By James Monyluak Majok Thon
His duties will include mobilisation, organisation and structuring of SPLM Diaspora; development of SPLM Foreign Policy which will guide the international relations of the SPLM, GoSS (Regional Cooperation and its Liaison Offices) and SPLM Ministers in the Government of National Unity in Sudan; and the relations between the SPLM and other political parties in Sudan and the world.
In addition to being an active SPLM chapter member in Canada, Both was appointed as SPLM/GoSS Representative to Canada from May 2006-November 2008. While Representing the SPLM in Canada, he facilitated the re-organisation and formation of 14 SPLM Chapters across Canada which substantially increased the membership of the SPLM in Canada. He also worked with the Samaritan’s Purse Canada in the re-training of Cuba trained Sudanese physicians at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary. He personally organised their graduation in Juba on May 17th, 2008 along with the University of Calgary Professors, Samaritan’s Purse and various NGOs in Juba. The training of the doctors cost more than $2 million dollars on Samaritan’s Purse and the University of Calgary. He worked with the Government of Canada to recognise the SPLM- led Government of Southern Sudan which culminated in the establishment of the GoSS Liaison Office in Ottawa in 2008 in accordance with the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan. In November 2008, Both tendered his resignation to the chairman of the SPLM and the SPLM Secretary General to pursue personal commitments as his main task was done as an interim representative of the SPLM.
He was charged by the SPLM leadership to organise SPLM Chapters in various cities of Canada and to rally the support of the Government of Canada for SPLM and Government of Southern Sudan. Under extremely difficult conditions, he helped form 14 SPLM Chapters across the country with membership of over 4000. He managed to diplomatically seduce Canada to accept SPLM and work with the Government of Southern Sudan, which finally culminated in the establishment of the Liaison Office for the Government of Southern Sudan in Ottawa in 2008 in accordance with the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Canada is known internationally for rejecting to work with rebels, a case signalled by their refusal to work with the former leader of SPLM/A Dr John Garang de Mabior. But those who know Peter Lam Both know that he is a highly persuasive, calm and skilful diplomat whose approach can hardly be rejected. Those qualities helped him succeed with Canada.
He led the first ever SPLM delegation from Canada in May 2008 to participate in the Second SPLM National Convention in Juba where he played a key role in mobilizing the delegates to maintain the unity of SPLM by proposing to keep the current leadership as it is. The SPLM unity was at stake in the Convention, but the party rose to the challenge and opted to keep the status quo.
Both joined SPLM in 1986 after he fled from Sudan at the age of 14 due to civil war. He lived in various refugee camps in Ethiopia, but managed to continue his education with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Peter has worked for various local and international institutions and organisations including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ethiopia (1996-1997), UNHCR in India in 2003 and UNHCR in Jordan in 2005. He also worked as a Resettlement Counsellor for Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (1997-2000), Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Calgary office in 2002, City of Calgary’s Municipal Government as Community Development Officer from 2002-2005 and as Social Planner from 2005 to present.
He taught social work on part time basis at the University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge and Mount Royal College in Alberta, Canada (2005-2008).
Both is the author of South Sudan: forgotten tragedy (2003) and International Relations of Ethiopia: the strategy of developing state (2004). He has also published peer reviewed articles with Journal of Social Work and Journal of Educational Action Research in 2008.
Peter has BA in Political Science and International Relations from Addis-Ababa University, Ethiopia (1996). He is also a graduate of the University of Calgary (Canada) with Bachelor of Social Work in 2002, Masters of International Social Work in 2004 and is currently a Ph D candidate at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary.
In addition to this, he is well-rooted in Calgary, Canada-having a family, permanent and a decent job and a home owner, but will quit his current position as Community Development Officer (City of Calgary, Canada), leave his family alone in Canada, sell his home, and will move his family to cheaper house so they can afford it while in Juba. “I will quit my current job, sell my home, move my family to affordable house, and leave them alone in Canada in answering the call to serve the nation (South Sudan) and we should always do that when each and everyone of us is called for national service,” said Both during SPLM Chapter briefing in Calgary on September 27, 2009.