Bona Malwal: Tribal politics will divide independent South Sudan Article Comments (7) Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 23, 2011 (JUBA) - As South Sudan prepares to become a new nation in a few weeks, a veteran southern opposition politician has warned the current leadership over tribal politics, saying Africa’s new nation is likely to be divided along tribal lines. In a statement issued to announce his retirement from active politics, Bona Malwal, a former advisor to Sudanese president, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, advised the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) to adopt a special programme for “national unity” in order to appropriately address grievances within the South. “At present, South Sudanese, even the very well educated amongst them, look at one another as members of their many tribes, not of one nation. This is an attitude that can only change through a deliberate and conscious programme of fairness and equity amongst our people,” reads Malwal’s June 21 statement. He adds, “Only a fair and just government can achieve that for the people of South Sudan. Without such a fair, just and equitable government, I fear that South Sudan could end up as a very divided new state, fragmented into the number of the many tribes we now have.” The South is due to become independent after its population overwhelmingly chose separation during the January self-determination referendum. The vote was a key prerequisite of Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA); the accord which ended over two decades of war between North and South. Ordinary citizens in the south, the veteran politician said, too suffered from the adverse effects of the long civil war in the country, and that the current situation provides an opportunity for them to enjoy peace, better public services, and resources, and the rule of law. Specifically, Malwal cites quality education, better health care facilities, clean drinking water and accelerated development; rule of law, human rights protection and all forms of freedoms as some of the services that have for long eluded the southern people, even after long years of struggles. Meanwhile, the veteran politician further emphasised the importance of the maintaining good relations between South Sudan and its neighboring nations after the former has attained its independence. The South, he urged, should improve its worsening relations with the North of the country, given the two regions are bound to share a larger border, which reportedly extends up to more than 2,200 kilometers long. “Only mutual respect and the preservation of mutual interest can police such borders between the new state of South Sudan and Northern Sudan. Nothing else can successfully police such long borders between the South and the North,” Malwal’s statement further reads. Malwal also lauded president Al-Bashir for having recognized and fully respected the outcome of the south’s self-determination referendum, saying his commitment to southern independence cannot be doubted. “As someone who has spent the last seven years watching President Al Bashir agonising through the process of the implementation of the CPA, I commend his wisdom, fortitude, perseverance and statesmanship and applaud him and thank him for this,” the veteran politician said. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
