SPLM an emperor with no cloth without south Sudanese
By Odongi IbaluKirram
Feb 26, 2007 — It is a bad thing when you devoted all your youthful moments to acquire academic qualifications. By the time you become a professor and start to age, your memory becomes poorly selective. The fine line between logic and absurdity you once point out with ease becomes rather elusive. That is the dilemma of being an aging professor in charge of a parliamentary committee on economic affairs in south Sudan.
It is, however, one thing when a professor’s memory switches from delirium to total black-out; and totally another—sad when a professor turns illiterate to the point of not recognizing the simplest common fallacy haunting economists and human thinking: the post hoc fallacy.
But that is just what Bari Wanji did. First he went public, declaring corruption in GoSS to be a deepening problem that must be tackled. Now he is spitting out the opposite altogether. But never consider this as a blot though in his career. Wanji perhaps is revealing his unknown qualities. He is after all just a trimmer waiting to be unearthed.
It is standard practice for trimmers to flex their chameleon-oriented colors every now and then. Political trimmers are in the business of lying and cheating to get their ways thus survives in politics. For them, to have firm principles is old fashion. Machiavellianism is the way of the future, if you must know.
A trimmer is someone who is attracted to fantasy. He wobbles between noble ideas and fraud, until s/he collapses finally through inner contradictions and gross misbehavior. This is dodongi’s definition. But the dictionary defines a trimmer as one who changes his opinions and policies to suit the occasion. This might just explain why the chop and change low-down attitude in Bari Wanji.
At the least, Wanji acknowledges the US$60 million was a share of south Sudan oil revenue, which is correct. But then he went bizarre to claim SPLM was a bona fide government of Junnub; that it could misuse any money meant for south Sudan people; and to ask SPLM now to account to those who were not part of SPLM is irrational. Hah! How intelligent of Wanji. Hope he didn’t taught logic at any university.
… Sudanese were there with SPLM all the way and vice versa, why the latter can not account to the former now, just why? That SPLM was probably the largest rebel movement around is understandable. But to claim it had mandated power, because it was dominant, to spend money intended for south Sudan purpose as if it was donated for its own political reorganization is misguided a fallacy.
How SPLM want to raise funds for its political activities is not a concern of south Sudanese. It can not steal money belonging to the people and use it to further its agendas. Professionally and with permission, perhaps yes, but criminally it is not acceptable.
Senile dementia is nowhere suspected here. It is just that Wanji has gone monstrously selective, to the point of inconsequence in his thinking. A further proof he’s not a person of principles at the slightest, hence he should be treated always as such—an unprincipled politician.
SPLM and southern Sudanese cannot be synonymous. One is a people inhabiting the part of Sudan called South or Junnub; whose right to autonomy has been recognized and granted. The other is a political party constantly in a crisis, uncertain of its future, shrouded in scandals, without a sense of direction and is ill-prepared to fight a Islamists murderous aficionados determined to stay in power at all cost.
Without south Sudanese who form the largest number of soldiers which SPLM rely upon, SPLM is little more than an emperor with no cloth. For Wanji to say the money from south Sudanese oil revenue can be used by SPLM anyhow is gross. SPLM cannot utilize south Sudan resources and money in a way it likes because it’s the ruling party in the region. It must seek every time the permission of the people through its representative in the regional legislative assembly. This is simple mental arithmetic enough for the lethargic professor Bari Wanji to have noted.
Wanji remarks are a clear sign of an inherent sense of ignorance in political accountability, arrogance, economic illiteracy, and callous indifference to south Sudanese well being exuded by members of SPLM. It is a wake up call for citizens to seriously scrutinize the behavior and activities of GoSS and SPLM in particular.
It is this same groundlessly accepted sort of wisdom which dictates for SPLM flag to be that of Junnub el Sudan. Another party would defeat SPLM in future; likewise it will impose its weight on people. That its flag must symbolize national pride; that the face of its president must appear in national currency; that it can misuse public resources with impunity because it is ruling. Where will this arrogant Stalinist urges lead us to? No, we certainly had enough of hell.
This is a faulty reversible trend and citizens must act swift to block completely its mutation to success. The idea itself must be spurned in whole, or we are well on our way to all-citizens-sanctioned-repression—a desired state of bondage. Who really like such a status quo anymore? Regrettably, watch out elements within SPLM-NCP wish for it to continue.
It is increasingly clear those in the interim government: either the national government of dis-unity (GoNU) or GoSS erroneously consider their appointment as a privilege for unpunished wrong-doing. Sudanese from every persuasion must decide through their conscientious vote when elections time arrive to ensure ‘trimmers’ like Bari Wanji, lacking in moral scruple receive no ticket to parliament where they will perpetuate and defend graft in government.
* The author is a freelance researcher, journalist, a media & communications consultant based in South Africa. He can be reached at [email protected]