Less than 80 days to the Referendum in Sudan, the North is sabre-rattling. But Southerners are becoming increasingly indifferent to whatever the North throws at them.

For example Sudan’s Information Minister Kamal Mohamed Obeid has warned that Southerners will lose jobs in case the South votes for secession.

President Omar al Bashir refuted this saying that Southerners in the North are protected together with their families, possessions and property.

“Whatever the outcome of the referendum,” Bashir said, “I want to assure you that no Southerner will be chased from the North, his property looted or his life threatened.”

Bashir repeated the same message this week. But in the current divided environment, he might as well be speaking to himself.

One source of criticism from the North is the national anthem drafted for the South. The NCP has said the move to draft a national anthem contravenes the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The South’s anthem is pegged directly to biblical lore in a break with Khartoum, which follows the Koran. The anthem seeks to reclaim a historical place for the people of the South as the architects of ancient civilisation, and the region as the place where the biblical Garden of Eden was based.

In fact, the initial draft alluded directly to verses in the Bible. The final draft, while more subtle, alludes to Sudan’s place in that history.

It starts: “Oh God, /We praise and glorify you /For your grace upon Cush/ The land of great warriors/And origin of the world’s civilization.”

And it ends: “Oh Eden!/Land of milk and honey and hardworking people/Uphold us united in peace and harmony/The Nile, valleys, forests and mountains/Shall be our sources of joy and pride.”

For the past five years of the 2005 peace agreement that ended the North-South civil war, the region has received nothing but criticism, a lot of it a consequence of the war and the absence of systems.

Yet, as they go about preparing for a new nation, Southerners seem to be doing so with a resolve to prove the world wrong.

First, just as the UN Security Council visited Sudan, Kiir pardoned all warlords who have fought against the government.

Gabriel Tang Ginya, one of the first to attack in 2006 in Malakal, leaving hundreds dead, had hitherto been holed up in Khartoum under the NCP. George Athor, while contained and almost defeated, still retains the potential to cause chaos.

Second, after pardoning the warlords, Kiir on October 13 embarked on a three-day political conference with all Southern Sudan political parties in Juba.