Opinion

“A house divided against itself cannot stand – I belief this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free” (Abraham Lincoln).

By Deng Riak Khoryoam

May 8, 2010 (SSNA) — The over simplified answer to this question is a ‘definite No’ as far as my keen observation and critical analogy is concerned. While for some, this question could be answered differently based on one‘s own understanding as well as careful analysis as this has far reaching implications; and especially for those who may choose to shy away from the truth for whatever reasons. One thing I know for sure is that different people always have different ways of interpreting and understanding things; either in a peculiar way or in a way that satisfies other people‘s expectations on that particular topic. There are those who would like to live under illusion other than the present reality and have continued to do so not knowing the consequences of living in captivity of negativity.

It’s imperative to applaud the Sudanese civil populace and in particular that of southern Sudan for their civility in maintenance of peace during the recently concluded elections, they have demonstrated their quest for democracy and the need to have democratically elected leaders mandated by the people, other than leaders being imposed on them like what has been the case during the CPA era in the Sudan. As a matter of principle, these people have withstood the test of time as they were faced with extremely enormous challenges which include: meeting gun point, political persecution and harassments are but just a few of what they endured till this very movement when the results are being announced. As many have said, most of them (our people) have had the chance to vote in the election for the first time in their lives as the previous elections held in Sudan did not include all parts of the country. Thus only those who lived in towns under the control of the government, the garrison towns participated in those partial elections.

The elections that were conducted recently in Sudan were the first inclusive elections in 24 years and were supposed to be free and fair, even if not transparent as a matter of necessity. Many election’s observers, especially AU and some national observers said the elections were free and fair and were trying to make us believe that supposition without any reservations. Unfortunately the said elections were not free and fair particularly in Southern Sudan. But the EU observers said that Sudan’s elections fell short of international standards as they rightly put it that “they did not meet international standards” not only because the major political or opposition parties in the north had boycotted but on other obvious grounds. They are correct, and even some of us could agree with them on this line.

Of particular interest is how the elections were conducted in Southern Sudan. My fellow Southern Sudanese who were in the semi-autonomous south would give us testimonies on request, if need be, of how the elections went (conducted) from the start to the finish and to give us their observations and evaluation. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to know that the recent elections were not just rigged but something well organized and planned before the commencement of polling to have a mass rigging or “vote grabbing”, to be a bit precise, by the ruling party in the South the SPLM as one of the writers had mentioned or put it.

By Dr. James Okuk

“Many electoral systems for example are institutionalized frauds. They include the so-called “democratic centralism” of communist systems and most one-party systems. In these, the people have hardly any choice in who their representatives shall be. One way or another the choice is made for them!” (Dr. Afrifa K. Gitonga, University of Nairobi, 1987).

May 6, 2010 (SSNA) — In political philosophy of democracy, the English philosopher John Locke and French Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau theorized it rightly that mature human beings should never be ruled arbitrarily. Instead, a covenant or social contract should be made on the basis of the General Will which makes the people the sovereign authority. But since the people cannot all rule at the same time, they have to elect one of them in a fair, free and equal manner to represent them as their ruler according to the principles and terms of the covenant or the social contract (the constitution and other related laws). And as long as such elected ruler act and continue to act in respect and service of the people, they shall have obligation to obey him and his rule. Should such a ruler break the spirit and terms of the contract, the people shall have the equal obligation to do away with him and his government so as to install another good, fair and just government of their choice. Thus is how the adopted democracy in the Sudan supposed to look like, but alas!

Early I recommended strongly to the National Elections Commission (NEC) under Mr. Abel Alier (I remove Honorable from his title this time because he has proven to be dishonorable with his announcement of the fraudulent elections results) that the rigged elections boxes should be disqualified and the riggers brought to book for stealing the people’s confidence. Alas! Dishonorable Abel Alier and his NEC did not heed to the voices of wisdom as they resorted to respect of irrationality by declaring the real losers as winners and winners as losers shamelessly, especially given the SPLM/A madness of rigging the polling results in Southern Sudan.

Mr. Alier and his shameless NEC told the victims of the vote riggings to raise their objections to the Constitutional Court where the verdicts were obvious to be eraser of any objection for the simple reason that adjourning the rigged elections shall be costly in terms of logistics, human resource, management and other tactical and strategic selfish interests of the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the two Naivasha’s CPA partners who have employed and are paying the dishonorable NEC chief and his staff.

Notwithstanding, those who adjudicate the objections in this court have been recommended for appointments in their respective position by the SPLM and NCP in accordance with the CPA power sharing percentages. Can they defy serving their masters and can they dare biting the hands that feeds them? Not at all, and including Mr. Alier and his NEC staff as well. Very unfortunate!

Perhaps, Mr. Prosecutor General Luiz Moreno-Ocampo of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be a happy man here for enhancement of the proof of his case for warranting the trial of Mr. President Al-Bashir at The Hague since there is no independent and neutral judiciary in the Sudan to do justice to the victims of social and political crimes, especially when committed by the ruling parties like NCP in the North and SPLM in the South. By canceling every objection raised against the SPLM and NCP candidates elect, is there a neutral judiciary in the Sudan?

No doubt, that is why many democratic countries and international community, especially those who were involved in observing the Sudan elections have held their tongues to send congratulations messages to the declared elections winners like Mr. Al-Bashir, Mr. Kiir and their SPLM-NCP governors and parliamentarians. Instead, they congratulated the Sudanese people only for turning out and voting peacefully for their preferred and chosen leaders. See the different!!!

But at least the rigging that took place in Northern Sudan under the NCP was done technically without contradiction to the number size of the registered voters. That is why you don’t see any instant of pre-elections violence over there. That is why also you see the NCP declaring Mr. Malik Agar as the winner of gubernatorial contest in the Blue Nile State without any bloodshed though it was known that he lost so badly to the NCP candidate. For the NCP, Mr. Agar is a good-boy to be lose because he has sold them vast lands for agriculture with capital flowing from the oil-rich Gulf countries for securing their food from the fertile lands in the Sudan. He is a good-boy because he stands against secession and independence of South Sudan. Perhaps, according to the NCP strategists and interests calculators, if Mr. Agar was declared a loser he might have spoiled the whole land deal, and the huge money from the Gulf states that has been poured into his agriculturally fertile and loose state would have been missed regretfully. Perhaps Mr. Agar would have turned separatist immediately. Look at the smartness of the NCP when it comes to securing their interests! What about our poor SPLM and incompetent Mr. Kiir in the South? Nil!!!

The SPLM under Mr. Kiir and his cronies failed miserably to play a smart electrons rigging game. The consequence now is an armed military rebellion in the South by former SPLA generals who contested for gubernatorial positions as independent candidates in defiance of SPLM Political Bureau dictatorship. At least the political rebellion of those of Dr. Lam Akol and others against SPLM and Mr. Kiir was a lesser evil because it involved no manifestation and ramifications of violent use of power. Surely, with such incompetence and lack of strategic thinking and planning, Mr. Kiir’s SPLM is messing up the direly needed conducive environment for successfully conducting the referendum for self-determination of Southerners and Popular Consultation for the transitional areas in 2011. God save us!

By Justin Ambago Ramba

May 2, 2010 (SSNA) — It is one thing to talk about injustice and it is another to be a direct victim of it. The same goes with how different it is to hear about it as opposed to not only experience it but in fact to live under it. Such is the experience of a big portion of the people of Sudan in general and the south Sudanese in particular.

Sudan recently concluded a general election that saw the re-election of incumbent president Omer al Bashir at the national level and Salvatore Kiir Mayardit in the South. The polls however being the first to involve many parties since 1986, it has already suffered incredibility and was declared by US and European Union as fraudulent and below the international standards.

In South Sudan where the population is expected to vote in another elections (plebiscite), where they are expected to overwhelmingly choose to secede from the Arab north, the extreme levels of harassment, intimidation, fraud, and vote grabbing exercised by the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) during the conduct of the elections have left behind a huge sense of injustices whose magnitude can only be better expressed by the immediate victims themselves and their frustrated supporters.

Although at the end of the day we are supposed to end up with only one winner for every post contested in this elections, and we keep on asking the losers to accept defeat in a civilized way, yet such messages are not to be accepted to easily go well in the post elections south Sudan, given the massive board-day light vote grabbing, “nyakama” witnessed in almost every inch of this territory.

South Sudan has a good number of opposition parties, and in the bottom line they overwhelmingly seem to agree on one important thing and that is the secession of the South to form an independent country that will become Africa’s newest state come January 2011. On the other hand the dominant SPLM which is principally a unionist party, has always called for a united Sudan, but on new basis , assumedly a secular state, a view not shared with its peace partner the Islamic, National Congress Party (NCP) of Omer Al Bashir, who is adamant to keep Islam in the centre of the Sudanese politics. This argument can only be brought to rest when finally the South votes in the referendum to be held barely eight months from now.

Dear President Elect, Salva Kiir Mayardit, April 27, 2010 (London, UK) — The United South Sudan Party (USSP) takes this opportunity to congratulate your Excellency for your victory in the…

By Justin Ambago Ramba

April 22, 2010 (SSNA) — South Sudan sadly enough continues to hit the headlines for all kinds of disasters, from hunger, thirst, disease, illiteracy, poverty, insecurity, corruption, weak governance, cattle rustling , banditry…….etc , while its leadership stands amid all these chaos completely looking blank. But you will be wrong if you think that any of these are due to natural misfortunes. No it is not the case, at least not in the remote Western Equatoria State (WES).

By all standards, nature is very generous in these parts of south Sudan. It is a region blessed with vast fertile land, ever green vegetations, and reliable rain falls. Good drainage, peace loving communities, and a very high rate of literacy and civility. This is one of God’s several heavens on earth which Man is trying to turn upside down.

Dozens of extremely bad incidents have happened in WES state which started the regrettably killings of those top police officers in Yambio few years ago, the recurrent LRA attacks, the unchecked insecurity posed by the Mbororo nomads, the assassination of the prominent female political figure late Mariam Biringi, the massacre of the school children in the aftermath of the CPA celebrations earlier this year and many others. Unfortunately as if to confirm the hidden hands of the authorities, no culprits have been brought to book.

With the above records, the ordinary person in WES takes it that, the government has either abandoned them or is even beginning to work against their very existence. People are desperate and as with anything else the way out is to have a change for the better, which they sought to achieve through the elections.

It is for the sake of change and the much need liberation from a tyrant administration that the citizens of WES went out to vote in their thousands, enduring all the harassments, intimidations, and threats of bodily harm posed by the security and police personnel throughout the voting period.

Many also had to endure the inconveniences created by the National Elections Commission’s (NEC) poor work, like misspelling of names, misallocation of names from the original centres of registration, long queues, thirst, exhaustion, rains, bad roads, and walking long distances on foot.

Many elderly and disabled citizens (cripples, blind etc) also took it upon themselves and challenged the hot tropical sun to reach the scattered polling stations to vote. All had one belief in mind, and it was to vote in office a new administration that can cater for their interest as opposed to those false liberators who have just over a night,  become new rulers ( Neo- Jallaba) by doing  exactly what the northern  Arabs did or even worse.

However, although the people are sure that the change that they voted for is forth coming, undoubtedly they were disturbed and angered by  the cowardly act of burning the ballot boxes which were on their way to Yambio, from Yeri in Mvolo County as well as those burnt in Yangiri, Ezo County.

The claim in the media that the burnt casted ballot papers were the works of some unknown bandits, reminds the citizens in WES of the familiar tone often used by the local authorities in statements  repeatedly issued in this targeted part of south Sudan  since 2005,  each time  the secret hand strikes.

How can unknown bandits just appear out of the blue on a main road between Mundri and Maridi at a time when roads in WES were closed immediately following the last day of the polls? In Yambio itself people were banned from either driving cars or riding motorbikes in the streets. Soldiers were eventually deployed all over the state.

Anyway if ‘unknown bandits’ is another word for ‘those cowards’, then let it be. Otherwise even without the least of finger pointing, the locals have already reached their verdicts. Nobody in their right state of mind can believe this cheap ‘whitewash’ story. Can anybody explain the miracle, how the so-called ‘unknown bandits, spared the three people on the truck? Here is a scenario where a policeman, the truck driver and the intelligence personnel all managed to escape the funny ordeal alive and completely unharmed.  If it were the LRA, the overused scapegoat in WES killings, lips and ears would have been cut off or even limbs chopped.

Again to drive the point home, how on earth is it that the ballot boxes were transported on a truck whereas the whole process in its initial stages was handled by choppers? Were the UNAMIS only left with that one chopper that incidentally broke down? Why was the commissioner of Mvolo so ungenerous in providing the much need security escort for such an important and risky mission? Is this not the same commissioner who disrupted Col. Bakosoro’s campaign in the first place?