Reorganise SPLM youth league, party leaders urge
February 29, 2012 (JUBA) – A youth group has petitioned the secretary general of South Sudan’s ruling party, demanding the immediate reorganisation of the party’s youth league, including dissolution of the current national executive committee.
The petition, a copy of which Sudan Tribune obtained, was published on 22 February. It urges the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) leadership to convene an urgent youth league national convention and establish an interim committee that will reorganise its youth wing.
Signed by 32 members from all the 10 states of South Sudan and Abyei, the petition, addressed to Pagan Amum has been copied to the party chairman, Salva Kiir, his deputies, Riek Machar and James Wani Igga, among other senior party officials.
“As the SPLM embarks on the transformation or re-structuring of its organs, we argue that it begins by reorganising the syndicated organisations, particularly the youth league before the SPLM general secretariat,” reads the petition.
Reorganising the youth league, the petitioners argue, will give the youth the opportunity to fully and effectively participate in the party’s much anticipated general convention.
The group, in their petition, also caution the party leadership against ignoring its youth wing, warning of unspecified repercussions in the near future.
Agel Ring Machar, a member from Warrap state acknowledged the signing of the petition.
“We cannot discuss sensitive party issues through the media. Let’s wait for the outcome of the petition which is now before the party leaders,” he said by phone.
Last month, the SPLM’s political bureau, in its first post-independence meeting, resolved to reorganise the SPLM structure and develop new strategic goals in the wake of the country’s independence from Khartoum in 2011.
Restructuring of the party, party officials told Sudan Tribune, will centre on developing road-maps and programmes earmarked for rebuilding the party from grass roots to the national levels.
The SPLM, which last held its party convention in 2008, is set to hold another in mid-2013, with the current restructuring widely anticipated to have huge implications on the party’s overall structure.
“We need to admit that the challenges are huge, but history has always proved that we can overcome them,” the party’s secretary told journalists last month, citing the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the successful elections and referendum held in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
(ST)