Salva Kiir's controversial remark regarding the possibility of secession just shows that the southern Sudanese will not opt for unity at any cost, surmises Gamal Nkrumah The political future of southern Sudan remains forbiddingly dark. The remarks of Southern Sudan's president who also doubles up as Sudanese Vice-President Salva Kiir Mayardit hit the headlines and confounded a cabal of antagonistic critics this week. "When you reach your ballot boxes the choice is yours: you want to vote for unity so that you become a second class citizen in your own country, that is your choice," Kiir told a congregation at the Juba Cathedral. Kiir was quoting the late leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) John Garang. The alternative, he said was to "vote for independence, so that you are a free person in your independent state." The statement was interpreted in the Arab media as a call for secession, a charge the SPLM, which runs the government of southern Sudan as an autonomous region, vehemently denied. "Kiir, in a bid to further inculcate the citizens of southern Sudan to exercise fully their citizenship rights, requested his people to head for the registration centres and register their names as voters. Kiir wanted to see greater popular participation in the political process," the Minister of Information in the southern Sudan government Paul Mayom told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Kiir was not talking about the referendum per se. The time for talk on the referendum has not come yet. Now we want to urge our people to participate more fully in the upcoming Sudanese general elections. We want southerners to fully exercise their political rights as Sudanese citizens. It is in this context that he referred to the words of Garang when he addressed the people of Rumbek in 2005," Mayom said. "I cannot understand why the Arab media sounded the alarm bells. Kiir was misquoted. He was presented as calling for secession. Like Garang, Kiir wants the people of southern Sudan to participate fully in the decision-making process, to create a 'New Sudan'. There is nothing subversive about that. I am shocked by the media's biased interpretation and misrepresentation of Kiir's position," Mayom added. "We in the SPLM have always promoted the unity of Sudan," he extrapolated. "Under the constitution it is not a crime to mention the option of secession. The time hasn't yet come for us to campaign for or against secession. That will be in 2011, not 2010. Kiir's words were taken out of context. In 2011, he will exercise his rights as a citizen of Sudan and state his mind on the question of secession in fulfilment of his democratic and constitutional rights. What he said in Juba on Sunday has no bearing whatsoever on the campaign for or against secession." Mayom, spokesperson for the government of south Sudan, stressed the need for voluntary unity if that is the wish of the people of southern Sudan. Kiir's statement was made as southern Sudanese commence a month-long registration of voters for the first full election in 24 years. In this intricate and cumbersome fashion, openly espousing secession has become anathema after the end of the civil war. But this is a catch-22 so long as Khartoum is reluctant to treat the southern Sudanese people as full citizens regardless of race, ethnicity or religion. The southern Sudanese people have grave reservations concerning the imposition of Islamic Sharia law in Sudan. The central importance of religion and language and their fundamental relationship with the Sudanese nation and national character are of pivotal importance if a lasting political solution is to be found. Southern Sudan is a locus of political intrigue. The land and its people have become a seedbed of traumatic anxieties. The right of self-determination is a political powder keg. Logistical and security challenges abound. There are similar intimations when it comes to the question of peace dividends. The southern Sudanese people want to know what happened to the $7 billion in oil revenue since the signing of the January 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. "We are the only ruling party in the whole African continent that sacked two ministers of finance because of allegations of corruption," Secretary-General of the SPLM Pagan Amum told the Weekly. In a separate, but related development, representatives of the African Union's Peace and Security Council member states met last Thursday in the Nigerian capital Abuja to discuss the latest developments in Darfur. AU Commission Chief Jan Ping described the Abuja meeting as "fruitful". But getting from talk to action remains an uphill struggle. The Darfur crisis and escalating violence in southern Sudan may have shocked Khartoum into taking seriously its own commitments to political and judicial reform in Sudan. This makes progress on continental African co-operation all the more pressing. Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir himself did not fly to Abuja. However, he dispatched a high-powered delegation that included his special advisers Ghazi Salaheddin and former foreign minister Mustafa Othman Ismail. The official Sudanese delegation also included Sudanese Vice-President Ali Othman Mohamed Taha, Minister of Justice Abdel-Baset Sabdrat and the Governor of North Darfur Othman Kebir. The establishment of an International Hybrid Court by the AU, one that includes both members of the Sudanese judiciary and legal experts from other African countries, is regarded as prerequisite for the execution of justice in Darfur. There were calls in Abuja echoing those in southern Sudan for radical changes to Sudanese laws -- currently governed by the Sharia Islamic codes -- and the Sudanese judiciary, regarded as subordinate to the regime of President Al-Bashir.
