Southern Sudan daydreams its way to independence, writes Gamal Nkrumah Sudanese First Vice-President Salva Kiir has been playing to two different audiences. First, the international and regional actors who will determine the course of action in southern Sudanese foreign policy priorities if and when it attains independence after next year's referendum on secession. And, then the constituencies and tribal cliques in the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the ruling party in southern Sudan that he must hold together if he is to keep his political agenda on track. Vice-President Kiir was not entirely unmindful of his political fortunes. Domestically, his cultivation of special friendships at home and abroad is aimed at shoring up his authority ahead of the expected decision by the southern Sudanese population to secede from Sudan following next year's referendum. Kiir is determined to pacify militant secessionists but at the same time he has signalled his readiness to cooperate fully with the government of President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and his National Congress Party with its Islamist ideological orientation. Kiir is under no illusions about the magnitude of his task. He adroitly apportioned a poisoned chalice to one of his most vocal critics -- Onyoti Adigo Nyikwec -- who was named leader of the official opposition in the Southern Sudanese Legislative Assembly. Nyikwec is a leading member of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-Democratic Change (SPLM- DC), a breakaway party of Kiir's SPLM. "It is the first time in the history of southern Sudan to have a leader of the opposition in parliament," Nyikwac declared in an exhilarated mood. His remarks confirm the single-mindedness with which southern Sudanese concur on the question of secession. SPLM-DC leader Lam Akol, a former Sudanese foreign minister and the only challenger to Salva Kiir in last April's presidential elections in southern Sudan, declared that he is in favour of independence in spite of political differences with the SPLM. In July, bloody clashes between the mainstream SPLM and the breakaway SPLM-DC in the contested Upper Nile province resulted in the death of nine people. "The referendum needs us to unite all our ranks together, so that we go to the referendum united as the people of southern Sudan for the independence of southern Sudan," Nyikwac concluded amid thunderous applause from his fellow parliamentarians. This week, southern Sudanese MPs once again reaffirmed their conviction that secession was the only way forward for southern Sudan. The first democratically elected president of the semi-autonomous southern Sudan, Kiir fully backed the decision of the southern Sudanese MPs in the southern Sudanese capital, Juba. President Al-Bashir and other members of the northern Sudanese clique were incensed. The Sudanese president put forward five prerequisites for the acceptance of the results of the forthcoming referendum. The Sudanese president rejected what he termed "outside interference" from the United States and other Western powers. He claimed that Washington is inciting the southern Sudanese people to vote for independence in the referendum scheduled to take place early next year. That is not to criticise Al-Bashir unduly for calling for unity. But there are the beginnings of what, in the absence of official paranoia, ought to be viewed as a healthy pride in regional cultural differences among the Sudanese people. Al-Bashir is making further efforts to recognise regional cultural differences, even though he is most reluctant to concede that there should be a marked separation of religion and politics in Sudan. He and his ruling NCP are convinced that Islam must remain the official state religion of Sudan and a source of its jurisdiction. The southern Sudanese people are adamantly opposed to such a viewpoint. Sudan, they are determined, must become a secular and democratic state. "For most people in southern Sudan, the last election was the first time for them in their lives to elect anybody of their choice and they decided to elect the SPLM candidate. So they are celebrating and our people are very excited and they really want to see that the referendum takes place very smoothly," General Oyay Deng Ajak, southern Sudan's minister for regional cooperation told the parliamentarians in Juba. "President Salva Kiir is first committed to the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement [CPA] and, second to see not only the implementation of the CPA, but the timely implementation of the CPA. The referendum, which is the final conclusion of the CPA, must take place on time just in six months from now," Ajak stressed. These statements of support for secession and the commitment to the referendum mask political tensions in southern Sudan that are heightened by feelings of uncertainty among the population of the south. Southern Sudanese journalists, for instance, have voiced concern about the lack of clarity by the southern Sudanese government and SPLM officials concerning laws that govern the media. There are fears about the curtailment of freedom of speech and association after independence of southern Sudan. There are also growing anxieties with regards to the stalled media laws. Southern Sudanese Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs John Luke conceded in the elected southern Sudanese assembly that "controversial" legislation hinders freedoms and that there is a "backlog" of laws pending in the southern parliament. Diversity in southern Sudan is something to celebrate. The problem is that, internally logical as all this may be, it means that any arguments used by proponents and opponents of southern Sudanese independence must advance the cause of human rights and democracy in southern Sudan. These predicaments need to be ironed out if southern Sudan is to enjoy the freedom it has long been denied under northern Sudanese domination. Token recognition of regional cultural differences in Sudan has become unacceptable, especially if there is little indication that it goes beyond superfluous superficiality. Funnelling more funds to the least developed and outlying peripheral regions of the far-flung country is one way to eliminate regional stirrings in southern Sudan, Darfur and other parts of western Sudan. Economic development and the official acknowledgement of real cultural differences can play an important bridging role and give all the disparate Sudanese ethnic groups room to use regional languages and not to impose Islam and the Arabic language throughout Sudan. It would be foolish to forget that Sudan is a multicultural land and that Islam cannot be forced on non- Muslims as the country races towards referendum on whether or not southern Sudan should secede.
