Former Sudan FM founds own party

KHARTOUM (AFP) – Sudan's former foreign minister Dr. Lam Akol said on Saturday he was leaving the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) to found his own rival faction ahead of elections set for February 2009.

The controversial southern politician told AFP he was founding SPLM-Democratic Change "to save (the SPLM) from the abyss it is falling into," adding that the SPLM was "not democratic" and losing support in south Sudan.

Akol was named foreign minister in 2005 after his SPLM movement that fought two decades of civil war against Khartoum signed a power-sharing deal with the Sudan government. He was replaced by Deng Alor in October 2007.

"We are going to have candidates all over Sudan," not just in the south, for next year's election, Akol said.

Under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the SPLM is currently in a government of national unity with President Omar al-Beshir's National Congress Party and also heads the government of semi-autonomous south Sudan.

A referendum on independence for the south is scheduled for 2011, but Akol indicated that his new grouping had not yet formulated a policy on this.

Last month, southern Sudanese president Salva Kiir, who is also first vice president of Sudan, warned that the 2005 peace deal was "seriously threatened" by growing levels of violence.

Several rival ethnic groups have clashed in the south in recent months, leaving more than 1,000 dead and many thousands more displaced.

Today marks the 26th anniversary of the Ayod rebellion under the command of Major William Nyuon Bany, the commander of that garrison on the 6th of June 1983, the day after Nimeiri abrogated the Addis Ababa Agreement by decreeing the division of the Southern Region into three regions of Bahr el Ghazal, Equatoria and Upper Nile. It is this force that joined hands with the force that withdrew on the 16th of May 1983 from Bor Garrison under the command of Major Kerubino Kuanyin Bol and moved together across the Sudan-Ethiopia border for reorganization and became the nucleus of the SPLM/SPLA.

On this historic occasion we pay tribute to Mr Akuot Atem de Mayen, the Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee (PEC) of the SPLM and his colleagues, members of the PEC: Messrs Joseph Oduho, Samuel Gai Tut and Martin Majier. May God the Almighty rest their souls in eternal peace. We also pay our respects to the souls of the fallen heroes of the Political-Military High Command: its Chairman, Dr John Garang, and its members: Kerubino Kuanyin Bol, William Nyuon Bany, Arok Thon Arok, John Kulang Puot, Nyachogak Nyacholuk, Yousif Kowa Makki and Martin Manyiel Ayuel.

I seize this opportunity to also salute the fallen heroes from both sides of the Sudanese civil war whose blood watered the tree of peace that gives us shade in our country today.

Since its birth in 1983, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLM/SPLA) caught the imagination of the Sudanese people for the program it had advanced for the solution of the chronic problems in Sudan. It called, inter alia, for a united Sudan governed through a decentralized system, supremacy of the rule of law, revamping the economy and above all overhauling the whole system of power relationships in the country in the interest of the marginalized both politically and economically.

When the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed in Nairobi on the 9th of January 2005, the Sudanese had a big sigh of relief not just because the war had come to an end but also that the SPLM will henceforth in Government have the opportunity to put its program into practice. This is more so in Southern Sudan where it wields 70% of the power and all the wealth.

When the advance teams of the SPLM came into the cities of Khartoum , Malakal, Juba , Wau and others in early 2005, the receptions they got were overwhelming. This was crowned by the tumultuous reception of the SPLM Chairman, Dr John Garang, in the Green Square where close to two million people turned up to receive him on the 8th of July 2005. Everybody believed the SPLM would dominate the Sudanese politics and bring about the desired change.

Today, four years down the line, the scale has turned full semi-circle and the SPLM does not pull crowds any more let alone dreaming of winning an election. What went wrong?

On the Party Level

There is no organizational and political work in the party. No specialized position papers on specific issues are prepared by the party and no political rallies are held regularly even in the Capital of Southern Sudan, Juba. Instead, the party has turned to unnecessary internal squabbles and exclusive politics by targeting some of its senior members and singling them out for character assassination. Some of them were even dismissed from the party without following the procedures provided for in the Basic Rules. This destructive work is led by a small clique that lacks any popular base.

The General Congress that took place in May/June 2008 in Juba proved to anybody who still had some hope in the reform of the SPLM that that hope was misplaced. In ten days of meetings the party never discussed a single position paper on the economy, or foreign policy or elections or anything at all. This is extreme political bankruptcy. Little wonder it failed to deliver nationally or regionally in Southern Sudan, as we shall show below. The whole ten days were spent arguing who should or should not be removed from his party leadership position. At the end of it all, as we all know, people settled for the status quo. But this was not without leaving behind deep scars.

The State conferences that took place leading to the General Congress saw the worst rigging ever seen in Sudan. The supporters of the clique in the leadership of the SPLM were defeated democratically in all these elections, yet they were the "delegates" of those States, the results of the elections not withstanding. A party that cannot allow internal democracy has no moral credentials to call for democracy all over the country.

The Northern Sector is worst. The delegates to the General Congress were hand-picked in the same way the offices in the Northern States were. Hence, it was natural that the discontent was widespread in the Northern Sector. Complaints from members of the Movement in the Sector to the SPLM leadership seeking remedy of the situation fell on deaf ears. Today, it is the Northern Sector spearheading the call for democratic change within the party.

Nationally, the party has chosen confrontation rather than partnership with the National Congress Party. This behavior contravenes the CPA. In fact, the SPLM behaves more like a party in opposition than in Government. No party can be in government and opposition at the same time. This behavior confuses its supporters. The legitimate question they ask is: is it possible to implement the CPA without engaging the NCP?

There are clear indications that some quarters are in cahoots with the clique controlling SPLM affairs to use the CPA as a Trojan Horse in their desperate attempt to effect a regime change in Sudan. The entire membership of the SPLM, especially the Southerners, shall never allow such a dream to come true. The CPA is the cornerstone of the current constitutional set-up in Sudan and has granted the people of Southern Sudan the right of self-determination. There can never be a better deal for them. It is an abuse to their intelligence to think that they can abandon the CPA to leap into the dark.

Death of a Dream in Southern Sudan

The Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) is virtually run by the SPLM (its share is 70%). Hence, the SPLM has no excuse not to have implemented its vision of the New Sudan in the South as it has the financial and all the other resources at its disposal. Since its formation in 2005 up to March 2009, the GOSS has received 6.5 billion US dollars in oil revenues and yet it has nothing to show for it in terms of provision of services let alone development. These resources were eaten up by rampant corruption with money going into the pockets of a few individuals through nepotism and favoritism. At the same time government employees and the SPLA soldiers go without salaries for months. To ensure complete lack of accountability, the Auditing Commission was dissolved more than two years ago and the accounts of GOSS have never ever been audited since its formation four years ago .

The GOSS has miserably failed in meeting the basic function of any government; provision of personal and collective security for its citizens. Inter and intra tribal conflicts are now the order of the day in Southern Sudan and a lot of lives and properties have been lost as a result of these conflicts. For instance, in Jonglei State alone, two thousand lives were lost in two months in tribal conflict between the Nuer and the Murle and between the latter and Dinka Bor!

The GOSS has no plan of any kind for any length of time and the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly which should have acted as a watchdog on the Government has been turned into a rubber-stamp by its Speaker. Statements of the President of GOSS before the Assembly for the last four years never spell out any government programs as would be expected in any Parliament worth the name. Furthermore, this Assembly is the first of its kind to introduce the practice of approving Government over-expenditure and call it a supplementary budget!

There is no space for political freedoms in Southern Sudan. The SPLM leaders who shout loudest about political freedoms and democratic transformation in Northern Sudan, do not allow other political parties, even their colleagues in the SPLM they disagree with, freedom to operate in Southern Sudan . This behavior is shameful for a party that is in the forefront of the call for democratic transformation. To add insult to injury, the clique imposed a sub-culture of political blackmail all over the South. Any person who is critical of the mismanagement of affairs in the South is labeled either as "bought by the Jallaba" or "an agent of the NCP"!! This language of blackmail frightened some people but could not frighten everybody.

People in Southern Sudan are frustrated by the Government's lack of direction. They need a government that can liberate them from poverty, corruption, tribalism, insecurity and deliver them out of the present economic crisis. Above all, they yearn for a government that can unite them and lead them to the day when they express themselves in the referendum for self-determination on unity or secession. In short, they need a roadmap to 2011.

Missed Opportunity in GONU

The main function of the Government of National Unity (GONU) is to implement the CPA. The SPLM is represented in the Presidency by the First Vice President and has a good share of cabinet ministers and state ministers. The presence of the SPLM in GONU is to take part in the decision-making process and through line ministries make an impact in service delivery and score achievements on the national level that would translate into political gains for the party. Since its formation four years ago, it became clear that the policy was not to make a positive impact as the following observations suggest:

1.      Some ministers of the SPLM would rather criticize than formulate policies in their own ministries and getting on with implementing those policies as approved by the Cabinet.

2.      These ministers of the SPLM would rather criticize in public, instead of engaging their partners in direct person-to-person discussion in an effort to resolving the issues in private. We should all accept that the CPA has put us into a coalition partnership with the NCP and partners do not criticize each other in public, unless they want to break up the partnership.

3.      As holders of the position of the First Vice President of the Republic, our party shares responsibility for what goes on in the GONU. Instead, the First Vice President chose to stay in Juba, thus leaving this high office practically vacant. No doubt, his presence in Khartoum would have helped resolve many of the problems that arise in face-to-face discussions with the President of the Republic.

4.      Some of our leaders denounce in public any of our ministers in the GONU who seem to be loyally carrying out the policies of the GONU under the CPA. These SPLM leaders encourage SPLM members, especially amongst the youth, students and the media to denounce and insult in public, including in the media and in the internet, ministers of the party that they do not approve of. Even the Chairman of the SPLM was at one time not spared from this vicious campaign of character assassination.

5.      Some of our party leaders are happy and more prepared to collaborate with the opposition parties than with their partners in the CPA. In fact, they are implementing the policy of the opposition which is that the CPA must not be allowed to succeed.

6.      On many occasions the SPLM has been ambivalent on national issues, such as the ICC's indictment of the President, the last attack on Gaza, the deployment of UN troops in Darfur, etc.

A party that has claimed to be national all its life, must prove that when it has been given the opportunity to have a share of 28% in Government.  This is a considerable share and can make a difference in public life.

Why the SPLM-DC?

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement- Democratic Change is born to save the SPLM from the collapse it is heading for. Under the current leadership the SPLM has lost support among the masses of our people. Rightly so, because it has lost direction and failed to present a coherent program in Government for both the South and nationally. The South was a fertile ground for the SPLM to show to the Sudanese people its vision in practice. That would have put it on a higher moral ground to criticize the policies of the National Congress Party on the national level by pointing at the glaring achievements made in the South. Unhappily, it has nothing to show in terms of peace dividends and a lot to show in incompetence, corruption, tribalism, insecurity and absence of basic freedoms. We believe the SPLM can still deliver in the remaining two years of the interim period, if it can only rid itself of failed leadership.

The CPA is the basis of the presence of the SPLM in Government; in the South, in the North and nationally. It is beyond comprehension how the SPLM can ally itself with forces opposed to the CPA. We must desist from such behavior. The SPLM must continue to engage the National Congress Party on the implementation of the CPA. Both sides must be serious in implementing the CPA because it is a binding document on both of them. By the way, failure to deliver peace dividends in terms of services and development in the South is the worst violation of the CPA. We must remember that the CPA was mainly about the South.

The SPLM must be built on a democratic basis. A party that does not allow democracy within itself is unfit to lead a democratic set-up in the country. The activities leading to the last General Congress of the SPLM, including what took place in the General Congress itself, left a lot to be desired as far as the practice of democracy in the party was concerned. This must change both structurally and in practice. Suppression of other views in any party is the surest way to its division.

A party that does not engage in political/ideological work is a moribund party. It becomes fossilized and irrelevant. This is the direction the SPLM is heading for. Those who care for its soul must stop this downslide.

The SPLM that has fought for national liberation for two decades must be patriotic. Our policy positions must stem from national concerns, not as an extension of policies from forces outside the borders however friendly they may be. Friendship is a two-way street and must involve give-and-take in the interest of both parties.

The exercise of the right to self-determination by the people of Southern Sudan is the crux of the CPA. The Self-determination Referendum Bill which, according to the CPA, should have been tabled in Parliament by July 2008, is still in limbo. The Southern members of Parliament from all political parties including the SPLM drafted the Bill which they sent to the SPLM leadership in Juba on the 2nd of March 2008. They sat on it and did not communicate with the NCP on the Bill till November, that is, after full eight months! We now do not know what they and the NCP are doing with the Bill. There can never be a referendum without an Act of Parliament. The process must be speeded up.

The Darfur problem continues to be the major problem of Sudan . Unhappily, it has been turned into an area of maneuvering by the two partners, the armed movements in Darfur and the international community. We believe that there must be seriousness in the search for the resolution of this conflict so that the people of Darfur could enjoy peace and go about with their normal life. Any solution of the Darfur problem must be by peaceful means, takes cognizance of the root causes of the problem and includes the people of Darfur in the search for the solution within the context of a national effort that does not exclude any genuine efforts from friends of Sudan .

Steps taken and to be taken

The SPLM-DC has applied for registration with the Political Parties Affairs Council as required by the Political Parties Act 2007. One requirement of registration is to deposit copies of the Basic Rules of the SPLM-DC. In these Basic Rules we have made sure that all offices are to be elected democratically and no appointment at all. A party is not government to have appointments. A Provisional National Executive Committee has been chosen to run the day-to-day affairs of the party up to the holding of the National Delegates' Congress (NDC). It will also be in charge of preparing for the holding of the NDC.

We are calling for the NDC of the SPLM-DC within two months from today; the specific date will be named in close consultations with the States. That National Delegates' Congress will adopt the Basic Rules, the program and policies, and elect the leadership of the party. Central among these policies are the upcoming general elections and the referendum on self-determination for Southern Sudan in 2011.

We attach special importance to the South-South dialogue and the unity of the Southern Sudanese. This is why we shall leave no stone unturned to seek cooperation and build strategic alliance with all of them. We shall also cooperate and seek alliance with the Northern parties that are committed to the CPA and have policies that are not in divergence with our own.

Conclusion

To the Sudanese people who got disenchanted by the colossal failure of the SPLM in the last four years to deliver on its declared policies, we have this to say. Your party is still healthy and endowed with all the capabilities and talents to make a difference in the remaining two years of the interim period and beyond. The rank-and-file in the party is still committed to the very principles the SPLM espoused and uphold its program epitomized by the CPA. We all know that the failure is due to a clique that is controlling the party affairs. Four years have shown to every Sudanese and non-Sudanese alike their total failure and the SPLM cannot go down the drain because of them. Give your great party another chance and return it with a big majority in the next general elections which we must prepare for right from now.

Our message to the members of the SPLM is that the SPLM-DC includes all of you unless you choose not to be member. So, play your effective role in a truly democratic and patriotic party.

We have great challenges ahead of us and there is no time to be wasted. We shall straightaway formulate policy positions on the burning issues: the implementation of the CPA, the ICC, Darfur problem, the world economic crisis, etc.  We promise a clean political discourse that focuses on issues and not personalities.  This is the only way to help build our country.

SPLM-DC Oyee!

CPA Oyee!

Thank you.

Dr Lam Akol,

Chairman,

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement- Democratic Change

6 June 2009.