Seeking audience with the President of GOSS” in Washington

By Steve Paterno

November 6, 2007 — The title of this article is borrowed from a subject heading of an article published in Gurtong by a senior high court official in the Ministry of Justice in Juba, who for some reasons chose to withhold his name to be published along with his article. In his article, this anonymous author explains how difficult some small group around President Salva Kiir of South Sudan makes it difficult for the President to conduct important meetings even with his ministers and advisors. He outlines four possible reasons on why it is difficult to have an audience with the President of South Sudan. He goes on to emphasize the important needs for the President of South Sudan to conduct meetings with as much different entities and audiences as possibly as the President could. His article was written somewhat in 2006, but that does not in anyway mean that it is now easier to have audience with the president than before when this anonymous author had written his article. In other words, the time overlap does not imply that things have changed since then and the fact that the President’s home is Juba does not show that these incidents only do occur in Juba. But instead, this is a widespread phenomena that transcends time and space by peculiarly making its way into the heart of Washington, D.C. in the rather small and one-man-show bureaucracy of Ezekiel Gatkuoth—the bureaucracy that is also known as GOSS Mission in Washington, D.C.

For President Salva Kiir, he is currently on his third official visit to the United States of America (USA) since he was installed the president of South Sudan in 2005. In all the President’s visits, he could not avoid the embarrassment caused as the result of Ezekiel Gatkuoth mishandling of his schedules, interactions, and the likes. The reasons for these mishaps are because Ezekiel Gatkuoth typically exhibits all the characteristics mentioned by the anonymous author of “Seeking Audience With the President of GOSS.” According to this anonymous author, one of the reasons those who are closer to the President are tempering with the President’s activities is because they are indulging in “Calculated Strategy…preventing the president of GOSS from seeing the other side of things.” This rather disingenuous strategy is the traits that Ezekiel Gatkuoth practiced pretty well.

This strategy, of course involves a great deal of lying, misrepresentation of facts, and above all, misguided ambition. Nowadays in South Sudan, those who can claim that they fought during the war of liberation can easily obtain higher status and job opportunities in the government than those who otherwise. In the case of Ezekiel Gatkuoth, he started of by passing himself as “a foot soldier”, implying that he was among the Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers who roamed the bushes of Sudan during the liberation war. As far as the ranking in the military is concerned, Ezekiel promoted himself into a colonel when it comes to the Mission dealing with Pentagon. Ranking is a new fashion for most Southern Sudanese. Others fancy themselves with it that it is inflated to the point where it renders the military ranking system useless. As if those are not enough lies already, Ezekiel added that he is U.S.A. trained military personnel. Since education is a boost nowadays, Ezekiel added a college degree into his resume, guaranteeing himself the best position nearer to the power. To prove that Ezekiel is “preventing the president of GOSS from seeing the other side of things,” he deliberately prevented the Southern Sudanese University professors who are in the U.S.A. from having audience with the President on the president’s last visit to the U.S.A.—the professors, a would-be audience, GOSS has not made or taken seriously to date.

The fact of the matter is, Ezekiel spent the years of war of liberation in exile as a refugee, first in Ethiopia, and then in the U.S.A. Therefore, the claim that he was an SPLA foot-soldier is far-fetched. He was not only just a refugee, but in the camp of those Southern Sudanese who were allied with Khartoum against the SPLA. As to the lies that he is passing himself for a colonel and also a trained U.S.A. military personnel, it just indicates how those individuals driven with such kind of misguided ambitions could go out of their ways to build things base on lies and false pretense to stay afloat near the positions of power. Such dubious practice in other countries could be criminally liable and will easily lend someone in serious trouble, but in South Sudan, it is simply the way to gain power. Of course, Ezekiel educational background is as much questionable as his competency level, even though he has enough courage to use education as a booster for his ambition. According to his colleagues who attended with him college at the University of Maryland College Park, Ezekiel is a mere dropout of criminal justice major, not the university graduate that he claims.

The second reason the anonymous author of “Seeking Audience With the President of GOSS” attributes to difficulties in having audience with the President of GOSS is that the President has heavy “Workload,” given the responsibilities bestowed upon him in his capacity as both the First Vice President of the Sudan and President of South Sudan. This fact, though genuine, should not justify deliberate attempts in preventing the President from having audiences. Since by nature, the President’s job is heavily loaded, it requires a better time management so that the President accomplishes all his tasks successfully. A mere excuse over workload is enough ground for disqualifying someone from his position by relinquishing him off his duties. In the current President’s visits to the U.S., he may indeed be overwhelmed by conflicting sets of schedules, but with a better time management and prioritization, the President will pretty much satisfy the needs of each and every group who may require their concerns addressed by him. For example, it was not a matter of workload on the President’s part on his last visit to the U.S.A. when Ezekiel barred him from answering questions after a public rally. What happened was a mismanagement of time by Ezekiel and fear of questions that will expose Ezekiel’s incompetence.

The third reason on why it is difficult to conduct audience with the President is because those who are closer to the President lack the necessary “Skills” in dealing with presidential affairs. This point is also true of Ezekiel. In this case, Ezekiel is an individual who never genuinely work in his life leave alone whether he possesses those specific skills and expertise in dealing with presidential affairs. Tragically though, Ezekiel suddenly found himself in a position of dealing directly with the President, therefore, putting him in an awkward position. For example, Ezekiel played such a horrible manager to the President on his last visit to the USA that in most occasions, Ezekiel managed to separate the President from his important ministers, aides, and even documents. The infamous, example was when the President was paying a visit to the White House, only to find out that his aide and all his documents were left behind. Another infamous example was when part of the presidential entourage and delegation got cut off on the traffic because the drivers were not informed on where they were supposed to go. Embarrassingly, this was done in front of the United States Secret Service who put their trust on Ezekiel.

The fourth and final reason on why it is difficult to have audience with the President is because of a “Sheer Ignorance” in parts of those who are closer to the President. As for Ezekiel, he has proven his ignorance beyond reasonable doubt. For example, base on sheer ignorance, Ezekiel never understands the magnitude of the Sudanese advocacy group in Washington, D.C. whom he last time dished from meeting with the President. Ezekiel also does not understand the impact of the widely circulated newspapers such as the New York Times when he turned away the New York Times reporter who was interested in interviewing President Salva Kiir on his last visit to the U.S.A. May be, because the reporter was accompanied by a celebrated and selfless Sudanese activist in the U.S.A., Mr. Simon Deng. But at any rate, turning down an interview with the New York Times, is not a so smart move.

So, if President Salva Kiir once again falls trapped to Ezekiel’s mismanagement schemes, it will not be surprising, but embarrassing to the President and devastating to the people of South Sudan whom the President is supposedly is representing.

*Steve Paterno is a Sudanese residing in the U.S.A and the author of the upcoming book, The Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lohure: A Roman Catholic Priest Turned Rebel, The South Sudan Experience. He can be reached at [email protected]