End peace talks through IGAD
By Luk Kuth Dak.
It’s time for Dr. Riek Machar Teny to come up with a totally new strategy in handling the affairs of the movement he chairs. It must begin by admitting that the name SPLM/ A-In- Opposition doesn’t make any sense in the real world, that peace will never come to South Sudan by way of the so-called IGAD, and that a unified SPLM/A will never be reconstituted.
Because the deeply seated division has already happened and will not be reversed. The unfortunate reality is that the SPLM/A no longer is the powerhouse movement it once was under the leadership of the late Dr. John Garang De Mabior.
Today, mostly everybody in South Sudan- including fair-minded Jieeng- believe that the SPLM/A has long been buried along side its founding father, Dr. Garang.
The current SPLM/A, deeply tribal, bigoted, corrupt, divisive and beholden to Uganda, shouldn’t be an example to follow. Quite frankly, If anything, this SPLM/A is nothing but a total disgrace to the people of S. Sudan and thier allies around the world. Certainly, that’s not what Dr. John Garang had intended when he founded the movement in 1983.
Look where the crooks-Pagan Amum, John Luk Jok and Deng Alor who first instigated the crisis that ultimately resulted in the destruction of the nation- are today? In Juba. By so doing, they have proven what we had all along thought of them in the first place: agents of evil, whose goal from the very beginning has been sedulously dividing our people by using tribalism to foment hatred among them.
Well, they have succeeded. Didn’t they?
Their flunkies are now in full blather praising them as heroes, but there is NO question about the innocent Nuer civilians, who were savagely massacred in a broad day light.
Although the Nuer are well known for bravery and forgiveness among other things, they will never forgive Pagan Amum, for the disparaging remarks he made in the aftermath of the Nuer massacre at the hands of his boss, Salva Kiir.
Meanwhile, Dr. Machar faces increasing criticism from all angles, for not being tough enough with Juba, combine with failure to put together a solid coalition of the marginalized South Sudanese. As a result, the regime continues to score propaganda victories by showing up at peace talks just to distract him from being in the battle field.
Today, his fighters are starving for weapons and uniforms, not to mention that their commanders are ill-trained demoralized by the absence of their Commander-in- Chief.
Ironically, even some of Machar’s strong supporters think that he’s not the same person by any stretch of imagination. His return to Juba, they insist, is just a matter of time!!
I disagree.
Dr. Riek Machar’s a moral leader and certainly a man of his word. He still has a chance to rally the nation behind him, but only if he maximizes his potential.
That remains to be seen.
Luk Kuth Dak’s a former broadcasting journalist with Juba Radio. He can be reached at: [email protected].