South Sudan: Forgetting elections to getting referendum

By James Okuk

April 11, 2010 — With all the manifestation of unfairness and tactics of blocking freedom-for-others by the SPLM/SPLA in Southern Sudan, the April general elections slightly missed the abortion disaster and got born lamely at last. Of course some of us are happy to see the life of these lame elections than abortion, which could have made the 2011 referendum for self-determination of Southern Sudan a casualty of leadership incompetence. But bravo to the CPA dictates and international/regional pressure on the SPLM to respect the schedule of the elections as the National Congress Party (NCP)’s partner and President Omer Al-Bashir has shown the whole world without wavering. This is great even if not the greatest yet!!!!

At last, and despite the SPLM confusions of disorganization here and there from within and without, the people got allowed to practice their secret right of choosing their best leaders even though in an atmosphere fêted with fear of Salva Kiir’s lost to Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin after counting of the casted votes in the South. Dr. Lam himself has been denied by Kiir’s undemocratic directives to cast his vote in the South because by the time of voter registration he (Dr. Lam) was still banned to go to the South to practice his constitutional democratic rights. However, after intense pressure on Kiir and the group, Dr. Lam was allowed at the last hours to take his campaign trail to the South but under some confidential restrictions and harassment by Kiir’s supporters. See how unfair is the April elections on Dr. Lam’s civic rights.

Any way, thanks to Dr. Lam Akol and his team of Southern political parties for accepting to play the elections political games on unleveled ground in the South for the sake of safeguarding the 2011 referendum and waking Mr. Salva Kiir from his political slumbers with blunders. If at all there are people whose complaints would have been justifiable for boycotting the elections, it would have been Dr. Lam Akol and his Southern allies (including some of the independent candidates) whose political activities were obstructed by the SPLM in the South under the pretext of fake reasons of militia-lization and NCP-lization.

However, the very man who fears much now is Mr. Salva Kiir because of possibility of not making it to resume officially the duty of the GoSS president who automatically becomes the SPLA Commander-In-Chief after taking the oath of office. This fear of lost is terrible for Mr. Kiir because it shall be a big lost for the kingdom he has been building up for himself in the South, surrounded by shameless parasitic thieves of public rights, the corruptists. I hope the elections campaigns has taught Mr. Kiir some tough lessons and perceptions he has never had conceived in his life as a leader of Southern Sudan, thanks to Dr. Lam’s courage.

It was so laughable to hear and see Mr. Kiir calling for “change” in his electioneering slogans when the very target to be changed was supposed to be himself for the sake of making Southern Sudan a free zone from bad omens that befell her in the last five years of CPA era. Will Mr. Salva Kiir be capable of the change and will the hopeless situation that crept in during his rule in the South become a source of good hope again for the people? I give a benefit of doubt.

The only credit that makes me to agree with Mr. Kiir and some SPLM leaders, so far and so good now, is their unwavering stand on conducting the referendum in time as agreed in the CPA document. By distancing itself from the Northern opposition parties (including opposition within the SPLM Northern Sector with Pagan Amum’s Secretariat), Kiir’s new alliance with the separatists has saved the CPA from collapse and Northern conspiracies.

It is the best idea to conduct the referendum under a competent government of Dr. Lam Akol in the South. Nevertheless, if things continued to go from bad to worst, it would be a lesser evil to conduct the referendum under Kiir’s rule than not having it al all. But whether Mr. Kiir or Dr. Lam passed the post, the core unifying factor between them should be the insurance of the independence of South Sudan from all angles. When either of them passed the elections, the next step should be formation of government of national unity of Southerners immediately for the sake of better preparation for the 2011 referendum by thick or thin.

Nothing will be urgent as a priority after the elections than the unity of Southerners on the referendum exercise. All Southerners should forget what transpired during the elections in order for them to get into the referendum successfully. The elections have come and will go soon but the independence of South Sudan from the referendum will only come once; and if missed it shall be so hard to make it come back again.

The SPLM Northern Sector has nothing to do with the Southern Sudanese referendum and so Kiir was right to disvalue it when Yassir Saeed Arman and Pagan Amum tried to play a dirty game with the Northern opposition parties for boycotting the elections so that the next government could remain illegitimate. Now these two gentlemen have been disowned by the Chairman so that whatever they say in the media remains their individual opinions; they don’t speak for the SPLM any more even with their so-called spokesman. Yassir and Pagan’s conspiracy against the referendum has been diffused. It is now up to them to run abroad if they feel outraged with the right stand of their bosses, Mr. Salva Kiir, Dr. Riek Machar, and Mr. Wani Igga.

In conclusion if Kiir became declared as the winner of the GoSS presidency, he should swallow all the bitterness he harvested during the elections campaigns and call in Dr. Lam Akol to help him with the executive management of the new elected government in the South for the rest of few months before the conduct of referendum in January 2011. Also if Dr. Lam got declared as the elected new GoSS president, he should also form a government of Southerners unity with some competent SPLM cadres in his cabinet and commissions as all Southerners shall direly need each others to achieve their independence from referendum as a united people. If this kind of understanding becomes the rule of the game after the April elections, then there is going to be a great hope for a better South Sudan than the current one. It is time for genuine change in the South for the South and with the Southerners. So God help us!!!

*Dr. James Okuk is a concerned Southerner for genuine democratic change in the beloved country-in-the-waiting, reachable at [email protected]