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Sudan Tribune

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Dinka elder calls for widening SPLM reunification to governance matters

President Salva Kiir Kiir with members of the Dinka (JIENG) Council of Elders in March 2015 (Photo Moses Lomayat)
President Salva Kiir Kiir with members of the Dinka (JIENG) Council of Elders in March 2015 (Photo Moses Lomayat)

June 20, 2017 (JUBA) – A leading member of the Jieng (Dinka) Council of Elders Tuesday said the reunification initiative being facilitated by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, should not only be honoured by the three factions of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) but also needs to be expanded to governance matters.

“This peace initiative being mediated and sponsored personally by President Museveni must be honoured by the three SPLM factions. Many people feel that the initiative should not be limited to the outcome of the ongoing reconciliation to Arusha’s reunification of SPLMs 2014 agreement per se, but the SPLM should widen, transmit and expand on democratic reforms for the coming constitutional, making of the whole nation,” wrote Aldo Ajou Deng Akuey.

President Museveni, he added, should open up a wider door to route through a peaceful resolution of the conflict, based on universal liberties, freedoms, democracy and the rule of law, and not rule by law.

“Such comprehensive democratic reforms will relieve the SPLM from being a government movement or a government party, a system of authoritarian governance the SPLM has possessed from 1983 to date. There are many alternatives to pursue towards sustainable peace by breaking up, at this stage, the present political stalemate,” he added.

Akuey who leads a parliamentary committee for human rights, legal and constitutional affairs at the Council of States in South Sudans’ parliament, explained in an opinion article released to the public on Tuesday, that the expansion of the SPLM reforms should include, an inclusive national federal constitution, liberal and free democracy and the rule of law.

The opinion article also mentioned the inclusivity of political and economic institutions and the modern creative destruction for immediate industrialisation, thus avoiding extractive political and economic institutions that promote dictatorship or an authoritarian system of government.

Such a political arrangement is best suitable for the unification of a country and its people.

“By this, the SPLM factions will come out with peace, unity and national construction for the whole country. Thus the partisan competition will open up, embracing the norms and principles of change of government through the elections,” added Akuey.

(ST)

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