he was accused of being an “unbeliever” through the issue of a Fatwa by the Sudanese Olma council (the country’s religious council).

“This accusation came as a result of my outspoken support of the courageous journalist Lubna Hussein who was found guilty of wearing ‘indecent’ clothing by the Sudanese public order courts,” he said.

Mr Arman said he has a serious interest in the promotion of women rights.

Over the past five years Mr Arman has fought many battles with the NCP around their lack of commitment to the implementation of the CPA.

“This stance has led to frequent political confrontations between the NCP and the SPLM. I advocated for the release of political detainees and an end to the violence being visited against displaced people in northern Sudan, which the Government didn’t like,” he added.

Referendum laws

He has opposed the demolishing of the homes of the poor and internally displaced in Khartoum and denounced racial profiling particularly in the wake of the May 2008 attacks in Omdurman which led to racially orchestrated arrests.

In January this year, Mr Arman was arrested and tortured by the Sudanese security forces when he led a demonstration urging national security reform and debate on the South Sudan and Abeyi referendum laws.

This led to an outcry from the international community, with questions over the future of the country, and next month’s election.
The Darfur crisis has also been a focus of his attention. In his last visit to Darfur, Arman talked about the need to respect the rights of the people of Darfur.

With SPLM’s increasing focus on achieving an independent Southern Sudan state, the nomination of Mr Arman for the Presidency has been interpreted by some observers as an SPLM “reward” for someone who had embraced the “New Sudan” vision of one united country.

In the South those eager to establish a separate state see him as a possible threat to independence.

In the northern part of the country there are also mixed feelings. Many in northern Sudanese urban centres, he believes, have observed his struggle and courage around important public policy issues, but feel they don’t know him well enough.

“Others worry that I’m a radical figure, my history of Southern struggle partly alienated me from the Northern Sudanese context,” he said.

With Sudan ruled and dominated through its post Anglo-Egyption period by a Northern Sudanese majority, his controversial profile raises questions.

He believes that his integrity will save him from this.

“My personal life is a reflection of my political vision,” he said, expressing confidence that he will emerge the victor next month and get a chance to lead Africa’s biggest country.