Machar decries Juba’s comments on power-sharing deal
November 13, 2014 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan’s former vice president, Riek Machar, who leads a rebel faction, said that recent remarks by senior officials in Juba were reneging on the preliminary agreement on executive power-sharing which transpired from the face-to-face talks he held with president Salva Kiir in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa last Friday.
Rebel sources said the two rivals agreed on how to share executive powers between the president and prime minister, including an agreement to command separate armies during initial phases of the would-be transitional period.
South Sudan’s information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, on Tuesday however dismissed any agreement to share power between Kiir and Machar.
“It was just a proposal and that proposal has been rejected. So it is a non-starter,” he told journalists in the South Sudanese capital of Juba.
Lueth acknowledged that IGAD mediators presented the proposal on power-sharing to the government negotiators who rejected it.
He also added that IGAD heads of state and government at the summit similarly rejected the proposal, saying that the new document was against the protocol signed by the regional leaders in August which pre-empted that president Kiir should remain both the head of state and government with all the attached executive powers.
However Lueth did not explain last Friday’s outcome of the two-day face-to-face talks between Kiir and Machar on the same topic of executive power-sharing, which took place in the presence of the Ethiopian prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, who also chairs IGAD, and the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who serves as rapporteur.
REBELS RESPOND
South Sudanese rebel leader’s spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, said his boss, Machar, described the government’s comments as an attempt to “renege” on the power-sharing deal reached in Addis Ababa.
Dak said it was clear that the government was trying to deviate from the early understanding.
“This is a clear deviation from the recent understanding in Addis Ababa. How will it become a power-sharing if executive powers will not be shared between the president and the prime minister?” inquired the opposition leader’s spokesperson.
He hinted that the opposition group will not accept a non-executive position of the prime minister, arguing that possessing executive powers was an important mechanism to ensure implementation of the would-be peace agreement in order to prevent president Kiir from abusing powers and blocking reforms again.
“The leadership in Juba is known for blocking reform agenda and abuse of power,” Dak further explained, adding that leaving the executive powers in their hands would be a “recipe for another disaster.”
He said that if there was to ever be power-sharing between the opposition leader and the president, Kiir would have to relinquish many of his current executive powers.
The spokesperson further explained that the opposition group has yet to convince their supporters on whether or not they would accept an arrangement to share executive powers in which Kiir would continue to maintain his position as the president, adding that they see him as a “symbol of corruption, division and death.”
PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER
Dak went on to say that the leadership structure should be comprised of the offices of the president and of the prime minister, opposing the proposal by government to maintain a position of the vice president in addition to creating two new deputies to the prime minister.
Citing president Kiir on Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny, said the leadership structure should maintain the position of vice president, currently occupied by James Wani Igga, which should be above the office of the prime minister.
“The position of the vice-president is in the constitution. His duties are clearly spelled out in the constitution. He becomes the acting president when the president travels out of the country,” Ateny noted.
“This position will always be there until when the people of this country decide the type of system of governance they want,” he added.
Ateny further asserted that the current vice-president Igga has been loyal to president Kiir, stood with him during the difficult times and therefore should not be brushed aside.
Juba also maintains that there should be two deputies to the non-executive prime minister.
Dak however said government’s insistence to have a five-member at the echelon of the executive was an “ill-intention to spoil the broth with too many cooks,” adding it was a clear indication that president Kiir’s government was not serious on reaching a peace accord with the opposition group.
He said that maintaining the position of the vice president was not necessary, which he said should be merged with the office of the president and that Wani Igga should be given a different portfolio.
“This should not be to maintain or create positions for mere purposes of accommodating loyalists. It is about ending the war by reaching and implementing a peace agreement. There has to be clear lines of decision making at the top executive offices, which should not be crowded or clouded. Only the president and the prime minister should be jointly in charge of the executive,” Dak explained.
He dismissed the government’s argument on the constitutionality of the vice president’s post, saying this was irrelevant since the country was looking for a new political dispensation to end the crisis.
A constitution, he added, should first put into consideration the interests of the people, which he said is restoring peace and stability in this case, and added that it will be through an agreement that a new system of governance shall be determined.
“They should understand that it shall be in accordance with a peace agreement that a new system of governance shall be adopted and a new constitution made, or amend the current one. We are talking of a new political dispensation,” he said.
He reminded that even the positions of the prime minister and its two deputies which he said the government seemed to be preaching and comfortable with were not provided for in the current transitional constitution, inquiring how the government wanted to reconcile these new positions in the “untouchable transitional constitution.”
KENYA EXPERIENCE UNHELPFUL
Dak said there was no need to adopt a leadership structure which others in the region tried before and proved to be unhelpful.
He said even in Kenya, which is one of the most peaceful countries in the region, tested the “crowded and clouded executive power-sharing” in the Grand Coalition”, saying Juba should not try to “copy and paste” a leadership structure which proved unhelpful and was abandoned.
The opposition leader’s spokesperson explained that South Sudanese society had been terribly divided more than the Kenyans and therefore needed seriousness in order to address the issues through “honest, efficient and effective trustworthy executive.”
“Unlike Kenya which contained its minimal divisions between civilians in 2007, South Sudanese society including government’s security organs have been terribly divided since mid-December 2013. The army has split. The police is divided. The national security service is also divided,” he said.
However, the opposition group, he added, was committed to the IGAD mediated peace process that would restore peace and stability in the country and build trust and confidence among the people.
(ST)