South Sudan president in action

By Steve Paterno

July 28, 2013 – For over the years, the government of South Sudan is dogged with corruption, incompetence, and insubordination. The transitional constitution of South Sudan confers onto the president a swiping powers to arrest and fire any officials at will. For all this time, the president is accused of indecisiveness and for lack of actions against the corrupt and incompetent officials. However, of a recent, the president take public imagination by storm. He acted to the delight of the citizenry. He started by retiring corrupt and redundant high military officials. And then he summarily dismissed two powerful members of cabinets for corruption allegations. The minister of finance, Kosti Manibe and minister of cabinet affairs, Deng Alor are implicated in corruption and will likely be prosecuted, according to the president. Even more daring, the president fired all the ministers, their deputies, the vice president, and the secretary general of the ruling party, the SPLM, to rid of corruption, incompetence and insubordination. It has been almost a week now since the president took that daring move. Most of the public were feed on rumors that the country will explode and dissent into chaos, but truthfully, it never deed.

The source of the rumors include the vice President, the SPLM Secretary General, and those ministers who will never regain their positions after the formation of the new government. The vice president was a hostile partner to the president and he was insubordinating, even to the point of sabotaging the president’s actions. Therefore, he must go as the members of the public agree.

The SPLM Secretary General proved his incompetence and perhaps corrupt actions. He is awaiting investigation for corruption. Those ministers who will not make back to the government will be the very one to blame the same government they served, but now they are not in, they feel they can blame the very system that they corrupted. They must all be investigated and charge, even need to be.

Now the members of the public are waiting for the formation of the new government and that must usher in change and change for the better. For all the struggle and suffering, the president must make a better choice for the vice president, a person who exhort the core of SPLM/A through his or her life and be ready to deliver for years to come. The cabinet members must share the same traits. Otherwise, the moment has come.

Steve Paterno is the author of The Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lohure, A Romain Catholic Priest Turned Rebel. He can be reached at [email protected]