Leave Lam Akol alone and let democracy reign

By Justin Ambago Ramba

June 7, 2009 — To the best of my understanding the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) signed by the Sudanese rivalling factions in 2005, was first to stop the civil war and far most to bring about a democratic transformation in the country.

However now four years into this agreement popularly referred to as the CPA, neither has it stopped the bloodshed nor has it brought about any democratic change. And it is for this very simple reason that we expect concerned citizens to ask the why questions.

People want to know whether the delays in the realizations of the CPA dividends are due to an inherent defect within the truce itself or do they lie with those entrusted with its implementation? These are all valid questions and they need answers as quickly as the situation warrants.

Now some of the answers are beginning to trickle in as we hear of a split in the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement headed by the SPLM veteran politician Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin.

The controversial southern politician told the media that he was founding SPLM-Democratic Change “to save (the SPLM) from the abyss it is falling into,” adding that the SPLM was “not democratic” and losing support in south Sudan. Akol was named foreign minister in 2005. He was replaced by Deng Alor in October 2007.

As a FM, Akol had been accused by his former colleagues in the SPLM of being too close to the National Congress Party (NCP) of President Al Bashir. But he has always explained his grounds by saying that in his own views he thinks that the CPA if to be implemented, the SPLM and NCP have to be in partnership and not confrontation.

At this juncture and as far as democracy is concerned, many including the writer , for sure differ with Akol in some of his policies and ways of doing things, but this should not stand on his way to enjoy his democratic rights which includes the right to belong to any group of his choice.

I am concerned here because I have come across a good number of negative and immature criticisms being voiced against Dr. Akol as if he is the property of SPLM which is not true. Now he has come out openly declaring his new party which he calls the SPLM-DC, so it is no longer a secret or an underground sinister dealing. Those who want to join him can do so at their own responsibilities as mature adults and this is how democracy works.

My advice to Akol’s old friends in the SPLM is that instead of running after this politician whom you all know very well, I guess you should actually review your political records both within the south as well as the whole country and internationally. I can see that with the current biased and unbalanced cabinet reshuffles in the south, SPLM has become more vulnerable than ever before.

I am afraid to tell you that looking at the GoSS’s cabinet list, there is a very wide room allowing Akol to move to and fro and none of the current rhetoric can stop him. So please stop accusing others when it is your own tribalistic and non rationalistic ways of running the scene and now it is threatening your very existence.

As for Dr. Akol a key participant at the Kenana Conference where he and some southern Sudanese political elders slammed the SPLM for its “poor record of governance”, surely knows what he is trying to offer as an alternative.

Some of his policies may appeal to the northern Arabs only, I am sorry to say this. But if what I read is true, Akol’s concern about the New Sudan is fatal to begin with, and I don’t need any interpreter to interpret to me what New Sudan means.

Akol’s accusation of SPLM’s failure to make the project of the New Sudan attractive to southerners should be taken with a pinch of salt.

“On many occasions the SPLM has been ambivalent on national issues, such as the ICC’s indictment of the President, the last attack on Gaza, the deployment of UN troops in Darfur, etc” stated Akol.

“A party that does not engage in political ideological work is a moribund” he added.

Well what surprises me here most is the discussion on the party’s (SPLM-DC) position on Gaza. Am I right? Is it one of Akol’s concerns? Crazy world, I know you can call it politics, but this one is frankly crazy.

I write as a south Sudanese nationalist, and I find any thing that negatively affects the attainment of the dream for an independent south Sudan nation as disturbing.

Some people cry out that Akol is a power seeker and that is why he first led the split with the SPLM/ United in 1991 and now the SPLM/DC in 2009. This can be true or false. But are others more justified to be in power while others like Dr. Akol are to be denied the right to seek the same power?

I will not hide the fact that I am not Akol’s supporter nor admirer of his policies as stated earlier, but I will die to support his democratic right to form the party of his liking. He is not the best politician in the south because I believe that as a member of his generation he is not free from tribal political appointments during his days in the different ministerial posts and neither is he free of clan politics during his past political career, a thing that may continue to haunt him forever, yet he has the right to live, form his party and contest for any post in the country.

Also to be fair to the former diplomat, Dr. Akol has NEVER been reported to have embezzled public funds the way our ministers and political dinosaurs are doing in the GoSS and the state governments all over south Sudan. May be he is actually a honest person or may be that because his political career has always been in the central government where it is difficult either to loot “the Juba style “ or we just don’t know much about this aspect of him. But given the benefit of the doubt, I give him credit. .

I hope that those young people who will read this paper will come to the understanding that they need to look more critically at the current situation in the country as it unfolds. The politicians in Juba have failed and they have failed the south with them. They lack the sense of inclusiveness and now the results are beginning to show. But for us to be a free people we need in the first place to free our minds.

The current leadership in the south is definitely leading us down the drain, yet some of our negative instincts are blocking us from seeing the doom and work to avoid it when we know that sooner than later it would become an inevitable disaster. We must find another forum totally different from the existing ones to address our problems, because we need to save the southern Sudanese’s unity as a prerequisite to the establishment of our independent nation.

Furthermore if there are young people outside there who only know the politicians who come from their own villages or clans and speak their tribal languages, they should consider themselves homeless as they will never liberate the people. Those who have sold their loyalties to these corrupt politicians of today, who no doubt looted southern Sudan of it $7 billion and offered zero development in return, should understand that they have no future in south Sudan.

The way forward is not about Salva Kiir, or Riek Machar, or Lam Akol, or James Igga or Pagan Amum or whosoever your tribal idol is. It should be about good governance, rule of law, accountability, transparency, democracy, equal opportunities, nationalism, fairness, INCLUSIVENESS and patriotism.

All the above are in short coming in south Sudan of today and it is badly needed for the Independent south Sudan of tomorrow.

Our corrupt traditional politicians without exception have stabbed southern Sudan in the back either by being corrupt, messing with public fund, tribalistic in offering employments, scholarships, bursaries to students, encouraging tribal and clan feuds or completely disregarding the rule of law.

They have all fallen short and are unfit to lead the post – independent south Sudan that is of course if we reach that noble dream.

This makes the responsibility even more grave and challenging and a completely new approach is needed before we all perish in our fruitless inter-clan feuds or worse still be marooned into living indefinitely in the shadow citizenship within a united Arabized and Islamised Sudan where we may then under the rule of the sword air our views on Gaza as suggested by our friends in the newly formed SPLM-DC.

The author is a South Sudanese doctor living in the UK and can be reached at: [email protected].