A leading member of South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) said the party cannot reunite and should change its name for the sake of democratization.
In an interview with El Maugif newspaper, prominent SPLM member and former chief whip Atem Garang de Kuek said power hungry politicians now see the party’s name as a “trademark.”
The SPLM formed in 1983 under the leadership of the late John Garang de Mabior as a southern resistance movement aiming to transform the nation Sudan, but it morphed into a southern separatist movement.
In December last year, the SPLM fragmented into the SPLM-Juba led by president Salva Kiir, SPLM-In Opposition of former vice-president Riek Machar, and SPLM-G10 headed by former party secretary-general Pagan Amum Okiech.
Atem Garang rejected the possibility of reuniting this fractured party in the wake of the ongoing civil war, likening doing so to “mixing of oil with water,” El Maugif reported.
He rubbished the past week’s summit of the three SPLM factions in Arusha, Tanzania, where they held an intraparty dialogue and signed agreements to hold further discussions.
Atem Garang said instead reunification would not work because the SPLM has split into groups based on personal friendships rather than unified political orientations.
He said that during the liberation struggle there emerged an elitist group called “Garang’s Sons” (Awlad Garang) and those people have since aimed to exclude others.
“This group has now become affluent, which makes it difficult to budge because it can use that wealth in politics,” Atem Garang told El Maugif.
He also hinted that some SPLM dissidents will try to return to power through the reunification of the SPLM factions.
Atem Garang lastly emphasised the importance of accountability for atrocities committed during the conflict.
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