GOSS Minister for Regional Cooperation failed trip
By Steve Paterno
March 30, 2007 — The minister of South Sudan government for regional cooperation, Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin who of his career had earned the title of “Dr. Disaster” has once again defied the conventional wisdom as he yet made another failed official trip to the United States of America costing the people of South Sudan thousand of dollars for nothing. On his initial failed visit, the minister was forgiven because he was new on the job and had just inherited a new and deserted ministry with all its broken system following the resignation of Nhial Deng Nhial. The conventional wisdom would have been that the minister will be coming in to take the job so as to resuscitate the neglected Ministry. However, that was not the impression that the minister gave while he was challenged of the malpractices in his ministry, especially on the employment procedures. As oppose to promising reforms, the minister lied and became adamant and angry at the same time as he tried so hard to defend a system that is difficult to defend under a normal circumstances.
His failed attempts to defend the malpractice in his ministry is going to haunt him forever and will define his legacy as the minister for regional cooperation in the government of South Sudan, the first ever ministry of its kind that has been instituted in the history of the government of South Sudan by the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA). For example, the minister lied that he followed the right civil service procedures by advertising open positions, screening the applicants, and employing qualify candidates with bachelor and master degrees in his ministry. Of course, has this not been outright lies, it would not have been a problem in the first place, but since these are lies, they are now haunting the minister and forever will continue to haunt him.
In the minister’s recent trip to the United States of America one will suspect that the purpose of the visit will be for damage control, and the minister will devote much time for that purpose given the blunders the minister created on his initial visit. However, that was not the case either; the public were told by the minister himself that he was accompanying a fellow minister, Madam Awut Deng Achuil who was apparently honored by feminist organization to be a recipient of an award in her leadership role.
One wonders how much such a trip of accompanying an award recipient will cost the cash strapped government of South Sudan. For the calculation purposes, take Madam Awut Acuil aside, and add the cost of transportation of Minister Benjamin to the cost of the reception ceremony of the award, which is three hundred dollars apiece. There were at least other individuals representing the government of South Sudan in the reception ceremony. Assuming that all the money for those attending the ceremony on behalf of the South Sudan is paid by the South Sudan government, this will at least be a lump sum of at least over a thousand dollars, not dinars, an amount that can buy enough chalks for the school children of South Sudan who will learn at least something beneficial for their future. Speaking of calculating the possible cost of a minister’s visit to the U.S., one will need to add a hotel and other expenses to the total. The hotel alone in the District of Columbia cost double than a tent hotel in Juba, but the funny part, the minister who claimed that the purpose of his trip is to accompany Madam Awut Acuil, actually stayed behind days after Madam Acuil left, meaning that he was even incurring more money in his stay on the expense of the people of South Sudan. At a hefty rate starting over two hundred dollars per night, one expects thousands of dollars in hotel expense incurred by the minister on his long stay in the U.S. this is not to mention the other expense. Such would have gotten a Canadian cabinet official into trouble if budget comparison, and cost and benefit analysis are taken into consideration.
Perhaps Dr. Benjamin’s trip was not to accompany a fellow minister who clearly left him behind. May be after all, the trip was for damage control as one will suspect. But how much of a damage control did Dr. Benjamin manage? Well, in a public rally, in Washington, D.C. area, which would have been a venue for the minister to master his damage control skills, the minister instead failed to seize the opportunity. He could not help it but set the people of Christian faith to be angry with him. The minister has been accused on many occasions to have made repeated claims that corruption is something which is not new or started with the government of South Sudan, but something that started in heaven. The mistake was that the minister was continuously making this statement. The result was disaster, and one will not wonder anymore on why a person will earn a name “Disaster.” It was a pastor of a local Sudanese church who stood up to the minister and challenged the minister that as the minister of the church he is very upset to hear that the minister in the government of South Sudan is justifying corruption on the basis that it started in the heaven
Sometimes lies emerge from ignorance but sometimes people just lie because they are liars. In the case of Minister Benjamin, one will not know whether his is ignorance or he is just an outright liar. In this public event where the minister is not expected to tell more lies after telling so many lies before, the minister once again lied making lying his official trademark. When he was asked on whether the SPLM is going to separate the head of liaison office from the SPLM party country representative or whether it is going to be the same way it is now. In his response, the minister acknowledged that currently things are operated under “grey area” meaning that there are no defined lines of operations. The minister went on blaming the SPLM chapter members for electing Ezekiel Gatkouth (who is so much a subject of this issue because he is currently heading the GOSS liaison office in the U.S., acting as civil servant, and at the same time the SPLM party country representative). Well, such open lies will save someone from an intimidation of a lawsuit for calling a minister who clearly lies, a liar, but unfortunately this will not save the minister for not having a proper explanation to the subject. So, in such a case, it will be honorable for Ezekiel Gatkuoth to approach the minister and request him not to lie in public again, especially about Ezekiel Gatkuoth whom the minister lied that he was elected by the SPLM chapter members to be SPLM country representative; no such elections took place.
Another blunder on the minister’s trip to the U.S. is that he ended up on a wrong television talk show program known as Straight Talk Africa on Voice of America (VOA). There are only two things that save the minister from portraying a bad image of South Sudan to the American public. The first reason is that the audience of the show is largely none Americans, and the second reason is that the Americans who watched the show might have anyway misunderstood the minister from South Sudan to be a minister from South Africa, like the Americans always misunderstand Ivory Coast to be West Coast (California). But in that show, Straight Talk Africa, Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin minister for regional cooperation for government of South Sudan was booked together to appear in the same show with Dr. Machivenyika Mapuranga, the Zimbabwean ambassador to the U.S. Not only that the current Zimbabwean government is the most hated in the West, but that minister, Dr. Barnaba Benjamin is now forced in an awkward situation to either condemn or support the Zimbabwean government. However, in any case, as anyone would guess, Dr. Benjamin mumbled in the middle between condemning and supporting the Zimbabwean government, but ended up getting even confused when it came to discuss the issues of Sudan. Instead, it was the host of the show, Shaka Ssali, a Ugandan who has to guide Benjamin on the history of the struggle of the people of South Sudan. Talking of awkward and confusing moments, that was one of them for Dr. Benjamin, but in his case, he has been in a lot of these situations. Eventually, he will learn with time as one will hope.
In another bizarre twisted move that is coincided with the minister’s trip to the U.S., the government of South Sudan liaison office in Washington, D.C. announced that it is partnering in sponsoring the “Miss-South Sudan Beauty Pageant.” This is probably to the credit of Minister Barnaba Benjamin, because in many public occasions, the minister never failed to recognize the current designated Miss South Sudan of the U.S.A. This plus other bizarre interactions between the government of South Sudan officials and the designated Miss South Sudan of the U.S.A. leaves many to wonder on what does the Miss South Sudan Beauty Pageant got to do with the government of South Sudan. According to the Miss South Beauty Pageant website, the organization is a private enterprise operating out of the state of Virginia with the aim to “promote education and seek global advancement for the Southern Sudanese women.” How such a private enterprise becomes a monopoly of the government of South Sudan? One will guess perhaps the South Sudan government, which is defined by lack of prioritization had made a mistake that any entity with the words South Sudan is owned by the government of South Sudan and it is deemed to be mismanaged by the government of South Sudan. This will serve to warn those who try to run entities, organization, or own properties with the word South Sudan in them to be careful of takeover by the government of South Sudan.
The “miss-beauty pageant”, as it is being practiced from around the world in many levels with various names all share some things in common. They are owned and run privately, not by the governments. They host their crowning ceremony annually where contestants compete for the crown. The winners of the crown are awarded and they vow for a cause that they will fight for and promote during their tenure of being crowned. So, if the Miss South Sudan Beauty Pageant of the U.S.A. is sharing some of these characteristics, the best the government of South Sudan can do is to work with the crowned Miss South Sudan of the U.S.A. to advance her cause. But if the GOSS is really into culture and serious about promoting it, then they should organize and sponsor cultural events which include dancing, cooking, etc instead of sponsoring a beauty pageant, which is a private enterprise. There are various South Sudanese communities in the U.S.A. which are likely to participate in such events if organized and sponsored. And such events will draw interest for South Sudan by Americans and others.
And also, if the GOSS liaison office in Washington, D.C. is so obsessed with beauty, fashion and modeling, they will rather not promote that through the pictures of their officials. By American standard, a picture of Ezekiel Gatkouth will remind one of that retarded kid from high school. A picture of Larco Lomayat! Well, hopefully these Americans forget the image of the first drawing of a human being they tried to draw while in their preschools, because such an image will remind them of Larco Lomayat. So, the best the GOSS liaison office in Washington should do instead of being obsessed about their unattractive pictures, they should promote the pictures that reflect the diverse and rich cultures of South Sudan people. There will be so many examples of those pictures, one of which will be a woman wearing tondura or lawo. Do Americans know what a tondura or a lawo is? This will probably be an opportunity not only to teach the Americans about South Sudan traditional fashions but to shape the English language by introducing the terms tondura and lawo into English vocabulary to mean a “garment that hangs freely from the waist down worn by women in South Sudan” is called tondura or a “long loose garment tied up on a shoulder being worn by the people of South Sudan” is called lawo. In short, the GOSS liaison office should promote pictures that attract the Americans and others to gain interest in South Sudan culture, people, art, fashion, etc. not pictures of unattractive looking Sudanese men from America.
Anyway, all these mess can be attributed to one man, Dr. Benjamin. The interesting part is that he got nothing to loose as a person, but instead it is the ministry that he is heading which belongs to South Sudan that is suffering under his poor leadership. His performance can best be assessed by the blunders that he created on his two trips to the U.S., which all resulted into failures. Now, one wonders what is next. Perhaps more “Disaster.” But the South is bigger than that and more versatile that it will prevail in the midst of disaster.
* Steve Paterno is a Sudanese residing in the U.S.A., and he can be reached at [email protected]