Why Dr Disaster deserve to be sack
By Odongi IbaluKirram
Feb 12, 2007 — Lack of genuine, selfless political leaders in Sudan is a recurring historical phenomenon. What the country has right now, running its affairs is a horde of clowns. To regard therefore those currently in position of authority as leaders is indeed a misnomer. They are totally devoid of true leadership qualities—positive political stewardship the country is badly crying for.
But how comes year-in-year-out the country is control by clowns—dodgy politicians? What happen to citizens thinking? In their despondent mindset, Sudanese still have a long way to go to be able to grasp the essence of republican model of government, borrowed inadvertently from France, United States of America or the Western world. For now their status as slaves for the ruling class appear to be holding.
These problems got worsen by an ethnocentric culture which people like Barnaba Marial Benjamin espouse so dearly. And herein lays the heart of the problem. Ethnocentrism first must be fought and eradicated in its entire facet if the desire for conformity and political headway’s to be made.
This is why the demand for “Dr Disaster” also known as Barnaba Marial Benjamin dismissal is so urgently needed. It will help first in redefining GoSS stance, to invigorate SPLM international reputation, and secondly to overhaul the already distorted foreign policy issues pursued in parallel. Marial is not acting in the interest of the people; he’s instead busy pursuing an individual foreign policy goal which benefits only him and other SPLM cronies. His dissolute activities at the GoSS ministry for international cooperation are reason for concern.
As an SPLM political representative to southern Africa from 1989-2005, Marial was a huge disappointment indeed to the cause of Sudanese struggle. As one former Zimbabwean intelligence officer remarked, Benjamine is an absolute disaster to SPLM freedom ideals. The leadership of the movement should have ensured his removal from the region as early as possible.
Because the movement couldn’t redeploy or remove him from the Harare office, Marial due to paranoia inflicted pain on the former red army soldiers who left the country to forage for opportunities in Zimbabwe to educate themselves and help later on in the development of the country. He also personalized management of issues pertain to the liberation struggle. He regarded every donation made to the movement as for his personal consumption. He’s reportedly sold tons and tons of goods purported for south Sudan and embezzled huge cash also intended for SPLM/A support. Of his litany of cardinal sins, this forms the tip of the ice-berg.
The former red army men were so vocal in challenging Marial one-man-knows-it-all leadership style. Instead of welcoming criticism as a necessity for leadership growth, he resorted to colluding with unscrupulous Zimbabwean police to harass and arrest his critiques arbitrarily. He told a contingent of the red army, “SPLM movement neither knows nor recognizes you.” This was a justification for him to singly throw out people holding him to account from the movement premises, alleging that they are spies for the Khartoum embassy situated opposite SPLM office in Harare. He went as far as waking up a young man from his sleep at mid night to evict him. It was winter; the young fellow having nowhere to go had to sleep outside in front of the gate till about 10 o’clock in the morning. Various diplomats who were passing by asked what was happening he said “sell-outs” deserve mistreatment. Yet there was no shred of evidence to prove his claims.
Mariel tenure in office as SPLM point man in the SADC region was characterized by intemperance and weak leadership. A willingness by some countries in the region to provide educational training to Sudanese from the marginalized areas exists. But everything had to be coordinate by Marial. One such country to offer scholarship for Sudanese was the Swapo led government of Namibia. Benjamine, however, sent his daughter as the first beneficiary of the Namibian program, though she later sullied her reputation and that of Sudanese—the movement to some extent. Only people with close ties to Mariel benefited from the solidarity scholarships such as Clemen Janda whose daughter Benjamine gave chance to study at the University of Namibia. But several former SPLA soldiers, not in a big number really, were helplessly languishing around, ignored totally by Dr Disaster. He muffled many education opportunities for young Sudanese in southern Africa and despite countless appeals he remained unabashed in his selfish stance. The last victim whose sponsorship got cut-off by Dr Disaster before completion of his studies is John Abure.
As if that’s not enough, when Disaster was appointed as state minister for international cooperation in the national government of dis-unity, he desperately ensured GoSS relations with the southern African region remained under his ambit. And as usual, he caused disaster!
South Africa as chair of AU post conflict reconstruction committee for south Sudan, had unveiled an educational package offering training to GoSS civil servants in fields like finance, education, information technology and public administration. This opportunity is however usurped by Dr Disaster to promote yet again: nepotism and cronyism.
In March 2006 he brought two of his sisters for the public administration course in Pretoria. The sisters arrived as if to prove they got inserted unofficially two-weeks late for the training. And in July also last year, Dr Disaster sent three Kenyan ladies; one of them actually was the head of the entire delegation, for training in information technology. But attitude of the Kenyan ladies, particularly the one who boasted that she was nominated by Benjamin to head and she’s accountable to no one else but Dr Disaster; that she’s not interested in knowing Sudanese culture etc, infuriated most of the student delegates leaving them eventually insulting her. Some of the students bunk off classes in protest for ten consecutive days. In the end, Mrs Diasaster, as she was called accused the students to Unisa and foreign affairs officials. She claimed those students boycotted classes and disrespected her because they were hooked into drug doing and smuggling business. One student was later expelled from the training and sent forcibly back to Juba because of Mrs Disaster’s allegations. Disaster himself later said “the lady was proper in everything she did”. He added that the lady was acting on his orders.
In 2005, SPLM representatives from around the world attended a diplomatic training in South Africa. At a dinner organized for them, a top South African diplomatic spoke of their experience in Juba during John Garang’s funeral. He said President Thabo Mbeki plane spent 45 minutes in the air trying to catch a proper aerial view of Juba. Then he recounted the embarrassing ordeal they had to endure due to unavailability of world class toilets. All the foreign dignitaries who attended the funeral had to queue to use just one old-fashion type of a dilapidated toilet. It was a shocking experience for Mbeki and his entourage to learn that Juba was basically a village without even 1930s housing, communication and technological infrastructure. The SPLM diplomats looked in awe but contained their embarrassment in silence.
Then in an act of sheer PR bravado, Dr Disaster took to the podium only to spew lies! South Africa, he begins, “is a friend indeed, because it came to south Sudan aid at a time when it is in need of support,” he said. “In six-month time, GoSS will build the first modern building in Juba with all amenities and it will be offered to house the South African consulate, since it is the first country going to open its consulate in Juba” Disaster declared. Recently, however, I asked another South African diplomat if the promise to build a special house for their consulate in Juba was honored by GoSS. “We never took Benjamin’s words seriously, because we have been dealing with him and his language is familiar to us,” he replied. It was an empty promise, typical of Mariel reckless diplomatic and political utterances. One thing for sure Disaster has achieved is tarnished GoSS/SPLM reputation internationally.
As GoSS minister for international cooperation, Dr Disaster now together with his counterpart Dr Irrelevant—Lam Akol, are creating and pursuing irritating policies which are provoking a public outcry and may seriously lead to a social uprising in the near future. The recent nomination of about sixty-one Foreign Service Officers, which the two Drs of Irrelevance and Disaster played a part in compiling, augurs ill for Salva Kiir presidency. These two architects of disaster and irrelevance must be stop before it is too late. Their immediate sacking from public duty is absolutely called for. Their conduct and tract record’s as members of a liberation movement is a complete disgrace. In the public interests, they must be release off their duties, because they have demonstrated again and again that they are neither exemplary nor fit to lead public institutions anymore. To maintain such disastrous diplomats of the first order in their respective positions is to undermine the integrity of a country they represent.
* Odongi IbaluKirram is a freelance researcher, journalist, a media & communications consultant based in South Africa. He can be reached: [email protected].