Piece of Advice to the SPLM in Juba
By Malith Alier, Juba, South Sudan
“When they come together, they loot the country’s resources but when they disagree, they kill us” anonymous
November 18, 2015 (SSB) — Just before 2013, the SPLM as a party exhibited major signs of imploding within. The party members began to accuse each other of failing the party and therefore the country in one way or the other.
Way back and just before 2010 Sudanese general election, one faction of the SPLM of Dr. Lam Akol, named SPLM-DC broke away and contested the election in the then semi-autonomous Southern Sudan. Dr. Lam Akol was the only brave Southern Sudanese to confront Salva Kiir in Southern Sudan. The other opposition parties cowered away like puffs of cloud.
Coming to the centre piece, the Arusha accord unifying the various factions of the SPLM was nullified by the Compromise Peace Agreement (CPA). The Arusha accord was signed before CPA. Both were attempts to stop the war speedily and whichever, came first would have been enough.
There are few people who still think that the SPLM is going to be reunited as per Arusha agreement. When the former governor of upper Nile, Simon Kun Pouch was asked on whether the SPLM will reunite based on that fateful accord, his reply was that “no single party ever shared power with itself.” This is what all members of the SPLM-Juba should share. Immediately after the former SPLM Secretary General decided to remain in Addis Ababa, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting also the SPLM declared that the “Arusha accord was not going to work.” Also the Juba Telegraph declared that “Arusha accord was dead” immediately after the appointment of Deputy Secretary General, Jemma Nunu Kumba.
Reasons why the SPLM should never be reunited
- It was done in 2002 between Riek and Garang only to rupture 12 years later between Kiir and Riek.
- The party’s Secretary General was reinstated in the spirit of the accord implementation only to escape many days later citing hostile environment in Juba. Old wounds soon bleed!
- It is time for full implementation of multiparty democracy. Instead of constantly accusing yourselves and causing chaos in the country, each of you in your various factions should register their party and compete in the field using your good ideas that can bring development to the country as a whole.
- The factional leaders are too ambitious. They want to be chairman of the party and later, the flag bearer of the party in the elections. They therefore, are not ready to stop at anything less.
- The name “SPLM” is now an apple of discord. Please think on changing it to something relevant to South Sudan.
- Enough is enough, South Sudanese no longer want you to reunite and loot but soon to disagree and kill them.
- The Arusha accord was neither Quran nor Bible (Injil).
The SPLM – Juba has ears. It can hear us.
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