South Sudan’s Lakes and the lost freedom of expression

Lt. Gen. Daniel Awet Akot, Governor of Lakes State declares war against freedom of expression

By Athiaan Majack Malou

September 4, 2007 — In a public rally he held at Akon-Buoi Garden in Rumbek on Sunday, 26/08/2007, Lt.Gen. Daniel Awet Akot, the Governor of Lakes State, in the company of Brig. Bol Akot (alias Dhongbhang or badly behaved boy), threatened to arrest anybody who will write on the internet or say anything against his administration. The Governor was making the remarks in the wake of many woes which are currently befalling his Government, that include among others:

1. The impeachment by the State Legislative Assembly of his Minister for Finance, Mr. Philip Marol, on Government financial irregularities, which was almost tantamount to a vote of no confidence on his government. Governor Awet wanted to resist the impeachment of the minister by threatening to close the Assembly, but he was advised by some of his wise ministers that the decision made by the Assembly had captured the attention of the public in all 8 counties of the State; and any attempt by the Government to resist would result in public reaction. As a result, the beleaguered Governor relented and sent his impeached finance minister on a forty-day forced leave; meanwhile he will be seeking advice and possible intervention from GoSS.

2. Deteriorating security situation in the State. In fact, Governor Awet was appointed in September last year on the assumption that he was the right person to maintain peace among communities of Lakes State, of which some of them have been warring among themselves for the last three years, or so. Eleven months have passed since then and the situation remained the same in many areas, though it has improved in others.
According to a report by the minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement Agencies, guns which were collected last year have been reacquired by many individuals within the communities. The month (August) alone has witnessed 11 people killed in communal conflicts, many of whom died of gun-shot wounds. There is an outcry from the public that Awet Akot or Bol Akot is no longer effective against the causes of insecurity in the State.
One good example of ineffectiveness of the two is the escape, from Sijin Akot (Akot Prison), of a person who murdered Chief Marial Mamur last year. This person was in chains and Akot Prison is regarded as a maximum security one. As a result, people are wondering as to how this person could have escaped. If there were accountability, the escape of this convict from the prison is a big scandal that could have compelled Bol Akot or Awet Akot to resign from their current positions.
Brig. Bol Akot is a rich man and of late has gone on a marrying spree, and all people of Lakes State, from Malon-Pech in the West to Mingkaman in the East and from Amongpiny in the North to Penmanga in the South have become his Nasibs (or in-laws); and he is fond of calling everybody Nasib.
As everything has an age, the usefulness of Awet Akot, Bol Akot and probably Sijin Akot has become of age. It is time the high Authorities think of replacing them with people who can make conflict analysis i.e. identifying the root causes and possible solutions, other than dealing only with the symptoms, as has been the practice with the sons of Akot.

3. Unfunded contract with a European construction company. Lakes State Government has signed a US$ 41 Million contract with CIPAD, a building Company from one of Balkan Countries in Central Europe to build Government facilities. The contract has been marred with suspicion from day one, because it was done with help of Mr. Martin Malual Arop, who is currently being investigated by GoSS on other devious deals charges.
Further, the contract was signed without funds in hands of the Government of Lakes State. The assumption was that the Government will borrow money somewhere, but the truth of the matter is that money-lenders cannot give out such a huge amount without collaterals or guarantees. Governor Awet and his minister of Finance have gone to Khartoum several times with intension to borrow money for this project but they came back empty handed. The Company engineers have been staying at Palm-Tree Hotel in Rumbek at the rate of US$ 110 a day for more than a year now. The Company Officials are just waiting for the contract period to finish and they will ask for the money to be paid fully, even without having built any structure.
In a desperate move, the Governor decided arbitrarily to cut 20% from the salaries of the workforce of Lakes State. This cut was made besides 10% for SPLM and another 10% as Personal Income Tax (PIT), which makes a government worker in Lakes State to lose 40% of his/her salary to the government. He also confiscated the operating cost of all the ministries and counties. With these desperate moves he was only able to collect US$ 1.5m or thereabout, which was a drop in the ocean.
However, his arbitrary decisions were received with a huge outcry from the populace and the State Legislative Assembly, and have been forcefully stopped since then. The people of Lakes State are waiting for a divine intervention to help them out of this situation. A question that begs itself is that: How did these other States of South Sudan, even those without 2% of Oil Revenue, managed to put up new structures.

4. Unattended effect of floods. Like many other parts of Sudan, Lakes State has been affected by this year’s unprecedented floods. The road to Uganda, which is the lifeline of the State, has been badly affected at Wakou Bridge between Mvolo and Wulu and has been made impassable for the vehicles for a long time. Similarly, the road between Rumbek and Yirol has been partially washed away by the floods at Bahrnam valley and between Aluakluak and Yirol near Cuei-Umak.
The flow of business and people has stopped between the two towns. The worst of them all is that more than half of Awerial County is under water. A group of government and UN officials who recently over flew the area in a UNMIS helicopter saw people of Awerial staying on the anthills that have remained as islands in a sea of water that has brought down most, if not all of their mud-hat villages. The flood-displaced people were seen begging helicopter to throw to them something they could eat or used as a shelter. !
Yet nothing has been done to address the plight of these people. No committee has been formed to deal with effect of floods as is the case with other States equally affected.

5. The burning of money: It has gone done in the history of Southern Sudan that they arbitrary decision by Governor Daniel Awet to burn the old Sudanese pounds in Rumbek early this year as a blunder of the year. It made the SPLM Government very unpopular within business community in Rumbek who suffered the act because their money was burnt without records as to whom or how much money has been burnt. The situation was only rescued when a committee formed by GOSS visited Rumbek and had a public rally during which the full refund of the money burnt was promised.
However, nothing has been done to that effect up to now. What Governor Awet and his aids did not know was that when a currency has been changed the old notes are not burnt or destroyed but changed with new one and the old one is put in the national archives.

6. Inconsistency: Governor Awet is a person who can be described as inconsistent with whatever he is doing and many examples can be cited in this regard. One example is that he early this year sent some of his cabinet members to Khartoum to follow up the pledges that were made by president Al- Bashir when he visited Rumbek, e.g. Establishment of University of Rumbek and construction of Rumbek-Bentiu road. The committee was also given the mission of visiting Al-Gezira State which has been paired with Lakes as twin States.
Before the committee could report about their mission, all of them were sacked which rendered the mission unfulfilled. In a similar case, he sacked the three commissioners of Greater Yirol counties, who had helped him in bringing about peace and stability within the area. The reasons for sacking were not very clear, even to governor Awet himself. There are rumors that he is now not happy with somebody who influenced him to make this uncalled for reshuffle because he found himself to have been misled by that person.
The situation in Yirol has gone back to square one as cattle theft and physical insecurity has flared up again. Most of 400 or so culprits, involved in Greater Yirol conflicts, that were arrested by the former commissioners have now escaped from the prisons because they have stayed for long in prisons without court settlement. These are just few examples of inconsistency shown by Governor Daniel Awet.

7. Threat by UN Agencies to relocate to Wau: There are unconfirmed rumors that UN Agencies (including UNMIS) resident in Rumbek are threatening to relocate to Wau due to many problems inherent in the Administration of Governor Awet in general and Rumbek town in particular. One of them is that Governor Awet speaks to these Agencies officials with a militarized (threatening) and an undiplomatic language.
Also members of their staff sometimes come under threat or humiliation by soldiers of Bol Akot, who roam streets of Rumbek with whips in their hands, beating almost everybody they could come across. Cows, goats and stray dogs freely roam the streets of Rumbek day and night, which makes it difficult for motorists to move, because if a vehicle crushes an animal, the fine or refund is usually severe.

Another big problem is that the drainage system within the town is very poor. Most of streets, including the ones inside the main market, are permanently covered by rain water. Yet, nothing substantial is being done by the State or County authorities to fix some of the problems which are within their capacity. People of Lakes State will lose jobs and services rendered by these Agencies if they are allowed to relocate to another place.

8. Lack of development projects: there is a total lack of development projects in Lakes State. For example, the whole staff of ministry of Agriculture in Lakes are being denied salaries by GoSS ministry of agriculture, simply because there are no agricultural projects in the State. The argument of GoSS ministry is that agriculture is a practical department and people cannot just received salaries while sitting in offices in Rumbek. They are supposed to be working somewhere in the field as project officers or agricultural extension workers.

Nobody within governor Awet’s government thought of reviving the old agricultural schemes in the State such as Amenhduol Dhura Scheme in Chueibet County, Ngap Sawmill also in Chueibet, Oil Mill in Yirol Town, Rice Farming at Pagarau in Yirol East County, Fish Processing at Shambe also in Yirol East County and Kuangbor Dhura Scheme in Awerial, Rumbek Town Dairy Farm, among others.

The staffs of the ministry of Agriculture in Lakes are currently being paid for tax-payers money being mobilized locally, while completely doing nothing substantial. The State ministry of Agriculture is being run by a minister from NCP who, unfortunately, did not bring with him innovations of the NCP’s program popularly known as “El-Nafera El-Khadhera” or “Green Revolution”.

There have been no development projects in the other sectors either. There is no a single government building put up in Rumbek or anywhere since the establishment of State government after the signing of CPA, except those supported by development agencies.

9. Sacking of Government officials without clear reasons: Politicians and ordinary civil servants alike are being sacked without clear reasons, other than appointing people related to the Governor in a way. This was the case with Martin Machiech Kuch and John Kot Kuoshnin, who were removed from their respective positions of Secretary General and Co-ordinator in Khartoum and two people from Governor’s home county (Chueibet) were appointed in their places.
These two people, who have been removed from their positions, have not been given other assignments, as it is always the case with civil servants who have not yet reached the age of retirement. Instead, they are now indefinitely accommodated in Panda Hotel, receiving their salaries, I guess, while completely doing nothing.
Many constitutional post holders, including myself, were also unceremoniously removed without clear motives. I was removed from Commissionership of Yirol East County, despite the fact that my line-ministry of Local Governments, in evaluation rated me as the best Commissioner. Performance wise, I scored 98% , second to none, yet I was expelled from the Government, which was a clear indication that merit, efficiency or competence do not matter to Lt. General Daniel Awet Akot.
One wonders whether there are laws that can protect government officials from arbitrary sacking by their superiors. Frankly speaking (I’m not boasting)a vision, mission and objectives that I’d developed for my work in Yirol East County, were adopted for the whole State in a Lakes State’s Strategic Plan Workshop that was facilitated by UNDP.

10. Lack of planning and reporting by the ministries: Except, may be, for Strategic Plan which I’ve mentioned in 9 above, which was not even finalized, none of Lakes State ministries have ever had a plan for his/her ministry. They did not also write annual reports at the turn of the year. As a routine, State ministries should make their plans and present them to the State Assembly for scrutiny and approval. They are also supposed to present their reports to same law-making organ at the end of each financial year.

This routine of government business is not being observed in Lakes State because governor Awet is not in touch with what is happening in the ministries. That is why he was surprised by the impeachment of his minister of finance. He is managing by crisis because nothing is planned so that people can refer to, or used as guidance. As a managerial rule, human beings work better when they are controlled or supervised regularly.

So, how would anybody expect the people working under Governor Awet to deliver, when he does not put in use his managerial skills?

To conclude, I would like to make myself clear that I’m writing in order to alert the people of Lakes State, State’s Legislative Assembly and the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) about what is happening in Lakes State, especially the way State Affairs are being run by the current administration of Governor Daniel Awet.

I believe, it is time for whoever had given him the mission to administer Lakes State on behalf of the Government of South Sudan to critically review whether Lt.Gen. Awet has succeeded or failed the mission given to him. As for the majority of people of Lakes, the General has utterly failed in most if not all of his recent engagements with realities in the States. His many failures are the talks of every household in the eight counties of the State, including the Governor’s house.

The problem might be that nobody is advising or informing him, as there is no independent media (Newspapers, radio or television) to credibly write or inform on matters of public or common concern. The mode of thinking of many southern Sudanese has been that things will change, for better, once a lasting peace has been achieved, but what is this now?

Can the Authorities concerned think of a change, or is he indispensable?!

* The author is the Former Commissioner of Yirol East County, Lakes State, Rumbek-Sudan