SPLM set to re-organize party structure

February 7, 2012 (JUBA) — The political bureau of South Sudan’s ruling
party has resolved to re-organize the party structure and develop new
strategic goals in the wake of the country’s post-session era, Pagan
Amum, the party’s secretary general said.

The plan, according to Amum, was one of the key issued discussed
during the first Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) political
bureau’s extraordinary meeting after independence held in Juba, the
South Sudan capital on Monday.

“This new journey is now new as you all know. As a party, the SPLM
came up with a roadmap, plans and programmes that will involve
restructuring of the party after independence as a way of serving our
people better,” Amum told journalists.

He said South Sudan president, Salva Kiir, also the party chairman has
already instructed the National Liberation Council (NLC) to schedule a
meeting and devise the way forward. The NLC is the party’s highest
decision making body.

During the meeting, he said, the NLC is expected to discuss plans and
programmes on how the south-ruling party can be re-organized from the
grassroots to the national levels.

The SPLM, which last held its party convention in 2008, is due to hold
another major one mid next year, with the current restructuring widely
anticipated to have huge implications on the party’s overall
structure.

The restructuring, party sources told Sudan Tribune will also affect
syndicated youth entities within the party, which appears torn apart.

“If you critically look at the youth structure today, you notice will
notice some differences. The SPLM youth league has a lot to do to
bring the youth together, which seems not to be happening today,” said
the official, unauthorized to speak to the media.

However, SPLM as the ruling party, according to its Secretary General,
still has to grapple with the challenges of how to build the new
nation and manage it through provision of able leadership.

“We need to admit that the challenges are huge, but history has always
proved that we can overcome them,” he said, citing the implementation
of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the successful
elections and referendum held in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Also discussed during the political bureau meeting, he said, were
reports on the security situation in the country as well as the status
of the ongoing post-independence negotiations with Sudan under the
auspice of the African Union High Level Implementation Pane on Sudan.

The bureau, he said, lauded the council of minister’s decision to
suspend oil production across the entire country and supported the
move by South Sudan’s finance ministry to introduce tougher austerity
measures to counter the oil crisis.

“The SPLM political bureau endorsed the decision to undertake
austerity measures in light of the current oil crisis. This is a
responsible aimed at protecting the sovereignty of our people,” Amum
said.

Also agreed upon, he added, was the call for South Sudan government to
develop and implement plans for alternative sources of revenue to back
up the country’s economy, 98 percent of which is supported by oil
revenues.

(ST)