Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
*By James Okuk
October 14, 2007 — The above question might look dull but it makes someone who answers it wrongly to look obtuse. For someone to answer this question well, it is sine qua non that he understands and differentiates between the government and the political party. The political party can become a government if it takes hold of the state powers but a government cannot become a political party even if it loses its powers. If one political party becomes a government then a country becomes a mono-party state. It two political parties become a government then a country becomes a bipartite-state. If more than one party become a government then a country become a multiparty-state ruled by government of national unity. The status quo of the Sudan today falls under the last category.
Though the government is branched into Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, it has become common that the Executive arm is what is referred to when people talk of government. The CPA provides that prior to mid-term elections: 1) the legislative institution at the national level shall be shared thus: 52% to NCP and 14% to other Northern political forces, and 28% to SPLM and 6% to Other Sothern forces; 2) the Executive Institution shall have the same shares but with 2 NCP over 1 SPLM in the Presidency. The percentage of the other sectors of the Executive (e.g. Security, Police, Civil Service, etc.) have not been specified but are supposed to be equitably representative of the people of Southern Sudan and other marginalized areas of Northern Sudan. The main duty of GoNU shall be the promotion of national unity, defense of the national sovereignty, and implementation of the CPA, among others.
However, the dilemma which is still haunting the CPA is the mismatch between the mentalities of some of the leaders who have negotiated it and the transition that has taken place after. Some of the SPLM leaders, members and supporters still behave as if they were still a pseudo-government that had controlled the liberated areas before the CPA was reached; they still have hangovers of the past movement authority in spite of the transformation of the SPLM into a political party. Likewise some of the leaders, members and supporters of the NCP still behave as if they were the only party in the government who take decisions on their own whims. This mismatch has been there from day-one when SPLM and NCP decided to become partners in the government in all its levels (National, Southern and States). In Juba last week SPLM stated that they have suspended the activities of their presidential advisors, ministers, and ministers of state in the GoNU until the pending issues of the CPA implementation have been eased. This statement might look appealing to an ordinary citizen who is not happy with the NCP but it looks juvenile for someone who is neutral or the one who is not happy with the SPLM. Do those advisors and ministers belong to SPLM or to the State? In other word, are they ministers in the SPLM or ministers of in the government of the State (country)? What I know is that those people became advisors and ministers when they took the state constitutional oath for the government and so they are not minsters of the SPLM, though they were recommended by SPLM to those executive constitutional posts. It would have looked rational if SPLM could have stated that it was suspending its cadres who are ministers in the government rather than saying it has suspended its ministers.
It has also became clear from the statements of the official spokesperson of SPLM that the main concern for that political strike was the reshuffle of the ministerial positions that are held by the SPLM cadres in the GoNU, particularly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is headed by H.E. Dr. Lam Akol. The justification which has been presented for the reshuffle is treacherous: Is it a crime if NCP commends a good work of a SPLM cadre in any ministry? Is it also a betrayal if SPLM commends a good work of a NCP cadre in any ministry? Yes, it is the right of SPLM party to be represented in GoNU by its preferred cadres but it is also the right of the President of the Republic of the Sudan to reject the nominated SPLM member if he finds his records risky for the national interest even if agreeable to the SPLM interests. The President is the only one who has constitutional powers to issue appointment or relieve decrees at the GoNU level. Even if he consult and receive recommendations from other parties who share the government with him, still he is the only one who has the final say in forming his government. Therefore, it looks babyish when some SPLM say they have formed the GoNU in Juba and will forward the list to the president for announcement before they call off the suspension strike.
I am sure that the reshuffle will not solve the real problems facing the delay of the implementation of Abyei Protocol, the demarcation of South-North borders of 1/1/1956, the withdrawal of SAF in Oil fields in the South, the population census funding, the commitment and honesty for development of Southern Sudan, etc. It will only solve the problems of those who would want to become ministers, state ministers and presidential advisors. Is this all what CPA is about – positions and perpetual reshuffles? If this is the way Joshua is leading us to the Promised Land, I am not amused totally.
* The author is a PhD Sudanese student in the University of Nairobi. He can be reached at: [email protected]
Garang Ayang Kuoi
Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
Dear brother James,
I have read some of your out standing articles before on this site, of which I had to realized that you are a visionary person who could see far away, but as of today, however, I would disagree with you that in our situation in Sudan, the SPLM and NCP are far from being contrast as parties which are serving what you have called ” national interest,” therefore, the national interest of Sudan government headed by Albashir is to kill as many Africans in Sudan as much as it can, and yet expect apriases from people like you and others. I do not know what kind of a vehicle you are driving and what direction you may be heading to, but according to what I know, the man whom you have wasted your precious time on your computer typing goods to depend him, Lam Akol is a long time enemy of our struggle, and the past and present history can tell you that instead of me, it is the record that is speaking for itsself against Lam. And of course you have seen how he has been handling the Darfur crisis, he has never said anything about our movement and its objectives, ratherthan he has been serving the interest of killers in the North. So with all due respect brother, you are wrong in a sense that you have unfortunately failed to realized that the khartoum government does not acknowledge SPLM as a ligitmate party, they stil consider it as a rebel party and they treate it as a rebel party, and the record of CPA violations can tell you that not another ordinary citizen like myself. Thereby, we as the people of South Sudan and of course the nation of Sudan are obligated to speak against betrayers such as your Lam Akol. It is important that we all realize the fact that the SPLM is all about peace and stability, and that is why its reshuffle is crucial. It is only people who are against peace and stability of our country who can see the SPLM as a party encouraging menance, but people who have tasted the pain of having no freedom like myself knows that the SPLM is looking for justice and freedom.
Garang Ayang Kuoi.
History and politcs Major.
Southern Vermont College
Bennington VT U.S.A.
Steve Paterno
Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
Okuk,
I wonder how come you cannot pick up the contradiction you are making by citing the CPA as a basis for power sharing but yet again dismissed it by attributing this power to the President. If the President can reject SPLM appointments to the slot alloted to the SPLM, is it not a violation of the power sharing agreement? This is a no brainer my friend, it does not require any much thinking. The CPA was negotiated and signed, therefore, it does not require negotiation or presidential perogative as you call it. What it needs is implementation. Throught this implementation, the SPLM must enjoy their power sharing previliges and the NCP should also enjoy theirs without each other’s inteference.
Steve Paterno
Juach D Juach
Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
Mr James Okuk, to answer your question is firstly to describe you as another bookish would be PhD holder in Sudanese politics whose ideas are outdated. Didn’t you mention in your previous articles that you are on the Sudanese ministry of foreign affairs payrolls?
I remember reading one of your notorious articles that you are a junior diplomat in the above mentioned ministry. If am right, then it isn’t any hard to discern the content of your article.
You are in support of your “boss” who has opted to collaborate with Jallaba at the expense of the peoples of South Sudan he was meant to serve in that post. Therefore to answer your question is very simple, because the South Sudanese will tell who is obtuse than who?
The ministers in the GoNU belongs to the people of marginalised areas and not representative of NCP because the system in the Sudan is a bit odd for a reason, that’s why we have an independent Government of South Sudan with nearly the same powers as an independent state which isn’t common in the world with exception of few Countries i.e. Zanzibar, Belgium and so many other entities.
On regard to the reshuffling whether it will solve the stalemate or not? My answer is yes it will solve the differences if all our representatives in Khartoum are going to be speaking one language. The language of development in all the marginalised areas including some parts in North Sudan, a fair distribution of resources if not equitable and a settlement on Abyei protocol plus some other important issues on the NCP-SPLM table for discussion.
To conclude my comment, I would like to urge Mr Okuk not to panic because he reckons that if his “Boss” is kicked out he will go as well but it doesn’t work that way, if you were serving the Sudanese and Southerners particularly with honesty you can still serve the Country under any other incoming minister.
The author is an International Community development student in the Asia- Pacific
Kujur
Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
Dear James
I admired always when I read most of your response toward politics and Issuses related to CPA implementation but your current article shows that we were yelling to wrong PHD candidates so you are adding one problem than one solusion.
It appeared now what you was defending was your salary line not CPA, reshuffling Lam mean losing your food baskets but you are wrong for not advising Lam to be online with party ethics not his illusive supermecy.
Kujur..
Pothwei Apet Bangoshoth
Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
Dear James
Simply, all SPLM ministers and their presidential advisors are belong to the SPLM party and all NCP officials are belong to NCP as well as other political parties in Sudan. Then they become government if they agreed to run country under one legitimized constitution.
Look, when SPLM decided to suspend its participation from the government of national unity, the NCP presidential advisor MR, Mustafa Osman Ismail said who thinks that we NCP will change our positions from what we are doing. And he added that we don’t care if SPLM ministers are in the North or in the South. These behaviors indicate that northeners are don’t care about Southerners existence in NUG because SPLM call for implementation of the CPA.
But up to this point, I still say that the reshuffle of SPLM ministers is important and will make a lots of changes in the way that NCP delays the implementation of the CPA. because, SPLM is the only national political party that will bring peace of mind to all Sudanese people if they have given a chance to do so.
Thakns
Pothwei Apet Bangoshoth, New York
aguer alaak
Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
Dear Okuk,
You must be wise but to the level of anybody,s grandmother,s kitchen.Understanding nothing about the current situation in Sudan gave you that mouth which question things that csnn,t be ask by a real liberator.Take note that the SPLM/A didn,t sign the agreement to come and joint the government in its previous way of doing things but to come and correct what was seen wrong.Following NCP in whatsoever they think is correct means no change thus no reason for struggle.The best I could tell is reseach to why is our cars in Juba registered with their numbers NS,also why do you see many people talking about it and not just Sudan….ask me if you donn,t want more shame.
David Mayen Deng
Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
Sometimes would be PhD holders may need a little lecturing too, especially if these PhD holders are from South Sudan (look at Lam and David Dechan). As a political scientist, I find myself in a better position to lecture you, so Read this my friend:
Broadly, there are 2 types of democratic governments in the world:
1) Presidential Democracy , in which the president would have a prerogative over appointments, and obviously our beloved country is not a presidential democracy, hence Bashir has no prerogative over appointing whoever he pleases.
2) Parliamentary Democracy, in which a premier would represent the winning political party, and could be kicked-out by his/her party if they deemed him/her detrimental to and unfit to represent the party’s program and vision. Yet again, obviously, ours is not a parliamentary democracy either.
Let’s briefly examine where we belong here… aaaaa, no where! we belong to neither system. Ours is neither a parliamentary nor presidential system. Do you know what it is: as a political scientist I have the prerogative to create a new name for it; it should be called a Constitutional Dictatorship. Because we live in sensitive times we were forced to device a system never heard of in the history of nation-states. Our great founding father, and one of the greatest revolutionaries ever to walk the face of Africa devised it. Not only that, as clear as it was that neither party to the government of Sudan would be elected by the people (a precondition enshrined in the U.N Charter), our great father (Dr.John) managed to support his ideas by the constitution and, greater still, through the ratification of the United Nations Security Council.
Now, why do you accept a nonentity like Bashir to take charge of what millions of your people have shed blood for? The CPA is not a simple gain, my friend. We, South Sudanese, will never let the blood of our martyrs moisture our greens in vain. Neither Bashir, nor Turabi, nor Merghani, nor Mahadi owns the CPA. It is the brain-child of Dr.John Garang DeMabior; did you read that! I reapeat, the CPA is the brain-child of the SPLM/A. No one should hijack it and use it for buying time to settle other conflicts, before reneging on it- like they did throughout our modern history. It is entirely a new system devised to bring peace to countries like Sudan- so neither your defintion of governments nor mine would explain how the country is to be governed, for the proceedings are encompassed by the CPA itseld.
Now, why did you think that your “sine qua non, mono-party and bipartite” would confuse our simple brains into believing the irrational explanations you have penned- which are obviously anti-SPLM. It is not even about the SPLM/A anymore; it is about New Sudan. Even if you secede and form your own newborn nation-state, the CPA will still have solved the problem of the entire Sudan.
So, please, Sir, take a deep breath and remember the bush wars we had to wage as a marginalized nation and their consequent millions of lives that had to be sacrificed. It was not meant to bring us to a state when our freedom fighters would be looking up to Bashir for solutions, for he (Bashir) already had the kinds of prerogatives you (and Lam and Dechan ) wish to believe he should still have even in the new era we live in today. The CPA stipulated that power must be shared- and with it wealth and the all other peace dividends too.
Please, to you and people like you, it is time to stand up and be counted as Sudanese- with all the rights that citizenship imply.
David Mayen, The Center for International Human Rights Advocacy, The University of Denver
Bob Tata
Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
Thanks James for your brilliant article! Don’t be put-off by those comments made by the relatives of GoSS officials! They are just protecting their interests!
Today, vast majority of south Sudanese are with any peaceful solution of whatsoever problem facing them in Sudan! Why? Simply because people fade up fighting SPLA losing battles or wars! SPLA fought their nonsense wars for up to two decades but without achieving any proclaimed victory and I will doubt the awareness of anyone who will reckon the so-called CPA as a proclaimed victory for SPLA!
Those disastrous SPLA wars that have cost us almost two million human lives and ruined our country beyond any human imagination; yet they didn’t liberate the us from marginalisation as claimed (making SPLAers the worst gorilla fighters in the world) Those wars are too catastrophic wars and must not to be repeated no matter what!
Nevertheless, the CPA was signed as an exit out of the imminent defeat of SPLA by NIP/NCP! I am quite sure that everybody can reckon this simple fact! Why I am saying that, well, SPLA was stubborn when asked to join KPA signed by NCP and SSDF led by Dr Reik Machar by then, the SPLA under the leadership of Dr John Garang was reluctant to accept and participate fully in that agreement! Why? Because Dr John knew that if the KPA is signed by Dr Reik it can not grantee him the greater autonomy over the resources of South Sudan as well posts in the government southern Sudan (GoSS). Then, Garang prolonged his losing war for yet another one decade and something in the hope that they will win militarily! But suddenly when Garang realised that he was failing, he suddenly accorded with the Idea of self-determination through referendum under what he called Comprehensive peace agreement or CPA which to may other Southerners is derivative of KPA and PPA signed by Dr Reik and Dr Lam Akol respectively, in another words Garang hijacked those two peace agreements signed Dr Reik and Dr Lam!
Various sensitive issues such as South-North boundaries, Abayi status, and secularism in the capital Khartoum or the so-called freedom of worship and so on, were left unresolved! Simply because the most important thing for SPLA/M was the power and the wealth sharing or divide! This is the case today as SPLA/M decided to evacuate the GoNU as they were refused to do as they like with the post of foreign affairs of Sudan occupied by Dr Akol! Also the corruption and power abuses by SPLA/M led GoSS justify that! The reason for such a naïve behaviour shown by SPLM recollection of its ministries in the government of national unity (GoNU) and the pending of their activities until further notice also justify the very reason behind the sudden signing of CPA! One wants to know who is governing the GoSS, SPLM or different south Sudanese parties. Because if the country is run by all the parties in the south the fate of south must be decided by all the parties involved?
Also what surprise me is that who is going to fight alongside SPLAers after they have revealed their true colours to the vast majority of south Sudanese? Will SPLA -Dinka really liberate south Sudan by themselves as they are enriching themselves with the wealth of the south Sudan and are empowering themselves with the posts granted to them by their CPA! SPLM must be wise enough to avoid any ruin to CPA!! Because that is the only hope they get to grantee them the luxury life they are enjoying, people of south Sudan will Lough at them otherwise!
By Bol Thourmuck of greater Nasir
Bob Tata
Do Sudan’s ministers belong to the party or to the Government?
Thanks James for your brilliant article! Don’t be put-off by those comments made by the relatives of GoSS officials! They are just protecting their interests! A Political science degree earned from a US university with maybe 3rd class classification is equal to PhD earned by Garang which was equal to nothing as it didn’t make him win the war militarily instead, it cost us two million lives! Shall we call that a PhD?
Today, the vast majority of south Sudanese are with any peaceful solution of whatsoever problem facing them in Sudan! Why? Simply because people fade up fighting SPLA losing battles or wars! SPLA fought their nonsense wars for up to two decades but without achieving any proclaimed victory and I will doubt the awareness of anyone who will reckon the so-called CPA as a proclaimed victory for SPLA!
Those disastrous SPLA wars that have cost us almost two million human lives and ruined our country beyond any human imagination; yet they didn’t liberate the us from marginalisation as claimed (making SPLAers the worst gorilla fighters in the world) Those wars are too catastrophic wars and must not to be repeated no matter what!
Nevertheless, the CPA was signed as an exit out of the imminent defeat of SPLA by NIP/NCP! I am quite sure that everybody can reckon this simple fact! Why I am saying that, well, SPLA was stubborn when asked to join KPA signed by NCP and SSDF led by Dr Reik Machar by then, the SPLA under the leadership of Dr John Garang was reluctant to accept and participate fully in that agreement! Why? Because Dr John knew that if the KPA is signed by Dr Reik it can not grantee him the greater autonomy over the resources of South Sudan as well posts in the government southern Sudan (GoSS). Then, Garang prolonged his losing war for yet another one decade and something in the hope that they will win militarily! But suddenly when Garang realised that he was failing, he suddenly accorded with the Idea of self-determination through referendum under what he called Comprehensive peace agreement or CPA which to may other Southerners is derivative of KPA and PPA signed by Dr Reik and Dr Lam Akol respectively, in another words Garang hijacked those two peace agreements signed by Dr Reik and Dr Lam!
Various sensitive issues such as South-North boundaries, Abayi status, and secularism in the capital Khartoum or the so-called freedom of worship and so on, were left unresolved! Simply because the two most important things for SPLA/M were the power and the wealth sharing or divide! This is the case today as SPLA/M decided to evacuate the GoNU as they were refused to do as they like with the post of foreign affairs of Sudan occupied by Dr Akol! Also the corruption and power abuses by SPLA/M led GoSS justify that! The reason for such a naïve behaviour shown by SPLM recollection of its ministries in the government of national unity (GoNU) and the pending of their activities until further notice also justify the very reason behind the sudden signing of CPA! One wants to know who is governing the GoSS, SPLM or different south Sudanese parties. Because if the country is run by all the parties in the south the fate of south must be decided by all the parties involved?
Also what surprise me is that who is going to fight alongside SPLAers after they have revealed their true colours to the vast majority of south Sudanese? Will SPLA -Dinka really liberate south Sudan by themselves as they are enriching themselves with the wealth of the south Sudan and are empowering themselves with the posts granted to them by their CPA! SPLM must be wise enough to avoid any ruin to CPA!! Because that is the only hope they get to grantee them the luxury life they are enjoying, people of south Sudan will Lough at them otherwise!
By Bol Thourmuck of greater Nasir(UK)