South Sudan not getting full attention of Kiir
By the Khartoum Monitor
Nov 28, 2005 — Wherever he is, Lt-Gen Salva Kiir is clearly not in evidence in Juba. Just two or three days ago, Kiir flew to Juba but before the people in the town knew he was around, he flew back to Khartoum.
He spent less than 24 hours in Southern Sudan’s capital.
Kiir may be the first vice-president of Sudan but he is also the president of Southern Sudan. The people of Juba see Kiir’s heavily guarded motorcade of dark vehicles speeding to and from the airport but very little else of him. He has rarely addressed the people of Juba. He has gone to church to pray. It is good to pray but prayers alone will not help us.
Kiir has not visited the power station to see why there is little electricity in the town. He has not been to the river side to find out why the people of Juba are going thirsty and have virtually no running water despite the fact that the Nile flows nearby. Since his appointment, Kiir has not visited Wau, Malakal and other areas of the south. He has been to Yei, that is okay, but Yei is only a very small part of Southern Sudan.
Southern Sudanese are not getting the full attention of Kiir. The people of Juba are not seeing and hearing enough of and from Kiir. They only hear rumours, most of them bad. The president of Southern Sudan cannot be an absentee landlord. He is not a part-time president. The people of Southern Sudan are complaining, they are more or less being prevented from interacting with their leader. Kiir should reach out to his people.
The security cordon around Kiir is turning away southerners from him. Security is always a concern for leaders, especially those who replace those who lost their lives in suspicious circumstances as is the case in that of Kiir but whenever security becomes excessive, then you lose contact with your people. This is a disaster for any politician.
Any politician who does not listen to the people, nor touch base with the people is a leader doomed to failure due to isolation. It there is any danger to Kiir, it is definitely not going to come from the people of Juba or other southerners.
The people of Southern Sudan are loyal to Kiir, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). They just want Kiir to be close to them so that they together can undertake their commitments to the CPA.