Why SPLM Party Must Style up Socio-political and Economic Reforms in South Sudan
By Garang Ater Ariath, Aweil, South Sudan
Saturday, 28 May 2022 (PW) — As we approach political year ahead, the party maximum preparation and recent states and administrative areas tour by the SPLM Interim Secretary General, Cde. Peter Lam Both is a welcoming political move in right path. I wish you dear comrades; countrymen and women and those who will labour with you to exert relentless efforts and determination to restore lasting peace and stability in our country by screening wisely SPLM candidates at all levels for 2023 general elections.
Therefore, to be brief and straightforward, South Sudan has a dark history of different wars of independence struggles, ideologies clashing and political warfare within itself, of which we must recuperate from this ideological, shock. May the party tears of pains and sorrows be the tears of joys and happiness as we style up for immerse reforms at all levels of party operations.
We, you and me, orchestrate our supplications to Almighty God to keep SPLM together as a united family in this difficult time of all temptations as we jazz up reforms from different political ideologies and anchor on our core principles that guided our party since its inception. We are so indebted indeed, if not for Christian missionaries and other world wishers; we would still be where we were.
Hence for Sudan’s People Liberation Movement (SPLM) as a political party, one of the founding principles we should encourage strongly is to have God fear, honest and hardworking people to lead this great nation of highly resilient people. Sadly, there has been a lot of upheaval in SPLM lately. SPLM Red Army members like me have never lost sight of the bigger picture. The need to serve our people diligently and improve their livelihoods after the attainment of independence is a burning desire that drives our days and nights.
I have come from a struggling background and even most of our founding leaders have equal narratives and it was those principles that I am still advocating for a just, peaceful and prosperous society. Our government, need to employ young South Sudanese graduates, men and women, who have a huge responsibility to build families and send their children to schools to become very useful people of society. And for me, we need to be able to walk the talk as SPLM leaders and when we return to our people for seeking votes, they can say, he or she knows what they are taking about.
Cde. Peter Lam Both, leaders who enter into politics through SPLM tickets at different levels of government must be visionary men and women, who serve our people dearly in the bottom of their hearts inside and outside of the government. At personal level, I remained one of the committed members of the party, despite of all the odds, I keep up the SPLM political ball rolling in my backyards.
SPLM therefore, was one of the handfuls that had the political guts to reorganize and re-establish itself as a strong political party to initiate reforms in an independent state, but the crisis of 2013 depleted many necessary efforts.
SPLM true to its nature and intentions to advance the cause of our indigenous people, and to look after everyone who has become a part of this great nation, welcomed all other political parties to come under the umbrella of SPLM.
Aftermath the declaration of independence, we have many parties and members who defected from their parties and joined under the SPLM banner. So, in the crisis of 2013, then when people ask what happened in SPLM? Why is SPLM always fighting itself? Cde. SG, it is because the political ideologies of all these political parties and some individual members clashed and there was a constant power struggle were these other new recruits into the party, tried to coup the control of SPLM by ousted founding members of the Political Bureau in key decision-making processes.
This is the heart of crisis and it will continue to be. In fact, they succeeded, as we all know and took the party unknowingly, whereby they had managed to recruit senior government officials who would be loyal to their leadership in pretext of supporting President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Our people will remember as a result, all the arguments on the use of the government grant and the many other upheavals in SPLM where the constitution of the party was disregarded.
It is because such “gang mentality” who backstabbed the liberation struggle had taken sprout in SPL,M and the party is like ”young birds, which always open their mouths , even to those who come to kill them”,. Ultimately, Comrade Lam, we all know the result of such undemocratic and conniving politics embarked by this group and you have heard of Cde. Kuol Manyang Juuk and Cde. Daniel Awet Akot , who are surviving senior party core members openly spoke about them and purportedly named them as National Congress’s People Liberation Movement (NCPLM).
For record, those same people have either left SPLM to join their plan party in their hearts under the leader that tried to coup SPLM senior members or they are still hanging to loot under pretext of being SPLM members. Time will bear testament, dear Comrade, to nasty dirty politics that is not people centric, but focused on individual power struggle! It is imperative for senior citizens like me to tell the truth, although, the truth hurts but i have to say it for the sake of our party and its supporters.
It is my ultimate duty; to point out such evil intentions that our future generation must be weary of and learn from. Those that engage in such unprincipled politics take our people’s votes for granted and they bear no allegiance to our nation and its needs, but to their own selfish needs and their kind such people must be denounced for who they are because they are certainly not leaders, as they do not set good example for our young people to follow. Instead, they teach our future leaders the art of stealing, of conniving, of cronyism and nepotism.
And there is no end to the nastiest they create in the wake of their departure. Mind you, those traits they will take with them wherever they go and it’s a matter of time when we will see them squabbling again for positions in space they have created for themselves. SPLM and our supporters will have their last laugh! We are now at the point where we will convention and possibly elections next year. Our people must ask themselves the following questions; what is it that we want from our political leaders? What do we expect them to do for us when they enter government?
I strongly believe that the old brand of politics of tribe, religion, region will be put aside and encourage what unite the party and the nation. As political conscious, I now implore the party leadership and our people to wise. The party and the people have now seen the nature of politicians we have at all levels of government,
Some will come around asking for their votes again shamelessly, after disappearing from them following 2010 elections. I trust people will shun such politicians and likewise refuse to vote SPLM if the same individuals still holding party tickets.
When politicians do not respect the will of their voters and ignored the party that brought them to power, how can they assure that they will not do the same again after 2023 general elections? Albeit, we have politicians jumping around from party to party, as someone who has lived life to the full in this political turmoil country and witnessed a lot of political evolution overtime, I look at each people and encourage all whom I know not to support them.
Imagine why? Because the motives of such politicians are certainly not based on political ideologies and issues that can make a difference in the lives of our people, such politicians follow people or party they believe will give them a political leverage or a comfortable win without too much struggle. These are opportunists that run around chasing an easy life! And they will use their money, their charm, and even their professional tittles to hoodwink people. What a shame! That in a country that has gone through so much political ups and downs like ours, there are still those that are so blinded by greed that they will go to any length to hoodwink innocent struggling citizens.
For me, political parties are like a vessel with a captain. If a vessel goes down because of bad weather, it must sink with all its crew. A Captain, who abandons ship minus his crew, is a deserter who must never be trusted again. In Maritime tradition, it is said that the captain goes down with the ship, because a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for their ship and everyone embarked on it, and in an emergency with either save those on board or die trying.
In certain countries, captains who abandon their ships are said to have committed a crime. For me, politicians who let down the people who entrusted their votes to them also committed ultimate crime! It is said for those who dare think that such people who have failed those 2010 can win again this time. What new things will them as leaders bring to the voters to enable them to win? Albert Einstein said, and I quote; “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”, all in all, leadership is making a difference in people lives. There is so much that remain for the SPLM leadership to be done in the coming days.
As one of concern SPLM members, I implore our leaders in SPLM to stop the blame game, because our people do not want to listen to the rubbish that come from leaders instead of their rubbish. Hurling accusations against each other without offering solutions to grant relief for our people must stop! Our youth want jobs and reasonable rents or affordable housing. Our older veteran folks deserve a well- resourced public hospital.
A government office is not a place to come and make money or scam money and SPLM should rein it house in order and we must plan and devise national policies that serve all of our people. SPLM leadership must fight corruption vigorously and reduce poverty among its population, because poverty is an across the board issue that deprives people of basic human rights. The government should also support businesses and encourage them with incentives to stabilize during the challenging global environment as the businesses are struggling to recuperate from COVID- 19 pandemic. We must encourage domestic market growth, which come in handy when the global pressure that are unpredictable, come down hard on them.
We must be human about our leadership role. We must understand the struggle of our people. In this elections preparation period, we as national leaders must encourage calmness and peace among our civil populaces. We must encourage our community leaders to get people to vote, as it is their civic responsibility. There is no use of complaining about your government and resources afterwards, if you did not participate in selecting the government of your choice, when you had the chance to do.
For us as SPLM, we are happy to have gone through our period of uncertainty. It allows those who never shared the aspirations of SPLM in the first place, and were never true to our party principles to leave us, because their presences among us do us more harm than good. It is better for everyone in the long run to separate the sheep from the wolves so to speak!
I encourage those who want stable leadership and real change in South Sudan to vote SPLM in the coming elections. Our people must be assured that SPLM is the only party that has never changed its aspirations. That is why you will not see us engaging in any coalition without proper thought. SPLM do not believe that the aspirations of our indigenous people for instance, should not water down because it is overtaken by other competing political interests.
The word of God in Ephesians 4:14 guides us that “ as a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming”,! We would be true to the needs of our fellow country men and women and those who wish to invest in South Sudan.
On that note, I will end by encouraging us all to do our best in different capacities, especially when given opportunity. Finally, I want to present for government considerations, the importance of allowing businesses to do what they do best without much interference by way of restrictive legislations, should there be legislations necessary, they must be created in consultation with those it will impact.
We must be the solutions! Not part of the problem as SPLM scholars of fountain free ideas, because reforming of SPLM is indeed a requisite for peace and nation building processes.
Thank you, may God bless South Sudan.
The author, Ater Garang Ariath, is the Former Secretary General of Defunct Aweil East State
Journalist and Civil Society Human Rights Activist based in Juba, Republic of South Sudan and can be reached via his at Email: atergarang452@gmail.com
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