The SPLM/A( Sudan's People Liberation Movement/army) under the command of it's ,departed charismatic leader "Nelson Mandela" of Sudan ,Dr John Garang was and is still the only ploitical entity that could ,sucessfully , address the "SUDAN CAUSE" and to follow that with strong commitment of creating a viable estate that would shelter the whole Sudanese nation regardless of their ethnic, cultural, social and religious background under the umberlla of "NEW SUDAN".
Throuhg out its history of struggle, SPLM/A has been politically and ideologically mature enough to realise that , the country's chronic conflict can not ;and will never be solved without engaging the other political groups or bringing on board the various struggling factions against the centerliased successive regimes in Khartoum, especially the long marginalised indigenous people of areas like Blue Nile, Nouba Mountains, Darfur and Eastern Sudan.
These crucial measures of building coalitions and accompaning the "others" in the long and ex-hausting journey for freedom, were not only proved the credibility of the Movement; but also showed its ability in putting the vision of "NEW SUDAN" in to practice and reality . In 1995 when the SPLM joined the "National Democratic Alliance" it could have been possible to overthrow the current oppressive regime and bring peace, democracy and prosperity to the country ,had the NDA stepped up the fight and lifted to its obligation in the eastern front in order to synchronize the efforts of the Movement in the south , but instead of that they wasted time playing " cat and mouse" against each other ;and spent years hiding in the shadow of SPLM; in fact , the NDA wanted to struggle by "borrowed effort and blood";yes! this is the truth, we are not here to glorify the SPLM, nor to belitell or minimize the role of NDA which was remarkable, and worth-while despite all those shortcomings , but what we are trying to establish is that " in some historical moments one must strike the iron when it is hot " and resistence means "to take the bull by the horns" so, as a consequence of not seizing that opportunity the NDA paid the heavist price; and now it is needless to say that the majority ,if not all, of the Sudanese people who admired the NDA ,and put their trust on it are ,now, utterly disillutioned and completly disappointed and remain with no hope ,but to look back in anger and dismay to its glorious past that would never come back again.
In the end , namely, after the Nifasha peace agreement between the regime in Khartoum and the SPLM that took place due to geopolitical factors, and other elements which may go beyond Sudan's borders, the NDA found it self in no position, or rather "between the devil and the deep blue sea" and has nothing to offer, nor any political or military musceles to show , and end up in a total paralysis and sad fragmentation.
Now we go back to the issue of SPLM , and try to find an answer to the question of why its former leader has been so popular and received such spectacular wellcome up on his arrival in Khartoum air-port, and why such huge number of Sudanese with different backgrounds have marched there to honour him? the answer, in its narrow sense,is that because they believe in him, in his vision, his commitment ,devotion.........etc.And in broad sense ;it lies on the very political doctrine of the movement which bears the following characteristics;
1- Because it was born and evolved in in the southern part of Sudan in 1983, and due to the long -existed conflict between the south and all sucessive governments in Khartoum since 1955 till 2005 the SPLM has been viewed by many, both inetrnally and externally, as "a pure southern Sudanese movement" which came to deal ,only, with that "cause" the people of the south stood up long time for it. But this prima facie conclusion was to be proven untrue later!.
The movement has adopted a remarkable political manifesto aims a complete transformation and total reshaping of Sudan in compatibility with its people's diversity be it cultural, ethnic, social and religioue, which is the only, natural, way out of the country's chronic crisis.
2- The devastating conflict and the awful war between " the two parts of the country" besides the accumulated hostilities and the growing resentment between the marginalized southern sudanese people and the oppressive regimes of the north with their disastrous policies of all out war that has been culminated by the ugly declaration of "holy war" or "jihad" by the current ruling regime targeting the people of southern Sudan ;these policies has, actually, added insult to injury and exacerbated the crisis and re-affirmed the already-existed "linear" classification of the conflict (i.e Arabs versus Black African, Muslims versus Christians) .While no one can negate this classification or challenge those" cultura- religious" dimentions -so to speak- the SPLM, however, has gone anorher step and diagonised the conflict as "spherical" rather than "linear" in other words , the whole issue is a matter of confrontation between the center and the margine of Sudan; the margine that represents the sweeping majority of the indiginous people in the country who have been, systematically, oppressed by the " northern sub-national estate" and excluded from having a say or playing any political, social , cultural or economic role by the "Arabo-Slamic" cultured minority elite in the north.
3-In order to create and establish a viable estate the SPLM has offered the vision of "NEW SUDAN" which is to be built on the ruin of the "OLD SUDAN" or ,if you like, the "Notrhern sub-national estate" that the "Arabo-Islamists" inherit from their former clonial parteners and hijacked it from the indigenous people, this fake estate must be replaced by "new estate" based on unity of diversity and ,equally ,guarantees the right of every single group across the country,regardless of their religion, ethnicity, culture, and governed by the rule of law.
But the big question now, is the whole SPLM's political "project" in jeopardy? especially after the tragic loss of Dr John Garang and the ongoing differences between the ruling military junta and the SPLM ,moreover the "kind of behaviour" and policies that advocated by some of the SPLM leaders in the current government, namely Dr Lam Akol "the sudanese foreign minister" who ,recently, becomes very controversial figure ,not only to those from outside, but from within his own party because of his unblanced declarations and flagrant comments on the issue of Darfur ,in addition to his unacceptable stand towards the massacre of the Sudanese refugees in Cairo, are indeed very worring signs , and constitute a major set back to the SPLM's deams.
Although one should admit that "power" is always attractive and mostly seductive , but not to this extent; when a former university professor ,and great formidable freedom fighter for nearly two decades -such as Dr Lam- throws all that glorious history of struggle to the "dust bin " and accepts to play the role of "devil advocate" and becomes a messenger boy for the Islamic National Front party ,and agree to be used as a tool by this dispicable regime , in such case, the entire set of values that the movement fought for has to come under heavy scrutiny ,but perhaps some may argue that the views expressed by Dr Lam don't, necessarily, reflect those of SPLM ; to them i say: the damage is already been done ,and time for action seems to me inevitable.
The Sudanese regime ,in more than one occation, has implicitly, admitted to the world that it has Armed the Janjawid militia in Darfur and insisted that it needs time to disarm and put them in trial and, in fact, it has ,already, prosecuted some of them-at least to fool the world-but ,to my stonishment , when the Sudanese foreign minister Dr Lam was asked by a BBC reporter on friday 10-03-2006 this question: "can you say your government has no any relation with the Janjawid militia?" Dr Lam replied "no, my government has no any link with the Janjawid"!!! You must be kidding sir, but please don't say "yes" when you want to say "no".