SPLM: The Second Coming

A reflection on the outcome of Addis Ababa peace process for South Sudan

As soon as the black smoke cleared on 5^th March 2015, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) bumped into a wall that it did not know had been there all along. Brokering a peace deal between South Sudan’s arch-rivals was just not going to work out in the nice, tidy way the regional bloc seemed to think it would as was the case with the CPA in 2005. We now have a written confession done. IGAD has failed miserably.

Without the pressure of being on a date in Addis Ababa, President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his sworn rival, Dr. Riak Machar Teny, did not bother to mince words or dilly dally around. They tenaciously came to blows over their personal meander through the peace talks; and drove with the handbrake on! The United Nations’ Security Council quickly slipped in a quiet warning of targeted sanctions and IGAD itself played second fiddle to taking such a hard stand on the last chance for peace in South Sudan. The African Union (AU), a corner very handy to work from, was all the while keeping a tight rein on the amount of detail in its Report of the Inquiry Commission on South Sudan.

But the clear hard set of evidence points to a devastating but simple fact: the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) hound just won’t hunt for peace yet; and South Sudan has been held up for ransom indefinitely. There will be no peace here unless the whole SPLM enterprise (SPLM-in-Government, SPLM-In-Opposition and SPLM-Former Detainees) snakes back again to enjoy another long soak in the tub of power with its sweetie, oil money. Arusha, Tanzania, has been particularly a good Photoshop job for the “Second Coming.” The Arusha Intra-Party Agreement, pulled down in a hurry, is about SPLM’s splinter groups cutting down their catalogues of “don’ts” as much as possible for every side to reverse the drop in their status and salary. That is what the Reunification is all about. The posture of SPLM’s intra-party talks in Tanzania is that everybody has a new pal to play with and so should stop going against each other. Space for the other political parties is reserved at the bottom topography of South Sudan’s token political participation. In short, the SPLM is willing to remain the snotty little clique it is as long as the collection plate stays full in the oilfields of South Sudan.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement has neither willingness nor ability to sit next to others in running the affairs of the nation. There are no rules to live by for the SPLM. That is why even Arusha could not yield a name change!  Because the SPLM is a politically unchallenged armed power, anything goes so long as the oil money pours in for its political class who live in the lap of luxury.

Spurred on by Arusha Accord in a run of tough fixtures, the three factions of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement dashed for Addis Ababa to grandstand an elusive peace deal that would have sealed SPLM’s “Second Coming” more as the “reformed savior” of South Sudan than recycling its political wreckage into dog food tins. The Addis Ababa Accord would have given the party an opportunity to bury their mistakes, having tossed the whole country into a mass pit.

But it came up empty and we all saw IGAD’s bones sticking out. After all the facts are written down, especially now that Reuters has dropped hints about the vessel of worms AU will eventually open, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development will go down as a disgrace. It will arguably take the bloc ages to return to form, if that does not mean South Sudan’s peace process has been put away for good.

The whole picture keeps coming piece by piece. The bottom line is: IGAD must drop out of the hunt for peace in South Sudan. Portrayed in the best possible light, IGAD has tried to grab at anything for a headline. The bloc has taken on shades of stunning incompetence in an agonizing limbo. The African Union’s unpublished report on the crimes committed in South Sudan in the aftermath of 15^th December 2013 confirms an open-secret. It leaves blood on the hands of both sides. It is mind-boggling for us to know now that IGAD had tried to put a “peace deal” past this horrific report when somebody was about to get caught! Sharing the same bunch of insecurities and idiosyncrasies, the AU and IGAD have tried to keep justice and accountability at arm’s length, simply put. And guess what, both institutions were going to get overtime on this one. This is a message of more urgency than consequence, folks!

In the interest of securing a bad peace, the African Union has forced a long halt on its index of South Sudan’s war criminals in the current civil war. The message to the warring parties was clear, “Get out while you can!” The AU is not only a coward in my look but fundamentally a continental institution that is more apt to sit idle all day to the limit of its ability to do so. In other words, the Union is not in the clear. Period.

But who is fooling who? Publishing Report of the Inquiry Commission on time would have offered a formidable capability for the African Union to rip out the roots of the malady in South Sudan and take both sides to task over their responsibility for crimes committed against innocent civilians of this country.  But it is not hard to see why the Union is nowhere to be seen when push comes to shove. That is why Africa has a meaty chunk of dictators and leaders who are still looking for direction after finishing high school!

It is the UN’s hour as of now. The United Nations must take up the torch and move onto something really important now. It is time to finish the task. South Sudan and its people can’t afford a mediator always asleep at the wheel. If this takes the proverbial putting boots on ground, so be it. All that has befallen our country is begging for a penalty. We don’t need to pretend the fall because South Sudan is already a failed state. The political leadership of SPLM will never pick up what its nudity is. The Ruling Party will not have qualms about its misadventure and bother to peer out of its broken window of promises to South Sudanese.

Whatever friends of South Sudan have done has been to slow its fall, nothing else. The Ruling Party, SPLM, has turned in and crossed the line without turning back out. Consumed with greed and lust, yesterday’s freedom-fighter is today’s oppressor and terminator. No one here is hiding disappointment quickly enough in spite of the intimidation. The conviction is that this party will never get South Sudan to the future bright and early. The future of this country is above the SPLM. The SPLM can only stay the divider under which South Sudanese will bleed to despair and death. It has goose stepped us into misery and bloodshed. South Sudan has been left in want-so much for a liberation war!

The United Nations and its Security Council must get off the sidelines and pull out that Protectorate it might have been tucking away for so long. This generation of South Sudanese has no wish to see its sons and daughters grow up under the black cloud of failed statehood and savagery. South Sudan is still a heart to be taken! The Security Council should firm up an order for placing South Sudan under United Nations’ Protectorate for years to come. The African Union’s proposal is a good start except that the UN has to spin a web of precision and dedication around it. This should be wicked fast in such a magnitude of urgency.

The SPLM thinks it is not that broken to need fixing. True to itself, it is a spoiled brat of sorts.  In point blank terms, it has just added a mailing address for sustained UN sanctions and a scenario fulfillment for a blue-helmet protectorate.

The joke making the rounds within the party itself is that the elusive Addis Ababa Peace Accord could have helped the SPLM pull up to its desk as a “Reformed Savior.” However, nobody here wants to hammer a miserable failure back into the pots and pans of our lives like we would otherwise do with purified copper. If the SPLM wants to fall back down to earth in its version of a Messianic Second Coming to South Sudan, it can do so but not by popular demand anymore. South Sudanese crave structure, stability and continuity which they know too well now can only be brought about by the United Nations. We want more of the UN without hesitation.

The Security Council is probably the only body that still holds out hope for South Sudan and its people. The UN has the mandate, will, networks and resources to square off with the mob ruining this country. If critics of this proposition think that the United Nations is not the norm, they should also know that it is neither abnormal, at least. Let us see who stands where. I for one would love to get back to my bed and sleep at long last. Like a modern day Oliver Twist, I want some more of the United Nations!