SPLM-DC

Khartoum – Sudan

June 22, 2009

By: Carlo James Chol

A response to the Nuer Supreme Council press release titled “SPLM-DC betrays South Sudan interests â€‌. June 12^th, 2009 .

In response to your press release published in the media and on the Sudanese online website dated June 12^th, just six days after launching of SPLM-DC, you expressed your views based on information from Sudanese newscasts, of some “swelling rebellionâ€‌, which you termed as “ugly and primitive business of divisionâ€‌.   As your source of information is through Sudanese Newscasts, this means you have lost connection with your grassroots at home which could have acted as your primary source of information.   Based on this I shall consider your release as a foreign opinion on the Sudanese or South Sudanese affairs.  

You have all the right to express your feelings towards any event, but importantly, it is very much advisable to analyze issues in order to come out with very concrete justification or condemnation. Unfortunately, your release failed to mention any of the accusations how “SPLM-DC betrays South Sudan interestsâ€‌ as you claimed.   A Council as such can not fail to at least mention some of the accusations of betrayal for the reader to connect the title and the contents of the press release.

A Supreme Council as you are, which represents a whole tribe, is driven by wisdom, culture and heritage and not by emotions associated to political parties.   Your press release lacks all this.   Your attitude to just affiliate   the cause of South Sudan as lying on Salva Kiir is indeed a failure from your side and does not satisfy your objectives.   You stand for I quote “ an organization advocating for human rights, peace, social justice, and unity, advises South Sudanese politicians to avoid actions that undermine interests of the general publicâ€‌.   All these beautiful values lack in South Sudan under the rule of Salva Kiir, therefore where is your advice to him?

Does your press release express what you stand for?   I am made to understand that you stand for human rights, then why do you deprive others from their rights?   Or is what you stand for is just a slogan?  

To form a party, is the right of any citizen and this is the spirit of the CPA and the Sudan constitution.  

Well, if you have been following the unfolding events within the SPLM in the last four years, I am sure you would have been the first to accept and confess the need for change in South Sudan .   The change we are looking for is not rebellion as you have mentioned, but rather correction of behaviour and return to the track, which we have nearly lost during the last four years of the reign of Salva Kiir.

Do you think the current conditions in South Sudan deserve silence?  Do you think lack of progress, lack of services, and lack of security is worth silence?   Do you think the political imprisonment imposed by the so called New Sudan ideologists on Dr. Lam, by marginalizing him from the party affairs, ill talks about him (assassination of personality), reducing him to mere member without duties deserves silence?  Do you think to keep silent on the current events in our beloved South Sudan is a good attitude for a better independent South   Sudan we stand for?  

SPLM-DC is a short cut to save the remaining days of the interim period.  We in the DC therefore, are driven by the belief and commitment that Sudan and in particular South Sudan must come before our interests and we must exert as much efforts as possible to save the present downfall.   The failure and negligence of the clique ruling the south now shall truly have negative impact on the referendum.  

The ruling minority is pushing us to the abyss of our death.   Should we allow it to happen?    According to my analysis the clique is intentionally neglecting the Southern cause and do not care about the referendum, because most of them have double nationalities and can switch countries in case of any misfortune, should we allow this to happen?   It is an intention by this group to see that referendum is done while the southern populace is in dilemma, put in a state of affairs of worry due insecurity.  

We want the people to be educated and guided to know their destiny when the referendum is conducted in 2011.   We must make our people aware of what the referendum is all about and what our right and duties are during that event. 

Those running the SPLM presently have weaken the Southern cause which lies in self-determination and this is what DC is all about and that is why these people are restless (New Sudan ideologists) .  Let us join hands together to realize the vision of South Sudan which is enshrined in self-determination.  Do not let yourselves be pulled by the fading illusion of New Sudan, by which our people have been daily deceived by this group and who by this act have subtracted a lot of time from our cause.  I am sure, as a Council you shall take this seriously and act upon it with wisdom not by emotion.

At this juncture I am obliged to question the genuineness of your press and how it could best serve the cause of South Sudan .

For instance, when you say, “ The interests of the South Sudanese are either winning the upcoming general elections with comrade Salva Kir as the torch bearer and/or South Sudan secession â€‌.   Do you think the interest of South Sudanese is winning the upcoming election?   If so, then we should not have fought this very long war which took many lives, we could have rather mobilized the Sudanese population internally for that cause.

What you should know is that, we fought the war because we as Southern Sudanese were discriminated, not for election winning.   Read the CPA very well and you shall comprehend that the heart of the agreement fully lies on self-determination and not your Kiir to win the election.   I thought personally, based on your name as a council you would have been more critical and not just corner yourselves to think the vision of South Sudanese is winning the election.  

What is “comrade Salva Kiir as the torch bearer for South Sudan session â€‌ all about?   Are you living in this world or are you just writing for the sake of writing to please Kiir?   Is really Kiir working for that cause?   What about New Sudan which is the daily slogan of SPLM under Salva Kiir, for which they have wasted four full years as the only programme of the SPLM?   Have you ever heard Kiir talking about self determination leave alone session?   Please, council, open your eyes wide and see if Salva is holding the torch on, do not mislead the people under you,.   The South is totally dark and gloomy during Salva failed rule.   Look everywhere, insecurity, killing, anything which is bad is happening, is this what you are after to re-elect Salva Kiir?   You have all the right to elect him if this is the vision you would like South Sudan to be.

Another quote runs, “ The interests of the South Sudanese and every marginalized person in Sudan are either removing Bashir through democratic process so that CPA gets implemented or separating South Sudan from the North so that more future violent is reducedâ€‌.   About your illusion of removing Beshir, anyway come to Sudan and see, and please, this is not the interest of South Sudanese and the marginalized in general, if it is yours then keep it for yourselves, do not imposed on others.   How do you implement the CPA when you have removed the partner you signed it with?   Do you think the Umma party, the DUP or the communist party believe in the CPA?   They do not, they think the CPA has given the South more than enough, please refer to Sadig al Mahdi speeches and others.   Yes, our cause is to determine our destiny as South Sudanese in the hope of an Independent country in South Sudan free from Jalaba domination and I encourage you to work hard on this among our people and not mislead them.

About the prophesies on the breaking up of SPLM into smaller pieces I have the following comments to make on the points you raised.

1.       “Weaken the partyâ€‌:   What weakness are we searching for beside the present state the SPLM is in?   If the movement is not weak, then the state of affairs in the South should be progressing versus the present chaos and the lack of the rule of law.   The present state of anarchy our people are daily under its scorch is caused by the movement weakness.   Then where are you now to talk of weakening of the party when it is already weak and paralyzed?   SPLM has failed to rule the South.   Failure is the weakness and not the creation of new parties bearing the name SPLM; please do not beat around the bush to pretend that there is still strength.   SPLM has totally failed both politically and militarily.   Look around you in South Sudan and even the Government of National Unity, the seat of the 1^st vice president is vacant for some year snow ….! I do not need to put more comment on this.  

2.       “Inevitably lead to the SPLA disintegrationâ€‌.   There shall not be any disintegration.   SPLA is the army of South Sudan and not of SPLM as a party.   All the parties in South Sudan find themselves represented in the SPLA; therefore, any mix of the army with politics shall have its negative scores.   We hope Salva shall not resort to the army to save his failed rule.

3.       SPLM- DC is not confusion, but salvation.   The points of Salva’s failed rule are clearly mentioned in our launching press release and if he is ready for change then let him correct himself and safe the South from what he has created.

The current SPLM status quo is a disaster for our future political interests. This is the right time for Southern politicians to revise themselves and correct the pain they have inflicted on South Sudan .   I join hands with you in urging the SPLM to accept the change for a better South Sudan , where freedom prevails for all.

Long Live SPLM-DC

Long live the Southern Cause.