The Forgotten Vision of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM)-PART 3
By Dut-machine De Mabior, Nairobi, Kenya
December 13, 2015 (SSB) —- Quoting Dr. John De Mabior in one of his rallies, the hero said, “The SPLM is a forum in which citizens shall have rights to ask their government representatives where are the hospitals, the schools building and the roads you promised to construct? The SPLM is a forum in which citizens have rights to report a member of the SPLA to face justice in the court of law if he has committed a crime against civilians.” With this solemn reminder, many citizens can comfortably ask their representatives why the promises of 2010 disappeared into the misty thin air. Haven’t we seen that Juba has become a lobby spot? Instead of delivering on the manifestos, the leaders have only resorted into seeking favours from the presidency. Every created position will be lobbied for giving no attentions to the five years CDF money. When the security forces become too brutal at times to the citizens they ought to protect, when we shamelessly report the death of innocent citizens almost weekly; attributing the crimes to ‘unknown gunmen’ a division whose commander isn’t known, then we are losing our social ground to town criminals and village bandits. This needs not an angel to find out that the SPLM vision of a just society has been forgotten.
Insecurity has been on the rise under the watch of the SPLM led government. The villagers have been killing one another, the tribal militias raiding each other every now and again. There have been massacres conducted in some villagers by a few criminals and the SPLM regime does nothing to pursue them. This forces people to ask: “Are some rebels being sponsored to terrorize others?” One can’t generate an answer. The worst comes out when the ministers in charge of interior and national security make no efforts to visit the scenes of such horrendous crimes. The police commissioners are not exceptional in this case. Over hundred people die and not even a single condolence message from their president. Barely after one week of a serious raids battle that left over thirty (30) people dead, what one hears is the promotion of criminals to the most senior generals on land. One calculates simple arithmetic, from a refugee camp to a lieutenant general and the SPLA bloods are languishing in exile. Is the SPLM vision attacked by war economist? Will you really need to be a prophet to conclude that the SPLM vision has been forgotten?
In the SPLM document; “Peace Through Development,” Published in February 2000, signed by H.E james Wani Igga. The document stresses on its opening page as, “The SPLM shall setup and establish good governance, where, the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the management of the country’s affairs at all levels shall be people-based, so that individuals and groups have an effective say in the allocation and the management of the resources and in the decisions that affect their lives.”
The above statement in the SPLM vision is a nightmare as we speak. The last decision affecting the nation where South Sudanese were consulted was the referendum. Everything else has been done on the sideline by the ‘bona fide’ representatives in Juba. The governance is no longer people based since no resources go for developmental activities at the grassroots. When a few people sit down in Juba and set the initial States boundaries asunder in the name of federalism, then we miss it all. The above statement in my knowledge means the people would be consulted through their permanent constitution or a nationwide referendum. But since the presidency thought it was important to decongest the elites from Juba, the States were decreed in total violation of the people’s supreme law. There can never be involvement of people in the governance if the Members of Parliament (MPs) cannot have a common forum where they explain how the CDF money is utilized since it is evidenced that nothing is being done on the ground. The MPs will demand respect from those subjects who become critical of knowing where the funds is and how it has been used. Do we think we are still in the bush where the relationship is always vertical? To me, No! We are in civil service where the relationship is a bit tilted to be horizontal. When the people and their government have a no means of communication except the SSTV (South Sudan Television) that feeds the people with the government decrees and not the people cries to the government, the link for which the people would be involved in decision making is chopped off and therefore, no amount of ignorance would detach one from acknowledging that the SPLM vision is forgotten.
All the explained plans of the SPLM integrate into the single statement: TAKING TOWNS TO THE PEOPLE. Till now, we have performed worst. The people; though not given their promised ‘Towns’ were living like orphans in their villages. The worst came in when the disagreement of the SPLM elites led to the displacement of thousands from their homes. Instead of the SPLM to go round the rural areas of South Sudan apologizing for not delivering the people’s towns, they went ahead as if the former was not enough to evict people to the displaced camps, as if that was not enough too, the SPLM delayed peace fighting for ‘legitimacy’ and ‘reforms’ forgetting that only the people give legitimacy as well as need reforms. Knows who what happens if all people perish. Who will give legitimacy or benefit from reforms? The SPLM and their armies committed war crimes and set South Sudanese back to back with one another as confirmed by the African Union’s Report. All these happened under the watch of the ‘mighty’ SPLM whether in Pagak or Juba. When one realizes that the promised towns are not being planned for but instead the people are displaced, mistreated, fed by the UN on their own land, live in fear of one another, cannot afford a single meal due to the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities, getting a dollar is a new discovery in the capital, the children have no enough schools to get the modern education from, no hospitals and our women loose lives trying to increase South Sudan’s population, villagers aren’t assured of their lives and cattle as the bandits can raid and kill them anytime, the town dwellers are threatened by the unknown gunmen, people need not scratch their heads trying to figure out whether the SPLM vision is forgotten; know it’s dying-dead.
As much as the SPLM is working hard to destroy its legacy, South Sudanese have received their independence wholeheartedly. The worst emerges when the SPLM has sold its membership to others in exchange of sycophancy. Looking at the present structure of the party and its government, we will be compelled to imagine the unimaginable. The system is attacked by foreign minds and not unless this is corrected, the SPLM is not only forgetting its vision, it has forgotten its long serving generals and the SPLA known veterans are being pushed away by converts. A vision walks with a person, and for as long as the SPLM/A cadres who have fought for its vision are seen as the true traitors in praises of the insiders at the time of war, the history of this country won’t forgive us.
The SPLM led government in the wake to rejuvenate its legacy has only one option. This is two fully implement the Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS) whose implementation is anyway underway and the Arusha Reunification (of SPLM) Agreement (ARA). On so doing, this will give it the ground to healthily compete with the opposition parties else, South Sudan could be heading the Nigeria’s way in the 2018 general elections. Because the author is also an SPLM member by choice, let’s go for quick fixing of the SPLM vision else we become the official opposition in the near future.
This is the last episode
The author is a student of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Kenyatta University, Nairobi Kenya.
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