Sudan’s Salva Kiir has to live up to the job
By Isaiah Abraham
March 14, 2007 — Nobody anywhere would underestimate the kind of job H.E. the President is undertaking. No one further doubts his desire and honest attempts to lead. We are proud of what he has achieved this far and only congratulated ourselves for having him as our leader over those achievements. Few glamorous among them are listed below. He has kept the Movement (SPLM/A) united and alive. He has played a significant role to bringing on board Major Gen. Paulino Matip Nhial and many more. He has warmed up relationship with other like minded groups of the opposition side of the debate. He has also helped sustain an entity in the Government of Southern Sudan and allowed free hands to his Ministers even for them to propose their own Under Secretaries. These are lofty things done under His Excellency the President unless we forget!
On the other side of the coin he hasn’t stood up or stretched out himself beyond the existence. He is seen as doing badly in the Presidency. I’m just sorry. President El Bashir is perceived as over bearing and Mr. Kiir is no match for him or say it this way, he is too much to match him. El Bashir is widely known as a man who walks the talk. His words are always a mixture of everything. He is a tough President Sudan ever has. But also a man whose leadership you could flourish. President Kiir never learned from his mentor Dr. John Garang how he could fight this man. The two (Garang and Kiir) were closed until the later was tempted to replace him (Kiir) with Mr. Nhial Deng Nhial which was rightfully resisted by Mr. Kiir. Though he is a man of few words and less aggressive, he is not proactive, very poor in speaking, a poor thinker and poor analyst. He blindly takes things for granted and always feeble to market his ideas. The Presidency meeting last week was just a clever ruse, safety valve to lull the people that the Government was committed to the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Why on Security Arrangement and not on others that never see the slightest light for implementation?
That agreement has lost its taste to our people. Day after day our people are smelling and breathing uncertainty for almost everything. Nobody has the courage to say there will be election next year or Referendum after 4 and half years. The leadership of the SPLM has complicated matters for the worst. Everything has been delayed and time is eating itself out of the horizon. Our leaders are comfortable with the presence situation and often brag of it. The reality is that the agreement (CPA) has not been implemented and there are no indicators that it will be implemented. If up to day our people are far from knowing anything as far as Commissions are concerned. When will they really know anything as to the same? After two three years from now? Why not now? What of Abyei? Is El Bashir invincible that it was just left to his mercy? Why serve in the Government when your rights are being denied?
What is happening or not happening as to Human Rights Commissions, Land Commissions, National Electoral Commission, and the Commission on the rights of non Muslims in the National Capital, National Service Commission is a mystery. Our people including the President (Kiir) know nothing as to oil production figures and existing contracts. We are yet to know about parameters for calculating the oil wealth. In 2005 for example Khartoum reported the share of oil revenuer to be $798.4. Last year that figure increased by 12%. Now how sure is the public that the figures are real when they know nothing on the actual production figures? This is an open question. If there was access to commissions we would have known some cases on human rights, issues pertaining to land as to oil fields, the time table and methodologies for mid term General Election, the rights of our people in the National Capital and the number of our people who really made it in to public service.
Mr. President has done little to project Abyei case internationally and nationally. His rhetoric voice never addressed this matter. His Excellency the President knows clearly that President El Bashir and his party has torpedoed the foundation of constitutional democracy and stalled country reform and peace train. Why is he waiting that long to design a solution for the good of our dear land of Abyei? What chances are really available to put this matter to an end? President El Bashir in Dhaeen little to two weeks ago has poured cold into this matter and will only take God’s hands to help us out. There is an argument I have been resisting that President Kiir hasn’t filled the shoes of his predecessor Dr. John Garang de Mabior. My response was that time will tell and that we are expecting too much for too less. He is a great man and will deliver, that is my response. But somehow feelings of doubts and introspective about the future has made their way into our lives and hence it becomes that difficult be inauthentic about oneself.
President Kiir has opportunities at his reach and never uses them to fight his cause. He has gone to minor and small unimportant observations. He directed that the flag of the Sudan be hoisted along side S. Sudan flag. May be he hasn’t reading writings on the wall. He never showed up in Nyayo Stadium during the inauguration of Sudan Peace Accord (The CPA) on the 9th Jan. 2005. Am afraid he won’t be obeyed. Why? Because people already made up their mind about their future. Nothing could stand in between and therefore such directives would go unheeded. Take Juba for example, our capital city. It’s now 99% southern and should have been 100% if we had applied ‘one country two systems’ policy from the founder Dr. John Garang.
The President has lost fight on corruption and there is little hope that he will really win it. He could have save the embarrassment if the had the gut to move fast and stop his Ministers from abusing public trust. What will happen in the near future is our nasty game where people often hide beneath tribal, sectional and whatever else on the disguise that one of our own is being prosecuted unfairly by this tribe. Mr. President hand off has pushed us into this quagmire. Our land is at stake and our leader is not moving things from the top. It has become obvious that others are doing it for him. Mr. President where will you stop being used by others?
A leader as one of the dictionaries puts it is a person or thing that is the best in the first place in a race, business etc For the sake of this writing, could His Excellency the President be the best or the first in our race for excellence? I don’t know… But who is this man? Lt Gen. Salva Kiir is a leader of the SPLM/A and by choice or chance became President of the Government of Southern Sudan after the disappearance of Dr. John Garang on July 30, 2005. He was sworn in the office on August 11, 2005. Some of us who happened to be with him in the bush and out of the bush know him as patriotic and reasonable commander. He has not been a classified to be tribalist or associate with groupings on that line. He does things with careful thoughts. He is however that green as to politics and sometime so grouchy and fogey but he kept his relationship with Dr. John Garang warm for long. So if that is the case will he stand the chance of memorable leadership in the South? I thought he would but that is for experiment as long as he moves away from being inactive. He is a lucky man to have Dr. Riek Machar Teny as his deputy. Dr. Machar has proved his case and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Anyone who happened to be in Wolf Battalion or Western Upper Nile Zone as it was called could attest that how humane is this man. Now he has sacrificed a lot as far as GOSS issues are concerned. Mr. President should reciprocate by keeping that bond strong.
Mr. President has done little about social services badly needed by our people. For him to ask us to be patient is not helpful. His GOSS failures are his own making. Why did he have to keep Dr. Theophilus Ochan, Arthur Akuein Chol, Dr. Justine Yaac Arop & Michael Ali Hussien in their Ministries? Where are Dr. Achol Marial Deng and Daniel Woor Joak? What of Majok Dut Morwel, Martin Okerruk, Dr. Alfred Lokujo and Pascal L. Bindi? Any of the above will make a good minister in the GOSS. Don’t quote unreliable sources about some of them. These are focus and have brain and history that matches our needs. Social services are of dire needs. Allowing GOSS to spend ages on planning is self defeatist. If we are to wait, then we have equal right to know what we are waiting for. If we wait for the money the money is there and for expertise then we have plenty everyone looking for jobs but aren’t given jobs because none is connected at the top. Therefore it is cheap to read our leader telling us to wait for more years.
Our leader should have move to stop this mole called Dr Lam Akol Ajawin from destroying people’s movement. If he waits for Kosti Manibe then he will have a long wait and the man will do more harm to our people than good. He is slippery and smart on anything. Don’t ask me to give you evidences or charges against him. Dr. Lam betrayal to history is a wicked political encyclopedia of Southern Sudanese. The man has pulled yet another damaged to the reputation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He preaches water but surely he drinks wine. Right or wrong? If he says democracy, democracy minus nepotism or transparency less favoritism, then that is malevolent and pretense of highest order. This is not antipathy against anyone.
He (Dr. Lam) went public to gag our voice for freedom and justice in the region of Darfur. He neither advocates nor stands to talk about Abyei disputes along the corridors of world powers. He shut the door for our people to enter coveted privileges in the Foreign Ministry, because of some conditions he designed to stop SPLM/A members from accessing those slots. But to the President Dr Lam is un-touchable and a sacred cow. He appointed him willy-nilly when the position should have been given to Mr. Edward Lino Woor, Deng Aloor Kuol or Pagan Amum Oketch. That is after Mr. Nhial declined. Theories are still fresh when the former stood to defend the later in Yei-their unholy alliance. If that is where that will lead us, then the President must be prepared for our people quest for justice. Why keep someone with that dark past in the people movement or party? The President owes us an explanation.
* The author is based in Southern Sudanese. He could be reached at [email protected]