Summary of USSP Leader’s Recent Talk on Miraya FM

The Leader of United South Sudan Party, Clement Mbugoniwia, spoke Tue, 15 September, with United Nations’ Miraya FM at their studios in Juba, South Sudan. Below is a brief summary of their discussion [a full transcript and/or audio may be published if available]:

The talk focused on the key objectives of USSP, namely, the independence of South Sudan; the unity of South Sudanese people in an independent South Sudan devoid of tribalism and corruption; and the recognition of individuals’ efforts to contribute constructively to nation building. He discussed at length why South Sudanese were currently disillusioned and divided because the government is discriminatory and corrupt.

He criticised the idea of forming coalitions between the SPLM and the Umma Party, on the one hand, and the Popular Congress Party, on the other. Both leaders of the aforementioned parties [Sadiq Al-Mahdi of Umma and Hassan El-Turabi] visited Juba recently and held talks with the SPLM. “In my view, the intention is to enable these parties to come to power in the forthcoming elections so that they could re-negotiate the CPA,” said Mr Mbugoniwia. He said even the census before the elections has not been a success because, according to him, the SPLM mismanaged the conduct of the census and, as such, is now not able to reach an agreement on the population [of South Sudan] as well as its geographical constituencies. He suggested that they [the SPLM] include all political forces to help resolve the crisis.

The USSP Leader further warned against politicians who take money [bribe] from the enemy and still believe that they can represent the aspirations of the people of South Sudan freely without hindrance, which is not the case because such funding is given for a purpose. He also warned that
“South Sudanese need to be vigilant and careful of politicians who play double games by inconsistently saying one thing here in South Sudan and, when in other parts of Sudan or the world, say different things.”

The atrocities committed by the Ugandan LRA rebels were also discussed as a failure of the government to keep up to its role of protecting its citizens and their properties. He concluded that nowhere in the world has any government allowed the protection of its international borders to be left in the hands of the local population, as is the case in Western Equatoria State, for instance, where local people are told to defend themselves, given that the areas in question lie along international borders [Uganda, DRC, and CAR].

Notes:

LRA = Lord’s Resistance Army
DRC = The Democratic Republic of the Congo
CAR = Central African Republic