Saturday, May 16, 2009

Who is ruling the South; is it NCP or SPLM/A?

Some prominent South Sudanese have of recent been responding to the exploding situation in South Sudan. This exploding situation ranges from tribal conflicts between tribes all over the South and an appearance of banditry along Juba-Torit road, which other people say it is the beginning of another rebellion.
The prominent people – some of who are very respectable – have unfortunately misplaced their arguments. The misplacement of their arguments is represented in blaming of the National Congress Party (NCP) for what is happening in the South. "Events" does not subscribe to any political party and today it looks at the logic behind blaming the crisis in the South on the NCP.
First of all it is important to note that the prominent South Sudanese mentioned above have clearly accused the NCP of being behind the current crisis in South Sudan. The logic behind their thinking is that the NCP is using some South Sudanese to create insecurity in the South so that they could prove to the world that the South cannot govern the South.
Well, it is known to the same world that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) gave the SPLM/A the right to govern the South, control its security and certainly manage the entire finances. Nationalists whose government is empowered with political power, security control and money could fuse the three powers to gain support from their citizens. Nationalists with a tripartite power like the one we have just mentioned would create the necessary infrastructure The South today is suffering from the problems of insecurity, governance and financial mismanagement.
Where does the NCP come in here? Did the NCP encourage the top Government of South Sudan (GOSS) officials to misgovern the South; mismanaged its finances; and support the insecurity campaign in the South? If the three questions above could be answered in the affirmative; then there is no need to blame the NCP. But if the answer to the questions above is in the negative, then these prominent South Sudanese should at least accept that the SPLM/A and GOSS have encouraged mis-governance, mismanagement of finances and mismanagement of security in South Sudan. How?
The current crisis in the South – at least the most pressing crisis of the three crises: misgovernance, mismanagement of finances and security – should be blamed on the GOSS and not the NCP. The GOSS with its security forces have guarded the South from the NCP and anybody associated with the NCP. How could anybody from the NCP, be s/he from the South get the opportunity to create insecurity in the South?
To the best of everybody's knowledge, the GOSS with its security forces have arrested people they allege support the NCP. They have never given the NCP the freedom to freely exercise its political rights in the South. In fact most of the SPLM/A members openly say that the NCP has no place in the South. That has been witnessed by the way they show their hatred towards the South Sudanese within the NCP. Which NCP member is there to carry out activities such as causing serious insecurity in the South? Who is ruling the South; is it NCP or SPLM/A?
It is now four years after the CPA and the South has received more than 6.0 Billion Dollars. With such a huge amount received by the GOSS; how much has it put in order to create an able security, which should have been given the mandate to crack down on anybody trying to bring about insecurity in South Sudan? How much of this huge amount has been given to the SPLA soldiers in order to overcome their suffering for 23 so as to raise their morale to do work? How much of this huge amount has been put to create the much needed services such as health and others?
SPLM/A and GOSS are in full charge in South Sudan. If they have failed to manage the South, NCP should not be blamed for their failures. It is true that some people in the North of Sudan had said in the past that the South cannot manage itself. This statement was not said because the South has no educated people who can run the South. They are there – many of them – but lack the direction of a leadership that is responsible. Responsibility does not entertain tribalism, corruption and insecurity in an entity governed by a civilized government. Now that the GOSS, SPLM and SPLA have actually proved beyond any reasonable doubt to the people of the North that they cannot manage themselves, they should accept the blame. NCP should be left aside and the leadership of the South now running the government of the day in South Sudan should address the crisis in the South without taking refuge in the NCP.
One South Sudanese writer once said: "Southern Sudanese need to understand that not every misfortune happening in the South is caused by the NCP. Salaries are being paid only after two months while others are running away with millions of dollars. In the market, a cowboy is exchanging dollars, and insecurity is everywhere in the South", (Loku, Tongun, S, Sudan Vision, May 12th, 2009, p. 5).

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