Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
By Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth
July 31, 2008 — The announcement by the only viable party for change in Sudan to contest elections of 2009 at all levels of government is received with mix feelings specially for those who doubt the leadership of the SPLM. Too many people were surprised that the leadership of the SPLM has been keeping this to their chests for a long time and thought that the SPLM will not contest for election in 2009.
The SPLM leadership has been studying the situation in our Country since the CPA was signed in 2005. Things are not going in the right direction in our Country! The CPA was signed to address fundamental issues. First is the democratic transformation of our Country into a better Sudan, second is the Self-Determination for all people and many more.
Our Late Hero John Garang was expecting the issue of Darfur to be addressed quickly when he was sworn-in on July 9th, 2005 as 1st Vice President of Sudan. However after his death things changed from the NCP side. The issue of Darfur and the CPA implementation have become harder and harder.
For our Country to transform itself into a Country for all of us; we need a leader from the marginalized area who will understand the pain of the marginalized people.
Why Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit!
Firstly, Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit is the only one now in the SPLM to unite the marginalized people of Sudan. SPLM is and was fighting and championing the cause of the marginalized people. So the party for the marginalized is the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement – SPLM.
Secondly, because of the uniqueness of Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit’s leadership. He is a man of a good heart who will treat all human being in Sudan equal.
Thirdly, the vision of the SPLM is now being championed by comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit. A vision which offer freedom to all political parties, citizens and marginalized people in Sudan.
Finally, Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit is widely respected in Sudan and the whole World. He was received by President George W. Bush of USA in the Oval office twice in 2006 and 2007. As well was received by the Secretary General of the United Nation Ban Ki Moon in the UN Headquarters in New York, was received by Kings, Queens, Presidents, Prime Ministers and Business Leaders World Wide. So if elected President of Sudan, President Salva Kiir Mayardit will reconcile Sudan with the World and address all the Problems facing Sudan for many years; instead of Sudan leaders being indicted by the International Criminal Court – ICC.
Also Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit will be the one to reconcile all the Sudanese people, from North, South, East and West. He has a track record of reconciling Southern Sudanese when he took over the office. He has brought all the Other Armed Groups under his leadership. So Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit can reconcile our Communities in all of Sudan under his leadership.
Worry of Southern Sudanese for Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit to run as President of the Republic of Sudan!
Some people are worried that if Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit runs for President in Sudan and are concerned that South Sudan will not get what they went. Let me shed light on this; Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit will also be the President of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) and Sudan as whole at the same time as he is now the 1st Vise President of Sudan and president of GOSS. In my opinion we should maintain that linkages.
The issue of not Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit appealing to the North for support I think Northerners want change and unity of Sudan. As we see it Sudan will only remain united if a dramatic change is going to happen and unity is made attractive to non other than to the marginalized ones. So Comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit, if elected will give the unity of our Country a chance.
If we the SPLM fail the election and we are not going to rule Sudan, then there will also be a chance for the SPLM to say that we have tried and it didn’t work. The Southerners will also have a justification that the Northerners are not ready to be governed by non other than the Arab Muslim Northerner. So we will secede and have our own Nation.
All in all, we are in a win-win situation. This move should be welcomed by all of the marginalized people all over the World.
In conclusion, comrade Salva kiir Mayardit will be our next President in 2009. We just need to do campaign in the North, so we can advance our agenda. If you do simple math, you can really say that SPLM will win. For example according to the old published Census data the population of Sudan is 38,560,000 millions, Southern Sudan was 16,880,000, the whole of Darfur (South, West and North) is 5,480,000) and Southern Kordofan and South Blue Nile is 1,700,000, Eastern Sudan has 3,900,000 and Northern State was estimated 400,000. All of these marginalized people will definitely vote for comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit, if not 100% then 95% of them will vote for the SPLM.
So our victory is very much there!
The author is currently the Head of the Government of Southern Sudan Mission to USA, SPLM Representative to USA and Member of the SPLM National Liberation Council (NLC).
samuel nyok kuat kur
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
Praise the Lord comrade Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, you are the stone in your position. God will add more power over your current power, I congratulate you Mr. Ezekiel for your good talent which you have our comrade.
I have wandered when you came to Edmonton, Alberta, that you have strong ability to know everyone who asked in the Hall and answer them in details.
I knew in that time you have big future in the south with your big mind in addition to your calmly speech .
I am sure people in south need people like you, and I would like to encourage you to keep on, and God will help you for ever and will make you a successful leader in future.
Long live SPLM/A, long live Dr. John’s vision , long live General Salva Kiir the Goss president, long live Dr. Machar the Goss vice president.
Steve Paterno
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
Is this a joke??? I have to make sure that I read it four times before I comment on it. First of all, it is not news that Salva Kiir is going to run for President. Unless we are not interested in real news. By virtue of Kiir being the chairman of SPLM, he suppose to run for any national election if there is any. Second of all, one cannot talk of elections in 2009 in a fractured country like Sudan. Third of all, if Salva Kiir cannot manage to stop the clan wars, that his own clan is involved, how is he going to handle the conflict of entire nation? Fourth of all, if Kiir is currently in bed with Bashir against ICC, how is he going to get out of Bashir’s predicament?
And of course, all these other attributes are hardly enough qualifications for presidency, leave alone if Kiir even have any of those attributes.
One will expect, Ezekiel to come up with a better analysis than this poorly written one. This clearly undermines the intellect of the people who come from the part of the world that Ezekiel is representing.
In Jesus name we pray! Amen!!
Steve Paterno
Deng Akol Agut-tungdoun
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
…So you are that wise Gatkuoth Lol?.
All is well written and I must apeal to those doubting Thomases that Mayardit is more then cock sure to row that boat carefully till we all crossed that ugly river!.
To Steve Peterno.
In good faith brother, if you thinks that Mayardit is unable to do this job why don’t you come up with somebody that can unit us?. All that we needs is somebody who is not tribalistic in nature. And again I thinks this criminal call Bashir is going to be the flag bearer of the NIF/NCP. Do we have any say in that?. We needs to mobilizes ourself and face it.
Be bless
Deng Akol Agut-tungduon, a man far away from tribalism.
James Okuk Solomon
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
Yes, it is the right of every Sudanese to contest for any leadership position in the country. H.E. Salva Kiir is a Sudanese and is allowed by the Sudan Constitution to compete with any candidate from other political parties if he wishes to become the President of the Sudan. If he passes the contested elections post in 2009, people will congratulate him for the success and give him the due respect and privileges. If he fails the post people will also congratulate him for the failure and clap for him while he goes to his home to look after his family and private business rather than after the whole nation and public affairs. This is what is called peaceful handling of democratic transition of powers in the civilized human world without tribalism.
However, my question is about the author of this Article and not with H.E. Kiir. Mr. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth was an Ethiopian Nuer who later run to America for refuge and took American nationality by naturalization. He is not a Sudanese though he calls himself a Southern Sudan diplomat. Is there a diplomat in the whole world who does not have his country’s diplomatic passport when he is on a foreign mission? It is naive to think that because you have Nuer marks on your forehead, you qualify to be a Sudanese national!
It is really interesting and laughable to see non-Sudanese holding SPLM and GoSS Missions abroad and campaigning for H.E. Kiir in a foreign land where no votes will be counted for those who do not have Sudanese nationality.
You can see how Ezekiel Lol is not a Sudanese in the conclusion of his article; he calls the current President of the Sudan a criminal even before the ICC could prove him guilty of the Charges leveled against him by the General Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
Let Ezekiel abandon his American nationality and passport,come back to Upper Nile State, and become Sudanese if he want to campaign for SPLM and Kiir in a realistic manner for 2009 elections. Otherwise what he says will not be considered different from what has been said by foreigners who are against the government of the Sudan even within the CPA context.
Young Paul
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
Ezekiel, I don’t blame you this is the best you little brain can disgust. Are you kidding my friend, or is this just a trick to keep your well paid job for doing nothing. So if Kirr win the election we stay united and if Kirr lose we secede, for God sack can some one interpreted the logic to this analysis of our “for live time” senior representative of SPLM, in USA. So that clause in CPA for self determination is tried up with Kirr win and loses strategy. Just to cut to the point, there is no way what so every that Kirr can win election in Sudan , for him to win , he have to go through some transformation , first change his name to Ahmed Hassan Kirr , get rid of those marks on his forehead , and then go to school for four years in business management to liberated him from incompetence , at least that given him 25% chance of winning .Ezekiel, you know better then that if Kirr, was to contest in 2nd SPLM convention he was 100 % going to lose. So if this man can not win election in his back yard what the hick have he to do at national level. First if he went to contest he has to resign his present post, weather he win or lose that Goss post is not a chiefdom position that he keeps for grant. There are only two candidates in SPLM, party that have the like hood of win election at national level and that is Pagan Amum and Malik Agar, period.
Gatdelha
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
Mr. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth,
With all my respect to you and Mr. Kiir, I find your report very unbalanced, as determined by your flattering and ironic language to GoSS and Mr. Kiir!
Anyway, I am not asking you not to please Mr. Kiir, your boss in SPLM and GoSS, but only to kindly realize that there are norms and conditions to be satisfied by any candidate who wants to run for the presidency, and the simplest requirement is that he/she must be a university graduate and with a wealth of political experiences! I don’t mean to disqualify Mr. Kiir given that he didn’t finish even the high school or the so-called Secondary school in Sudan, but I am rather reminding you about the fact that Mr. Kiir has not given any good reputation of his leadership of the GoSS, let alone the Sudan as whole! If he failed to deliver a good governing to GoSS, why do you think he be elected by the people of Sudan regardless?? Don’t get me wrong here, what I am simply saying is that if there was an election to determined who will replace Dr. Garang that time, and thus Mr. Kiir and others have to contest for the post of the president of GoSS, do you think Mr. Kiir would have won the election and become the president of GoSS? I believe you know the answer even if you will not say it! My friend, we are all SPLAers and SPLMers, thus let us not deceive ourselves as it is not going to serve our interest, let us acknowledge our need for someone who is better that Mr. Kiir in term of leadership, to lead us and develop our country, he (Kiir)might have resolved some issues at the level of Southern Sudan internal quarrelling as you mentioned, but that is not enough as we are not seeing where does our share of oil revenue goes up to now, and no democratic transformation taking place up to now, I am not saying that Mr. Kiir have to solve all the accumulated problems of Southern Sudan overnight, but unless we have to see something happening in terms of the development of Southern Sudan, I mean, let the GoSS knock down those old huts and start to rebuild real house even at the standard of the third world countries, let them build public toilets in towns to curve the spread of the diseases, let the GoSS reform the army,e.g. buy new military equipments, feed and train the army and make them ready for the worse case scenario! Use the army wisely to do something for the country while they are resting! Build roads, hospitals, schools and the list go on! Unless we see the above taking place on the ground in Southern Sudan, Mr. Kiir and you will doom failure at all level of the leadership! As we are not interested in empty flattering, we want deeds not words.
Isaiah Deng
The Author wrote a paper like a 3rd grade student
It was a big shame on author to write like third grade student in Western World
Dman
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
The author have no priority knowledge of his comrade Kiir as he repeat this phrase more than ten times..
Mr Lol you need to go back to study and try to find out how you can write a constructive piece of article that balance between good and bad side of story..
Otherwise your comrade Kiir is not that a golden boy as you are try to proclaim.
Ngong The King
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
Thank you Biar-again for the advices that you gave those incapable brothers!
Those who pretend to know more are making fool of themselves! It is an absolute truth that a little knowledge that one has is a problem.
Who taught those claimed educated individuals that leaders are doctors and school administrators are the smart ones?
Get to your senses brothers and make reasonable judgments. What concern citizens of South Sudan should care for more is who united us, but not who have degrees!
Gatdelha
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
Mr.Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth!!
you are a big joke my friend as Mr. Steve said ! I don’t think you believe in what you are saying here about Mr. Kiir becoming the presindent of Sudan, but incase you really mean it, I would advise you to better use your time and energy for something good to your people(Gan Jaack Kier) instead of talking nonsense about Mr. Kiir on this website,
Do you think that Kiir can come from his mudy huts in the Southern Sudan and run Sudan? what example do you think he is giving to the people of Sudan right now that can make him a compatent cadidate for the presidency, corruption and naivity isn’t? if you want promotion from Mr. Kiir, just say it, but don’t confuse people here as Mr. Kiir is still too far to become the president of Yerol forget about that of Sudan!!
Nhial Korow Wichleek
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
Mr. Ezekiel,
It is quite a bit upset politically seeing your analysis you just forward to your fellow citizens of Sudan. As mentioned on your article, this is of course, no objection to your publicized opinion explaining about the SPLM’s political stand in the Sudan as a whole. But what is wrong with your article is how you put pieces of –to be- the coming forth reality in Sudan’s political landscape. However, you failed to elaborate a bit to the point where satisfaction would concede the feeling of the southern people you are representing.
If your analysis comes too close to convince the audience, none of the people you are representing wouldn’t cast doubt to it. But, bear in mind that promotion of political patronage as did by Kiir’s administration is unwise and more repelling than the nation wide understanding to it as a stable government while known for igniting corruption.
Furthermore, we have learned indeed that you are fighting for the long run position in which your being loyal to President Kiir wouldn’t be stopped by anyone. We thought in the first place that you were going to do much about the fundamental change awaited for the Sudan in general, particularly the south which had been neglected for decades. Citing Kiir’s success is a nation wide feeling, but for you as a representative for the GOSS mission in US one of the known country for supporting the political changes in all anti-democratic states, it is unfair for such a comment although your thinking experience political mind block to envision what would exactly happen in Sudan. There are things you should notice in the long run if you would or would not still be GOSS mission to US.
Than to explain about your prediction with regard to the election and Kiir’s big win for the election in 2009, what you should investigate is current accusation and the magnitude of its political camouflage going on one time around at home and the world politics.
You should investigate about Bashir’s personal stand if accepting to handover himself to ICC if ruled out or will object to it as most of us know. If the international court ruled out about the arrest warrant that Bashir be brought to justice, we don’t know what reaction will have to come up in Bashir’s regime whether it would be agreed by the council under his leadership or not.
Finally, our close observation has told us about Sudan today and tomorrow because so many steps were taken and most of them have not come to possible. All these steps were held in present of Bashir yet nothing were seen close to success. Let cite the implementation, the Darfur peace process, and the Beja of eastern Sudan peace fact. Most of these peace agreements have not come to function. If all these peace negotiations have come to past without a single one reached, one if not all would realized that Bashir does not believe in resolving the problem in the country. This alone remind us about what to happen after the indictment than to blind our political mind set for personal interest. It is us to see and fully critic what is the main evidence to political arena in Sudan this time than the other years back.
To me, we are in the burst of political turmoil in which if action is not taken seriously by the international community, Sudan will have to be a state falling apart although would bring success to some part. Forget about such thing as winning the election, but think about what is going to happen sooner than later. However, I don’t believe in your analysis, and also try not to be specific for something you are not sure about. This time in Sudan is the beginning of the end, and that will have unpredictable results.
Young Paul
Why Salva Kiir must be the President of Sudan in 2009
For Biar again
Wow: well a trained dog and a two legged animal like me don’t need to appreciate what a monkey with four legs with blood in its ass can read. Well for an idiot of your kind to understand who the real traitor is, you will have to undergo some transformation; the least will be to inject your brain with human sperms so as to recuperate your primitive brain so you can understand who the real tractor is. It was Kirr and Bona Malwal who reneged while later Dr. John Garang, was busy up lifting you to a human bear-again