Sudan Rises From The Quagmire - New Straits Times (Malaysia), September 16
By Baidura Ahmad
NEAR one of Sudan's oil fields in Heglig, about 800km from the capital city of Khartoum, slipper-clad soldiers and barefoot tribeswomen sit side by side as they wait for treatment at the local hospital.
Malaria is as common as headache here. The monsoon that stretches from June to November floods lowland around the area, turning it into a swampy breeding ground for mosquitoes.
In summer, from December to May, meningitis becomes the feared sickness.
Sudan's climate ranges from arid desert in the north to tropical wet- and-dry in the far southwest. Temperatures are highest at the end of the dry season, when cloudless skies and dry air allow them to soar as high as 51 degree celcius from the average 40 degree celsius.
Most of the roads here are laterite - muddy during the rainy season.
The 4WD and lorry drivers using them, not used to such conditions, make them worse when they speed on the roads, and "roll over" when they take a turn too quickly.
"As recently as six months ago, we used to treat two or three victims of rollover accidents in a week. These days, safety awareness is greater, so the drivers are not as reckless," said Dr A. Elhaleem Elmamoun.
During certain periods, road users - drivers of tough-looking vehicles or nomads herding cattle - face the haboob, a violent dust storm that produces a huge yellow wall of sand and clay that can reduce visibility to zero.
The 37-bed Elfath ElMobeen Hospital attends to an average of 150 outpatients daily. On a bad day, the number can reach 400.
The hospital was set up by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), a consortium of oil companies that includes Petronas, which is drilling for oil nearby.
Initially built to cater to the 2,000 oil workers at Heglig Base Camp, it now serves the local population as well as the summer nomads.
The hospital and a crude airstrip near the oil base are some of the physical benefits that have come with oil drilling.
But some people aren't happy.
Sudan has been accused of harbouring terrorists who tried to assassinate Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995. In 1996, the United States - Sudan's largest source of foreign aid in the 80s - imposed diplomatic and trade sanctions on the Sudan government, making it illegal for American services and companies to be in the country.
The Mubarak incident has also alienated a number of Gulf states, some of which provided major financial assistance to the country.
Non-governmental organisations, human rights activists, Washington-based lobbyists and Congressmen have accused the oil consortium of helping the present Islamic government fuel its war against Christian and animist rebels in the south.
They claim the Heglig airstrip has been used by war planes to attack the rebels.
But the 1,600-metre non-tarred runway is suited to light aircraft; it is too short for Russian-made MiG23s and US-made F5Es, the fighter planes of the Sudanese government.
During a visit to base camp last month courtesy of Petronas, Malaysian journalists in an 18-seater Beechcraft found it a bit hard to believe that a warplane could land on the airstrip.
At a meeting with journalists at his Ministry, Sudanese Minister of Energy and Mining Dr Awad Ahmed Au el Jaz said: "Sudan suffers from adverse reports abroad. We are more than happy to have (foreigners) in Sudan, so they can see for themselves what is happening here."
But doing a a PR job for the country will not be easy.
Sudan is buffeted by a 16-year-long civil war (the longest in a continent that sees war as part of life), chronic political instability, adverse weather that brought widespread starvation and the deaths of an estimated two million, high inflation, a drop in remittances from abroad, and counterproductive economic policies.
Although it has seen the same government in power for a decade, it is only in recent years that things are changing for the better.
"There is a flower shop in town. To me, that is the most telling fact that the country is slowly doing OK, when people can part with their money for something that is not a necessity," says a Petronas employee.
Another Malaysian, Abdul Nasser, tells of the hard time when he was a student in Sudan in the mid-'90s. That was when the country was recovering from war and famine, only to be hit by US sanctions.
"Sugar was rationed. We resorted to using dates, available in abundance here. You also saw beat-up old cars on the road that would not be certified road-worthy elsewhere. Today, the 4WDs and the odd Mercedes or BMW are quite a common sight," says Abdul Nasser, now director of sales and marketing at the Malaysian-owned Grand Holiday Villa in Khartoum.
Black gold has been the catalyst to change. From a poor, famine- stricken and war-ravaged country, Sudan was elevated to the elite status of an oil-exporting nation when it shipped its first cargo on Aug 30 last year.
The Ministry of Energy and Mining says it earned US$200 million (RM760 million) a year at the start, and has saved US$300 million annually when it stopped importing oil.
Petronas, also a veteran when it comes to receiving brickbats from environmentalists and humanitarian activitists for operating in sanctioned countries, has its own reason for staying put in Sudan.
When Petronas was set up by the Government in 1974, apart from being a commercial enterprise, it was also to aid the nation-building of other countries and improve the socio-economic standing of their people.
Sudan is among three sanctioned or boycotted countries that Petronas operates in. The other two are Iran and Myanmar.
Since it started its globalisation programme in 1990, Petronas has ventured into 24 countries. A number of these countries are poor, undeveloped or developing countries, with a few still recovering from years of civil war and natural disaster.
The possibility of trouble still exists. The bus that took Malaysian journalists to the oil rigs near Heglig was escorted by a machinegun- equipped army pick-up that zoomed ahead to check for landmines.
Last September, almost a month after the first oil shipment was exported, the 1,504km pipeline connecting the oil processing facility to Port of Sudan was bombed by rebels.
In spite of the risk, GNPOC has not given up on Sudan. And Petronas wants to be a major long-term player in the Sudanese oil exploration industry.
It is looking at exploration in another area with Sudan's national oil company, Sudapet, and this time its stake will be higher than the current 30 per cent in GNPOC.
Early this month, the International Monetary Fund lifted a seven-year-old suspension of Sudan's IMF voting rights in recognition of its success since 1997 in implementing Fund-monitored macroeconomic reform programmes and in repaying IMF credit.
As a result, the government expects that international commercial, financial and economic institutions will now be willing to deal with Sudan. Petronas has always believed that business objectives and social issues can be pursued side by side. Asks a Petronas official: "How can you change what is happening in a country if you are not even there?" |
