Dr. James Okuk during an interview with Eye Radio's Emmanuel Joseph Akile, Charles Wote and Lou Nelson in February 21, 2021 -Juba. Credit|Lou Nelson/Eye Radio

A political analyst said the revocation of the SPLM membership of Dr Riek Machar and Pagan Amum by the party’s leadership was needless, adding that the party must first put its house in order.

Dr James Okuk who is a senior research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Policy Studies, stated that the dismissal of the former leaders, will not address the lack of reforms that sparked divisions among members.

Instead, he suggested renaming and transforming the party from a liberation movement to a post-independent political entity.

“They would have come up with a name which is relevant to the Republic of the Republic of South Sudan so that they de-link from the name of Sudan as a first step,” he said.

“After that, they review the constitution of 2008 and that constitution would lead to restructuring, which is what would have brought the personalities, it would have brought the disciplinary measures against a personality or member who goes against the (party) constitution and all this,” Okuk told Eye Radio.

The SPLM Political Bureau on Thursday resolved to remove First Vice President Riek Machar and Pagan Amum from its membership and declared the completion of the party’s reunification process.

Before the 2013 civil war, Dr. Machar was the deputy chairperson of the SPLM while Amum was the party Secretary General.

However, following the conflict, Machar formed what is now known as SPLM-IO, while Pagan later formed The Real SPLM.

But Dr. James Okuk believes the decision has been rushed at an apparent interim period.

“But these things have not been done, and they are a priority before you rush to dismissing or receiving who into the party. The way they are operating is that they are operating on interim level; including the secretary general of the SPLM, he is an interim secretary who does not have full powers,” he said.

“Everybody seems to be interim, so why do you want to operate with an interim arrangement when you are preparing for an election and yet you are supposed to put things right, put the law right and put the regulation right then you can move to the next step.”

“This is what has not been done, it is being ignored and they are jumping into the last thing which is to change the membership; who is a loyal member and who is not a loyal member and whatever.”