By pushing those former Generals like Mr. George Athor and others to insurgence option in the bushes of Southern Sudan because of denying them the gubernatorial powers they would have deserved to enjoy, Mr. Kiir’s SPLM has proven to the people of Southern Sudan that the right to self-determination is never its sincere core interest. Mr. Kiir and his SPLM political party want to be in power and swim in wealth only without knowing exactly what good they want to do for the South with this power and wealth of the people. What would it have caused the SPLM if Mr. Kiir had allowed Mr. George Athor to become the governor of Jonglei State? None but gain of security and stability in this troubled state and its neighbors!!! Now the Bor-Dinka and some other neighbors are on the run for refuge elsewhere because of the imminent threat by Mr. Athor and his rebel forces. God have mercy!
No doubt, it is God on the side of the people of Southern Sudan who shall cross Southerners into the promised land of independence with prosperity. From what we have seen and badly witnessed during the SPLM 2nd Convention and the recently concluded April general elections, neither the SPLM nor Mr. Salva Kiir shall be conceived again as a Joshua or a savior of South Sudan. The SPLM has proven not different in the South and even worst then the NCP in the North. That is why many Southerners are now running to the North for refuge in the NCP territory where they feel secure a bit than in the SPLM’s zone and its army, the SPLA. In one way or another they are saying: Better be a secured slave than insecure free citizen!!!
Please God, send us a referendum messiah from elsewhere because Mr. Kiir and his SPLM have dashed the hope of the majority of the people of Southern Sudan by creating constant and hopeless situations in the beloved land of the black.
To this juncture I can conclude like the above quote of Professor Gitonga of the University of Nairobi that if democracy means good, fair and just government of men and women in the society according to various connotations of the concepts, it follows that it can only be established, it can only live, survive and thrive in a country of good, fair and just men and women.
It is certainly not through the most scrupulous adherence to the letter and spirit of the electoral rules and procedures that, for example, some African rulers like the SPLM candidates and the Arabs rulers like the NCP candidates manage to be regularly re-elected with majorities of 99% votes from nowhere (from rigging and other irregularities). Thus, in the Sudan so far and so bad, real democracy remains an ever escaping dream of practicality beyond the utopian rhetoric. Even if Mr. USA President Obama were a Sudanese contesting in the recently April general elections as an opposition candidate, he would have lost to the SPLM and NCP even if the people voted massively for him in quest for change.
No single doubt at all, the genuine change that is needed in the Sudan shall remain a missed reality as long as NCP and SPLM continue to cooperate for clinging to power and related wealth by any means without people’s choice and happiness.
“If there were a people of gods, they would rule themselves democratically. So perfect a government is not suited for men.”(Jean-Jacques Rousseau).
Dr. James Okuk is a concerned citizen of the Independent South Sudan in the waiting reachable at [email protected]