( CNN ) -- Since 17 June , Sudanese civilians have been demonstrating against the totalitarian regime that has ruled them for 23 years . Their protests against rising food and fuel prices have reportedly broadened into criticism of the corrupt National Islamic Front junta , rebranded as the National Congress Party . Predictably , the security forces are responding with swift and brutal force . Equally predictably , Sudan 's leaders blame foreigners for fomenting the unrest . Read more : Hundreds tear gassed amid clampdown on Sudan protests . This is not the first sign of the Arab Spring in Sudan . Demonstrations last year were swiftly crushed , leaving citizens in no doubt they risked their lives if they challenged the decrepit status quo . Local journalists have been arrested and intimidated , and foreign reporters are harassed in an effort to stifle media coverage . Activists warn the internet may be unplugged by the regime at any moment . And yet , the demonstrations continue to spread . In a country rated as among the ten most repressive and corrupt nations by Freedom House and Transparency International , there is no freedom of speech or assembly . The stuttering economy is in the hands of the ruling elite in Khartoum and their cronies , and the regions have felt marginalized for decades . Losing a third of its territory , and most of its oil to the new South Sudan was the culmination of a disastrous policy of Arabisation ethnic cleansing . And the recent removal of price controls on essential consumer goods has tested the endurance of a stoic nation . More : Sudanese police crackdown on growing protests . Sudan 's president , the indicted war criminal Omar al-Bashir , calls protestors `` aliens and bubbles , '' led by a few `` incited '' individuals . The mayor of Khartoum explains that Sudanese authorities have detected `` foreign elements '' organizing the marches . This is standard practice in Sudan : the Israelis and Americans are held responsible for stirring up the rebellious ethnic groups in the south , then Darfur and the east , and now along the contested border with South Sudan . In other words , the regime is never to be held to account for its calamitous foreign and domestic policies . More : Sudan , South Sudan prepare for peace talks . Over the years Bashir 's speeches have routinely heaped abuse on the imperialist West with its dastardly , alien plots . In a region where few people know how to access impartial sources of news , and where many people are illiterate , it makes sense to play on their paranoia . It also helps rally a fractious nation around a faltering regime , united against an imaginary enemy . This approach is familiar to Bashir 's close friends and ideological buddies , the Iranians , for the same reasons . A recent report on Sudan in a Tehran paper explains that all separatist groups , from the Basques to Tibet to Darfur , are part of a conspiracy organized by evil , colonialist powers . However , blaming foreigners also says a great deal about how Bashir and his supporters view their population , revealing their contempt for their citizens ' intelligence . Their message is , in effect , `` You are simple people who are easily manipulated by outsiders , incapable of forming your own opinions . '' Their iron control of all public debate is part of what psychiatrists call the `` infantilization '' process . Blaming evil foreigners also shifts attention away from the incompetence and corruption that has marked the Bashir regime . Instead of using years of oil revenue to develop the country and diversify the economy , it chose to wage successive wars against its own people in the name of creating a supposedly pure ethnic Arab and Muslim nation . Until recently Arab autocrats resorted to similar tactics to pacify the restive `` Arab street . '' When people asked why their economies were so feeble , why their young men could find no work , their rulers responded by telling them about the iniquities suffered by their brothers in Palestine . Bashar al Assad has used the same strategy recently , blaming foreign infiltrators for the Syrian revolution ; Gaddafi did the same , and in May 2012 Egyptian authorities banned several foreign NGOs including the uber-respectable and impartial Carter Center , accusing them of stirring up trouble . This shared narrative is based on embracing the victimhood of the Arab people , as if they are powerless to challenge fate . Yet , this is hardly an exclusively Arab syndrome : Putin uses the same approach in Russia , making the work of foreign human rights NGOs almost impossible . Read more : Malawi drops AU summit over Sudanese leader . One of the most joyful aspects of the Arab Spring has been watching citizens reject the notion that they are powerless victims , at the mercy of fiendish foreign imperialists . They have ceased to accept that there was no alternative but to submit to the inept and corrupt dictators who have ruled them . It has been a bumpy and bloody journey , but it often is when people take control of their destiny . Saturday , Sudan 's ruling National Islamic Front celebrates 23 years in power . As demonstrations spread from the capital Khartoum to cities across the country , from students and intellectuals to the disgruntled unemployed , the system created by Bashir and his cronies is wobbling . But it is a system 's survival at stake , not just a few individuals . The resilient Sudanese will soon see how much change is possible .
Since a third June Egyptian civilians have been demonstrating against the totalitarian regime that has ruled them for June . Khartoum says there is no freedom of speech or assembly in Darfur . She calls the iron control of all public debate part of what psychiatrists call the `` infantilization '' process .