By Luk Kuth Dak
Apparently, the NIF is in a revolting mood to back off from its obligations towards the CPA. Day after day, their hardliners (all of whom we know) simultaneously have literally been barking and disgorging insults and threats, to make the 2011 referendum all the more difficult, if not impossible altogether.
The drama continues, even as I prepare this article. According to Sudan Tribune, one of the regime’s most powerful men, the speaker of the National Assembly Ahmad Ibrahim Al Tahir was quoted as saying that his Parliament will push the referendum law to vote. “The parliament has run out of patience with the long dragging dispute over the law, he said”. He went on to add: “The legislative assembly is empowered to bypass the executive branch and join political commissions of both parties and draft its own version of the referendum bill.
Does it get any bizarre than that? Southerners with average memories certainly recall the uninspiring statement he made only a month or so ago. “We’re going to make referendum difficult”, he said. Subsequently, his words were also repeated by the racist trio: Muhammad Mandour Al Mahedi, Mustafa Osman and Nafi Ali Nafi, to name a few. Therefore, there’s nothing new. The whole thing is a plot to pass the NCP’s version which was raised from 75 percent to 90 percent, by their overwhelming hand-picked majority in the so-called National Assembly.
And while we can rarely anticipate and can never control how others react to any particular situation, it baffles me that there seems to be no public anger or outrage in South Sudan, over these tangible forms of aggressions and violations. Quite frankly, we do not understand the concept behind the silence from those we deem would be most likely to support any move to protest (peacefully) against such calculated attempts to assassinate the CPA. But could it be due to the fact that the SPLM and the other South Sudan’s political parties (all of whom are silent about the NIF violations) did not take the initiative and the leadership there is to mobilise and facilitate the public to take to the streets in protest of what seems to be the collapse of one of the most important accords in Sudan’s history, the CPA?
Matter of fact, if the African- Americans behaved the way we are handling our oppressors today, President Barrack Obama (whom I voted for) would have never been in the Oval Office. But because the Negroes from all US states under the leadership of committed men and women headed by Dr Martin Luther King Junior did an extraordinary job to protest the injustices that had engulfed the black community. Those peaceful (nonviolent) protests were met with vicious dogs, water hoses and killings. But just when the oppressors thought the movement was over, Dr King appeared in yet another destination, mobilising the black folks, and telling them that, “We are on the move now, and we cannot afford to turn back. We are on our way to the Promised Land”, he said.
Consequently, South Sudan has produced some great public figures that can do just what Dr King did. But where are they now when our people needed them most? President Salva Kiir, a man with tremendous gifts of bravery, has done an extraordinary job in facing it off with Al Bashir and Ali Taha. But the burning question: Is it a “One- man show? And can he possibly do it alone? The answer is no, of course.
Unless liberating South becomes everyone’s priority, all that we have gained will be lost in a blink of an eye, and that’s not an option.
Final Thought
The so-called Sudan National Television boycotted the Juba conference, simply because the NIF/NCP did not participate in the conference. The question now is, how such conduct could be acceptable from a public- funded department bearing the name “National?”
We need to be realist that unity in Sudan is a thing of the past.
Luk Kuth Dak can be reached at: lukedak@hotmail.com