Just Saying!: Sudan on my mind!

A tweet referring to an article written by a 'journo' - recently returned from South Sudan - has got me thinking about a visit I got to make to Sudan a few years ago - well, maybe a few more than a few years ago - 2006 to be exact!

I was there with a small delegation from Parliament, accompanying the then Speaker - Baleka Mbete - on Bi-lateral talks. We had first visited the Ethiopian Parliament and MP's in our delegation spent time in both countries interacting with Members of Parliament on various committees and were included in meetings with Sudan's Foreign Minister and the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament.

In 2006 the Sudan Government was still adamant that Sudan would remain one country and - South African International Relations Policy - backed this position. Our interactions with MP's included leaders representing the aspirations of a repressed and impatient people in the South.

I must say, I was often surprised at the liberty I had to ask whatever I wanted and to make it clear where the ACDP disagreed with the majority party and official policy. It seemed to me that Speaker Baleka Mbete used this approach when visiting Islamic countries to illustrate a point - that point being democracy and the diversity we valued.

When I was called on to accompany the Speaker on bi-laterals, I noticed an MP who was an Imam was always included. Our ability to disagree yet respect each other and work together was, I suspect, the message she wanted to convey - a message of respecting differing and even radical views like those of the ACDP and Islam - views that were passionately articulated and argued!

Show-casing democracy in action - in the hope of inspiring leaders of countries with questionable human rights records to change their ways - appeared to be on the agenda. In the meantime, we were living and working in the 'Mbeki' or 'denial era' back home and much of what we modelled was what we aspired to and not exactly what was!!

Going in to Sudan I was conscious that I had been speaking out in our Parliament against human rights abuses in Sudan since 2001 and my ACDP colleagues, Kent Durr MP and Jo-Ann Downs MPL were doing the same - it did cross my mind that Sudan's intelligence would be aware of this!

Fast forwarding to 2013 - we have two countries in place of one and the people of the South have some hard won victories albeit having paid a huge price for this freedom. They are today a resilient, hard-working people and despite under development and glaring poverty they go on with their lives not waiting for government to provide everything for them. The great economic potential is ever-present but so too are the differences with the North over oil fields - realising that potential, frustratingly depends on those differences being settled.