Opinion & Interviews: Census would have brought the greatest change for the South

The issue of Darfur is not in the CPA
States with small populations are receiving resources comparable to large states in the South
The following interview was conducted by Mona Al Bashir of Sudan Vision with Professor David de Chand, President of South Sudan Democratic Front.

Q: In your view why did SPLM postpone the population census?

A: Specifically I am shocked and saddened by the unilateral decision taken by the semi-autonomous government of South Sudan to postpone census. In the first place, it is not within the jurisdiction of the government of South Sudan . It is a federal jurisdiction, hence they have violated the law, and even in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) they all agreed that there will be census in 2007 or 2008.
And in fact, Mr. Salva Kiir, Mr. Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and the President are the three; the head of the Government. If Salva Kiir had any complaint with the census he should have tabled such a complaint more than six months because he is part of the presidency. But doing it arbitrarily just 48 hours before the census could start is contrary to the CPA itself.
Therefore I think that the decision made is like a blackboard exercise when a professor or teacher comes in a classroom in a high school, he writes on the blackboard. If he is a history teacher, he writes his lesson on the blackboard and he leaves and when an English teacher enters, he rubs it off and then writes his own lesson and when a mathematics teacher enters, he rubs what the English teacher has left on the blackboard and writes his own.
I think the decisions made in Juba are just like that. A blackboard that a teacher leaves whatever he writes and another teacher coming in rubs what he finds on it. I think it was a wrong decision on their part.

Q: Who benefited from the postponement and how could that be?

A: I think it was a great loss to the people of the South. The benefit will be to the North. I think it would have been beneficial to the South if the census was taken and we know exactly the number of people we have there in South Sudan and the number of people there are in the North. Putting those together would have given us a better accountability on the people. May be my colleague here can give more views on this.
One of the reasons the government in the south Sudan raised for the withdrawal was the issue of Darfur . They said that since Darfur will not be counted therefore the census will be partial. The issue of Darfur is not in the CPA. The agreement is the one which says there will be census according to the implementation matrix in the CPA. The decision taken by SPLM to please the Darfur rebels with the issue of the CPA is unconstitutional and is against the interests of the people of the South and also against the interests of the peace itself because the CPA demands the SPLM and NCP to observe the implementation matrix of the agreement.
So for the SPLM to be used by the rebel movements of Darfur is against peace and it is a violation of the CPA. In addition to that they also cited the issue of border demarcation, the Abyei case; they also cited other issues that they have with the NCP as partners. I think these are irrelevant reasons; they are not connected with the census at all.
The census is used for three basic reasons anywhere in the world. One; it is used for health services and it is used for knowing the number of population so that you know what is happening with the population changes for statistical purposes. For that matter, the semi-autonomous government of South Sudan made a very wrong decision. This is a prelude for them to accept elections next year because they know that if there will be elections next year, they will be defeated. Right now they are not popular in the South and in fact they are the most unpopular group that you can find anywhere. The grassroots are not with them because of the things they are doing are not lifting the South. They are full of corrupt practices and they just do not want any good thing to be done in the South. So they have put the South in a very serious disadvantage when it comes to the question of postponement of the census.

Q: Do you think that the justification of SPLM to postpone the census is justifiable considering that the postponement resulted to a loss in the budget amounting to US$27 million?

A: I think it will be a loss. I do not think that there is a justifiable reason. They should not have made such an abrupt decision to postpone census. Who is to blame? It is the SPLM to blame because it has failed to bring about post-war development in the South, to bring about education and to bring about health services and to bring about changing lives of people. It is using whatever measures it can get to cover up its weaknesses.

There is additional issue. It is not only the issue of money; there is another problem. It is the problem of the message sent to the people of the South is that there will not be census.  What Salva Kiir agreed with Al Bashir is not heard by the people of the South who have been told the census has been postponed. If you go and talk to the people in the grassroots now in the South, what they have in mind is that the census has been postponed. So there are tribes that will not be counted because of this mistake. There is a financial cost to it but there is also the cost to the very census itself. There are some semi-nomadic tribes in the South who move from place to place. They will not be found and counted.
They will move to mountains or forests. This is another cost to that decision because if the census will take place on 22nd April, it is already a lost cause because most of South Sudanese will not be counted as we see it.

Mr. Salva Kiir cannot come to Khartoum and make a unilateral decision that he is going to make the census begin on 22nd April. I think if they had sat as a government then he would have told the President in a very polite way that; “Look I am going to my people, we are going to sit down”, because that decision of postponing census was not made unilaterally by him. I think it was made by the semi-autonomous government of South Sudan .
So he can never make a unilateral decision because even if he goes back and reports to them that we are having census from 22 April there will be division within his own government and that by itself is another problem.

Q: Do you think that GOSS will shoulder the loss equally with its partner as SPLM is really the reason for the delay?

A: From the legal point of view SPLM or South Sudan government could be held accountable for the delay. But the problem is that this census is the federal responsibility and even the decision made by the government of the South was unconstitutional by itself because it has nothing to do with the issues of census which is the responsibility of the Government of National Unity. On the issue whether the South should shoulder the responsibility of additional $27million loss, the question to be asked is that what about the sum of $26 million the GoSS has released to SPLM for repatriation of IDPs from the North to the South to be counted? This money was squandered by individuals within the SPLM. With the culture of corruption in the South, I do not think that they can even contribute $5 to the census leave alone $27m.
Our party has been following up what is happening in the South.
It is very sad indeed. I think that the unilateral action taken by the semi-autonomous government in South Sudan is uncalled for. It is a violation of federal law, a violation of the constitution. It was politically unwise and indecisive. It is indicative that Salva himself is not capable to govern the South. He lacks the art of decision-making. Therefore if he is overwhelmed by power in the South, he should resign instead of causing this confusion coming to Khartoum saying one thing and going to Juba saying another. In other words he is a very inconsistent politician.  We do not want that.

Q: Do you think that GoSS is worried from this census, and if the answer is yes, why?

A: Yes, very much so. They are worried because they know that the people will ask them if the census is done who are going to be in favour of us. So when it comes to elections, many people will not vote for the SPLM. The reason why they are postponing this census is because they know that the population will be registered and at the time of the bad things that they have done, corruption, underdevelopment, human rights abuses, imprisonment etc… So the SPLM wants to maintain the status quo. It is using the CPA as leverage for maintaining power and that is illegal. We are calling on the population of South Sudan : Were you there three years after the signing of the CPA? Has your condition improved three years after the signing of the CPA? Or what is your condition three years before the signing of the CPA and what will your future be before 2011?
One of the reasons why the SPLM is afraid of the census is because the census will lead to a new political landscape because if the people are counted it means that the government of the South Sudan is to produce a new political map in the South again to restructure the counties because currently you will find 5000 people in Bahr El Ghazal they are being called a county while in other parts of the South, you get a county with 100,000 people.
So, a county with 5000 people has been cheating a county of 100,000 people because the money in the South is given to all groups equally irrespective of taking accounts of the population. Therefore, now if people are counted what is going to happen is that the new political restructuring of counties will take place meaning that there will be less counties of what the SPLM system imposed. So, that system will make people to disappear from the political map and they do not want census because of this.
Most importantly, areas which are not under the SPLM control, they will declare such areas insecure and they will not go to count the people there. That is the disadvantage. So, if these people complain, the SPLM will say to hell with you. We do not need you. You are just marginalized people. So what the SPLM is doing now is only to maintain power. SPLM is not interested in elections, it is not interested in democratic transformation, it is not interested in uniting the South and it is interested in continuing corruption, more corruption, and more corruption.

Q: What are the benefits which the Southern Sudan people could get from the census if conducted as scheduled?

A: The benefits of census will have been good for the South. It will have given us the measurement for development. Secondly it would give us the exact number of the South Sudan population. Thirdly, we would have known exactly how many Southerners are outside South Sudan whether they are outside the country, we would have the figures together and know what we are doing. Another advantage will be that we call development restructuring, power sharing and we would have been in better position in challenging the Central Government that we need this level of representation in the government, whether in the government bureaucracy, in all sectors of the government
But I think the fact that the SPLM has now postponed the census it has put us in a greater disadvantage. They have failed to answer that the North has been challenging us. “What do Southerners want?” I think counting of the population would have given us the greatest measurement that will give us a better equal representation in the system.
To add to that also, one of the benefits is that the political map of the South will be changed in a way that will benefit the political development in the country.
Because we need to know in the whole Sudan what should be the population of one country.
If we agree that in the South that a county should consist of 100,000 people the system must be applied in all states in the South because right now there is cheating going on. There are some states with small populations that are receiving resources comparable to large states. This is cheating itself. I think the census will change all these if the SPLM is honest for economic and political developments in our country. Again I see great dishonesty in the leadership in the South. It is a leadership that lacks thinkers. It is a leadership that lacks visions. It is leadership that lacks political roadmap for the South. It is a leadership that lacks institutions for democratization and installation of good governance.

Q: What are the dispute levels in GoSS on such vital issues and decisions?

A: I think there is one thing the people of Sudan need to know. The first thing is that Salva Kiir has abdicated his position as First Vice President. He is only a technical person as First Vice President but in action he has spent only 64 days since 2005 in Khartoum . Only 64 days! So right now we do not have the First Vice President. We only have the President of the Government of South Sudan (GoSS). Therefore Salva Kiir gives more weight to be the President of the Government of South Sudan than being the First Vice President. For him, last year he had said: “I have no job in Khartoum ”. That is since he has no job in Khartoum , then everything concerning government of National Unity is not his concern. That is why the decision which was taken in the South was with his consent and when he came to Khartoum , he said something else. He does not believe in the Presidency of Al Bashir.
I would only say Salva Kiir is a total failure. It is a disgrace to the people of South Sudan and Sudan as a whole. Last year you will recall that when he went to the United States he said, “I disagree with the President. I do not trust him and even if God comes, I shall not trust him.” The First Vice President of the Sudan cannot say that to the President and yet they work together as partners. Another thing is Salva Kiir is an inconsistent politician. I do not know how those advising him do it. He needs good advisers. But at this point in time he kicks most of them out because of greed because of fear and whatsoever. I think that the government in South Sudan is really walking on this blue line. It is in internal corruption, internal disarray etc…
Therefore they are not serving the people of the South the way they should. So, if they are incapable, they must dissolve the government. They have no right to have 75% of it because they are incapable because they do not have the qualified manpower to do what they are doing. If they maintain the 75% because of corruption  that they are practicing now, sooner or later, it is the people of the South who will tell SPLM that you are wrong you cannot continue this way. We want a system that we can all believe in, a system that will bring about change and census would have brought the greatest change for the South and in this country. Postponing it is a disadvantage.

Q: What is needed from South Sudan parties on this absurd exercise by SPLM in the South playing with the fates of Southern Sudan nation?

A: Right now, the leadership of the South Sudan Democratic Front is talking to other South Sudan parties so that we will come out to condemn what the SPLM has done because we want to educate the people of the benefit of the census. We want to tell also the people of the South the SPLM is now messing up the South for the interest of the people who are not Southerners.
But we as the Southern nationalists we believe that the CPA was signed particularly for the benefit of the South. So, the SPLM cannot bring an outside agenda of messing up the South and then try to deny the people of the South the census process.