What SPLM has in the store for the marginalized Southern Sudanese in the person of Salva Kiir Mayardit as its leader

By Atok Dan Baguoot

It would be hard to judge what exactly SPLM is all about after it strenuously negotiated peace with NCP and still stood alongside its implementation with tough and soften tones of achieving the so called freedom of the oppressed held with clenched iron hands by oppressors. Further up the corridors of history, Sudanese have been oppressed by both outsiders and insiders and that should have been the reason why century wars were and are fought up to date.



In deciding our destiny in this country, several generations went to conflicts as a matter of addressing these curses levied upon peace loving Sudanese, but with a lot of futile attempts until the last and ultimate wave in the name of so called Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM) was born as a mass movement whose social base and numerical strengths were found within areas inhibited by those disgruntled by successive regimes in Khartoum.



SPLM was scrutinized and found to be most appropriate, functional and logical in its political viewpoint and argument based on its wider scope of handling this huge monster in Khartoum which has almost defeated the Sudanese people in their quest for a just, fair and equitable distribution of resources among the Sudanese in regard to their geographical whereabouts.



We called that as a wave of struggle of attaining one thing, but God given us freedom which had been denied to the Sudanese people. Thus, SPLM was jovially accepted as the right remedy by all classes of people in the Country with the exception of Arab northern part of the country where it was seen as usual madness made by Southerners as Arabs normally termed any unrest within the South. For any liberation struggle, it has to have its head and founders before it could become everyone affair or entity and SPLM had no exception. Late Dr. John Garang De Mabior (RIP) headed the Movement for two decades until his sudden death which came after he had signed a peace deal with Khartoum, bringing to an end the longest civil war on the continent.



In his peace speech, Late Garang said that the peace we are signing today will change Sudan forever and Sudan will never be the same again. Indeed, Sudan is undergoing winds of change and these are signified by April elections, peace negotiations in Darfur besides the awaiting referendum for the South and popular consultations for the people of Southern Blue Nile and South Kordofan.



With referendum, it is still some few kilometers away from us but what next door now is the election in which the country is gripped by its fever and flu especially among the political class whose fames are under severe and regular test. Leaders’ determined political future of a country, hence, when you find a confused nation/state like Sudan, it is attributed to poor leadership, and however, not all leaders are always confused in such a situation. There could be few who would wish to deliver though they can be denied access by their rivals.

In Short, I would like us to have a look at Salva Kiir Mayardit whose fate of the South is in hands according to Southern Sudanese as far now. Salva Kiir could be a rare breed of a politician who spent most of his life fighting for the freedom of oppressed. Hence, until now, you can not imagine that Kiir still owes the South a blick future for their children because he is the only one among his colleagues whom they founded the SPLM and whose millions lives were lost for what they thought to be rightful for their people.



Comparatively, it is like when United States of America (U.S. A) Went to polls in 2004 voting for whom to end wars in Middle East of which Iraq and Afghanistan are on topped list. The rift was between Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic competent candidate John Kerry. American voted for Bush because he was the one who initiated that war and they would be able to ask him what happened to their sons and daughters in the cold Arabian deserts.



Likewise here, Dr. Lam Akol could be seen as more competent compared to Salva Kiir but how will he answer our questions based on how our beloving sons and daughters lost their life in the last twenty years of war, yet he didn’t initiate it.



Let us vote for Salva Kiir so that he can answers our questions based on any aspects like lack of development yet our dear children and parents have sacrificed their precious bloods.

We will be able to hold him accountable in case he tends to do his personal things before he could take care of us.



Vote for him so that he can takes good care of our referendum whom they drafted so that we will be able to ask him in case it proves difficult because he is the only architect of the decision that let to demise of our citizens. Apart from that there is no way we can let SPLM rest in the dustbin of history before it could accomplish its mission of liberating the marginalized masses. Otherwise, SPLM will continue making noise with excuse of being short changed yet they would have done much if given time to put to an end their mission and to know the actual content of their store, let them take us to referendum or their store would always be full of promises that are never fulfilled.



Atok Dan is a journalist working with Southern Sudan Radio & TV and can be reached at atokfuture@gmail.com or spccsn@gmail.com . www.atokdan.blogspot.com