SPLM Lakes secretariat challenge assembly leader before trip to Juba

By Manyang Mayom

November 29, 2008 (RUMBEK) – Lakes State Speaker Isaiah Alier Mashinkok with his deputy Marik Nanga Marik managed to fly to Juba on Saturday after the Lakes state SPLM secretariat office attempted on Friday to suspend him from traveling. Mashinkok will attend the Southern Sudan Ten States Speakers’ Forum that has been organized by the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS).

Mashinkok is involved in a power struggle in Lakes state and was briefly deposed from his position as speaker of the assembly until reinstated by Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit in early October.

Kiir himself described the impeachment procedures used against the speaker and his deputy as “incorrect” and instructed the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Lakes state to dissolve the assembly specialized committee and to set up new ones distributed to SPLM members by county representation.

The Lakes state SPLM secretariat office attempted to prevent Speaker Mashinkok from attending the speakers’ forum in Juba and demanded that Mashinkok solve the Assembly crisis. But Mashinkok said that he is officially invited to attend the forum as a speaker with his deputy.

On Friday morning, the Lakes state SPLM assistant secretary for political and organization affairs acknowledged that Mashinkok is speaker in the parliament but said that if Mashinkok misbehaves to the SPLM office, then “the SPLM secretariat of Lakes state must think twice against Mashinkok.”

Another report suggests that Acting State SPLM Secretary Isaac Kon Anok already suspended Mashinkok and denounced his call for the immediate arrest of eight MPs on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Mashinkok boycotted the SPLM meeting on Friday because he was intimidated by SPLM state acting chairperson Isaac Kon Anok, as well as the SPLM state assistant secretary for political and organization affairs and the state secretary for popular and syndicated organizations, according to a SPLM official source.

“Absolutely, I feel I am being insulted by SPLM acting secretary by allowing in (SPLM Caucus Chairman) Gordon Maper while I have already lifted his immunity as an honourable member in Lakes parliament, and I don’t know what power allows Maper again to talk to me in SPLM special meeting,” said Mashinkok.

Maper was removed from the chairmanship of SPLM Caucus in 2007 after presenting a yearly human rights report, but the SPLM caucus meeting held in November reinstated Maper as part of a compromise agreement.

Mashinkok accuses the Lakes state SPLM secretariat office of taking sides and being biased since the assembly crisis erupted in August. He said the SPLM secretariat is backing Maper and Bullian Kot Beny, who took power as speaker for 13 days. He also added that the state executive members are also supporting Beny.

According to Mashinkok, the entire SPLM resolutions that were drafted by the SPLM state secretariat office on Nov. 6 were not made available by the SPLM office and he only received a copy on Thursday, well after the Assembly had already returned to a state of crisis. The resolutions were the result of a SPLM caucus meeting convened in the wake of President Kiir’s directives.

“This is not a right move at all, we are one party and we should have spoken out for fact among ourselves instead of intimidation within the party,” said the politician.

The Nov. 6 resolutions affirmed equal distribution of eight standing specialized committees positions among the eight counties, excluding the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, “which are aligned with executive positions.”

The decree, signed by SPLM Lakes State Secretary Samuel Mathiang, referred to the two main factions in the assembly and urged that “the three leaders; namely the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the chairman of the Caucus committee should not side with any of the two groups but must remain neutral to be able to unite the Assembly.”

The caucus also resolved that the SPLM county secretaries must closely monitor the performance of their respective SPLM members in the Assembly.

The disorder in the Assembly has prevented regular meetings and raised concerns of the security implications of the political crisis during inter-clan clashes.

The SPLM was originally the political wing of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, an insurgency that waged war for 23 years against the Khartoum-based government of Sudan, before joining the national government in a 2005 peace deal that also made SPLM the ruling party Southern Sudan.

(ST)