The Second Wave of Price Hikes: Marie Antoinette Proposes Patience!!

Siddiq Dalai

The great optimism following the birth of the new hopeful government was aimed at compensating for the big failure of the first one through serious and studied packages, besides reactivating political will which was disabled intentionally.

Unfortunately the reshuffle and the appointment of the new ministers did not pay off as the dire conditions remained the same or worsened; especially in these days which have witnessed unbearable price hikes, power blackouts, rarity of fuel and bread.

Despite that, our honorable government is calling on people to endure the hardships, while the government is still practicing its failure in preventing the tremendously escalating deterioration of living conditions.

In these hard days, we recognize the relaxation from the government towards the surrounding disasters, while the people are screaming from the lack of the essential commodities.

I hope that we don’t reach the stage of regretting such slow moves, while the fire is eating all the reserved patience reserved for resisting the hardships.

For instance, the newly appointed minister of Industry, who was famous for his strong speeches during the sit-in events which led to overthrowing the dictatorship, remained silent since his swearing-in, with only a short visit to Al-Bagair.

Instead of looking for solutions that can ease the lives of the people, he recommended the increase of the customs dollar exchange rate without consideration to its negative impact; despite the minister’s knowledge as one of the importers who knows the market well before being a minister!

On the other hand, the minister of the cabinet, Khalid Silik, who was also one of the December revolution icons, was satisfied with a short visit accompanying the Prime Minister to Kalakla and Medani, which did not bring any hopes for an appropriate start for a youthful minister who was hoped to compensate for the failure of the previous government.

Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok should not count on a farsighted vision to achieve the aspired overcoming of the present collapse.

There is no excuse for Hamdok.

He must avoid his current tactics in playing on the Sudanese patience card, because impatience is dominating the arena.

It is true that Hamdok is moving forward to achieve the goal he set with others in terms of regional and international relations, but unfortunately they disregard the top priority of their government represented by providing the essential commodities with affordable prices to enable people enjoy the least dignified living conditions.

Every day we are expecting unpleasant news and unfortunate political address, while it is possible to resolve the shortages of fuel, bread and power by emergency plans with the help of regional and international partners.

Let us benefit from the experience of Syria, where the international community in general is against the regime, but the government there managed to survive due to its perfect tactics and close relations with Russia.

Our government is supported by the international community, and it should utilize this support to revive the Sudanese economy which is on its way to total collapse.

The question that poses itself is: why is our government reluctant and hesitant in scoring the golden goal right now instead of waiting for the injury time to score; relying on the patience of the people?

We are witnessing confusion and turmoil from the government and this represents a top tragedy.
Let us hope that things change.