• 20 April 2007 23:16, by J. Omunu

  By J. Omunu

  The notion of justice as a virtue of the good life can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greeks. Justice is considered as an important virtue of both individuals and societies. It invokes fairness which guarantees equal individual rights of members of a sovereign people whose mode of self-government is embodied in the constitution. In theory, most of the Africa states constitution is well written in terms of principles guiding action of a democratic republic; providing formal checks and balances, freedom of speech, press, assembly, freedom of religion and worship, and guarantees of individual rights befitting of a liberal democracy.

  However, the major problem with upholding civil liberties in Sudan is inherent in the refusal by successive Sudan governments to justly apply provisions of the constitution, as well as treat all its citizens as equal before the law. In practical terms, the Sudan state is totalitarian state subjected to the whims of imperial presidents who can at will violate the constitution and exercise extra-judicial powers to suppress the opponents and mismanage the state economy for their egoistic interest without being held accountable by its people.

  The continuing raise level of abuse and violation of the constitutional rights and civil liberties of the governed by the government suggest that those in authorities are fully aware of the provision of these rights in the constitution but deliberately kept on ignoring them. While the Constitution gives power to the people, Sudan governments failed to institute and secured these rights accordingly. The rulers perceived the constitution as set of laws as oppose to a set of values that ensures the rights and civil liberties of the people are protected by the government.

  For social and Political justice to exist there must be fairness, equal opportunity and respect for human rights. Social justice is upheld if there is respect for the fundamental, economic, social and political rights of citizens. However, only in a democratic republic can these fundamental, political, social and economic rights be realized. In such a democratic structure, all citizens fully participate in the affairs of the nation. Their participation, thus, guarantees social justice because through it, they are able to resist the violation of these rights.

  Despite the fact that the Sudan constitution recognizes the political rights of all the citizens and declares that government derives its powers from the people, the important social and economic rights of citizens are not fully guaranteed in the constitution. Today, Sudan has abstract political intuitions, but lacks institutional rules that will effectively govern the conduct of the rulers most of the time as specified by John Rawls. I argue that the governmental abuse of the basic civil rights and liberties of the people cannot be really attributed to the lack of constitutional guarantees and safeguards, but rather to the lack of political will on the part of the countries’ political leaders such as in Sudan to ensure genuine implementation and application of the provisions of the constitution. Utmost, the constitution has not been applied legally due to the concentration of power on the executives’ branch of the governments. For example, enormous power wielded by Sudanese president to the extent has over the years diluted the powers of the judicial and legislative branches of government, thereby reducing the separation of power clause of the constitution to nil, and nullifying the check and balance necessary for good governance. Thus, system of laws and legal institutions clearly failed to embrace constitutionalism which is meant to reserved these rights.

  The on-going genocide in Darfur Western region of Sudan would have been avoided if successive political arrangements had implemented policies that assure all citizens equal access to opportunities and resources. Darfurians in Western Sudan and Black Africans in the South of the country continue to be discriminated against differently on the basis of race similar to that had been said of the apartheid system of South Africa which continues to distribute political and economic benefits on the basis of race.

  In view of the fact that social justice and democracy are not guaranteed in Sudan’s Constitution, it becomes necessary for people to defend their civil liberty by themselves. In 1955, the exclusion of South Sudanese from the country’s economic and political processes led to a mutiny in the South on the eve of independence. Khartoum policies regarding the South’s ownership of natural resources, especially oil, and also the question of self-determination for the South, have all been implicated in the resurgence of the second round of civil war led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). This is a clear indication that the people of South Sudan feel they have been abused by the North, which demands that Southerners relinquish their African cultures and traditional beliefs to Arab Islamic hegemony.

  In 2003, Darfurian rebel groups began attacking government targets in the Darfur state, claiming that the region was being neglected by Khartoum and that the government was oppressing Blacks in favor of Arabs. Responded to the rebel resistance, the government organized a military and political partnership with some Arab nomads who comprise Janjaweed militias, and armed them with modern weaponry to carry out indiscriminate mass killing of other African Muslims in Darfur Western region to exterminate the Black African population.

  The exclusion of Blacks from the government in Khartoum indicates that racism has taken center stage in Sudan’s social, economic and political institutions. As a result, the fundamentalists’ Islamic government has always undermined all development efforts in the South and Western Darfur region. The government has provided infrastructure and basic services like health care and schools for Arab Muslims, but these services are not extended to Black Africans in the South and Western Darfur region. Since then the real struggle for change in Sudan has been the quest for political justice and liberty.

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