By Abraham Matiop Alier

January 13, 2009 — when Salva Kiir Mayardit took over the SPLM/SPLA leadership four years ago, it was a jubilant and joyous moment among masses across Southern Sudan that the vision of their movement was vested in right man. On the very first day of his speech, he went on to electrified the populaces that the SPLM/SPLA under his leadership will have no sympathy with nepotism, tribalism, embezzlement, and above all corruption in which he introduced his zero tolerance policy. He did not stop there either, but also went on to claim the SPLM/SPLA to be an engine without irreversible gear that would carry on the cruxes of the movement letter by a letter and an article by an article. But that was not it all. Once gain on September 6, 2006, our President Mayardit announced before GOSS legislative Assembly and I quote him “His government has launched a 200 Day Action Plan as means to monitor and follow up the implementation of programmes of action allocated to each ministry or institution pertaining to rehabilitation of Physical Infrastructure, Provision of basic social services, Maintenance of peace and security, building the Economy, and Strengthening public institutions and good governance at all levels of government in Southern Sudan.” If we did or did not accomplish any of the articulated projects as our government was/is a vanguard of those initiatives or had we created aggressive more programmes to satisfy ordinary Southern Sudanese basic needs, is something left for people themselves to judge. But this writer believes there is a reason to be suspicious about the present GOSS under leadership of Mayardit as the irreversible gear of change has only found itself oscillating in awkward and moot position as it steers away from being national movement into regional affidavit where one region, the Bhar El Gazaal is reaping the benefits of all. Perhaps, that was lack of logic on part of the people of Southern Sudan to ascertain future peculiar sadism, or they were too apolitical to predict fratricide of the movement by their own President’s tribal cahoots. Paradoxically, the 200 Day Action Plan has truly brought disappointment upon the populace who long for good governance, security and transportation systems. Perhaps it was just a passing cloud that was meant to go away, or was an empty bluff that was left to rote in GOSS parliament floor on that very day it was announced. Unlike distribution of cash to Gogrial-Aweil students in Kampala and other foreign capitals, Mr. President what these people need are basic services like education, hospitals, and interstate roads that must ameliorate their standard of survival to modern standard of living.

 However, the history of failures of GOSS leadership went back to four years ago when the people of Southern Sudan were betrayed by their own government when Mayardit made concessions after concessions and appeasements after appeasements during ministerial allocations and the useless Juba declaration in which all the feeble-hearted quislings who stabbed the movement in the back were given amnesty. When it comes to national reconciliation and genuine unity of the Sudanese people, there is nothing wrong with vital symposium of the people of Southern Sudan in particular and Sudan in general except that the iconoclastic Juba Declaration had open many loopholes for more future renegades and killers who never pose element of nationalism at their hearts from inception of movement to these days. But with these fifth columns peace can only be accomplish via bribery with blood money and South-South dialogue; a thing that has been becomes a political cacophony to various NCP funded castrated political organizations. In nutshell, the surest way to get a GOSS position is to pose a threat and collaborate with Khartoum masters of Pogroms in Darfur and Southern Sudan (see Tom El Nur, Ismaeli Konyi and Matip Nhial in Juba hotels). In fact, if the GOSS was negotiating on panorama in power sharing with government of national unity (GONU), either two ministerial positions among four ministries of Energy & Mining and Finance; and or National Interior and National Defense would have gone to SPLM/SPLA, but all to no avail! Sadly, the arbiter of Sudanese political apportion, the National Congress Party was the sole winner of GONU position allocations when it walked away with all four ministers, yet our president shamelessly went on public radio and said “we cannot go back to war because of those positions.” What follow in bona fide was a calculated Brigandage in distribution of national resources particularly oil and raiding of the SPLM/SPLA premises in Khartoum including defacing of statue of our national hero Dr. John Garang by NCP security organization. To add a grain of salt to this an insult indeed the people of Southern Sudan were smack in their faces for second times but the worst part was venomous and shameful political squabbles on TV screens by GOSS officials that they were not getting 50% of their shares of oil let alone forget Ministers of Energy and Mining, and Finance responsible for distribution of wealth. Weren’t they aware that NCP will be the sole distributor of the very oil drill from their own backyard when they surrendered those ministries to wily Omar El Beshir? But that was not end of disagreements. There was even a time when the GOSS withdrew from GONU only to walk back with shameful faces without border demarcation, the Sudan Army Forces’ withdrawal and the issue of Abyei remains unresolved. That withdrawal and walked back empty-handedly were enough litmus tests for the people of Southern Sudan to know the debilitations of their leaders beforehand. The enemy was emboldened in their stance toward SPLM/SPLA until today the national borders of the north and south just remained in the air. Maybe they should have learn from our staunch ally Eritrea which supported us militarily and financially during those hard days a good lesson to how border wars are fought with neighbors. Instead the Juba fat cats with protruding bellies spend their time in luxurious foreign hotels and not in government buildings to learn good governance system and the rule of law. So the question which one can beg here is, can the people of Southern Sudan have referendum in 2011, and if so, what would define the national borders if the NCP is still dragging its feet in demarcating borders? What define a country or a nation state is national frontiers and if people of Southern Sudan decide to vote for separation, frankly speaking this means voting for inevitable war with the north and unity means approval of second citizenship status. The ball is being dangerously played in my opinion and the risks are too high to predict the tip of the iceberg!!

Once upon a time there was an unproven conspiracy in the past Kenya in which the former President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was quoted on condition of anonymity to have said to his Kikuyu kinsmen that, “as long as he was holding the horns of cow (nation of Kenya) firmly, it was up to each of his fellow Kikuyu to fetch the best jug of his right size and milk the cow before he release her horns.” Not only did the kikuyu heed his advices but were smart enough to milked the cow and divided the homeland of Kenya into new Gikuyuland. In addition, Central Province was to be owned by Kikuyu and no another tribe whatsoever. This blind tribal affiliation plus colonial historical injustice clinched it all and triggered unprecedented ethnic violence during the national election time in Kenya a year ago. Basically, the Kalenjin and the Masaai angers were justified because their land was robbed from them. This myth is applicable to current Southern Sudan political environment. If there is a government that has failed and polarized its own people in many ways then it is GOSS. The ethnic kaleidoscope and parochial political expediency that has befallen Southern Sudan national offices in Juba did not just happen coincidently. The tribalisation and clanisation of Southern Sudan ministries either did not happen by a chance. Some comrades who stood with the movement during those bad days have found themselves as peepholes and carpetbaggers of the GOSS, yet their replacements are nothing but bunch of cocoons. Every single day they occupy new GOSS office premises in Juba is every day they pound their chests with tribal reservoirs and perturbations. In Juba, what is left is to see to it that our tribal languages are made official medium of communication in GOSS ministries and directories as an endemic tribal superiority syndrome replace national spirit which existed during the war. It is once said by Chinua Achebe, “when bones are mentioned in conversation old women feel uneasy” and this proverb could no more be paradoxically true when it comes to our President Mayardit. Our very education we toil hard to acquire is being overshadowed by tribal myopia in the land of Salva Kiir, as one comrade called it emerging Twic Mayardit. What one fails to understand is the different between him and comrade Jok Riak, the man who fought hard to find his way up the SPLM/SPLA ranks, yet he was replaced with half-hearted crooks who simply hailed from the same tribe with our President. This is what our president called qualification but the author called that a bona fide accentuation and acculturation of tribal oath of allegiance. Now the SPLM/SPLA is tanking in middle of ocean without good articulated visionary leader and it is up to people of Southern Sudan to judge this austerity.

 Mr. President, I can be no meaner and deny the accomplishments your government on the ground like passing only four laws within last four years….which translated into a law per a year. But where on earth Mr. President does the parliament passes a law for whole year? Also, other achievements within the last four years were reduction of Abyei town to rubble, appointment of the first female into governorship of Western Equatoria and removal of comrades Antony Bol Madut, Madut Biar Yel and Philip Thon Leek from governorships of Northern Bhar El Gazaal, Warrap and Jonglei States. In addition, are your endless presidential decrees which brought job mismatches and the takeover of GOSS by high school dropouts and Kansas City GED advisors (no name calling folks to justify this point here). All these paradigm shifts Mr. President are your making so that your kinsmen get accommodation at GOSS table of wholesale looting spree and brigandage of public funds. Why is it that your government failed to address the issue of inflation in Juba and other cities of Southern Sudan? Mr. President, why is it taking six months to pay our gallant fighters, the SPLA combatants in uniforms, yet 40% of GOSS budget is allocated to them? I could give you a friendly advice that history has shown those who set the foundations of any nation never acquire huge wealth like your ministers and generals Mr. President, but only monuments and statues are built on their memorials and great achievements and good names. Do you see yourself being Joshua of the people? The inflation in juba where one can spend $100 a night in grass-thatched houses and filthy restaurants and hotels own by SPLA top generals is your creation. This is where the SPLA soldiers’ money is being spent plus excessive drinking and foreign rent apartments in Kampala and Nairobi by those generals. In Your government the SPLA soldier is carpetbagger and the high priced foreign concubines are harvesting the dividends of peace. However, this SPLA soldier, the comrade who endure much suffering during the war is left with no choice but to survive on cutting down of trees to make charcoal and sell them in local KonyKonyo Market. When war resume, the very generals who acquire much wealth will run to foreign capitals and the SPLA soldier who go without food will be left to defend the dignity of Southern Sudan people. There was nothing joyous Mr. President when comrade Kuol Manyang Juuk, the honorable and incorruptible general among your generals was to become the SPLA minister affairs. However, your fifth column, the USA Kansas City GED advisors and former Canadian security guard vetoed your appointment simply because Kuol would have been a hell of fire to deal with. There can be no reason why your appointment was an impulsive in nature and if you or your advisors truly listen to the voices of people, you would have confirmed that even Madingaweil.com, the mouthpiece of your government was supporting Mr. Kuol. But without doubt this appointment was done inside Juba hotel at the table of beer drinking. Most importantly, it brought relieve upon Nyegats and traitors who see where there is a window of opportunity and allied themselves be either enemy rather their own people. It is once said by barefooted SPLA soldier, “If northern Arab was food which did not have legs or shoot people with guns and tanks, it would have been eaten at borders of the north and south by the so called majority tribes before it reaches the far peripheries of Southern Sudan, and because it has legs and guns, every region of Southern Sudan has share of it.” This uneducated soldier was right in his judgment because when it comes to resource/position allocations, there are majority representations and when it comes to war there are communities with lots of trenches and not bowls of food. This last appointment was the most regret of your life when you issued a pressured, impulsive decree and took a plane to Nairobi in the name of sickness but ironically you did not know what to tell comrade Kuol.  Your people, the people of Southern Sudan know the bravery of Governor Kuol and he would never be ashamed regardless of your action let alone appointed you for that very position.

Inconclusion, while there is rampant nepotism, tribalism, corruption and embezzlement within GOSS, the best mechanisms to combat these vice acculturations which undermined social development are creation of new laws of corruption, outlaw tribalism as an offense and hire people on merits of their qualifications to avoid job mismatches. It was a combination of job confusion and mismatch, and tribal retribution which led to last year showdown between Minister of Labour Awout Deng Achuil and Minister of Constitutional Development and Attorney General Mowlana Makuei Lueth Kang. In civilized society the Attorney General is no match for Minister of Labour but because of your blank check, it did happen in your watch Mr. President. Build regional hospitals, and instate roads between regions of Southern Sudan and give Southern Sudan police power to arrest foreign concubines who roam Juba and other cities on their will to minimize sexual transmitted diseases (STDs). Pass new laws to control beers and other substances as a mean of instilling our people in right direction. It is a duty of the government to see to it that people are taken care off in case of breakdown of responsibilities. In fact, the war had left unwanted by-products like excessive drinking, prostitution, killings and thefts and they must be confront accordingly. The last year inter-clan fighting and tension in Lakes and Warrap States plus large scale child abduction in Jonglei state were/are not mare teething problems but failure of both a traditional and national systems. For it is respect for rule of law and none institutionalization of corruption by empowering anti-corruption committee and hold the former and latter accountable for embezzling public money that would create cornerstone of your government. Reform the current GOSS economy from underground to real economy where taxes pay by our people don’t end up in the pockets of high school dropouts at illegitimate check points. Give higher GOSS position to any citizens of Southern Sudan irrespective of their originality whether Equatorians, The Anuak, Nuer, Shilluk, etc, because there can be no reason why one region, or tribe is entrusted with defend and development of Southern Sudan. Mr. President if you are sincere in your commitment to serve your people wholeheartedly as your closed associates (kinsmen) wanted us to believe, there can be no reason why all the important ministries went to one region.  You must not be a brainchild of bad guys who wrote unfiltered speeches only to make sure that their interests are secure before majority’s needs. Good luck with your job Mr. President!!

By Abraham Matiop Alier: The author is a senior student at University of Illinois pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. Be advice that all the contents of this article are solely for author and he does not speak for any group or community. Questions regarding this article must be address to matiopalier@yahoo.com or  matiopalier@madingbor.com