The next government

According to Mr Ghazi Salaheldin the NCP is extending a flirtatious invitation to opposition political parties, including the boycotting Umma, to join the next 'Government of National Unity'. So the apparent is a government probably joining NCP, SPLM and the Democratic Unionist Party. The Umma Party, after cashing in two billion Sudanese pounds may well follow suit. Umma Party leader, Mr Sadiq al Mahdi, speaking to Egyptian web-based Africa Alyom has declared his readiness to cooperate with the coming government, while his second in command, Fadalla Burma, cautiously welcomed dialogue with a note that it was too early to commit to a coalition. The notorious Turabi is not expected to be too hesitant. He has already voiced readiness to jump in on the condition that the NCP reverts to the principles of the 1989 coup!

The evident is that the NCP is slowly approaching achievement of the National Islamic Front's penultimate fantasy: hegemony with consent, i.e. a broad coalition led by the Islamists with the two sectarian parties, Umma and DUP, at the flanks. In essence what is crystallizing now is the dialectical opposite of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the umbrella organisation joining opposition to the NIF regime throughout the nineties, SPLM, Umma, Communist Party, and trade unions. Purged in the re-arrangement are the forces accused of capacity to spoil the game. The above follows the logic of Khartoum's saloon politics, marathon talks and tedious tactics. A factor however that may obstruct the NCP's ambitions is pressure from below, particularly that socio-economic shifts in Sudan have weakened the grip of sectarian leaders on their followers. The Umma Party base refused to follow Mr Sadiq al Mahdi hints at possible albeit conditioned participation in the elections following his initial withdrawal from the race and pressured the old leader into holding stubborn ground. The same uneasiness with al Mahdi's line may eventually prevail and keep him out of government.

The NCP, apart from long term visions of ultimate hegemony, is keen to get as many political hands as possible into the upcoming and decisive phase, where the South is expected to secede, a break in post-colonial history that it cannot afford to shoulder alone, but is hard pressed to throw into a national basket of responsibility.