Are We There Yet?

I tend to believe, which will depend, on those who believe that the All South Sudan Political Parties Conference in Juba from 13^th to 17^th October is true, because, should the resolutions reached fail then the assumptions made by those who believe were wrong. The conference was applauded by everybody and I included that the unity of southerners in purpose and goal is important.

Any assumption could be true or false. Let us assume that southerners are seeing light of freedom through the tunnel that soon they will be free people from bondage of slavery since Mohammed Ali invasion of Sudan in 1821. History tells us the main purpose of invasion was to look for slaves.

As it looks right now, southerners are about to change their slave masters from Arab domination to ethnic domination within SPLM. The constitution is trimmed to fit certain groups of SPLM. Those who say, they fought for the liberation of the south and therefore they must rule because most their tribe-men died during the fighting. This is a wrong assumption so as to high jack a nation and deprived other to enjoy the fruits of freedom.

The past is the key to the future. We have seen the performance of SPLM/GOSS in the last six years. Nothing was encouraging that we will become a nation. We hope on 9^th July 2011, South will be declared a sovereign state. If Salva Kiir and his group in SPLM raise the flag of the new nation then we will be in weir state.

We have witness corruption, nepotism and tribalism in past. What will make that not to happen in the future when the same people assume power? These are hyenas in sheep cloths.

There are voices calling for unity. But what kind of unity is it? Is it unity of people, unity of purpose of unity of goal? As mentioned in the beginning, southerners had united for the purpose of gaining their independence.

They set out in that meeting on how to achieve the goal. First, was to write a constitution that would engulf everybody. In a contradictory manner, just a few days after the conclusion of All Southern Political Parties Conference, SPLM Leader Salva Kiir issued a degree appointing a constitution review committee from SPLM members only. This was in violation of the agreement reached during the conference. SPLM wants to be smart by dragging people into their own agenda and using them as rubber stamp.

It appears a certain minority group namely the Secretary-General and his friends from Abyei are the ones manipulating the policies within SPLM. These uncalled for policies might boomerang on them in the near future.

In drafting the constitution, SPLM definitely used exclusive policy to segregate other southerners not to participate in this exercise. Does the south belong to this minority group of SPLM or to all southerners? Abyei technically is not part of the south but was included in the constitution. Abyei has their own protocol and the sons and daughters of Abyei who are now occupying positions in GoSS should go and work for their region.

Soon when southerners who working in the north are send home, people from Abyei will remain since they are still part of the north. SPLM policies want to force, the rest of southerners to swallow their bitter pills to accept their constitution.

SPLM maybe confident, that they will use their SPLA henchmen to subdue the rest of southerners. But that will not be easy. This tribally formed SPLA will be fighting in some areas for their own survival.

Then, ARE WE THERE YET? The answer is NO. The 9^th July will witness a dictatorial regime in the South headed by SPLM/SPLA. But how are they going to cope with the increasing insurgency in the south? We are going to see more massacring of civilians like what happened in Owaci, Fam Zaraf and Kaldak. These atrocities were committed by SPLA from one tribe. This one tribe army will not be transformed into a national army of South Sudan.

Yorwin Otor can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.