Statement on the Situation in the SPLM

April 22nd, 2009.

As you may have followed through the media, an impudent statement was issued by a certain Yien Matthew Chol on 16/3/2009 claiming that Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin and Mr. Ghazi Suleiman the advocate, have deviated from the position of the SPLM on the issues being debated these days - meaning the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict the President of the Republic.

The statement heaped insults on the two leaders and labeled other serious allegations against them. He went as far as to describe them as enemies to the SPLM (See the Arabic Daily Al Ray Al Aam dated 18/3/2009). Regarding the issue of the ICC which provoked the anger of the authors of the statement, we would like to reaffirm that we stand by every decision of the ICC which has nothing to do with justice but politically motivated, the end result of which is to create instability and anarchy in Sudan. This is why we are strongly opposed to it and will mobilize our people to stand firmly against it come what may.This is our position, let them state theirs.

Since the statement was broadcast and disseminated on public media (including the Government-owned Juba Television), we requested the leadership of the SPLM in a statement on 17/3/2009 to deny the statement if it did not represent its point of view. For there is no party worth the name that makes public organizational measures still underway, if there are any as came in the statement of this Yien Matthew Chol. The purpose of the statement therefore is a vilification of the two leaders and trial through the press in order to assassinate their characters.

The leadership of the SPLM did not deny the statement and it follows that it was sanctioned by them. Not only that, also, the group issued another invective on the 1st of April to the effect that we shall be expelled from the SPLM when the meeting of the Political Bureau is convened (see Ajras al-Hurriya Arabic daily dated 2/4/2009). These statements are a continuation pf the vilification and character assassination campaign which has been the habit of a small clique within the SPLM and that found it by a fluke in leadership positions bigger than their capabilities. For the last four years the Sudanese people have been following with concern over the pages of some yellow press their abuses and lies against historical leaders of the SPLM. These are published anonymously but we know them and their diabolical ways very well. This is a group suffering from inferiority complex and considers any knowledgeable and experienced person a threat to them and their ambitions that go beyond their humble capabilities. Some of their empty allegations were that Dr. Lam Akol was planning to transform a students' organization called the Modern Southern Front (MSF) into a party of his own, and that he wanted to change the Chairman of the SPLM on that position, that he was too close to the National Congress party (NCP), and that he was training militia in Wadakona etc. It boggles the mind how can somebody wanting to form a new party be working to be chairman of a party he is about to leave? But the naivety of these folk known no bounds. They did not ask themselves how a students' organization can be transformed into a political party when the practice has always been for an existing party to establish students' wing. On the militia, this is where they were totally disingenuous, for the militias are people on this earth. Nobody found any trace for them in the place mentioned or anywhere else. As to the closeness to the NCP, they did not ell us what was the minimum distance that must be kept with the NCP. This is more so because this misguided few meet on a daily basis figures from the NCP openly and secretly as the case may be.

Despite the obvious emptiness of these allegations they unfortunately found a listening ear from some leaders in the SPLM. This is how they got rid of everybody who they do not approve of in the executive and in the political organs. A case in point was the summary dismissal of Messrs. Telar Ring Deng and Aleu Ayieny Aleu who were dismissed from the SPLM in December 2007 in contravention of the procedures stipulated in the basic rules of the SPLM at that time. Also as it is now well known to all, the withdrawal of the SPLM from the Government of National Unity (GoNU) on the 11th October 2007, was not for the realization of the demands raised - for none of them was met when the SPLM rejoined GoNU in December - but only to remove Dr. Lam Akol from the cabinet. This matter would have been easily agreed upon by the Chairman and the person concerned rather than look for imaginary battles that cost our people and country invaluable time. Many had assumed that with the exit of Dr. Lam Akol from the cabinet and their entry into it, the group would stop the campaign targeted against him. Nothing could be further from the truth. They continued inventing lies and concocting information some of which is couched as security reports in order to mislead the Chairman of the SPLM.

It is crystal clear now that the group will never relent until they have expelled from the Movement all the members that they do not approve of. The farce of the National Convention is a case in point. They have excluded all capable members from any participation in the work of the SPLM even in the small committees at the time when each of them is a member in not less than ten committees!! Such a situation affected negatively the performance of the Movement as it is well known to anybody who dealt with it.

This targeting has gone beyond politics to attempts of physical elimination (the incident of 22/2/2008 which cost lives of three persons that accompanied Dr. Lam Akol on the Malakal-Anakdiar road) and preventing Dr. Lam Akol, by then a member of the Political Bureau, from holding public meetings in Kodok, Kaka and Wadakona in the first week of April last year. Dr. Lam Akol wrote a complaint on the matter dated 4/8/2008 which he handed over personally to the Chairman of the SPLM and President of the Government of Southern Sudan. No measures were taken on that up to the time of writing! Similarly, the same group targeted Hon. Manoah Aligo and worked to remove him without following the procedures from the leadership of the SPLM Parliamentary Caucus, and went further to block him from attending the National Convention on concocted security reports. One of the grudges the group holds against Hon. Aligo was that he advised in a meeting chaired by the Chairman of the SPLM in December 2007 against the dismissal of the two colleagues, Telar and Aleu. Now, we are please to hear that at long last they have been reinstated in the Movement, and such a step exonerates those who advised against that decision from the start. We endured their abuses and plots and lived with the non-effective participation in the Movement of which some of use is founding members; out of devotion to its unity especially that it is at the stage of political formation. We used to persuade many who were unhappy with this unusual state of affairs that these are symptoms of teething that will disappear soon with growth. But this misguided group mistook our patience for weakness prompting them to persist on their falsehoods and giving them audacity to change gear from insults to humiliation which they should know we cannot take lying down. We here tell them that they have crossed the Rubicon The group must be exposed for what it is. They are bent on dividing the SPLM. They are using the SPLM to fight ideological wars as evidenced by the chronic problems in the Northern Sector and the paranoia about the NCP. They are against the exercise of the right to self-determination by the people of Southern Sudan in 2011; this is why they sabotaged the Self-determination Bill prepared on the 1st of March 2008 by the Southern members of the National Assembly when Hon. Aligo was the Chairman of the SPLM Caucus; this is why they are constantly looking for confrontation rather than cooperation with the CPA partner, the NCP; this is why they are against any meaningful South-South dialogue, and this is why they are against any coming together of Southerners such as the last Kenana meeting. Under the influence of this misguided group, the SPLM now looks more an opposition party that a partner in Government. We remind them that the only program of the SPLM that we know is the implementation of the CPA, and the CPA is tied with specific timelines. Therefore, the South cannot afford to lose this opportunity for its historic choice simply to please others. After all the pubic insults and humiliation meted out against us, most of it's in a paper that belongs to the SPLM; we are now told that the Political Bureau has formed a committee to investigate us. We say that if there has to be an investigation, its purpose must be to serve the cause of justice by establishing facts impartially and fairly and not to be used to rubber stamp preconceived conclusions as was the case in similar pervious investigations. Hence, the membership and terms of reference of such a committee must be agreed upon by all concerned. After that, the authors of the statement issued on the 16th March and of that of the 1st of April 2009, have first to be investigated for the breach of party rules. The same applies to those who took it upon themselves to insult us for weeks in the official newspaper of the SPLM. There and then will members of the party believe that the committee is out for serious business and not for singling out some members for punishment while more serous violators of party rules enjoy impunity with arrogance. We would like to seize this opportunity to reiterate our commitment to the unity of the SPLM, a party each of us has sacrificed in his own way to build and promote. Likewise, we cherish the unity of Southern Sudan and it people. Therefore, we shall continue to meet Southerners wherever and whenever we see fit. For that we do not need permission from anybody, least of all patronage from imposters. Last, but not least, we extend our deep thanks and gratitude to the masses of our Movement who condemned from the very beginning the childish move which came from this clique since Monday, 16th March 2009, and stood firm in support for the truth. Special thanks go to the following who expressed themselves in writing:

1. Political Activists of the Unity State.
2. Political Activists of Greater Fangak.
3. Citizens of Greater Equatoria in the National Capital.
4. Political Activists of Renk.
5. Political Activists of the Counties of Greater Fashoda.
6. Political Activists of the Northern Sector.
7. The Students and Youth in the National Capital
8. Independent Students in Universities and Higher Institutes of Learning.
9. The Nuer Community in America. Forward ever, backward never!

1. Dr. Lam Akol Member of the NLC, MP, SPLM

2. Honorable Manoah Aligo MP, SPLM

3. Honorable Advocate Ghazi Suleiman MP, SPLM