SPLM: Great expectation, great disappointments!

By Luke Kuth Dak

March 25, 2009 — It’s quite clear that after almost four years in full control of everything and anything in South Sudan, that the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement and it’s executive branch, the government of South Sudan (GOSS) and the South Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) have not lived up to the great expectations of the citizens of the South. Instead, they offered them great disappointments one after another, in a manner that suggests some serious lack of leadership and co-ordination, at best.

Four years in power are too long a time for any government not accomplishes its agenda. It’s also quite a grace period to realize where things have gone wrong, and what could have been done to amend what needed to be amended. Today, President Barrack Obama, of the United States of America, would only dream to have had such an extended grace period, to implement his agenda. But, only a month in the Oval Office, he has already been grilled for what his critics called “ His failure to fulfill the campaign promises.” So what excuse do the three branches of government in South Sudan have, in not delivering what they have promised the Southern Sudanese with when they took over power, almost four long years ago?

That lamentable situation can’t and shouldn’t continue any longer, if this government ought to be taken seriously. It’s that time to veer away from empty promises and begins governing and addressing the dire security situation, corruption, poverty and more that are engulfing the region. No government should have the legitimacy of existence if it fails to meet the needs- not wants- of the citizens that it claims to have fought for. Certainly, the peoples’ patience and confidence in the government’s ability to lift them up, are thinning by the day, and rightfully so.

Meanwhile, under the watchful eyes of (SPLM) and with the help of some of Southern wickets, the so-called Islamic National Front, the party of embattled indicted President Omar al-Bashir, continues to play the divide, rule and conquer policies, all across the South. They are putting arms and weaponry in the hands of some tribes, not to mention the Ugandan rebels, the Lord Resistance Army (LRA), in order not only to destabilize the region, but also to show the entire world, by example, that, Southern Sudanese can’t possibly govern themselves! Unfortunately, all that is taking place while the (SPLM), (GOSS) and the (SSLA) are busy trying to defend and shield the war criminal Omar al-Bashir from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Undoubtedly, the chairman of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement, the 1st Vice President of the Republic and President of the government of South Sudan, Lt.Gen. Salva Kirr Mayardit, is a good man, who is certainly blessed with tremendous gift of bravery. We appreciate that, and I heartedly reject the relentless assaults on his reputation on a personal level and not his performance. In the past, I staunchly defended his policies, perhaps more than his press secretary did. But, why is he allowing himself to drift from being the agent of social change he once was?

Since then, I have become increasingly convinced that I was defending a system that’s not worthy of my defense. Therefore I decided, instead, to side with the voiceless people of South Sudan, as they struggle just to get by. It’s hard, for me, to fathom how anyone, a journalist for that matter, would be in support of a government that has turned hope into despair and failed miserably to meet it’s obligations towards it’s citizens.

Meantime, my purpose of writing this article, and many more before it, is not just to grill the government or President Mayardit, for the sake of grilling, even though he bears the lion share of the blame, but rather to bring to their attention, what the people in the real world are saying, in order for the them to correct what needs to be corrected.

Needless to say, one of my critics, who commented, angrily about the fact that , in my previous article: Where is President Kirr Mayardit when we need him? I did not include Dr.Riek Machar Teny, the second most powerful man in South Sudan, in blaming the (SPLM) and (GOSS), for their indecisive position on the arrest warrant issued on President and fugitive Omar al-Basher. More so, he accused me of tribalism! Which is not true. Fact is, I have no single vein in entire body that’s tribbalist. But, that’s not to suggest that am not proud of my belonging to the Nuer Nation. After all, I owe them everything in my life. He went on to grill me for quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in most of my writings instead of late Dr. John Goring de Mabier. Truth is, both men are my true heroes. But having lived just about eleven minutes or so away from Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolence, has allowed me the opportunity to read about him more than I would have loved to about late Dr. Garang,

In the western nations, media is considered the mirror in which leaders see their faces, measure their performances and make decisions. In our South Sudan, however, it seems to me that our leaders, for whatever reasons, think that the media is their worst enemy, and their relatives and the army of advisors are their best friends! That reeks of dictatorship, not democracy.

Nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, most, if not all, of the advisors, relatives and friends of anybody in a position of power-as Mayardit is- are often telling the leader just what he/she wanted to hear, simply, for pure personal reasons other than public interest.

Thankfully, am doing this job for free, and my only interests are that of the people of South Sudan, and I intend to play this role for as long as they read my articles.

Our message, then, on the behave of the people of South Sudan, to the (SPLM) leadership is that: there is a limit for everything. Certainly, four long years in control of our lives, should have been enough for some tangible services deliverance, corruption eradication, tribal reconciliation, and more importantly, securing our region.

If the government still has some good will left in the tank, those needs can and should be met with the littlest amount of efforts and time.

The author is a former anchor with Juba Radio. He can be reach at: [email protected].