A No for Arman can fast track secession

By Justin Ambago Ramba

February 6, 2010 — Talking about the possible secession of south Sudan in the referendum scheduled for the 2011 is no longer an issue that bothers the Sudanese people as it used to be some few years back. Even as recent as 2007 immediately following the official registration of the United South Sudan party (USSP), there were a lot of hostile commentaries against the party for in the Khartoum based newspapers for its clear and unequivocal call for the secession of the south .

Since then many things in the Sudanese politics have changed. Those voices that supported the unity of the Sudan have now come to understand and see for the first time what the USSP saw ahead of time, that two separate Sudanese states is the logical solution.

But how did that this change in heart come out? The truth is that all the Sudanese political parties including the two peace partners, the SPLM and the NCP , knew quite well that all opposing camps have things too dear to their hearts that they can never sacrifice as a price for the unity that all are assumedly to have committed themselves to promote by implementing the CPA .

To make unity attractive is a project that requests a genuine belief in unity itself, so that one can come up with the necessary sacrifices that if done would in practice facilitate the process.

We have the issue of identity that remains in the heart of the Sudanese problem. As the north is not prepared to sacrifice its Arab and Muslim identity, it cannot work to achieve a secular united Sudan that is continuously preached by the pro-unity SPLM party led by the twice retired First Lieutenant General Salva Kiir Mayardit.

On the other hand the National Islamic Front (NIF) a.k.a National Congress Party (NCP) of the indicted incumbent President Omer al Bashir, that has failed in its military campaign to promote the controversial scheme of Arabisation and Islamisation of the Sudan, and especially so in the southern part of the Sudan, knows very well that the south can never ever want to be Arab or Islamic, and can continue to resist any such approaches today and in the future.

But now, we are hearing that the onetime forbidden ideology of separating the south from the rest of the Sudan has finally found its way right into Omer al Bashir’s family circles. Al Bashir who wouldn’t have tolerated any separatist tendencies is now reduced to accept living together with a maternal uncle, a secessionist convert and now a leader of an officially registered northern separatist political party. He is none but the known hate monger, Al Taib Mustafa of the al Intibaha Islamist newspaper.

Certain voices have also recently been heard coming from the western province of Darfur where some officials of the SLM, Abdel Wahid’s faction are on record to have requested the inclusion of a clause on self-determination in the Darfur peace talks that is currently underway in Doha.

Now to make it easy for everyone, the ex-rebels of the SPLM have nominated Yassir Arman, northern Muslin to run on the party’s ticket for Sudan’s Presidency, thus pitting him against nine other Muslims, including a fundamentalist from the Bor Town of South Sudan.

Should you be a south Sudanese nationalist and a diehard secessionist would it be necessary to vote for the next Sudanese president? And if so whom would you vote for?

We must rightly understand that going back to revitalize outdated issues like a united secular Sudan, the new Sudan Vision, or making unity attractive are time consuming and for the wrong purposes. Getting stuck in those propaganda type projects can only pre-occupy southerners from preparing for the true independence and prosperity that can only come with secession in 2011.

If a separatist is to vote, please vote for a candidate who will not waste the post election period , which is no more than eight months on issues that could take us backwards while our eyes are on the referendum boxes.

When we approach 2011, it must be made abundantly clear that anyone who looks back towards the united Sudan with still a feeling of admiration will unfortunately come to freeze mentally like what happened to Lot’s wife in the biblical story when the Israelites were leaving the devilish kingdom of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Paradoxically however, even the northern voters can catalyze the secession of south Sudan by not voting for Yassir Arman in the forth coming elections. It would be the surest way to push the rest of the marginalised parts of the Sudan to rally behind the slogan of immediate secession, and only in south Sudan.

On the other hand it could appear that Arman may be the only candidate who can bring about a peaceful secession of the south if he is confronted with the inevitable, something that the other candidates may find difficult to abide with.

So can Arman be trusted by southerners for achieving a peaceful divorce from Khartoum? Or is it that, there is nothing like peaceful secession?

And should the Sudan under Arman witnesses the secession of the south, how on earth does Arman plan to survive in the midst of the hostile fundamental Islamists of the north in the absence of the protection that he would have otherwise got from his SPLA former colleagues in arms?

However there is no doubt that Arman’s failure will bring about a quick secession to the south as the political forces like the SPLM will become more focused on how quickly to end the unity with the north, a role they may not do well with Arman in office.

As such the only way to pull all southerners into the separation camp including the SPLM unionists as well as those hooked up in the outdated New Sudan Vision is not to bring about a distractive figure in Khartoum.

Dr. Justin Ambago Ramba, M.B, B.Ch, D.R.H, MD. The Secretary General of the United South Sudan Party (USSP) He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]