Ahmed Bilal's Red Pen by Shrikanth Krishnamoorthy

G. Edward Griffin once said: "To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism". This will lead us to the logical conclusion that those who are creating obstacles of any kind in the fight against corruption are in fact comitting high treason. Banning journalists from writing?! Confiscating entire newspaper print runs? Suspending and shutting down newspapers?! All this under the pretext of "protecting national security"? Bulldung! Corrupt governments are imposing a veil of secrecy when they need to hide incompetence or illegal acts. If you don't have something to hide, then you put it all out in the open - it's that simple.

The propaganda minister announced that the government of Sudan will establish a special commission "to examine news stories related to corruption before their publication". He stressed that "the purpose of this commission is not to censor the media but to verify the accuracy of its information". He also disclosed that the government is considering setting up special courts for issues related to the media. He did not mention if they plan to build a new prison for the media-convicts, or if the existing prisons would be able to accommodate the anticipated number of new inmates...

I am not trying to make a direct comparison here, but Goebbels was using similar methods. Stalin also established his version of the commission, the famous "Glavlit", with the identical purpose: to verify the accuracy of information before it reached the printing press.

Your Excellency, are you trying to redefine the meaning of the term "censorship"? Or what word can we use to describe "examining and reviewing news stories in order to verify the accuracy of their information before being published" other than censorship. When a woman is selling her body for money, we don't call her a businesswoman, the correct term is prostitute, regardless of her justification for chosing that line of business. A prostitute is a prostitute, no need to equivocate Your Excellency, you can talk straight.

No need for any new commission either, the number of ministries, agencies, commissions and other bureaucratic entities you already have is similar with what we have in India. Don't you agree that this is quite strange given that India is a subcontinent, governing a population of over one billion and has a "slightly" bigger economy than that of Sudan?

Enough of wasting more of your nation's so limited resources on new governmental organs that are creations of a publicity stunt. What this bleeding nation does need is an all-powerful and independent anti-corruption commission, truly independent from both the executive and the judicial branch, with a guaranteed budgetary independence as well.

And if you need any new courts, let them be special fast-track courts for dealing with corruption, fraud and embezzlement of public funds.

As I suggested before to our government in India, there is no need for the government of Sudan either to reinvent the wheel: just implement what other nations do, democracies that successfully fight and prevent corruption. True democracies, I mean.

Your Excellency, criticizing the former Janjaweed, today known as the RSF, was declared as "crossing the red line". The grand theft implicating the Khartoum governor's office followed suit. So did the corruption scandals in which the undersecretary of the ministry of justice is the main star. Now we hear that the authorities banned any further reporting on Sadiq Al-Mahdi's arrest and trial as well. Your Excellency, if your list of "red line items" continues to grow so rapidly, tomorrow the Sudanese newspapers will be left with publishing only weather reports, studies about the breeding habits of the migratory birds, horoscope and crosswords.

Your Excellency, the obscenity rules of this website are drawing a red line and prevent me from publishing what I would like to suggest you to do with your red pen.

Arabic Forum