By PaanLuel Wel, South Sudan
The gov’t has passed into law a controversial Security Bill despite stiff protest from members of the official opposition party–SPLM-DC (and curiously, some SPLM members from Equatoria) who stormed out of the House.
MPs from the gov’t side simply went ahead, voted and passed the bill into law (probably pending presidential signature). One opinion is that democracy (the majority) carried the day against intransigence from a belligerent minority.
Another opinion is that the majority (gov’t, but not necessarily democracy) has bulldozed its way into law, much as Khartoum used to do against South Sudanese.
Pick your opinion and supporting evidences. You may call it an arm-race between the “constitutional gov’t” of President Salva Kiir Mayaardit in Juba against the “democratic rebellion” of Dr. Riek Machar in the bushes.
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See below a comment from Dr. Lam Akol:
The official opposition in South Sudan Parliament today stormed out of the sitting debating the National Security Service Bill. This followed the refusal of the Speaker to allow time to study suggested amendments to the bill. The Minority Leader had invoked the Conduct of Business Regulations that stipulate that 72 hours should be allowed for studying any amendments tabled before the House. The SPLM caucus had just concluded a meeting and one of them was reading suggested amendments to the bill when the Opposition raised the point of order. The Speaker rejected the demand causing the opposition MPs to walk out. They were followed by the MPs hailing from Equatoria. Despite the lack of quorum, the Speaker went ahead and the controversial bill was passed. It is now abundantly clear that the government wants to ram this repressive bill down the throats of the South Sudanese.
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Full Text of the Enacted NSS Bill: