SPLM Secretary General Amum says Kiir’s suspension of ministers was politically motivated
July 7, 2013 (JUBA) – The Secretary General of the South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum Okiech, has openly criticized the recent suspension of two national ministers by President Salva Kiir Mayardit, saying Kiir’s action was wrong and politically motivated.
Kiir, also the chairman of the SPLM, lifted the immunity of the two ministers who are also senior party officials in politburo and formed an investigation committee to dig out the truth of the matter, promising to prosecute them if they are found guilty of stealing the money.
However in a press conference he conducted in Juba on Friday, Amum said Kiir’s action left the real culprit untouched and instead landed on the wrong victim, referring to Kosti Manibe.
“The Minister who approved the transferred amount is different, how can you withdraw the immunity of Kosti and leave the person who decided and signed the transfers? I agree with Kosti that the issue was political,” Amum said, almost confirming speculations that the current acting minister of finance and economic planning, Marial Awou, was the true culprit.
He decried victimization of people seen to be political adversaries while leaving the real culprits, indicating the wrong way the leadership has been trying to fight the rampant corruption which eats up the country.
Kiir last year wrote a letter to 75 former and current senior officials of his government, asking them to account for the disputed figure of $4 billion lost in the system.
This could be his first time to seriously investigate and/or prosecute a senior official for corruption after the failed attempt to arrest the first minister of finance, Arthur Akwen Chol, in 2007.
The top administrator of the ruling party, Amum, warned that such politically motivated actions may general mistrust and tribal tensions in the two-year old nation.
He is the first senior party official to publicly react to the suspension of the two ministers who are seen to have been opposed to Kiir’s bid for a third term in office either in party or government.
The party SG is also among the senior party officials who want to contest against the incumbent who has been the party chairman since 2005, criticizing him of failure to lead the nation-state building.
Vice-president, Riek Machar, who is also the ruling party’s deputy chairman and late John Garang’s widow, Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior, who is a presidential advisor, declared their opposition to Kiir’s bid for another term.
Machar commended Kiir for implementing the 2005 peace deal, conducting the referendum and declaring independence of South Sudan, saying this would be a good legacy for him. He announced his intention to succeed him in the party chairmanship this year and in the 2015 presidential elections in order to rigorously address the challenges of nation building.
The speaker of the national parliament, James Wani Igga, reportedly said he would only contest if Kiir abandons the chair. Analysts however say Igga has no considerable support even within his home state of Central Equatoria where he is being challenged internally and this could well explain his current lukewarm position.
The party was supposed to pass its basic documents such as the constitution, manifesto, internal regulations and code of conduct before any leadership elections but the processes have mysteriously come to a standstill.
The spokesman of the SPLM, Yien Matthew, in a Sunday debate on the Juba-based UN-sponsored Miraya radio involving panellists from different political parties and activists, admitted that there have been unfortunate attempts by the leadership to avoid the conduct of the national liberation council meeting and the convening of the national convention where the basic documents could be passed and new leadership elected.
There have been widespread speculations that president Kiir has been thinking of either removing Amum from the party position or giving the office of the president the power to organize such events due to mistrust he has upon Amum.
However, the party chairman would have difficulty removing Amum by a unilateral order since he was elected by the national liberation council and not an appointee of the chairman.
Similar speculations also suggest that if Kiir continues to bend on resisting the internal democratic transformational processes to change his leadership he may also decide to remove the current vice-president Riek Machar by a presidential decree.
The current transitional constitution however also requires 2/3 majority yes-vote of the national parliament in order for the president to remove the vice-president, making it yet difficult to go through.
Also concerns arise that any unilateral action against Machar by Kiir would be unconvincing to many of the former’s supporters and can cause resistance and tensions.
Analysts suggest that Kiir has no many other healthy options to look at in the situation of such mounting embarrassing internal criticisms and opposition by his most senior officials and closest aides in government and party.
“In real politics he would rather call for an emergency national convention of the party to elect a new leadership or step down from the government and allow for fresh elections in order to save his legacy,” said an anonymous analyst, who also expressed fears that Kiir’s continuous act of lending a deaf ear to the unfolding situation may groom tensions and even violence.
SPLM SPOKESMAN ADMITS FAILURE OF THE RULING PARTY LEADERSHIP IN GOVERNEMNT
The spokesman of the ruling SPLM, Yien Matthews, has admitted failure of the leadership of the SPLM-led government, citing corruption as the most challenging disease.
Matthews, who expressed the party’s official view during a Sunday debate on the status-quo with representatives of other South Sudanese political parties and civil society activists, blamed the failure on the top leadership in government, saying they had detached themselves from the party.
He said it was true that the party had lost “vision and direction” as confirmed by the reports from the ten states.
He said the SPLM as a party was doing well but its leadership in government was responsible for the failures such as lack of services delivery to the people.
The party spokesman did not however explain how the same leadership personalities in the two institutions could perform well in formulating the party policies while at the same time failing to implement the same party policies in government.
The party SG Amum recently came under fierce criticisms for failure to implement the party policies to the grassroots level.
Amum has been in charge of administration and all the party states secretariats and directly reports to the chairman.
(ST)