South Sudan preferred Lords of Corruption to SPLA army

Dec. 16, 2005 — The events that struck the SPLA Army recently started with the drowning of 75 soldiers whose boat capsized in Malakal and followed by fighting between the SPLA and SAF on Nov.28—29 where over 75 of SPLA soldiers got killed and more than 100 wounded. Under normal circumstances, that would require a responsible government to call for a period of national mourning as a sign of respect and honor for fallen comrades who died in the course of duty. Unfortunately, because they were neither corruption lords nor relatives of Gogrial-Aweil kitchen cabinet, their loss was an opportunity for GoSS since it would mean saving money for the pockets of lords of corruption.

To prove the above point, the twist of events which occurred on Dec. 15 in Juba, relating to SPLA army in the Joint Integrated Units (JIUs, is a confirmation that the GoSS is not interested in maintaining the SPLA as an army of the South. This is a real paradox in terms of military hierarchy because the commander-in-chief, whose only qualification to lead the South is because of his military pedigrees, has neglected the very institution that made him to be what he is now.

One fundamental question that may be asked is: Is Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, the commander-in-chief of the SPLA, aware of his duties as the supreme commander? If so, what does a military commander do for his army in order to organize and discipline the men and women in uniform? Sometimes, people may wonder as to whether Lt. Gen. Kiir Mayardit has not struck a deal with corruption lords to abandon the army and go for privatization of the government of the South in order to recruit their own sectional private security or army firms to protect their commercial interests. If that is not so, then we see no point why they should renege on the agreement they made to SPLA soldiers of JIUs to be paid the balance of salaries that is not covered by the Ministry of Defence in Khartoum, which is under the leadership of Jihadists. As South Sudanese, we owe this current peace deal which has made Lt. Gen. Mayardit president to SPLA veterans (men and women who laid down their lives).

It is to be recalled that in his sentimental and emotional speech at Dr. Garang’s funeral, Lt. Gen. Mayardit first lamented the loss of his fellow compatriots, particularly the founding members of SPLM/A (John Garang, Kerubino Kuanyin Bol, William Nyuon, Arok Thon), and pledged to follow the vision of the founding father of the movement, Dr. John Garang de Mabior, the father of the ideology of Sudanism as he pronounced in 1989 during his visit to United Kingdom. Sudanism, as Dr. Garang articulated, is an ideology or a vision which he believed would only be achieved through barrel of the gun or spontaneous uprisings—and that would be when all the marginalized people of Sudan joined forces to strike at the core of the centre (the Arab ruling clique).

If Salva Kiir Mayardit begins to abandon his army, what is left in the store for him to achieve the vision of Sudanism when he is even unable to maintain the security of his own constituency (South Sudan)? Gen. Salva Kiir, in his speech to parliament last year, assured the people of the South that he was going to make security a priority i.e. by resuming dialogue with other armed groups that have not joined South Sudan army—an appeal that gained currency leading to SSDF-SPLA merger, concluded in Jan. 2006—only to suffer another setback by not taking the agreement seriously, particularly when the SSDF remained for nine months without salaries—a situation that almost threatened Juba Declaration. His agreement with Lt. Gen. Paulino Matip Nhial was salvaged temporarily in October by paying former SSDF soldiers, but without any concrete plans of proper arraignment on how the salaries would be paid on regular basis. Because of such uncertainties, some SSDF forces had to defect to the SSDF faction of Gen. Gordon Koang. The recent example is the defection of Gen. Philip Bepean Machar two days after Malakal incident with over eight thousand forces.

It is mind-boggling that the men and women in uniform get their salaries whenever they declare war or fire shots in the air. In Oct, Gen. Paulino Matip was forced to give President Kiir a deadline or else he would not allow any plane to land or leave Juba. President Kiir complied and ordered Arthur Akuen to pay Paulinio Matip. Unfortunately, the same president did not learn anything and repeated the same mistake by ignoring to pay the SPLA soldiers if JIUs. Although SPLA forces under JIUs are paid by the Ministry of Defence in Khartoum, the salary of $150 a month does not suffice. It was Kiir himself who promised SPLA forces of JIUs that they would be paid salaries similar to that of mother SPLA. How could mother SPLA soldiers receive $600 dollars a month while SPLA of JIUs gets only a quarter of their fellow compatriots of SPLA? Both are SPLA forces and should be paid equal salaries to feed their families. Kiir pledged to pay them the balance that is not covered by JIUs and he is supposed to respect the agreement. The protest of the SPLA of JIUs is instigated by the looting spree which is being witnessed in Juba.

With such a mess taking place within the rank and file of the army, what is the commander-in-chief doing in order to meet his top priority, i.e., security? Doesn’t the interim president know that in order to effect development security is a priority? Or has he given way to the corruption lords whose main objective is to misappropriate public funds? No wonder when the current Minister of Finance, Arthur Akuen Chol, complained during the Rumbek Conference of 2004, that he was made a Minister of Finance by Dr. Garang without finances to manage. At last he got what he was crying for, being a Minister of finance with finances to mismanage for their own personal commercial interests. This has made him to be a very strong president of Enron Company who cannot tolerate employees who do not maintain secrecy of mismanagement and looting spree.

We can even say that Mr. Arthur Akuen Chol has turned the Ministry of Finance into the said multi-billion Enron Company which many people are well aware of its collapse because of mismanagement and inside dealings and trading. If the people of South Sudan are not aware of the fact that the performance of Minister of Finance is similar to that of Enron President and Chairman of the board, then it is high time that they call in the police to save the people their shares before the company goes into liquidation. Signs of insolvency or bankruptcy are looming large as we can see many people are going without salaries and certain contractors are waiting for months for their contracts to be paid.

Coming back to security issues, we appeal to gallant soldiers and officers of SPLA to exercise calm and composure and show sense of duty and responsibility as custodians of the CPA. The incidents which they have suffered have been noticed widely by the masses of the South and they have the sympathy and total support of all masses of South Sudan over the World. We appeal to the SPLA leadership not to be distracted by the lords of corruption, but to return to protect the ethos of revolutionary principles which do not tolerate corruption. During the struggle, when a person is charged with corruption, no matter how powerful or well placed he may be within the hierarchy of the revolution, his actions were subject to military revolutionary laws, which were correctly stated by Bilpam battalion that “even your father who deviated from revolutionary principles and code of conduct deserved a bullet”.

However, in this case, we do not intend the men and women of the SPLA to rely on the barrel of the gun but rather to make use of the institutions established under the CPA, i.e., the judiciary and legislature. For instance, the recent incident which relates to dishonoring of the agreement between the SPLA JIUs’ members and GoSS shouldn’t be left without being challenged constitutionally. As democrats, we believe in peaceful resolution of conflicts or disagreements.

We call upon all the leaders of the political parties of the South and the North who are partners within the GONU and the GoSS to intervene and show sense of responsibility and statesmanship by opening up political debate in order to address issues that may threaten the implementation of CPA. The failure of CPA will not be the responsibility of the SPLM party alone, but also other political parties whose members are participants in the three organs of the GoSS.

As for SPLM, it is entirely left to their leadership having witnessed closely the serious events that are challenging the CPA as a result of an incompetent and disabled leadership of the GoSS that leads without direction. Why we are saying this is because the rest of South Sudanese are seeing that the guy who called himself an orphan after loss of Garang is not following the vision of his mentor, which could earn him the support of the people. Kiir Mayardit should be reminded of the July the 9th, 2005 nationwide tumultuous reception of Dr. Garang in Khartoum’s Green Square which shook the capital city and brought it down to its knees where the so-called “Awlad el balad” began to wonder whether that was not the beginning of the end of their racist and theocratic empire. If Kiir doesn’t know its significance, it was the affirmation of Sudanism of Dr. Garang by the marginalized people of Sudan. The question that should be posed is: Which direction does he want the marginalized Sudanese to turn to? Is it to join the Gogrial-Aweil clique or to be part of the looting spree cabal?

If the leader of the SPLM does not intend people to either join corrupt enterprises or Gogrial-Aweil dynasty, then let him come out with a clear sense of direction in order to rescue the remaining flock that are wandering in the wilderness without a leader, as he claimed to be the Joshua of South Sudan who took over from Moses before it is too late.

For contact

Gordon Buoy,

Chairman of South Sudan Democratic Forum-Canada

Ottawa, ON

Tel. (613)260-9307

Email:[email protected]