Salva Kiir?s political clouds
By Kor Tot
Nov 10, 2005 — Southern Sudan is by far the most neglected region in the entire world-and the question at issue becomes-what will it takes to reconfigure it from a neglected region to a viable one? Well, it will probably take more variables than we could imagine and the most important of all these variables would be leadership, of course. Salva Kiir is currently in the forefront of our next round of struggle, a struggle that is likely to be more difficult than the one he was part of during the last 22 years.
Unlike the first phase of our struggle when Kiir and his colleagues were evaluated based on battle field victories, the next phase would be pretty much different. As the head of the government of the autonomous south Sudan, Kiir will be evaluated by his performances in a political context, the first test of which was the formation of the government of South Sudan.
Soon after Kiir ascended to the position of chairman of the SPLM after the tragic loss of our historical leader Dr John Garang, there were high expectations among Southerners that his views on issues related to self-determination for southern Sudan as well as unity in the south were totally different than that of his predecessor. In contrary, the nominations of cabinets for the Government of National Unity, the Government of South Sudan, and some of the speeches he delivered while in Khartoum, are sure signs that Salva Kiir may not be who we think he is, except for some individuals in his own political circle. President Kiir has yet to show us what makes him different than his predecessor. You can have a different point of view while at the same you follow the SPLM mission. Dr Garang’s vision that President Kiir often times claims to follow is a point of view and not the gold standard for crafting a reasonable public policy. Even worst, the vision is associated with New Sudan agenda which is not popular in the South let alone that it comes with a few number of setbacks many examples of which Salva Kiir pointed out in the “famous Rumbek meeting”.
The October, 2005 letter of grievance written by individuals in his own political party “SPLM Nuer Caucuses” is one good reason why we shouldn’t be too optimistic about Salva Kiir on issues we think are important to southern Sudanese communities across the board. No one is sure what factors Mr. Kiir used when he nominated candidates for cabinet positions for both GONU and GOSS but Lam Akol told a gathering of Southern Sudanese in Omaha, NE on Saturday Nov/5 that the factor used in nominating candidates for those positions “was not based on race rather it was based on qualifications of the individuals nominated”.
Qualifications – as Dr Lam Akol asserts, is analogous to tribalism in this particular case. Just as we have a moral obligation to give equal consideration to the interests of all ethnic groups that make up Southern Sudan, Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains and Abbei, so, too, we have a moral obligation to give the same consideration to the people of these areas when making nominations for public offices. Not giving equal consideration to the interests of other ethnic groups is tribalism and is immoral. The evidences contained in the “letter of grievances by Nuer SPLM Caucuses” are not isolated – they underlie a pattern of systematic discrimination based on ethnicity that the moment (SPLM) has used for quite sometimes. Thus, Kiir’s administration must turn things around in ways that do not undermine ethnicity relations in Southern Sudan.
Kiir’s leadership is also instrumental in getting various departments he has just created up and running. If “qualification” was indeed the factor taken into account when filling the cabinet positions for the GOSS then Kiir should have good reason to be confident in those he nominated for starting up and running our newly created ministries and Southern Sudanese should also have good reasons to believe that help is on the way in terms of a working healthcare system, a network of roads across the entire southern Sudan, a credible financial system, a highly refutable criminal Justice system, etc.
After all, it will be Salva kiir Mayardit who takes credit for the job well done if he carefully takes into account all the grievances that every citizen under his command might have, develop effective and ethical public policies for our newly created institutions, assemble a skilled workforce by urging the southern Sudanese Diaspora to come home, establish a suitable education system that will meet our human resource needs, and introduce a criminal justice system that will adhere to the rule of law, principles of democracy and respect for human rights.
The author is a Sudanese living in Overland Park, KS – U.S.A. Email : [email protected]