• Good governance

Good governance

Political thought in Sudan generally avoids the issue of reform, since the very notion falls short of the political and developmental ambitions the country has harboured since independence, in 1956. This paper examines Sudan's system of governance and its attitude to reform.

Sudan has a governance system which does not necessarily use crude repressive methods, but rather a well-measured carrot and stick approach that helps them do both, manage and entrench the current political vacuum in the country. The security services are the most modern and well-run institution in the country, as well as the richest, given its open-ended budget that knows no parliamentary or legal accountability. It is therefore able, more than any other government or partisan institution in the country, to control every aspect of civil service and society and thus play, to a certain extent, the traditional role that armies usually play in Arab politics.

Some key points include:

• the sensitivity and complexity of the situation will not chart the right course for a transformation towards democracy and reform
• political stakeholders and partisan groups are not yet ready to embark on free and fair elections, nor are they seriously trying to adjust the present course
• foreign players in the country's politics - brought about through Sudan's apparent inability to contain the problem - have abandoned their democratic aspirations for the country and are now focused on salvaging the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2005)
• these foreign players no longer link the peace process to the transformation towards democracy, a turn of event that considerably weakens those who struggle to achieve democracy.

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