The sweet taste of oil money and the politics of unification of the two Sudans BY: COLLINS KEPA, OTTAWA, CANADA From the bush as a rebel to president by surprise was indeed a cultural shock to the primary four president of South Sudan who rules by decrees. Having tasted the sweetness of the oil money that was meant for the development of the new nation, his entire government plunked into looting the country in a rampant corruption with absolute impunity. Absolutely, they embarked on enriching themselves at the expense of the ordinary populace to the extent that they clearly lost the vision to lead the new nation. Being intelligent enough, General Bashir and his Khartoum regime wickedly chased the opportunity and held South Sudan hostage on its own oil in the hands of the weak system in Juba, which is characterized as rotten to core. Bashir would like to see that those hardliners in Juba that are opposed to his dirty games are relieved from their duties. Indeed the game is working for General Bashir as long as the South Sudan oil continues to flow through Sudan Kiir will remain a yes-man and can not object to any of Bashir’s demands otherwise the oil will be shut down. In the past, Khartoum has been complaining that some officials in the government of South Sudan were supporting the rebels SPLM-N, but they never implicated Kiir. The accusation was nothing but a strategic move to dismantle the system in Juba. Undoubtedly, Bashir knew that Kiir is a weak person who can easily be manipulated. Moreover, Bashir also knew that the likes of Dr. Riek Machar and Pagan Amum are not easy people to temper with. Bashir also took the opportunity of the wrangling in Juba and convinced the yes-man to remove the two (Machar and Amum); and that indeed happened. You may recall that recently Kiir issued a useless decree to pardon Dr. Lam Akol for no apparent crime committed, but was it really Kiir’s initiative to pardon Dr. Lam Akol? The answer definitely is “no”, it is Bashir’s initiative to make sure Dr. Lam is reinstated. Who actually is Dr. Lam Akol to General Bashir in the first place? Dr. Lam Akol is the guy who disagreed with Dr. John Garang in 1991 and in 1997 signed the Fashoda Peace agreement with Khartoum and later in March 1998 Bashir appointed him Minister of Transportation. After the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement – CPA, in 2005, Dr. Lam Akol was again appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of national unity. However, in October 2007, the SPLM withdrew from the Khartoum government on protest that Akol be removed from his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs, as he was accused of favoring Bashir’s biased policies towards the government of South Sudan. Incredibly, as of the date of this article, arrangements are already in place for Dr. Lam Akol to return home from his self exile in Egypt; and who knows what position he has been promised by Kiir. However, it will not be a surprise to soon see Dr. Lam Akol back in Juba as a second vice president or any other significant position just to execute Bashir’s plans as dictated on Kiir. For those who followed the politics of Sudan and South Sudan closely could witness the fact that these days Bashir is bossing-up with provocative rhetoric that the year 2013 is the end of the rebellion in Sudan. Clearly, Beshir is not proud for nothing, but because he is sure hundred percent that he is now in control of both Sudan and South Sudan, as such he is sending the signal to the rebels that he is now capable to crash them from all directions. Some of you might have come across the allegations that these days Beshir is actually trying hard to negotiate with Kiir for a confederation; and some die-hard SPLM supporters ruled it out as a conspiracy theory. However, we shouldn’t be taken by surprise given Kiir’s recent submissive behaviors. President Kiir is aware that even his own party doesn’t like him any more and that South Sudanese are already fed up of him. So, come the year 2015 he has nowhere to go whether there is an election or not. So, he is now playing dirty political game of messing everything up by dragging the South back into union with the regime in Khartoum for him to have at least a shelter to hide in. This is the game that Bashir is badly looking forward to, so that he could use it in turn to spit on the Western Governments who supported the secession of South Sudan and to discredit them that he was always right to conclude that Southerners are unable to rule themselves. For South Sudan, it is unfortunate that if we don’t stand up now, we will soon find that we are deeply dragged back into square one; and the sacrifice made during the longest civil war and the referendum that gave us our right would mean nothing as was the case of the innocent lives lost in Panthou (Heglig) as a result of wrong decisions.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 07:42:20 +0000
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