Enough of Contradictory Positions  on South Sudan independence 

“Enough for Partisanship! Let Us Take Our Independence Seriously and NOW before TOMORROW.”

By: Dr. Justin Ambago Ramba, MD.

DEC 9/2009, SSN; Though we are not yet clearly  out of the woods, but the south Sudanese’s  call for an independent state has gained a huge  momentum lately, thanks to the stubbornness  of the ruling Islamic National Congress Party (NCP) of President Omer al Bashir. Whatever obstacles put in order to impede the smooth and timely implementation of the CPA by the greedy Islamists, thanks to God that all have turned out to be blessings in disguise.

The opinion polls so far registered says that both the local and the international communities are beginning to adjust to the fact that, the long held illusion of maintaining a united Sudan has at last given way to the true realities of the Sudanese politics and the sentiments of two Sudanese states are being shared by both southerners as well as northerners. Whereas the southern majority is open to voice this clearly, the majority of the northerners are still held in their deeply rooted hypocrisy where their true views are only said behind closed door. If you have lived in northern Sudan, then you are likely to have come across situations where the public statements are actually the clear opposite to what is held at heart.

The situation with majority of the northern Sudanese political parties is that, they are finding it difficult to come to terms with the unstoppable wave of Independence that is sweeping throughout southern Sudan. They would like to believe the contrary, and wish that south Sudanese’s call for independence is only a call for help that can be watered down as usual with false promises of development and more wealth sharing delusions (where the wealth  being shared,  ironically  all come from the South).

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that resulted in the wrongly named government of National Unity (GoNU) is in fact, nothing more that a cease fire between the warring factions with the word unity being just loosely attached to it. In this agreement like many other documents the real intentions of those who signed it only starts to show at the moment of implementation, hence the commonly used expression that the devil lies in the details. The NIF/NCP wants to remain in power both in the North and the South. It signed the CPA with the calculated plan to bring in the SPLM and, of course, the other opposition groups, so that they become easy preys to destroy. On the other hand, we cannot also naively assume that the opposition groups who came in did so without having to rehearsal survival drills.

This far each and every political group is left to readjust according to the realities on the ground. The NCP has definitely not succeeded in incorporating the SPLM into its ranks as initially wished, nor has it totally dealt away with the northern opposition forces. It is also true that the SPLM has not been able to bring about its founder’s dream of the secular United New Sudan either alone or in collaboration with its former alliance of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), nor has the northern Sudanese opposition at large did any thing much in a way of bringing the NIF/NCP down through the much talked about popular uprising” Intifada”.

As for the SPLM, the realities on the ground has cost its  ill-organised militant/political party much in terms of  membership and the worse example is the emergence of  the  SPLM – DC, which came into existence as a result of accumulative mismanagements, alienations, marginalization and clear tribal dominance in the SPLM party. The argument here is that there exists more than ten other southern Sudanese political parties whose members were at different times either members of the SPLM/A or its sympathizers as such   The members of the SPLM – DC is not the only group of south Sudanese to walk out of SPLM. Whether these realities are disturbing or not, however, they represent our political realities and can only be addressed through democratic means, which  don’t  exist in our Government of South Sudan (GoSS) in its existing form as seen today.

A number of southern political groups have already made the work for the secession of south Sudan an open policy that they persistently present on all the international fora. Unfortunately, it took the dominant SPLM a lot of pains and struggles to come out on those few occasions to utter the fact that secession is in fact a popular demand amongst southern Sudanese across the various political, religious and ethnic divides. But even so when they (SPLM) voiced it (secession) they always did so with mix feelings and hurry to refute it the following day.  Those  calls  by the First Vice President of Sudan and the President of South Sudan, and Chairman of the SPLM (the junior partner in the GoNU) Pres. Salva Kiir Mayardit  , asking people in places like Kadugli (the Nuba Mountains), Damazin (Southern Blue) or recently in the Oil – rich contested region of Abyei to work and vote for the unity of the Sudan, while in Juba the same Salva Kiir finds it appeasing  to ask the masses to vote for independence as what happened at Saint Theresa’s Cathedral in Juba the Capital of South Sudan, and his call at the Ugandan border town of Moyo reaching out to the   Ugandans  to be amongst the first to recognise the Independent South Sudan State come this option in the 2011 referendum. 

The people of south Sudan at this juncture are left without any doubt demanding an explanation from their leader who has been on record for issuing all the above contradictory statements that are full of mix messages, characteristically dictated by his immediate audiences and place with no consideration and respect to the intelligence of those who follow all that he says and would want to make a sense out of them, given his sensitive position as a leader. But of course, for any one who follows events very closely it doesn’t need rocket science to conclude that Salva Kiir is struggling to balance the equation of remaining in power whichever way the southerners choose to go.

However, the manner these pro-independence calls are being sandwiched into SPLM’s official speeches lately can also be analysed as this party’s attempt at putting pressure on its slippery partner the NCP. This has been expressed by Pres. Salva Kiir Mayardit in his latest meeting with the Egyptian president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. In this meeting Kiir was reported to have said that, they in the SPLM are doing their best to preserve, promote and maintain the Unity of the Sudan, but it is the NCP that is forcing the south to opt for secession come 2011. Should this be true then it is crystal clear that SPLM is putting partisanship ahead of the realization of the much anticipated south Sudan nation. The independence of south Sudan should never be allowed to be used by any self-interested groups in order to win partisan scores, but should be viewed in the wider south Sudanese nationalism as a noble goal to be attained.

We,  in the United South Sudan Party (USSP) have monitored on our side that when not much is put in the media by pro- secessionist parties, Kiir remains comfortable in his cocoon of the united Sudan, only to be awakened when other south Sudanese political parties hit the headlines in the international media to shade more light on the deafening calls by the masses for a separate state in the south.

We think that if it is true that whether it is Salva Kiir as an individual or there are some of his followers who have officially shifted from the notion of a united New Sudan to promoting the uncompromising  wish of the south Sudanese for independence, then they  should do so with unfailing  vigour as it is done in the USSP. Thus,  they should distance themselves from those people who always  stand up to refute those statements as what happened lately following the President Salva Kiir’s declarations made in  church,  the  Cathedral, in Juba or the one in Tripoli (Libya)  or the latest one in the Moyo District of Uganda.  

We believe that a true south Sudanese secessionist can only find comfort in USSP, because it is only here that the north / south divide is clearly argued, defined and presented in unambiguous terms. It is in the USSP that a call for the secession of south Sudan is applauded, never refutable and never withdrawn defensively in the name of misunderstood or misquoted messages.

In the USSP, we strongly believe in and maintain a clear stand with vivid messages both locally and internationally that whatsoever the degree of appeasement we are to be offered we will never forsake the noble walk towards the Noble Dream of an independent south Sudan nation, a dream that we have all shared across generations. The whole world can keep their alms to themselves if all these alms are meant to compromise our noble goal.  

We strongly uphold the believe that the use of the south Sudan secession as a pressure slogan by the SPLM just in order to bring about a regime change in Khartoum while not in fact working to establish a democratic independent state in south Sudan, should in no way be underrated – it is no less than the very treason being directed towards the New SPLM – DC for its  alleged collaboration  with the Arab north, which if fairly argued   would extend to included many other groups least of which would be those officials who facilitate deals of the dubious northern private sectors widely operating in  south Sudan many of which are participating in covert activities while disguising as benign businessmen.

In conclusion, it is only normal to see those who were leading the self-deluded New Sudan vision of a united secular Sudan, should now get a place for themselves in the rear wagons should they want to join the caravan that is heading towards the promised land.  It defies logic that a unionist could turn around now to champion independence procession unless hypocrisy becomes an acceptable vice.

Dr.  Justin Ambago Ramba, M.B, B.Ch, D.R.H, MD.  The Secretary General of the United South Sudan Party (USSP). The party that stands for the independence of  South Sudan. Can be reached at either justinramba@doctors.org.uk or justinramba@aol.co.uk

NB: those who read this article also visited www.nilebuffalo.com and blog http//ussp-news.blogspot.com

COMMENTS, PLEASE CLICK HERE

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author(s) and do not represent those of the website.