Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir visited the south of Sudan in a last minute plea for national unity ahead of the referendum on January 9, 2011 on the future of the region. Bashir says he will respect the outcome of the vote., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
President Al Bashir Addresses the Nation
Wednesday, July 13 @ 00:00:00 UTC
Sudan Vision publishes below text of the President of the Republic address to Parliament
Ye who believe! Enter into Islam whole-heartedly; and follow not the steps of devil, verily it is your enemy for sure..
Of those who answered the call of Allah and the Messenger, even after being wounded, those who do right and refrain from wrong have a great reward;-
My brothers and sisters members of the National Legislative Assembly
Al Salaamu alaikum wa rahmatou Allah wa barakatou
I am speaking to you today and our country entering into a new epoch of its history and in an exceptional development.
I had spoken to your honorable assembly at the start of your present session about peace that we have been looking for, and about security and stability that we all look forward to establishing them in our country so that our people would enjoy what they have been deprived for long time.
I had talked to you about the choice of our brothers in South Sudan who have chosen secession and the building of their independent state.
On Saturday July 9, 2011, I addressed independence festivals in Juba as you know. We have opened our embassy as the first embassy accredited to the Republic of South Sudan.
As you know, our external relations with our neighbors are based on cooperation and integration.
And as you know, the new South Sudan State is the country that has the longest borders with our country, and the country with which we maintain the closest relations that can be between two countries, that is marked by cultural and social intermingling.
Therefore, I would like to stress what I have announced in Juba in that our relations with the nascent state of South Sudan will be one of respect of our promises and serious pursuit of the consolidation of stability and the building of positive neighborly relations.
We are strongly convinced that established common interests, social ties with our brothers in South Sudan should unite us and that secession should not be a cause for cutting off such relations.
We have invited our brothers in South Sudan and we again invite them while they are celebrating their new state that we should cherish our common objectives and that we should look to future for building and developing our two nations.
It was in this same spirit that we went ahead with the implementation of all CPA's clauses and expressed our willingness to address the remaining and pending issues through negotiation. This is why we are seriously dealing with the African Union's High – level Committee headed by President Thabo Mbeki on the security of South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions.
Our objectives have always been to extend security and the authority of the state and the implementation the peace agreement obligations with respect to security arrangements.
In addition to our earnest quest to implement the security arrangements clause of CPA, we are working to complete popular consultation procedures according to the provisions of the law that was endorsed by your assembly last year.
I would like here to tell the citizens of South Kordofan and Blue Nile that they should rest assured that we are keen to extend fair political participation for them and enable them to administer their affairs.
We shall go ahead in implementing extensive development projects in both regions since the citizens of both regions have been the ones who have been most affected by war so that they can catch up with other states and develop their natural resources.
The popular consultation is basically an opportunity for conducting a dialogue amongst the citizens of the two states through mechanisms that have been provided for in the law for reaching a common understanding and achieving the aspiration of the citizens of these states politically and economically.
This can only take place through dedication and through national responsibility of Sudanese. The government renews its solid belief that clarity and frankness to our citizens are the best ways of addressing all issues of concern to us.
I would like to tell you that we are working to amend the popular consultation law by extending the time frame to provide the citizens of the two regions sufficient time in which to conduct more consultation to address the situations in the two regions.
My brothers and sisters,
We shall continue to address the situations in the Sudan politically, economically in the area of security taking a realistic approach, our main objective being to establish stability, meet the needs of the citizens and react to the aspirations of the people in the two regions.
We are confident that we are moving in the correct path and are aware of the obstacles ahead in order to take the necessary procedures to avoiding them.
And since we have entered a new phase of our political history, which is the Second Republic; and since we believe that our generations to come have the right to enjoy security and development, I would like to outline the main features of the future.
The next stage will be that of the Second Republic in which we shall concentrate on peace and development and for achieving all this, we must be persistent and patient so that things would go smoothly.
The principles on with the Second Republic are based will be the rule of law, extension of justice, enhancement of the spirit of the nation and ensuring citizens rights, transparency in taking decisions, integrity in handling public funds, accountability and the adoption of public office efficiency and equity criteria.
The Sudan with its new borders will be more capable to manage its territories and defend its land, provide services, exploit its wealth, initiate investment opportunities and achieve overall development of the country.
We renew our trust in the Sudanese people and its intelligence and awareness for the revival of our nation which will only take place through our people
We have taken major steps to enhance our economy by adopting new economic and financial polices to compensate for the deficiency of petroleum revenue.
Thus we have cut back on public expenditure, reduced expenditure, reviewed development priorities, diversified production, increased export and reduced imports, doubled revenue and encouraged national and foreign investments .
In this context, we have introduced a 3-yeaer emergency program the details of which will be explained to you by the finance and national economy minister.
A number of austerity measures have been taken, including a number of packages of procedures.
In addition, we shall submit to you an amendment of the current budget for addressing these new changes but I assure you the amended bill will not include new taxes or fees.
The economic procedures packages also include the issuance of a new currency in the coming days according to the details to be announced by the central bank for meeting the secession obligations since South Sudan State will issue its new currency.
On the other hand, we have started to boost our economic partnerships in the fields of petroleum, minerals and agriculture with the State of China and other friendly countries and with Arab funds, Malaysia, Turkey, India and Brazil.
These plans and partnerships include projects and programs that cover all the states of Sudan which means new opportunities for reviving our country in the various development fields and providing job opportunities and improving the standard of living of citizens.
As regards Darfur, we are going ahead in implementing development, security and social peace projects.
On the other hand, the Qatari capital of Doha will witness after tomorrow Thursday July 14 the signing of the final peace document which will close the Darfur crisis file for ever.
The signing of the Darfur document will transform our beloved region of Darfur to new horizons of hope and opportunities and from here I call on all peace lovers to work with us for extending stability in Darfur so that it can become the engine of fo the revival of whole Sudan.
My brothers and sisters,
We shall go ahead whilst Sudan is entering the New Republic era in the national dialogue with all the components of the society, political, social and native for achieving a wide national consensus on a common strategy.
The political dialogue will continue for coming up with a common understanding on the system of government, its machineries and structures and which include guiding principles for drafting a permanent constitution of the country by a wide national committee. The draft constitution will then be presented to you and then to the people to decide on a free referendum the system of rule they want.
Within the few coming days we shall start consultation for the formation of the committee which will include jurists and legal experts on the law, politics and economic.
We call on all the citizens to participate in this national dialogue in a spirit of responsibility and without fear and through fora that tolerate different opinion.
We are proud to say that the records of our national security body do not include any case of political detention on the ground of a political opinion.
And to further confirm our sincere desire to introduce an appropriate climate for a healthy dialogue, I have issued directives that any person detained on cases other thane those related to evidenced connection to a terrorist rebel movement or violence should be released otherwise all cases should be referred to the attorney general.
Dear brothers and sisters
The tasks and duties I have put forward to you require you, all citizens and all research center, political parties universities to contribute to the building Sudan.
I have directed all the executive and administrative bodies in the country to receive any constructive and useful proposals that can enhance the quest of the country for its progress and development.
"Verily, by this we seek acceptance of Allah and He is the Guide to the way of peace".