Mr. President rescinds SPLM-DC ban

By Isaiah Abraham

November 29, 2009 — The First Vice President of the Sudan and President of the Government of Southern Sudan, His Excellency Lt. Salva Kiir Mayardit has roared by using a decree to ban the SPLM faction led by Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin. That is, the SPLM -DC party political activities aren’t needed in the Southern soil- in the ten states of Southern Sudan, in the April next year elections. This comes at a hot heel of a major political alliance among Southern political forces by filling one presidential candidate in the person of Dr. Lam Akol. Now that the presidential candidate has been bandied as unwanted, that camp is technically in to trouble. The DC is in court and situation down here is tense, with equal measure of those against and for.

To begin with, my conscience bleeds with nondescript of what this madness will lead us in the long run. The political trump card that portrays the DC as NCP mole doesn’t add up to what we have cherished all along, namely the right of expression and association. Our law documents (constitutions) were written to safe guard the interest of the minority. If they chose what suits them, why do we (say SPLM) stand in their way? Isn’t that not what we recant as leaders when they swear an oath? I don’t know whether advisors of our President knew what they were doing by going against the grain of basics rights and democracy in our virgin land. The first liberal activity after window of opportunity had opened big and wide, must not be torpedoed by few individuals who are spine shivered for no reason at all. The advisors have reduced our leader to a punching bag in an attempt to score a political point against the entire opposition groupings that refused to endorsed Mr. Kiir. They did an excellent job, because you can’t reward a leader under a glaring decimal ratings.

I sympathize with our brothers and sisters in the opposite camp and here plea before our president to repeal the unjustified, and barbaric so called directives against the SPLM-DC (opposition). It doesn’t make sense, even if we don’t deny that the DC is being sponsored by the NCP. And so what? What will they do with that money in the South that has gone tucked into our hands. The advisors have given Dr. Lam and the company a reason to boycott the election, a scenario that might put the election exercise into disarray. Yet deep within me, I know Comrade Lam Akol Ajawin can’t betray our cause and turn 10 million charged Southerners to vote for unity, save may be for Dr. Riek Gai Khok and Ali Tamim Fartak group. We can’t create problems to ourselves at this hour. Even an individual vote counts.

Mr. President, don’t buy the idea that the DC is a security threat to our people. That is a lie. Leave Comrade Lam Akol alone to try it out with you at the ballot, if he wins fine but chances are that you will retain your seat over the heap of an opposition pressure, since the man who is loved by man (Dr. Machar) has decided to stand behind you. Please sir these are tough times, the world will not take your rhetoric about democracy serious anymore, you will be isolated. Many even within your SPLM party will secretly take the matter and use it against you, in 2011 when we shall chart out our new nation. We need unity of our people, unity is key to our success. Southerners from all walks of lives should be together same way we were in the 1972 under Joseph Lagu. Let’s unite like Dinka and the Khartoum will be irrelevance. But also a strong political opposition is good, its an eye opener, it will help your ailing government. People shouldn’t panic.

Generally however, what is ithat we should decipher from the presidential decree against the SPLM-DC? Well, for starters, the DC isn’t the problem but the NCP. The SPLM grills on the NCP due to the stand off on national issues, has spilled over to the opposition. That is perhaps the place where the rain starts beating us. It has no bearing on anything down here or within the DC camp. The ban is in fact against the NCP. The DC is victimize because the NCP and the SPLM have had their smothering war that will cost and cause troubles to the overall political picture in the country (CPA). We have seen how the two has drawn up daggers to go on each other throats even on trivial matters already in the fine tuning. I fear now for the status of the entire CPA under such circumstances. The NCP is pondering of making similar move in the North and if it happens, then we shall have crisis beyond our control. May be President of the Republic and that of the NCP and Ustaz Ali Osman Taha need to stick their neck out and stop the hard line that brews from Dr. Mustafa Ishmael and Dr. Nafie Ai Nafie. Don’t give the SPLM an exit strategy/excuse to boycott an election. Already their hands are full with problems as to who should go to contest against the President of the Republic.

Down here, there is another lie that says the other Southern political groups are free to contest this election. This is a hoax and hocus-pocus at best. How will the opposition regroup after such a stripe? Referendum and the election laws must be discerned from the prospectives of fall out between the two camps (the SPLM and the NCP). This should be avoided and tolerance embrace. How can Dr. Lam be a threat and others aren’t? In what way?

The opposition has few options therefore and would urge them to soldier on and lobby. Mr. Kiir is a good listener. There is no need to boycott and election, we know it has already been rigged in advance, but at the start like in our situation, a dictatorial seed can’t be allowed to take a foot hole. Democracy could have been allowed to wait but given the look of things, few individuals are making fool of many in the name of liberation through Khartoum. In another word, the lull others by an outdated political fashion any defective comes from Khartoum. For the sake of many (generation after us), let’s stand together not as Bari, Azande, Dinka, Toposa, Anyuak, Nuer etc, but as Southerners against evil forces of bad governance, injustice and inequality. Long live the SPLM!

Isaiah Abraham lives in Juba; he is on [email protected]