The call for confederation is a conspiracy
By Abraham A. Awolich
January 18, 2008 — This article is in response to the fresh call by CDR Malik Agar for confederation in the Sudan. Aware of the 1972 agreement and the gradual process of its abrogation, one is genuinely disquieted with reference to the recent comments from the SPLM deputy chairman. Late Dr. John Garang once said that history cannot be cheated. We are a product of our history in Sudan and history sets the preconditions and the parameters which influence our perceptions of the country. It is imperative that CPA is the guiding principal document to determine the future of the Sudan. As stipulated in the CPA, two systems in one model is the option we have right and the right of the people of the Southern Sudan to self-determination.
The deputy chairman’s recent call to open up a discussion on confederation caught most of us by surprise and a lot of people are left bemused. The first question that ought to be asked is whether this idea is a derivative of something unknown and whether comrade Agar postulated the idea himself. Why this call? Why this time? For fairness’s sake, one can understand the nuisance of comrade Agar. The potential break away of the South could leave him and his people in a susceptible position. However, there is a mechanism enshrined in the CPA to deal with these issues. History will not absolve anyone who will endeavor to abort the CPA. For those who so much love this country, the way to glory is the full implementation of the CPA and working very hard to make unity attractive. The people of the Southern Sudan will not accept to be Sudan’s sacrificial lamb to make unity of the country permissible. Every day we come up with absurd trajectory, the people of the Southern Sudan are forced to tilt the scale to secession.
The whole thing about confederacy is a conspiracy to obliterate the CPA and to shift the focus onto something extraneous. CPA is the best shot to bring Sudan together but the king makers and the power hungry gangs in Khartoum are not willing to give it a chance. We still have time on the clock to score the goal of unity in Sudan but where is the political willpower in the NCP? If comrade Agar wants to safe this country from degeneration, he must shove hard with Bashir and Taha to make the CPA work. To call for confederation while we are in the middle of stagnation of the CPA implementation as a result of the NCP indisposition to give even an inch to unity is a total negligent.
What makes this suggestion perturbing is the fact that Osman Mohammad Taha at a fast pace responded in an endorsement and suggested that they would be willing to consider negotiating with the SPLM to consider whether confederacy is a viable solution to the Sudanese problems. Mr. Taha needs to understand that CPA was negotiated in Naivasha more or less than four years ago and he was there the entire time. There is nothing that was left to be renegotiated three years down the road. The only thing we are in the offing is 2011 which will be the definitive decision to authenticate the future of Sudan. Confederation scheme is a divergent from the CPA and should be deemed as a barefaced violation of the CPA.
I call on the SPLM to stand a far-off from the avowal released by comrade Agar. We the people of the Southern Sudan stand clear and our right of self-determination must be respected on top of all else. If SPLM is considering negotiating with the NCP to consider Confederacy, then it is time to get separatists to speak out really loud. We have done enough to save Sudan’s unity for a long time; therefore, it is time for us to serve the interest of the people of Southern Sudan. Comrade Agar should wait till 2011 and he can choose to renegotiate with Taha the terms of confederation thereafter. The willful desire of comrade Agar to shift the paradigm should be rejected and derided. This proposal should be treated as a smoke screen but the bona fide rationale remains to be seen behind the screen.
The author is the Director of New Sudan Education Initiative and President of ALCOM. He can be reached at [email protected]
Joseph Chol DeMakuei Deny
The call for confederation is a conspiracy
Dear Abraham A.Awolich
It is good that we are busy these two days about Federation and Confederation in Sudan, the case is very sensitive and needs a further annalysis and more findings on that, as i mentioned yesterday that sudan will automatically face one of this two system when the time come, as you quoted 2011 as the right time
that people will think over two system. Actually awolich, you are real politician with good CPA Standard. But you know, let people emphasize what they have in their mind, and let us annalyse and have findings on their points.
Dear Sudanese,
The fact is that SPLM fought for the sake of whole Sudan, that is liberation of Sudanese from bad National Islamic Front Idiology to Unified Sudan West, East, South, North and the Center, and SPLM/A was having a full understanding about tricks of Islamic arabs who are running Sudanese affairs. therefore, Self-Determination was given to South Sudan, and Abiei Citizen were optionally given choice to see whether South or North is good to them based on their will.
Seperate forces:SAF and SPLA was agreed upon, SAF at North and SPLA at South, and JIU was selected from Both as stipulated in CPA.
Now, three years has gone with soo many misunderstanding between SPLM/A and NCP of National Islamic Front, while both south and north citizens are quite confused for situatuion in Sudan, more allegations were set to each other. But with out doubt, NIF is the one complicating the situation, why? security arrangement, Power sharing and economical aspect were not going as it is indicated in CPA,
South sudan is studing the atractive unity whether is going to be fulfill togather with NIF and its idiology which on Islamic beleifs, infact unity might have succeed in 1972 and 2005-2007 period, but unfortunatelly
Sudan is now on two procces to Unity or Seperation, and this two terms one is referrign to the one of two systems being Confederatin or Federation.
Joe Dyer
The call for confederation is a conspiracy
Dear Abraham A. Awolich…
I very much agree that the CPA should not be deviated from by even one dot of an “I” or cross of a “T”. However, to categorize Honorable Malik’s call for confederation in The Sudan a “conspiracy” is to imply a sinister motivation on Malik’s part. Malik is someone I know to be a man of honor who has contributed mightily in the struggle for democracy and The New Sudan. As I said, there should be no deviation from the CPA as agreed upon three years ago, but in The New Sudan we should be able to state our opinions without them being thought of as automatically having negative, or evil, intentions.
Gatwech
The call for confederation is a conspiracy
Mr. Abraham,
Your concerns are well taken. There is something that I have realized. It seems that many people who have commented on issues related to confederation or self-determination do not understand how the principle of self-determination came about as a serious issue in Southern Sudan towards the resolution of the North-South conflict, and what has been the position of the former SPLM leader, Dr. Garang and his aides including Malik Agar.
In the history of the Sudan, and for the first time, the right of self-determination was accepted by a northern government in the Khartoum Peace Agreement between the government of President Omer el- Beshir and the former South Sudan Independence Movememt, under the leadership of Dr. Riek Machar Teny, as he called for this right since 1991. This was also enshrined in the 1998 National Constitution of Sudan to be exercised in an internationally supervised referendum.
Other senior SPLM leaders including late Dr. Garang and Malik Agar were well recorded for their rejection of this right. Who knows, maybe, they just accepted it reluctantly in Naivasha peace talks in order to gain public support in Southern Sudan while holding on to plan ‘B’ in mind to replace this right in the time leading to the referendum in 2011.
Gen. Salva Kiir himself, revealed publicly recently in the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly in Juba that the Ministry of Energy and Mining in the Government of National Unity (GoNU), which caused heated debate between the SPLM and NCP during the formation of GoNU, was already conceded to the National Congress Party by Dr. John Garang himself and that he (Salva) had nothing to change on that. Before he revealed this shocking deal, people thought he was the one to blame for giving this key Ministry to Jalaba.
I believe that Malik Agar might be starting to reveal a conspiracy of plan ‘B’ among the SPLM leaders who were historically opposed to the right of self-determination for the people of Southern Sudan. May be the Naivasha talks were full of conspiracies and Plan ‘B’s’between the Chief negotiators. Think about that for a moment.