The revitalized agreement (R-ARCSS) is being used to legitimize the untenable status quo in South Sudan

#nationalconversation: Opinion on the science of the revolutionary struggle

By Capt. Mabior Garang de Mabior, Nairobi, Kenya

Sunday, June 21, 2020 (PW) — The historic SPLM/SPLA taught its cadres at the school of revolutionary studies in Bongo that, revolution is a science. The Republic of South Sudan is a by product of the Sudanese revolution. It is unfortunate that today, the power elite which emerged after independence has abandoned the principles of our revolution. The traditional elite – who have hijacked our hard-won freedom – claim that the values of the Sudanese revolution are irrelevant today since we are no longer part of Sudan. 

This is mischief!

The vision of new Sudan – which delineates the principles, goals and objectives of our historic liberation Movement – did not represent a geographical idea, but a philosophical concept. This vision was in turn inspired by the philosophy of African liberation after the great upheaval of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This was explained by the great Samora Machel as the “new society”, the “new man and the new woman”. The principle objective of the Sudanese revolution – the vision of new Sudan – was the “modernization of our societies and the restoration of the greatness of our people”. 

In December 2013, hardly two years after independence, our country descended into barbarism. The events of the savage brutality of the Juba Massacre (2013) are well documented by the African Union (AU) Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan and are now available on Google. The war has displaced our civil population, with more than half living outside the country as refugees or internally displaced under United Nations (UN) protection. That our civil population – who’s sacrifices won us our freedom – are being protected against their own army by foreign troops , is the biggest betrayal in the history of the African proples’ struggle.

The genesis of the current conflict has its roots in this betrayal. The SPLM/SPLA- IO was formed in response to this treachery after a component of the organized forces, politicians, civil society and civil defense forces were pushed out of the system in December 2013. The bitter armed resistance which resulted has given us a “negotiated settlement”, the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).

In the science of revolution, the “negotiated settlement” is a method of struggle, at a more advanced stage. As the stage of the armed struggle matures, the objectives are tactical, to force the regime to the negotiating table and not to win an outright military victory. The armed struggle imposed on our peoples and lead by the SPLM/SPLA (IO), has served its purpose.

It forced the government to the negotiating table and gave us a new method of struggle, which is least costly for our peoples. The Agreement does not belong to the politicians in Juba, it is ultimately for the welfare and prosperity of our vulnerable civil population, who have not seen the dividends of peace since independence in 2011. The provisions of the Agreement contain within them solutions to the major problems we face as a country.

From responsible power sharing, reforms in governance, security, humanitarian assistance and reconstruction, economic reforms, judicial reforms, justice and accountability, the constitution making process, monitoring and evaluation and so forth. These are the major chapters of the Agreement and if we implemented even 20% of this Agreement, it would transform 80% of our country.

This is how we must understand revolution, within the context of fundamental change and delivering the promise of our historic liberation struggle. War is not synonymous with revolution. A revolution can be violent or it can be non-violent. In this case, we are talking about revolution in the context of a cultural Renaissance of our peoples after the destruction of the slave trade and colonization.

Our survival as peoples depends on a total overhaul of the unbearable status quo. The R-ARCSS gives our revolutionary intellectuals an opportunity to forward this revolution in the form of a non-violent struggle. 
Compatriots,

The two most important provisions in this Agreement are the security arrangements and the elections at the end of the interim period, not who gets what. If we implement the security sector reforms, we can begin to see some semblance of law and order in our country. This will create the necessary political space for our civil population to excercise their civic duties. With the current security apparatus still intact, this is impossible.

The abusive National Security Service in South Sudan – a legacy of the Omar Bashir era – are holding the illegitimate unity government in Juba hostage, including the President. The so-called unity government was formed under intense diplomatic pressure and under the pretext that it was for the sake of peace.

Well, the writing is now on the wall; there is no peace. In fact, the security situation has deteriorated, with all out inter-communal wars across the country. All along, the traditional elite are in Juba purporting there is peace while a small clique among them plunders our national wealth.

Fellow south Sudanese, this is mischief!

The implementation of the Agreement is not in the interests of the power elite. These anti-people leaders are the authors and the beneficiaries of the barbaric status quo in our country and they know the implementation of the Agreement would end their brutal reign of impunity. In our struggle to rid ourselves of this yoke, we must concretely understand the science of revolution.

For us to defeat this scourge which has been in our land since the days of the slave trade, we must transform the tradition of armed struggle into a non-violent cultural revolution. The use of violence is the expertise of the incumbent and they enjoy the state’s monopoly on violence. The armed struggle imposed on our peoples and led by the SPLM/SPLA (IO) has already given us a “negotiated settlement”.

Any other armed struggle launched would also likely end in a “negotiated settlement” and seeing that the problems to be solved are the same, a similar Agreement would be reached. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

The historic SPLM/SPLA defined the struggle (S) as a function of four variables – S = (AS+NS+IDP+PU) – Armed Struggle (AS), Negotiated Settlement (NS), International Diplomatic Pressure (IDP) and the Popular Uprising (PU). Armed struggle is no longer sustainable in this generation. The failure of the politicians in the opposition to put up a united front against the incumbent, has allowed the regime to dismantle the Agreement, portraying it as a Riek Machar/Nuer Agreement.

This, again, is mischief! This has weakened the Agreement making it a tool for the incumbent to extend the life of their brutal regime. The Agreement is being used to legitimise the untenable status quo. The incumbent has been able to mobilize international diplomatic pressure against the SPLM/SPLA (IO) and in particular Dr. Riek Machar; who is still officially a prisoner of the mediation.

This has resulted in the peoples’ Movement being forced to renegotiate the Agreement instead of implementing it. The future of our country now depends on the final variable in this equation of revolutionary struggle, the “Popular Uprising”.

The popular Uprising is not necessarily going to the streets in the classic “intifadhas” – popular uprising in the Sudanese vernacular – we have seen in the old Sudan. For our popular uprising to triumph, it must relate to our own historical and contemporary realities. To cut and paste the experiences of another people and impose them on ourselves is mischief!

It is important for our revolutionary intellectuals to study the objective realities of our land so that our struggle is relevant to our own realities. Before we can mobilize the bodies of our peoples, we must mobilize their minds. This is where the popular Uprising begins, by educating our populace; not on the streets.

Those who know must teach those who don’t, “each one teach one”, as it were. The uprising is not a violent destruction, but a rising up of our peoples’ level of awareness. An rising up out of ignorance, out of abject poverty and out of any social constraints.

The use of all these tools combined can give us success, we have effectively used the armed struggle which gave us a “negotiated settlement”. The regime has used international diplomatic pressure and their privilege of incumbency in order to force partial formation of government and want to use the Presidency – through voting- to dismantle the Agreement.

If our revolutionary intellectuals embarked on a national mobilization campaign for civic education and we educate our civil population using the Agreement as our weapon, we may turn the tables on the regime and shift the international diplomatic pressure. However, this needs the unity of the revolutionary forces inside and outside the country to work in tandem.

The triumph of our revolution may take time and needs to be based on correct thinking. Tribalism, sectarianism, sexism, classism and religious bigotry are not correct ideas on which to found any struggle. It is only when we stop depending on the supernatural and apply the scientific approach will we be able to reach any positive results in the peace process in our country.

A luta Continua!

Cpt. Mabior Garang Mobile Office 21/06/2020
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