South Sudan faces an uncertain future. As you all know, our country is now languishing in the abyss of man-made crises as well as natural crises. These crises include political crisis that has caused civil war, the war has caused humanitarian crisis that has made more than half our population refugees and impoverished, serious human rights abuses, corruption, frequent unprecedented floods and droughts. Lack of basic services and the threat of famine have raised the level of crimes such as highways robberies and cattle rustlings which is tearing our communities apart. All these crises have put our country in a dire economic crisis and now our people work just like slaves with no salaries for years now and the situation worsens as time goes. The ongoing conflict and insecurity have pushed millions to the brink of starvation for years now.

To tackle these challenges and to bring our people together and put our nation on the path to the Promised Land, the Sunrise Democratic Party (SDP) has been founded as a result of the cries from the ordinary people and the vulnerable group; the youth, women, the disabled, farmers, small businesses and the ordinary workers. The SDP is founded on principles and it’s goal-oriented.

The SDP believes that for South Sudan to be stable and prosperous, it must achieve peace, unity, initiate development of basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges, airports, railways, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, ICT infrastructure, give her citizens paid jobs to enjoy the dignity of work and end poverty, establish institutions of democracy and good governance. South Sudan must achieve transparency and accountability to end corruption. The SDP aspire to respect human rights so that anybody living in South Sudan regardless of their backgrounds, citizens or non-citizens are treated with dignity and respect according to all the principles outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Sunrise Democratic Party endeavours for a fairer society where people should be treated fairly in the distribution of the benefits and burdens of society, the correction of wrongs and injuries, and in the gathering of information and making of decisions. Everyone must be treated equally in the application of the law, no one is above the law.

Finally, if we work together and the whole nation is behind the SDP, we shall achieve peace and stability, create jobs, end poverty and build a better life for all the South Sudanese. We must act with greater determination to get to the Promised Land. By working together, we can establish democracy and develop South Sudan to achieve the vision of the Sunrise Democratic Party of ‘building a better country for all.’