SPLM seeks a law baring government officials from posessing houses abroad
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By Ngor Arol Garang
July 16,2011 (JUBA) - A senior member of the South Sudan’s ruling
party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), has said he
would be happy to see the new country’s National Assembly enact a law
that would bar government officials from possessing houses abroad.
JPEG - 30.7 kb
The flag of South Sudan flies after the United Nations General
Assembly voted on South Sudan’s membership to the United Nations at UN
headquarters in New York July 14, 2011 (Reuters)
The chairperson of the SPLM youth league Akol Kordit said that the
wives of senior SPLM figures should be seen in the markets of Juba
rather than living outside the newly independent country.
He promised that his daughter would not be educated outside South
Sudan regardless of the standards of education in the world’s 193rd
nation. South Sudan, which is severely underdeveloped due to decades
of marginalisation and conflict.
"What about those who cannot take their children abroad. What about
those who do not know where passport are processed. Where will they
go?"
He said that people of South Sudan who suffered during the war with
Khartoum would feel as if the SPLM leadership had turned their backs
on them if they continued to educate their children abroad.
Akol, who was speaking at the dinner party for members of the SPLM in
the National Assembly on Friday, said that many politicians give
thanks to "martyrs" and those who supported the SPLM during the war
but fail to demonstrate this gratitude in their actions.
Despite the joy of independence, which was achieved on July 9 after a
referendum in January, South Sudan has to think critically about its
responsibilities and analyse how the country had been governed in the
six years since the peace deal.
Since the SPLM came to power as part of the 2005 peace deal the
Southern government has been mired by allegations of corruption and
the slow progress of development.
The member of the 27 seat SPLM political bureau, the highest organ in
the party’s structure, argued that the republic of South Sudan had
been cut from the Republic of "old" Sudan which he said was “a sick
Republic”.
“Our first task is to make sure that the republic of South Sudan leave
behind all the symptoms of old Sudan from this severe corruption to
tribalism [....] to regionalism, to [...] nepotism, all these we must
turn our backs to them."
He urged that the leadership of the party and members of the party in
the national assembly had to demonstrate that they valued the national
interest higher the personal interests.
Akolit told the political bureau that sending their children to study
in the US, UK or Kenya would mean nothing if the rest of the
population continued to live in mud huts and was not educated.
The SPLM youth chairman said the South Sudan parliament, which has
recently received 66 additional members who used to be MP’s in
Khartoum, should not shy from the realities of the world’s newest
country.
Akolit warned that due to the geographic make-up of Africa’s 54th
state "administrative units seem to be developing into tribal
institutions".
Some of South Sudan’s 10 states and counties are dominated by one
ethnic group and this could increase tribalism if not tackled by
improved education and political awareness, Akolit said.
He urged MPs to work to unite South Sudan’s many tribes so that the
country could move forward as one nation.
"You must embark on programs of building of the national identity of
the Republic of South Sudan. You must come up with common values
[that] make us [...] southerners."
However, he said that this should be achieved without losing the
country’s rich and diverse cultural heritage.
He warned the SPLM that there were many countries in the world which
fought wars for independence but had fallen apart after attaining
their goal.
The official went as far saying that he would prefer to see a stable
South Sudan rather than an unstable country with the SPLM in power.
South Sudan should not follow the example of North Sudan, which has
been ruled by one party since 1989.
South Sudan’s four-year interim constitution, until elections are held
in 2015, proved controversial and was criticised by opposition groups
as well as senior figures in the SPLM for not being federal enough and
granting to many powers to the president.
Salva Kiir, who was inaugurated as the countries first president on
July 9, has the power to dismiss elected officials, in the event of a
"national emergency", including state governors and MPs at a national
and state level.
Akolit said he hoped that soon South Sudan would be an example to the
North of how to be a democratic country.
"New Sudan is a way of life. New Sudan is how you cooperate with
others, is how you relate with others, is how you distribute wealth,
is how you respect other people[s] cultures, is how you use power."
The SPLM’s vision, he said, was no longer to "liberate" the whole of
Sudan and to introduce a federal, secular, democratic and pluralistic
system by force. Instead he argued that the best way to influence the
North where the SPLM still has some support, especially in regions
near the border, was to implement a fair system of governance.
"They will change but we have to do it by ourselves first. We have to
show an example to the world and for the people. The time that is
coming need[s] personal decision[s] and personal sacrifices”, he said.
To do this he urged his colleagues to imagine what it would be like to
earn an average salary in South Sudan like the people who voted them
into office.
He said he would be happy to be see that all the money of the country
put into education programs in order to train teachers so as to avoid
taking children to the neigbouring countries of Kenya and Uganda.
(ST)
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