Dismissal of Bona Malwal and the problem of Unity State Assembly’s members
To: Hon. Dr. Martin Elia
– Chairman of South Sudan Democratic Forum Party
– Juba, South Sudan
Dear Mr. Chairman,
We, the undersigned members of South Sudan Democratic Forum Party, are
appealing to your leadership to rescue the party from internal collapse. As
founding members of the party, we want to bring to your attention the
failure of your leadership to address the problems faced by our party.
The first problem is the violation of the Constitution of the party in the
nomination of South Sudan ambassadors. As you already now, the nomination
was conducted based on the power-sharing protocol of the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement, which states that SPLM party has 70% of power while the rest are
divided by other parties. In the issue ambassadors, the National Congress
Party does not need to be represented because there are already NCP’s
ambassadors abroad. Therefore, it is SPLM and other parties that should
share the ambassadorial positions meaning that the Democratic Forum and
other parties should get 15% of the South Sudan ambassadors.
Although the SPLM party partially implemented the power-sharing protocol in
the nomination of the ambassadors, what disturbed us is the violation of our
party’s procedures to fill the position allocated to Democratic Forum. We
are shocked to see the name of Akuei Bona Malwal as ambassador representing
the Democratic Forum not because he is not a member of the party, but
because his name was not on the list of the people nominated to serve in
foreign service. Nobody could doubt the loyalty of Akuei Bona to our party;
however, his name was not on the list of the people proposed to work in
foreign service.
Due to the violation of the procedures of our party’s constitution, we have
a moral authority to question the one who brought Akuei through backdoor.
The culprit within our party who did that is nobody other than his father,
Hon. Bona Malwal Madut. We would like to refer to him as uncle Bona Malwal
in this letter because there is no honorable person who could violate the
rules of the party because he has undue influence on President Salva Kiir.
Mr. Chairman,
You know that Bona Malwal was accepted as a member of the party in 2003 to
assist us in dealing with late Dr. John Garang. We didn’t welcome him back
then because he is a man of principle. He joined us because had a personal
vendetta with Garang. Although some of our members warned us not to allow “a
black cobra into our room as a friend”, most of us agreed to work with any
devil to bring John Garng down to his knees. We dispatched Bona to the U.S.
State Department to talk to U.S. authorities about South-South dialogue and
the war that would follow if Garang refused to swallow our political
program. Although we are the very people who invented the term South-South
Dialogue in 2000, Bona attempted to steal our effort to secure himself a
political power in Sudan. Yet, we tolerated his machinations because our
greatest enemy was Dr. John Garang.
When Bona declared in October, 2004 that he would highjack the SPLM and the
CPA from Garang, we called him an hero when Commander Salva Kiir declared to
remove Garang. Bona was busy getting praises from members of our party for
his work to convince Salva Kiir to get rid of our enemy.
As soon as Dr. Garang died, uncle Bona became a different person. We already
knew that when Garang is gone, Bona would turn against us. It exactly
happened as predicted. He joined his Gogrial elites and started working
towards building a “Gogrial leader for life”. In June 2005, the National
Congress Party paid his mansion in Khartoum estimated around a million
dollar. He was also given three farms in Northern Sudan. Bona started the
process of high-jacking both the South Sudan Democratic Forum and the SPLM
Party.
Although we warned you about the threats posed by him, you ignored our pleas
and spent much time with him and Justin Yac Arop. You rarely meet even with
SSDF’s members of Parliament in Juba. Bona secretly told some of Bhar el
Ghazal members of the party in London that their strategy is to unite the
people of Bhar El Ghazal and Equatoria. He said that “the Nuers should go to
hell” because of criticism of your leadership by Gordon Buay Reath and Dr.
Samuel Koang Gatluak. Bona began to call Gordon Buay “the most dangerous boy
in the South”. According to him, the GoSS is not threatened because
“Garang’s orphans like Pagan Amum, Nhial Deng are disciplined by President
Kiir”. Concerning Madam Rebecca Nyandeng, he made it clear to his Gogrial
subjects that “Kiir would provide her an escort who would discipline her at
night to respect the President”.
Mr. Chairman,
We are deeply troubled by your inability to listen to members of your party
who are warning you of the dangers posed by Bona Malwal Madut. This old
cobra is allergic to principled politics. He has been practicing
machinations, betrayals and tribalism since he joined politics of the Sudan
in the 1960s. You don’t need to be reminded that he betrayed William Deng
Nhial to Jellaba Arabs for a position. He is not afraid to pursue childish
projects that could jeopardize the cause of South Sudan struggle.
What baffles us is how Bona could highjack the leaderships of SPLM and the
SSDF simultaneously without protests from leaders of these two parties. We
don’t care much if he high-jacks the SPLM, what we don’t want to see
happening is the high-jacking of SSDF entrusted by South Sudanese to check
corrupt practices of the SPLM. You know Bona was crowned two years ago as
the leader Twic Mayardit. As somebody nominated as a Chief of Twic Mayardit
in 2004, President Kiir is his subject who should follow his orders
including high-jacking of the SPLM. He is already the leader of Gogrial
Kitchen cabinet.
Mr. chairman,
The second problem you failed to address is the violation of the CPA in the
Unity State by Governor Taban Deng Gai. President Kiir issued a decree in
September, 2005 ordering every State in the South to implement the power
sharing protocol of the Agreement. All South Sudan States followed the
decree except Unity State. Taban refused South Sudan Democratic Forum
Party’s members like Kerubino Pow Gatluak to be sworn in as State’s members
of Assembly. Until today, all members of SSDF, USAP, SANU and UDF have been
prevented to assume their responsibilities. Taban said publicly that the
decree of President Kiir means nothing to him and put SPLM members in the
Assembly in places of our members illegally.
The members of the Democratic Forum in Sudan and Western World brought this
matter to your attention. However, you totally failed to address the problem
by appealing to President Kiir to enforce his decree. While our members are
languishing outside the Unity State Assembly, Taban Deng Gai and Riek Machar
are busy depositing 2% of Unity State budget in foreign banks. The only
ordinary people benefiting are the women who frequently visit the residence
of the governor. We wonder whether you are also benefiting from the
corruption in Unity State because you are incapable to protest why the
members of your party, who should question corrupt practices of the SPLM,
are being prevented to take their seats.
Mr. Chairman,
We call upon your leadership to convene the party conference which will
address these problems. The members of the party need to meet and terminate
the membership of Bona Malwal Madut from South Sudan Democratic Forum. He is
now the employee of Omar Bashir entrusted to highjack not only our party but
also the South in general. If we regard Omar Bashir as the enemy of South
Sudan’s aspirations, we should also include Bona on the list of spoilers of
the right to self-determination.
We are seriously warning you that failure to address the problem of Bona
Malwal and the marginalization of our party’s members in the Unity State, we
are capable of staging a coup d’etat against your leadership to rescue our
party from internal collapse. Bona Malwal will not come to your help when
your leadership is threatened by “angry mob” determined to restore the
aspiration of the people of the South and rid the GoSS of corruption.
Signed
– 1. Mr. Robert Kisanga
– 2. Mr. Samuel Madut Malwal
– 3. Mr. Peter Chuol Gai
– 4. Mr. James Lumoro Udhuo
– 5. Mr. Charles Othow Akuan
– 6. Madam Rebecca Nyayual Tut
– 7. Dr. John Lomodong Peter
– 8. Mr. Peter Arok Yak
– 9. Mr. William Nyuon Gatluak
– 10. Madam Elizabeth Sitona
Contact: Peter Arok Yak
– Email: [email protected]