Inching Toward Plurality of Ideas: Dr. Majak’s response to Dr. Lam Akol

Dr. Majak D’Agoot’s response to Dr. Lam Akol’s article: “Does the end of the SPLM mean the end of the South Sudan state?”

By Majak D’Agoôt, PhD, Juba, South Sudan

Dr. Majak  D’Agoot and Dr. Marial Benjamin, during the SPLM extra-ordinary Convention in Juba, January 2016

March 18, 2016 (SSB)  —  The proposition that a multi-pronged clash of visions between the opposition forces and the government; and within the political opposition on both ends of the argument, is a litmus test for democratic development, and an index of ideological maturity and political stability – is not a far-fetched conclusion. The ongoing televised debates in the run-up to party nominations in the U.S have sometimes come close to a tirade among comrades-in-destiny. These look like sideshows but that is how democracy is nurtured and how it works in practice.  Politics is not a crank that peddles outcomes from the other planet to be enjoyed here on earth. It is, in fact, the bedrock of an organized human activity which under constant social engineering and mutation.

Letter to the Editor: “President Kiir is Pandering to the Shilluk over Malakal”

Responses to “President Kiir Rebukes Governor Chol Thon over Mistreatment of Shilluk and Nuer in Malakal.”

IDPs flee the Malakal POC on 18 Feb, 2016

Malith Alier says: “This is like succumbing to Shilluk noise. Gov. Chol Thon was right to reallocate those workers from new states just like was the case with parliamentarians. Can someone tell us that MPs who hailed from either West Nile or Latjor have not gone to their new states? I cannot comprehend why Gov. Chol order is divisive but order 36/2016 is not. This is like being vague about things that matter to the republic. Number one, the kind of “federalism we have does not permit free employment in the whole country. Can someone tell me why all the Governors of 28 states come from the very states they now run? The same to MPs and logically the workforce. Critical thinking is needed here.”

Red Army name and cause have been hijacked by opportunistic and sympathy-seeking individuals

“Tell the truth, live by truth and the truth shall you set you free,” Jesus said.

By Isaac Akuoch Chol Akuoch, Juba South Sudan

The Red Army Foundation, Juba

March 18, 2016 (SSB)  —-  The last quarter of the year 1987 is one of the most emotional and memorable time in the history of our struggle against Arab chauvinism.in this year thousands of unaccompanied children were taken from the areas of greater Bor to Ethiopia, supposedly to be taken to school. These helpless children who were dubbed as teraf, meaning seeds braved unimaginable odds to reach to their destination. They were to become the future to which the adults (fathers) were fighting for.

I remembered vividly when three of my brothers left to join other boys in Pawel for their journey. One of them unfortunately was later killed in Domdolla Ethiopia fighting for Mengistu Haile survival. Others remained in the army until the CPA was signed.

The AU should encourage African leaders to abide by its African charter on democracy (Part 1)

Solving conflict in the African continents, AU in position to help prevent many of these problems by encouraging African leaders to abide by its African charter on democracy (1-2)

By Lino Lual Lual, Juba, South Sudan

H.E Mariano Deng Ngor addressing South Sudanese University Students at Nairobi Safari club Hotel in July 2015

March 18, 2016 (SSB)  —  Following the popular revolts that toppled Tunisia’s Ben Ali, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, many African affairs analysts have pondered on the reasons why these rebellions have not yet spread to Sub-Saharan Africa or are it because Sub Saharan Africa has not had the Islamic groups which have threatened the west.

The real question, therefore,  is  not  why the Arab spring has not spread to Sub-Saharan Africa for  the Sub-Saharan African spring took place much  earlier-, but  why so many analysts believe that    this region is  as ripe for popular revolts as North Africa. In other words, why is the quasitotality of African countries still gnawed by unaccountable political leaders, lack of justice, and democracy decades after African populations had started clamoring for better governance and democratic reforms?

UN Security Council Presidential Statement on S. Sudan

‘Kiir Dagas, Malesh Bashir, Allah Jabu etc., are some of the slums hosting fleeing Junubeen on the outskirt of Khartoum…courtesy of John Masura. In some other countries, it would be a national calamity, but in Junub Thudan, it is business as usual.

March 18, 2016 (SSB) – The Security Council expresses deep alarm at the situation in South Sudan.  The Security Council notes that while the ceasefire has largely held in the former theatre of conflict in Greater Upper Nile, it is deeply concerned with ongoing violence, as reported in briefings to the Security Council on 19 February.  The Security Council calls upon the Government of the Republic of South Sudan to uphold its responsibility for the protection of civilians.

Does the end of the SPLM mean the end of the South Sudan state?

By Dr. Lam Akol, Juba, South Sudan

Dr. Lam Akol of SPLM-DC

March 18, 2016 (SSB) – This question is provocative to the feelings of the masses of the people of South Sudan. But we raise it today not to confirm it, but to disprove the flawed logic of those who claim that the end of the SPLM is synonymous with the end of the South Sudan state. In fact, the claim is preposterous; the fate of a people can never be tied to the fate of a small group whatever service it has delivered to its people.

What prompted one to raise this strange question is that not a small number of the SPLM leaders, especially those who were thrown into jail by their comrades after the December crisis in 2013, kept reiterating that South Sudan will cease to exist if the organization known as the SPLM disappears from the scene. The last among them to say so was interviewed in “Al Maugif” newspaper for two consecutive days, the 14^th and 15^th instant. When asked about the unity of the SPLM, Dr. Majak D’Agoot replied: “For me it is the solution, … If the SPLM collapses, there will be no state called South Sudan, only parties such as SPLM- Bahr El Ghazal, SPLM-Nuer, SPLM-Equatoria, and so on….or unpatriotic parties.” End of quote. Such a serious statement is peddled without the slightest justification even on a theoretical level. Our interlocutor should have shown how the fate of a state is tied to the fate of a party or group or section. Did he ask himself why the state of South Sudan did not disappear when the SPLM was divided with its factions fighting each other for two full years? And where will the parties he mentioned exist if the South Sudan state is no more?