Dr. Peter Biar Ajak, a former child soldier and renowned critic of President Salva Kiir’s government, recently formed a new political party, the Revive South Sudan Party (RSSP).
Biar, who was incarcerated in the notorious National Security Service Headquarters, also known as the ‘Blue House’ in Juba, before being locked up at the Juba Main Prison, now lives in America.
Radio Tamazuj interviewed him about his new party and plans.
Below are edited excerpts:
Q: Dr. Biar, what kind of party have you come up with? Is it a military group or a non-violent political party?
A: Well, there is no such thing called a military party. There may be armed groups. I’m not an armed group. My service in the armed group ended with the SPLM from 1988 when I joined to 2005 when that chapter ended. Since I started my political life and advocacy, I have been strictly against violence. I have been nonviolent. I believe this is the only way that the people of South Sudan can build a better future. In every country, there are disagreements, and we have to learn how to tolerate one another. So, this is purely a political party that is made up of civilians. We don’t have any people from the armed forces that are part of our political party because people from the armed forces and security forces should be neutral. Because they are custodians of the state, a state called South Sudan and the vision that we have is for everybody and we are going to build on those institutions. There is nowhere else that we are going to build. We are going to build on those institutions, and we are going to rely on them for the security and protection that we will need while we are campaigning and selling our vision to the people of South Sudan. Similarly, we would rely on them to implement our vision for the progress and transformation of South Sudan. So, this is purely non-violent, is a political party and all the people of South Sudan are welcome to be part of this. They have the absolute right to be a part of this.
Q: Are you in contact with any other political parties within South Sudan or abroad?
A: What I can tell you is that, during the writing of the manifesto, a lot of political leaders, whether they are in the SPLM or outside, in all kinds of different parties and civil society groups, have contributed to the writing of the manifesto. We incorporated all the ideas because we wanted a document that the people of South Sudan could own, not something that belong to any individual, not the group around me who have been championing this vision. This is something that we have shared widely, including within the SPLM. We have also benefited from technocrats that understand some of these areas, whether it is in healthcare, security or gender. We have consulted those experts and they have added in their views. We had gone back to many documents that South Sudan had produced, starting with the constitution of South Sudan, looking at the SPLM strategic framework, from war to peace, which was supposed to articulate what we were going to do when the war ended, vision 2040, the South Sudan Development Plan, the national dialogue, the resolution of the national dialogue, the South Sudan Young Leaders Forum consultations.
We looked at all of this, and recently, we formed, by the way, the ‘Contemporary Junub Forum’. We look at all of this and we borrowed those ideas, and that you see embedded within the manifesto. Similarly, you remember Geoffrey Duke was running a campaign called ‘South Sudan we want’. We had a team that watched every single video that South Sudanese put out articulating what kind of vision that they want and what kind of country that they want. We took all of these ideas and now we discuss them with the aspirations of South Sudanese and we turn them into a program that is achievable. A Program that can be realized step by step and particularly with a focus on good leadership, good governance and preventing corruption. So all these political leaders we are going to consult with them. When we come to Juba, I’m more than willing, and even now I’ve been speaking with all these leaders, including, by the way, leaders within the SPLM, because what we are trying to do here, we are not against anybody, we are not against the SPLM, we are not against President Kiir, we are not against Vice President Dr. Riek, we are for a better South Sudan. We are for a South Sudan of hope for progress of unity.
Q: How will Revive South Sudan Partyachieve the reforms you have talked about? As you know, we are left with 16 months for elections.
A: Oh yes, we are capable of mobilizing our people. I can tell you when we did the referendum in 2011 and by the time we finished the elections in April 2010, we had only a few months to prepare for something as momentous as a complete referendum. And by the way, if you remember, most of the preparation didn’t really begin until like August and September. That’s when really work came. We have 16 months. This 16 months is enormous and by the way, we are not starting from scratch. There is some work that we have done overtime that is going to propel us. We are starting on a very strong foundation because all the activities that we have done before have made it possible for us to be where we are. So we are going to build on those initiatives and we already have members you saw when we launched our party. People that joined us on Zoom were coming from everywhere, from Tonj town, from Kuajok, from Maridi, from Bentiu, from Awil, from Lakes State, Rumbek, from Bor. From everywhere, people joined us. These are people already there on the ground. And what we are going to do now is to intensify these activities. So I am very sure within a very short time, this party can be ready to contest every single position that will be contestable in the election. Now in terms of our vision, the economic transformation that we are imagining, I can tell you within three to five years, we will move South Sudan from a very poor country to a middle-income economy. We are not just making empty promises.
We have already been consulting with investors, with people that can come up with technologies and systems that can help us to add value to all these raw materials that we have in the country. We have a country with abundant resources. What has been keeping our economy poor is lack of leadership and this is what we are going to address. First, through the election, we will make sure that a candidate under the banner of our party will take over and be surrounded by experts that we have within our party. Each of these agenda, by the way, that we have in the manifesto, there is a working group of experts who have been developing policy lines in these areas. They are going to be the ones in charge. It’s not going to be an individual the way you see now the government being run where individual ministers like what you saw recently when a new Minister of Finance was appointed, he withdrew a budget that the previous Minister of Finance had put to the Parliament and they come from the same party. So is, as you wonder, who is making the policy? Is it the party that is making the policy, or is it the individuals in our government? We are going to have a party that will be making decisions and the members of the party will now be implementing these policies and this is why, by the way, our manifesto is very key.
Q: Dr. Biar, tell the public about your friends or the people who are backing the new party. Because you need resources to run this new party.
A: Those who are backing us are the people of South Sudan. Our people have resources. This is how they managed to build the SPLM from nothing to become a mighty arm movement that challenged the entire government of Sudan and changed Sudan forever. They were able to contribute their chicken, vegetables, cereals, the cows, their goats, their sons and their daughters to fight for liberation. So we are coming back to our people and our people are the ones that are going to provide us with the resources that we need so that we bring about our transformation. The people of South Sudan understand how beautiful their country is. This is why they were willing to die in such a large number so that they can be free and they realized what poor leadership has done to it and they see the vision that we have laid out is very clear, realistic and achievable. There is a timeline that is put on to it. In the next several weeks and months, we will be releasing very detailed policy notes on each of the agendas that are articulated in our manifesto. So I assure you, the support that we have is coming from South Sudanese people, both inside the country and in the diaspora. These are the people that are excited because these are the people that believe that a free and prosperous South Sudan is what our people need.
Q: Do you guarantee your security to carry out campaigns to publicize your manifesto?
A: Absolutely, we are going to sell our manifesto to the people of South Sudan. I watched an interview that Information Minister Michael Makuei released last week. He was doing this interview with Eye Radio and he was asked specifically how come that Dr. Riek is put under house arrest and he is not able to travel and to go and campaign? Makuei said that no one has put Riek under house arrest. And he said if I’m lying, go and ask Riek himself, let him say whether we have put him under house arrest or not. And then he was asked why other political parties are not making rallies and he made a very good point. He said it is not his job to go and ask the other political parties why they are not making any rallies and we have not seen anywhere in the media or social media being reported that a particular party has tried to organize a rally and they were stopped. We have not seen anything like that, especially in Juba.
Q: But we have reportedmany cases of restrictions and intimidations of members of political parties.
A: I am aware of the past violations that have happened. I’m aware of them, but what I’m trying to say is the message that was articulated by Michael Makuei, who is a senior member in the SPLM and the government since 2005, and a very close ally of President Kiir is coming out to say that there is intimidation., then we are going to take him on this issue. And by the way, let me also just expand, I know that the political space in the country is difficult. Democracy is something people have to fight for. You have to really believe that it is that valuable and it is worth fighting for. Because there’s no democracy or freedom that comes free. We know this through our own experience. In Sudan. We had to fight for our freedom. The same thing for us to liberate ourselves from ignorance and poor application of power. We will have to struggle and I and the young people of South Sudan are going to be there, whether it is rallies, whether it is protests, whatever they need to be done, we are going to make sure that there is a new era or politics in South Sudan that is built on citizens participation.
If we are arrested, that is fine, but what we are starting cannot be stopped. There will be people that will continue it and this is one of the reasons why in the next several weeks before we return, we are going to build the structures of this party so that it is very strong and we will come and we will do it, we will fight, we will go on the street. Obviously, what we are going to ask from our members is discipline. We have to be non-violent. We are not going to hit back if we are hit, we are going to make sure that we show dignity and we show the South Sudanese people that in any struggle against injustice, there is dignity and we are going to be an example of this dignity.
Q: Dr. Peter, on several occasions, you have been calling for the elections to happen. Do you think that South Sudan is ready for general elections next year?
A: Yes, South Sudan needs to have an election as soon as possible.
Look, if you read the peace agreement, there are a lot of things that I said there that have not been implemented. I acknowledge the census has not been done as we speak. A new constitution is not ready as we speak, and the security arrangements have not been fully implemented.
We know very well that the National Electoral Commission has not been formed, a new Electoral Act has not been passed, and the Political Parties Council has not been constituted. So as we speak, no single party has been registered in South Sudan. We know all of this and we know why they are not being implemented. There is a lack of political will. But here is the thing, I was very excited when President Kiir announced in Wau that now the campaign period is beginning. I know that in the first election, we may have issues whatever, but the most important thing is that the election must happen. We cannot extend the government again. No more extension, completely, not even one single day should be added on, so whatever the government thinks that they have the political will to do, let them do it. But we know that they don’t have the political will to do many things but let us get to the polls. If the national electoral commission, once it’s formed, says that they have issues in terms of the timeline in making sure that the election happened, then one of the things that we, as political parties, will be able to advise them is they should seek support from our partners.
We have partners within the IGAD region that have expertise in elections. We have partners within the African Union that have expertise. And we have the United Nations and inside South Sudan we have the regional protection force that is deployed under the command of IGAD. All these IGAD countries have been having elections. They’re experts at it. And we have, of course, the UNMISS with over 20,000 troops inside the country. The UN has done elections in other countries. So we are going to see that the minute that the electoral commission is formed, what the gaps are and how the international community should be able to help. But one thing that has to happen is that elections must happen.
Q: Are you now the chairman of Revive South Sudan Party?
A: Well, that is not correct. I’m not the chairman. What I was doing was chairing the drafting committee that was working on the manifesto. When we release our constitution, the members of the party are going to set out what the constitution is, what are the requirements for membership, and how one can become a member. Over time, we are going to have our convention and after that, we will have an elected leadership of the party. I’m there as a representative of the party among so many but I’m not the chairman of the party, if you will. That is not yet the issue. The issue here is not even about leadership and even people that are concerned and talking about leadership. This is not what we are for. We have been working very hard over the last several years to build consensus among the South Sudanese people. All of us, not just me, individually, through the national dialogue, through the South Sudan Young Leaders Forum, through contemporary regional forums, and through so many other forums where people have been debating. And we have come to agree on what needs to be done, but the fundamental problem is a lack of leadership, and lack of vision, especially under the ruling party and all these sub-denominations of the SPLM, you know you have the SPLM-IG, SPLM-IO, SPLM-FDs and Real SPLM with so much confusion that it was necessary to collect all of these ideas under a new political party. So this is what we have done. Personally, I’m there to rally people around this party, but it will be up to the membership of the party to now decide what they want to do. I’m not here to impose myself as a leader. We are here working together as a people. The most important thing now is what we are cooking and what we are cooking is for all South Sudanese, not just for Peter Biar.
Q: Dr. Biar, when are you expecting this convention to happen and where will it happen?
A: The convention will happen in South Sudan, absolutely.
Q: When is this going to happen?
A: Well, I cannot tell you right now, but I can tell you within the next nine months we will do the convention because you know, conventions are a bit challenging and it requires a lot of logistics. But first I have to personally return to Juba, then we have to open our offices, not just only in the capital, but in all the states, counties and payams in South Sudan. Then we will have to now begin organizing our members from the very local level to be able to meet, decide, elect and delegate all the way to the counties level, to the level of states, and then to the. National level. So, I expect, given the logistics and the work that we need to do, this may take up to 9 to 10 months to do. But the idea is, since elections are happening in December, we have to do our convention in advance so that our people are ready and our ticket is ready because we will have a ticket that will contest in all kinds of positions from the presidency to the governors in all the ten states and the three administrative areas, to members of the parliament and the council of states, county commissioners and mayors. So we will organize all of this for us to do it in a democratic way. This is one of the reasons that we have agreed that no one has any position in the party right now. I’m not the chairman of the party as I said. The appropriate thing is maybe a coordinator to bring all these brilliant minds and young people together. We want to make sure that internal democracy is the anchor upon which we bring true legitimate democracy to South Sudan. An entity that is not democratic internally cannot bring democracy to the country. An entity that is not peaceful internally cannot bring peace to the entire country. We have learned this through the hard ways in the SPLM and we are determined to avoid the same mistakes.
Q: As we conclude this interview, what is your final message?
A: Thank you very much. I want to say to our people that a new era of hope, progress and prosperity has begun. We, as members of the Revive South Sudan party, are committed to reviving our values, reviving our focus on development, reviving our nationalism, and reviving our unity. We are beginning a new march to a brighter South Sudan. We are united to forever end the menace of unknown gunmen, to end senseless loss of life, the abduction of women and children, the degradation of our environment, the poor treatment of women and girls, and the stealing of our national assets. We are committed to ushering in a South Sudan that was seen by Prophet Isaiah. We are here to realize a country that is progressing, a country that is majestic, that is fear far and wide, united in purpose and united in determination. A beacon of hope, not just only for the people of South Sudan but for the people of Africa and the entire world. I invite all of you to join this journey towards a radian South Sudan. We shine in with hope, unity and prosperity. Thank you so much for joining us and our victory is certain.