Who is the desperado ; in the census crisis in souther Sudan?

By.Dr. Peter Adwok Otto,
Associate professor Upper Nile University.

When there is a point of contention between two sides, one is likely to be nearer to reality than the other. When the contentious issue is a cause of tug of war between more than two parties, it becomes difficult to pass a clean verdict on who s the desperado with certainty.

In this issue of contention, H.E. Salva Kiir GOSS president, The Presidency, the government of south Sudan(GOSS) or the census commission. Why was there not enough coordination?
I tend to support the decision of GOSS for postponment of the cencus in the south for the following reasons:
Some of the CPA items are hinged on the timetable of agreement and that’s why the presidency is very stern and inflexible.Because much money had been loss as much as 27 million dollars, for one week postpondment of the census and of-course the great sense of credibility of the palace. To whether the conditions stated by the minister of information Mr. Changson for not effecting the census in the south on the schedualed date of 15/4/2008 were exhustively discussed in the presidency and agreed upon remains to be known. But even if these points were agreed upon by the presidency, there are still inadiquacies which have been presented in GOSS cabinet and if need be they should go to interim SSLA for more study and legalization.
The idea that this is within the jurcidiction of the palace can not be disputed.
But the presidency can not act on decisions that should turn unpopular.
If census is to be used later for wealth and power sharing, then unless there is
some group that is interested in the reduction of the portion of the south,
presidency can never be unaware that many people in the south have not gone back to their homes either from the IDPs camps or refuge. No matter if the funds were provided and misused or never given at all.
Non- inclussion of tribe and religion in the form of registration carries bad
intension from the national census commission. All the documents of personal
identification in Sudan carries religion and tribe, the nationality certificate
should contain tribe otherwise it becomes as subject at whims of those responsible for issuance and becoming a Sudanese becomes easy as many people are atracted by our resources.So if the nationality certificate bears the item called the tribe,while
the census intends to count the Sudanese people only,then many nationalities are bound to be counted with ease. This story, is about a young man who was to be some where on behalf of the Collo(Shilluk) people,some of his interviewers though suspecious could not desuade him as he stuck to the new found identity. A means had to be deviced to disqualify our friend. He was asked if he could become a Collo(Shilluk) king. “Yes if I were given a chance” he answered with confidence.
This what failed him because not any shilluk man can be a king by chance. Leaving out tribe in the form of the census is leting any one be a Sudanese.
I participated in enumeration in 1983 census all these were included why not now?
Tribe is important especially for the south because the definition of a southerner
might be based on this in 2011’s refrendum for self-determination. Thus no one
should accept this census without tribe in the form.
Inclusion of religion might be important for those interested in NEW Sudan and
would like to know how many are Muslims or non-Muslims.Because in the south it is no matter if you are a Muslim or not, since in one family there are muslims, christians or those who believe in African religions.
With respect to the IDPs and those in Diaspora, it is not the first time for people
to be enumirated in different places around the globe against their original
homelands(Dejure method). It would be less expensive if the IDPs were enumirated where they are in the north. The condition of boarder demarkation is not seriously needed to postpond census as it is in the pipeline.
Derangment in the time table of CPA had started delaying since the first preparatory six month after the agreement in 2005. There fore should the delay of census lead to extending the elections or even the refrendum for six months, is no big issue instead of passing a bad bill of the census in which the southerners will be severely under estimated.
Where is the real problem?
If the mistake is with the presidency, the conditions put up by the GOSS, some are genuin and need to be addressed. It is not the only crisis that the presidency had managed till now. The pull out of the SPLM ministers though was wrong, got resolved.
Now it is the whole of southern people and not the SPLM alone. If the president of GOSS is the source of the mistake, by accepting the decesion of the presidency,he will not be able to convince the GOSS, because they are not all SPLM. However, there is a mistake from the advisors who should have cautioned the president of the south and chairman of SPLM to have evaded such a fix. If it is the GOSS that is responsible for the crisis, the mistake lies in why they had come this far withou sorting the problem initially. The SG of SPLM and his deputy for northen sector had detached themselves from the crisis by disclaiming responsibility and hanging the rope on the neck of GOSS.But it is known that SPLM forms the majority in the southe rn government, and its time they stand by their chairman and president of GOSS.
Way out.
The president of GOSS is left only with two options either to yield in to the GOSS, and have the census defered further into future after meeting some conditions, or he should dismiss the GOSS to satisfy the presidency and save his credibility now, but shoulders the resposibility of underestimation of the southern people and all that attached to unpopular census.
For the presidency, the census can still go on in the north and the south can be
postpond to November 2008, not to waste the resources.No good need to persist on what might not be disrespected in future.