Prove them wrong comrade Mayardit

By Lual Guet Jok

July 3, 2009 — In his speech before the South Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) on June 15, 2009 Comrade President Salva Kiir Mayardit, drew the nation’s attention to existence of the enemies of peace in our country. Comrade Salva, associated the recent ethnic and clans fightings in most parts of South Sudan with these enemies of the peace in Sudan. President Mayardit explained that the aim of such people is to discredit his government and Southerners in the eyes of regional and international communities that Southern Sudanese are incapable of ruling themselves. I have no doubt in my mind with regard to the President’s remarks. It is true there are such individuals people even within South Sudan. Those individuals, have their personal goals which they want to achieve at the expense of the entire nation. They want the war between the South and Northern Sudan to continue indefinitely so as to continue to loot the nation’s riches to meet their egoistic needs. Their selfishness has blinded them to an extent that they fail to take into account what would be the future of their children, grandchildren in general and Sudan in particular if the war is to continue indefinitely in Sudan.

The purpose of this article is to agree with comrade Mayardit and to suggest to him the need for full screening of these enemies of the peace within the South. The full screening is necessary because it is in the interest of the peace and stability in Sudan in general and Southern Sudan in particular. Therefore, it is imperative for the President Mayardit and our security forces in the South to carefully watch and deal with such individuals if evidence confirms their engangement in destructive self-centered evil activities. Empirical evidence shows that some of these individuals have been appointed to higher civil service and diplomatic positions in both Government of National Unity (GONU) and Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) with no references to their backgrounds simply because they have some connections comrades “X” and “Y” in both Governments. Most of such individuals are not less than betrayers. Reliable sources tell us that some of these individuals worked as spies for the Khartoum government inside Sudan and overseas during the war of the liberation. Those who were overseas denied any connection with our just liberation struggle which they portrayed as the Movement of so and so. I was shocked when i found some of these individuals holding some important positions in GOSS and GONU in Juba and in Khartoum. I attempted after the Second SPLM National Convention in Juba to see the SPLM Leadership regarding such individuals and their political appointments but i couldn’t make it due to circumstances beyond my capacity. I defined their appointments as political because some of them lack the qualifications for the positions they occupied. Their only qualifications as i understood are their connections with comrades “X” and “Y” in both Governments.

With regard to enemies of the peace in Northern Sudan, it is not a new thing as far as the history is concerned. It is an old mentality of power elites in Northern Sudan to sign peace agreement with the South and aborgate it . An example here is the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972 between General Nimeri’s regime and the South Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM). The regime of the late General Nimeri was not sincere with the agreement but signed it for three reasons : First and foremost,General Nimeri wanted the South to protect his regime after falling apart with his comrades : Major Hashim Atta, and Abdel Khalid Majhoub in 1971. Secondly, General Nimeri saw the agreement as the means to disarm the Anyanya one at the time the SSLM began to gain some regional recognitions, material and moral support. Thirdly, Northern Sudan power elites including General Nimeri entertained the illusion that Southern Sudanese were incapable of ruling themselves; that they would fight among themselves; a scenario that would give the North the reason to entervene in the South and aborgate the agreement. Far from the truth, our fathers disproved such illusive belief of the Northern Sudan power elites. Having been proved wrong, General Nimeri resorted to dictatorship’s principles and dissolved both the governments and regional assemblies of the South as he wished. It this uncivilized and unwarranted behaviour which compelled the South to take up arms again in 1983 to definse herself and her institutions.

So Comrade Mayardit prove them wrong again. The situation is now different. The Khartoum power elites will not dissolve the South Sudan Government and the South Sudan Legislative Assembly as they wish. Your Government has the army to protect it . Your major challenge and which i hope your comradeship is now addressing is the full modern armament and conventional training of the SPLA. Full armament of the SPLA is the top priority and must be treated that way because weakness from realists perspective invites aggression. If the SPLA is armed to the teeth, the enemies of the peace in Sudan will think twice over provoking the civil war again in the South. Thanks to the SPLM Leadership’s wisdom over the security arrangement.

I am confident that comrade James Hoth Mai and his team is up to the challenge to ensure that the SPLA has what it needs to protect the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the marginalized Sudanese people. Congratulations comrade Mai for your promotion and appointment as the Chief of the General Staff of the SPLA. I know you in person and your deputies. Your predecessor comrade Oyai Deng Ajak and his team in which you were a member has done his part in transforming the SPLA from a guerrilla freedom fighters to a conventional army. Yet there are a lot of things that need to be done in order to provide a maximum security for the CPA and its full implementation. The survival of the CPA rests squarely with the SPLA. This is particularly in context of our experience with the Khartoum power elites. We will implement the CPA in full with or without them. There are signs now which show that the Khartoum power elites have not learned enough from their past mistakes. One of such signs is the recent distortion of the results of the fifth Sudan census. The main aim for that distortion of the census is reduction of power and wealth sharing stipulated in the CPA.

The last point i wish to emphasize here comrade Mai has to do with our Disabled SPLA Veterans. Our disabled SPLA Veterans need our unconditional material and moral support. They deserve such support because they are our comrades, people who sustainted their disabilities in the course of our just struggle. Taking care of them serves multiple purposes e. g. to make them feel that the Movement still values them and to assure the rest of our comrades that the nation will also take care of them if any of them sustain the similar disabilities in course of our just struggle. I shared some ideas over their care with H. E. Comrade Nhial Deng Nhial, the Minister for the SPLA Affairs during his visit to Washington D.C. with President Salva in January 2009. Taking care of them will include social counselling, social and technical skills trainings. Social counselling will help them to reintegrate themselves into civilians social environment. Technical skills training will provide them with the skills that they use to earn some incomes to supplement with whatever financial assistance they may still receive from the Ministry of the SPLA Affairs.

Lual Guet Jok is a Sudanese citizen and SPLM Veteran resident in Canada. He can be reached via: [email protected]