This Long Tenure in Leadership in South Sudan is Characteristic of Liberation Movements in Africa
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By Malith Alier, Perth, Australia
Friday, July 03, 2020 (PW) — People in the SPLM usually tell their bitter opponents and rivals to wait for elections if they want the change they craved for. But the fact of the matter is that, the publicized election is not forthcoming, for obvious reasons; war being one of them. Constitutionally, the first ever elections for independent South Sudan were slated for 2015.
Many years ago, when the SPLM and liberators came to power in southern Sudan, people thought that the worst was over and that the era of madness and upheaval was forever behind us. Every maladministration, malaise, and suffering imaginable was cast as preserve of old Sudan under Islamists from far north, east and the west.
Fifteen years on after the grant of self-rule, South Sudanese judged that the blame didn’t holistically belong to north alone. Some of the fundamental failures cited for waging the war continue to dog the young nation today. Power monopoly, lack of development and maladministration still made their way through the fingers of liberators knowingly or otherwise.
The armed liberation itself left us the greatest baggage that iswiping out the population today – Kalashnikov. It’s this widespread force of arms, aggravated by breakdown of the rule of law, that is killing tens of thousands every year.
Nobody seems to have the slightest clue in the movement and government on how to rescue the country from devouring itself from within! Human carnage has been going on in warrap, Lakes, Jonglei and Upper Nile. This is in addition to political violence perpetuated by 2013 outbreak of civil war.
The SPLM Party which should take sole responsibility for what is happening around the country seemed to have fortified itself in Juba. The first time the SPLM officials went out from Juba was back in 2012. Their aimed was to hear from the grassroots. When they came back after visiting few states, the feedback was not promising. People had a bleak view for the country they bought with blood!
This political awakening led to the fall out in the party. The chairman was asked to call the Political Bureau meeting which he tacitly declined. Some members of the SPLM began to warn of chaos in the party and even the country. True to their warning chaos ensued from 2013, not long after the guile warning by the PB heavy weights of the party.
It is not only the country, which is in the state of chaos today, the SPLM is also in disarray. It is believed that the top partyechelons have come to accept this status. Their political survival is through instability. The party as we speak has no Secretary General. The organs of the party aren’t functioning; the PB and National Liberation Council.
The SPLM as a political Party has been on the mend to revive its political fortunes. It signed a reunification agreement in Arusha, Tanzania in twenty fifteen. Several years later, that agreement has never been implemented. There is rumour that the SPLM in Government and the SPLM in Opposition are clandestinely meeting to try to revive that agreement and implement it alongside the peace agreement called RevitalisedAgreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan, R-ARCSS.
Having eviscerated the ruling SPLM Party there, have been abundant reasons to, believe that the future of the country no longer bodes in the SPLM. For those people who have failed the country are the same people who ruined the mighty SPLM, especially, soon after the demise of the foundingleader: Dr. John Garang.
These people are just waiting for their ignominious exit from power and from the Party. What we do not know is whether the imminent exodus will permanently damage and kill the party. Their actions or lack thereof, has damaged the party beyond repair. It will be a miracle if this is not realized.
It is not a unthinkable that the SPLM Party and leaders have survived in chaos for over 15 years. This long political survival is always of liberation movement, especially, in Africa. The Kenya African National Union, KANU,weathered it out from independence in 1964 through to 2002.
The African national Congress in South Africa is still going strong perhaps due to frequent change of leadership and self-renewal. This is a fundamental difference between those parties who will survive and those who will go into the dustbin of history.
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