Dr. Lam Akol Aiawin: You have skewed your legacy!

By Luk Kuth Dak

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. puts it best; “ A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder for consensus.”

July 11, 2009 — It is incredibly bizarre and surreal that at this epoch, some people in South Sudan do still believe that leaders and politicians are, in fact,’ supper human’ who perhaps do not make mistakes like average and ordinary human beings. Such appalling mentality of worshiping leaders and politicians simply because someone happened to hold a PhD, is only parallel to the conventional wisdom of some individuals who support somebody based solely on his/ her tribal background and not their beliefs, character, ideology, and principles.

As a matter of fact, our biggest problem and the most troubling of all, is by far the fact that we have plenty of politicians, but only a few of them could be described as leaders.

Virtually, there is a thin line between a leader and a politician. Warren G. Dennis described leadership as a civil realization phenomenon. He said, “ Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.” And Travis Smiley, a distinguished nationally syndicated television and radio personality in the United States of America has it that: “ Leadership is not an “ I” proposition. It is a “ you” proposition.” “ When you do that, he added, the public elevates you. It gives you its trust, and it will hold you accountable.”

Consequently, what we need in South Sudan is more of those servant leaders, who will have the peoples’ interest at heart before their own. Even more so, we truly need leaders who really care and sufficiently believe in the unity of the people of South Sudan, and the overall population of the marginalized areas.

Unfortunately, South Sudan’s political landscape is pretty much dominated by some of the self – proclaimed leaders who are, indeed, practicing a “ me” proposition type of leadership, thereby becoming instead, the tools the Islamic National Front (INF) and the National Congress Party (NCP) desperately needed in the implementation of their strategic plans and policies to conquer and divide- and- rule the South Sudan. That clearly explains why Khartoum regime continues to celebrate Dr. Lam Akol’s defection from the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM/A).

Since the launching of his newly founded party, the INF/NCP affiliated media, and indeed, some high-ranking officials within the organization wasted no time to show their love and admiration for the birth of the so-called (SPLM.DC) under the leadership of one of there own. In truth, their celebration was more like a home-coming type of thing, for a hero coming home from war. In addition, the simultaneous timing of the release of Dr. Lam’s book “ The Sudan Peoples liberation Movement, an African Revolution” and his defection from the (SPLM/A raise some very serious questions, and it can not be legitimized as if it were a matter of coincidence – unless if we are seriously underestimating Dr. Akol’s ill-intentions towards South Sudan’s unity.

Of course, Dr. Lam Akol has the right to sell his intellectual talents to the highest bidder. He has earned those rights dutifully, after all. The problem, however, is when he tries to sell the South, then, it is only fair that the Southern Sudanese also have the right to know, how much they are being sold for and why?

Most important, my vocal battle with the “ Jallaba golden boys” particularly with the former minister of foreign affairs, Dr. Lam Akol, is an illusionary circumstance generated by his devious political positions on matters of utmost importance to the presence and the future of our nation. Certainly, I have no personal grudges against him, and I have never criticized him personally, even though I have exasperated some of his followers. The Truth of the matter is, criticizing public personalities comes with the territory, as Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of States once said. And as I said before, if Lam Akol were just a he were just an ordinary man in South Sudan, I would have not mentioned his name, ever.

For all fairness, I once considered Dr. Lam Akol as one of the most charming, most intelligent and most loyal leaders in South Sudan, may be even all of Sudan. I met him several times before in Sudan, and again here in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. He articulately and intelligently answered my questions and that of Kormach Gak Deng. We naively agreed because of the Little we knew that South Sudan was in good hands.

On a personal level, I owe Dr. Lam’s family a favor. Without the assistance of his brother and my former colleague at Juba radio Ustaz Moses Mojok Akol, the Sudanese Ambassador in Stockholm, I could have been deported to Sudan, for violating my student visa. But Moses, then a US citizen already, supported my asylum application with a powerful letter of recommendation to the Immigration authorities in which he informed them bluntly that my life could be in an eminent danger, should I be forced to return Sudan.

Yet, the question that lingers around every time Dr. Lam’s legacy is mentioned is: how does a man so talented, so intelligent and so smart, become so reckless and so hasty about his legacy to the point that he would much rather be in alliance with an Islamic fanatic regime, whose goals are to obliterate South Sudan, and who systematically responsible for the demise of over two million Southern Sudan souls under its belt?

Although I categorically disagree with Mr. Riek Gai Kok, the Presidential Advisor to the embattled President Omar al-Basher, but you can’t help but respect the man , for sticking to his principles, and did so in broad day light.

Perhaps Dr. Akol should follow suit and switch to the NCP/INF, maybe, just maybe, his bold stance will resonate with his constituents, especially in the up coming elections.

Flip flopping has its end.

The author is former anchorman with Juba radio and Sudan Tribune contributor. He can be reached at [email protected].