Nov 18, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — On the last day of the National Dialogue, November 17, 2020, the co-chair of the National Dialogue steering committee Angelo Beda begged President Kiir to implement the resolutions of the national dialogue conference although they are aware that some of the resolutions are not just controversial but deal breakers.
“My dear President Salva Kiir Mayardit, you have bankrolled this national dialogue materially for four years,” said Angelo Beda in his closing remarks
“Even if the resolutions are controversial, please implement them.” Angelo begs.
To many critics, and president Kiir also acknowledged in his speech, the national dialogue is nothing but a political tool the president is trying to use to impose some decisions the president is afraid to impose through presidential decrees such as the 32 states that he recently abrogated.
“The peace process I was accused of replacing with the National Dialogue is now under implementation” President Kiir said.
“Ladies and gentlemen I’m not raising these points to defend myself from what has been said since this process started. I’m raising them as of way of sharing with you what I believe to be part of the problem” Kiir continued.
President Kiir went on to say that he has heard the issues that were raised by the delegates during the National Dialogue Conference and that they represent the views of the majority of the population in South Sudan.
Speaking during the closing session of the National Dialogue on Tuesday, the president said that the views addressed touched on many issues affecting South Sudanese on multiple levels which include governance, security, economy and social cohesion.
“There is no doubt that the outcome of the National Dialogue represents the views of the broad cross-section of our society on the issues raised,” President Kiir said.
“This means there is no question about the legitimacy of this process,” he added.
After building his argument, President Kiir went on to claim that the outcome of the National Dialogue should be harmonized in the constitution-making process.
“We need to remind ourselves that what has been produced in this process must be harmonized by the permanent constitution-making process, which is provided for in the revitalized peace agreement,” he added.
However, the president warned that the Revitalized Peace Agreement should not be replaced by the consensus reached during the conference.
According to the president, the consensus should be used as a guide to the permanent constitution making.
The national conference commenced two weeks ago and the delegates have raised many issues that they would like the president to ascend to.
Some of the key issues included the endorsement of a federal system of governance and the return to more than 32 states.
To opposition leaders like Dr. Lam Akol, Dr. Riek Machar and others, who declined to attend the National Dialogue, they believe that the whole National Dialogue thing was a scheme.
As expected the whole charade was about recycling the 32 States, imposing the Presidential system and avoiding the Hybrid Court. The cat is out of the bag. The South Sudanese will not be taken in. They have R-ARCSS to implement.
— LamAkol (@akol_lam) November 17, 2020
According to Dr. Lam Akol, the peace agreement provides for most of the political issues that were being dialogue and instead the president should just implement the peace agreement as opposed to holding such these conferences on the sideline.
R-ARCSS provides for a National Constitutional Conference representative of the South Sudanese free from control of the vested interests of the gun class and power elites. This is why they dread it. https://t.co/1Sf3pAItyG
— LamAkol (@akol_lam) November 17, 2020
