logo

By. Dr. Peter Adwok Otto

While the repercussions of the unfair and non free elections in the south remain to be hot issue, as cases are still pending in the courts, many circles are shifting to the last major land mark in the CPA, no other than the referendum for the south to stay or go its own way.

These circles some are satisfied that the elections went the way they did with disgruntle southern masses who got no chance to express their will in the massively fraudulent elections manipulated through the military might in favor of SALVA Kiir. Among the undesired results of the elections theft, is the military rebellion by Gen. George Athor Deng as a way to express his dissatisfaction, Gen. Gore is placing a law suit and the SPLM-DC. Going to the courts to sort the issues legally. If the courts behave like the NEC, then the sell out of the southern people would have been guaranteed, and referendum would soon follow suit. But what, if the SPLM bulldozes the unity the way rhetoric is with SALVA who had switched from separation he preached in the church in Juba, to unity to lubricate the joints of the partnership with NCP. If the things go for referendum as they went for elections, the north will be happy.

But about the southerners? Will they accept with reservation as what is being experienced these days in the south? It is very clear the way congratulation messages are dribbling to SAlVA and only from close relatives and beneficiaries not the people who are still aggrieved by results. For those northerners including the NCP who are drumming unity in a hasty way, careful approach and evaluations are needed, because if southerners do not vote willfully but forced by the SPLM/A in a similar attitude as with the elections which remains to be not recognized in process and results, another eminent war will have been started by the south.

This is not the way to deal with the issue. It must be guaranteed that southern voter express their true intention either to be independent or remain in one Sudan. The international community should this time not remain in big towns, but to be at the grassroots supervisions. Referendum is non reproducible in the sense that it is once and can not be repeated. I have written sometimes back that the international community could have save lives if they acted the right time in Ruanda genocide, that shook humanity. Now that some skirmishes are surfacing in the south, the UN,AU, Arab League must come on the ground fix fraudulent elections where ever possible to guarantee a future fair referendum. Some in the north will not care if the south went to war against itself, as they will readily tell the world that we knew south’s inability to rule itself as a pretext to impose the agenda of obliged unity like what Robertson did in 1947 in Juba conference. Salva should work towards what will avoid southerners pointing their guns at each other. They will say our first bullet was shot at the separatists in order to legalize or rationalize a forced unity. The wisdom never prevailed in the south in the last five years, because too much time had been spent in wrangling rather than preparation for the D-day. Seven months is not a long time, but also not a short time to make serious decisions and solid work to unite the southern peoples. Thus those aiming at crashing Gen. George Athor Deng, please be advise here that for every action there is an equivalent opposite reaction.

Thus an amicable resolution be found, because if a similar situations occurs in Juba, Bentiu,Wau and in all cheated places, BYE BYE SOUTH. The politics of hide and seek might as well spring into being between SPLM and NCP as each and every party is trying to exploit the weak points of the partner is not good politics. Bad politics will produce sad endings, What George Athor had done is not condoned, but a right is a right. And should this become a nucleus for a rebellion, SPLM/A, will have no one to blame except themselves. After all the people of south Sudan are not happy about the governance of GOSS in the last five years because of corruption, tribal affiliation, nepotism, lack of services as education, health, roads etc. Those who had been wronged might seize the opportunity to express their discrepancies.