I liked President Omar Hassan Bashir. His participation in the Juba celebrations is historic. It is no simple matter for a President to say goodbye to a third of his country, even if it is a peninsula; and to say goodbye to millions of its inhabitants, even if he consoles himself with the thought that the rest are more serene. It is not simple either for him to see Sudan's flag come down, and be replaced by the flag of South Sudan. Bashir's words during the celebration were pleasant and transparent. His velvety behavior could have angered a man named Ocampo, who is tracking him in the name of international justice. As an Arab, I wished that Bashir and his companions had had this velvety behavior during the Salvation Revolution, when they seized power two decades ago. The “early velvet” would've avoided Sudan a river of blood, tears, horrors, and sanctions. It could've also avoided the tearing of the map. However, Arab rulers persist in repeating the mistakes of their predecessors, who in turn persisted in repeating the mistakes of their predecessors. A year ago, I visited Massoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan region. My attention was caught at the entrance by the Kurdistan flag raised next to the Iraqi flag. I asked the man about the region's affairs and Iraq's miseries. In a moment of contemplation, he replied: “Had Saddam Hussein abided by the Autonomy Agreement announced in 1970, the Iraqis would've been spared a river of blood and tears.” However, based on his belief that agreements are nothing but ink on paper, Saddam sent one year later a delegation that exploded in the face of Mullah Mustafa Barzani, in line with his mentality of elimination – which he shared with others. At the beginning of our work in journalism, and before we had the opportunity to visit the scene of events, we used to have a tendency to believe the slogans that brought along a flow of catastrophes. We used to believe for instance that the West and the Mossad were behind the Kurds' movements in Iraq's Kurdistan and that it was a conspiracy against the Iraqi and Arab maps. For some time, the same was said about the fighting waged by part of the inhabitants in South Sudan to protest against Jafar Namiri's disregard of the autonomy agreement. Truth be said, Israel is an enemy that has an interest in dismantling Arab countries and igniting them. Also, part of the West does not hesitate at times to destabilize the countries that have hostile policies against it. However, it is also true that tampering with maps comes from the inside first, at the hands of the elimination and oppression policies. Journalists touring the region's capitals hear warnings that the Arabs are the victims today of a conspiracy aiming to fragment the existing entities. Experience shows that maps are not torn under external pressure. Indeed, the disease starts from the inside: from the persistence on the non-acknowledgment of the other and his right to be different under his country's flag; from the rejection of his culture, his songs, his customs, and his right to express his aspirations; his right to read from a different book and drink from another source. The tragedy begins with the persistence to eliminate the various features of part of the citizens. It is an attempt to force a minority to abandon its history, legacy, and the right of its children to learn the language of their ancestors. The tragedy begins with the absence of the notion of citizenship, rule of law, institutions that offer participation and guarantees. It begins with a judiciary that lacks integrity, a police force that is biased, and a government that considers hardline policies the best way to maintain power. The tragedy also begins with the fear from the other's voice, with the monopoly of truth and citizenship, and the building of an iron-clad vision that only embraces those who adopt the strict unified costume. The map-tampering begins with the attempt to eliminate diversity and pluralism; with monopolization, oppression, fanaticism, marginalization, discrimination, threats, and domination; with total rejection, expulsion, and ethnic, sectarian and regional demarcation lines; with the absence of mutual recognition, participation and deliberation opportunities; with constant doubts, inherited fears, ambushes, and awaiting revenge opportunities. Maps do not fall under external blows – the real killer comes from the inside.
