Lam Akol brushes aside speculation of returning to SPLM’s fold
October 1, 2011 (NAIROBI) – South Sudan’s renegade opposition leader Lam Akol has dismissed as “rubbish” speculations that his meeting last week with the country’s president Salva Kiir was a prelude to his return to the mainstream Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
The meeting, which surprised observers given the bitter animosity that characterized relations between the two parties, was followed by remarks in which Kiir announced that Akol would soon be seen in South Sudan’s capital Juba to rejoin the domestic political arena in the newly independent country on the ticket of his party.
In an interview with Sudan Tribune from Nairobi on Friday, 30 September, Akol said that he did not seek to involve any foreign interlocutors in brokering his meeting with Kiir.
He revealed that the genesis of the meeting dates back to March this year when he sent a letter to Kiir who later met with a delegation of the SPLM-DC in June.
Akol said that his meeting with Kiir had mainly focused on issues related to opening the political space in the south and providing all political parties with guarantees to operate.
According to the SPLM-DC leader, his party has had difficulties operating in the south.
In November 2009, in the run-up to April’s general elections, Kiir ordered authorities in South Sudan, then a semi-autonomous region, to allow all political parties to operate freely except the SPLM-DC.
Reacting to a question on whether he might end up rejoining the mainstream SPLM from which he split to form the SPLM-DC in June 2009, Akol termed such speculations as “rubbish,” adding that this would not happen because the SPLM-DC was the main opposition party.
Akol also sought to discredit reports of his party’s implosion, saying those who recently defected were bought by the SPLM, in reference to the party’s former secretary-general Sandra Bona Malwal and her group who declared their defection in September this year.
He said that his party aims to play a leading role in the opposition in the post-independence South, stressing the importance of national unity in order to tackle the challenges facing the budding nation.
“We look at opposition as a mean to keep the government on check. We are a mirror through which the government can see its success and failures. In that respect, we need to help the president succeed” he said.
(ST)