CPA will be heading down a slippery slope!
By Hakim Makuer Gol
Aug 31, 2006 — I have made ceaseless efforts in this article to avoid ridiculing, bewailing, and scorning the SPLA’s new performances; but to give my opinion, perhaps to further push the wheel of our struggle towards its rightful destination. It is highly important to reward and give credit to our leader Kiir for outstanding work in unifying southerners under an umbrella of one united south Sudan. As it is worth mentioning, the famous Juba Declaration is a testimony to both our leaders Kiir and Matib’s ability of sorting right out from wrong of which we are proud of them. Indeed, unity among southerners is crucial for permanent peace to be achieved not only for the south but also for the Sudan as whole.
If unifying southerners is the only yardstick that indicates the potentiality of achieving New Sudan, then, we as southerners should strongly have a reason to celebrate the New Sudan’s birthday every year. But the fact is that getting full support from southerners only is significant but not sufficient to secure and translate the SPLM/A’s dream of new Sudan into reality. Nuba Mountains’ and southern Blue Nile’s support does matter. Yes, it is true that the SPLM has an integral vision for the democratic New Sudan, but without practicing this truth and taking it down to Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile and Darfur; unfortunately, the sources of threats for new Sudan establishment will remain unexhausted.
The NCP is labouriously working hard day and night, to blunt the Blue Nile’s and the Nuba Mountains’ strong support for the idea of New Sudan; while our party, the SPLM/A is either unaware of it, or aware of it, but does not take the necessary and timely measures to rectify the situation.
In Nuba Mountains where the present governor is from the SPLM, the NCP has adopted a subversive policy of delaying the approval and release of the state budget, designed as a plot to undermine and cripple the smooth administration of the State. This conspiracy results in labourers not getting their pay as regularly as it should be, as is the case in other parts of the north.
The secret behind that is to make the people of the Nuba Mountains unsatisfied with the SPLM/A interim administration. Moreover, the SPLM representatives in southern Blue Nile are denied their rights of taking influential posts in the civil administration. This action is a clear violation of the power-sharing article, as it is well elaborated and stipulated in the CPA. The SPLM/A has to elicit immediate ways of putting those things back on track; otherwise, we will be wading in an empty space in the near future.
Yes, there is a green light at the end of the tunnel on our way to a real new Sudan; however, southern Sudan alone cannot walk this distance. The SPLM/A must rejuvenate the roots that brought it into being, its national standing policy! We know that what bred southern Sudan’s strategic relationship with Nuba and angassina people is not merely a kinship relationship; it is a reciprocal liking, “you like me, I like you”. We have come to have the primary goal of liberating ourselves from Arab’s injustice system in Sudan. However, our reciprocity base is not secured from enemy attack. The fact is that, the adverse effects caused by the loss of our prestigious leader Dr. Garang has shaken hearts and gave people a fear of waning of the new Sudan vision. Therefore, it is of paramount importance for our new leader Mr. Kiir to profess his persistence in the path of liberating all of the marginalized people of Sudan. So, Should our leader Kiir visit both areas of Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains as soon as possible? The answer is YES! Our people in those areas have yet to hear any words of encouragement from the SPLM/A new leadership.
If there is anything they still remember about SPLA/M commitment, it would be the courtesy call by the fallen hero, Dr. Garang; if there is any word still echoing between the mountains cures in Nuba and Angassina, it would be the brave words of our iron leady Madam/ Rebecca de-mabior, when she accompanied the cascade of the fallen hero to say final good bye to his people in the Nuba Mountains and Angassina.
Apparently, there is no perceived difference between our previous leader Dr. Garang and our current leader General Kiir except in names. Both leaders are the products of one environment and two faces of the same coin. To all dear potential readers of this article, my call for SPLM/A’s intricate move should not be taken as a criticism, but, a call for a blind spot checking before NCP steers the CPA ship against a mountain
What is now between NCP and SPLM is not peace, it is a clod war. While the people of southern Sudan are overwhelmed by the joy of peace and potential prosperity in the region, the NCP is walking continuously on its destructive path for creating instability in the south. Despite the SLPM being a part of the Government of National Unity, NCP support for outlawed militias in the south is still there. A few weeks back, we have heard from SPLA sources in Upper Nile that the minister of energy and mining, Awad Aljaz is the mastermind of this new development. What a travesty of nation money!
In fact, this action by Awat Aljaz should not be taken with surprise. We all know that what is destroying the south, instead of developing it, is its oil. But what shocked me is our leader Kiir’s response to NCP mean behavior. Instead of pointing a finger on the enemy’s face, the First Vice President is taking an assiduous labour on Darfour conflict with NCP. I heard of the First Vice President’s schedule to meet with the Darfur rebel leaders, possibly in Asmara, Eritrea in an attempt to convince those who have rejected the ill-fated peace of Darfur to come to Khartoum. The question that arises is: why should our leader have to work for the security of a partner that puts poison in our milk?
What is worth mentioning is that, signing a peace with an Islamic party is a chest game in which winning the round is very much proportional to the right moves. For the SPLM/A to be able to win the game is to go back to its dynamic and aggressive way of struggle. Since Islamic regime is still nurturing its destructive alliance with southern militias against SPLA, why don’t SPLA rejuvenate its alliance with eastern rebels and further form a new strategic relationship with emerging power in Darfour, in order to turn the heat on this none-genuine partner “NCP”? People sometimes say, “The eye for an eye policy leaves the world blind”. Ironically, this policy does not leave the world blind when it comes to aggressive business with NCP; it breeds respect.
Our movement, the SPLM/A needs to deal with NCP with this fact in mind, that, in Islam, on which the NCP based its ideological system, there is nothing called peace with undefeated rival. From NCP perspective, what we now called “CPA” is not written on stone; it is merely a cease-fire, which can wane any time. Until the people of New Sudan acquire the necessary methods and tactics that would equip them with fitness in a new environment, war against the marginalized areas will be on again.
Recently, some serious information leaked out from the presidential palace that the First vice president, general Kiir and the Second Vice President, Mr. Ali Taha, had a little talk over unresolved issues of Abyei and oil revenues. The source said that the talk was fruitless and event more harmful for the spirit of peace.
Mr. Taha, the big Islamic fox, came out frankly to tell Salva Kiir, “your dream for Abyei is a wishful thinking and that the current report by the international experts over Abyie is not acceptable; and if you don’t like it, the door to the jungle is open”! If that is true, then, what is left to be heard from NCP? This statement from Ali Taha, that “the door to the jungle is open” is a euphemism for an official declaration of the CPA’s death. Unless the SPLM/A makes the right moves, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement will be heading down a slippery slope.
* The writer of this Article lives in Ottawa, Canada
He could be reached at [email protected]