January 11, 2011

Dr. Jok Madut Jok is a Jennings Randolph Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace who is currently on leave from the Institute to serve as Undersecretary in the Government of Southern Sudan's Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

On January 3rd 2011, at an event to mark the success of the preparations for Southern Sudan’s long-awaited referendum, the Chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau, Justice Chan Reec Madut, declared that the South is at the brink of making a momentous decision. He said that the hard work of the bureau, the financial, logistical and personnel support by the United States, the European Union, Norway and the United Nations, have all brought the process to remarkable success. The registration was conducted peacefully, 21,000 polling staff have been trained and deployed, ballot papers have been distributed to all the centers, the independent observer missions have identified and trained their staff, and vehicles have been purchased or hired. He thanked the United States for its commitment to ensuring that the people of Southern Sudan get their long awaited wish to make the decision to stay in unity or separate from the North.

Even more remarkable is the short time in which this gigantic endeavor was accomplished, and the meager funds available for it. Initially it was estimated that it would cost $378 million, and commitments were made by the government of National Unity in Khartoum to come up with this sum, but so far “not a piaster has come from Khartoum,” remarked the Chairman. However, the government of Southern Sudan has put up 51 million Sudanese Pounds (approximately $20 million) and the Bureau has used it very effectively, managing to bring the process to where it is now, just moments away from the referendum. At this same event, the representative of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), Minister of Cabinet Affairs Kosti Manibe, announced that money will not be an obstacle to the process and assured the Bureau that “if we have to suspend everything else in order to pay for the referendum, we will do so.” The Minister also joked that “nothing short of the end of the world will prevent the referendum from being conducted on January 9th… I don’t think that the end of the world will come in the next few days…Why would it wait for thousands of years since the beginning of time only for it to happen now, just as we are near our destination?”

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