Kiir Hires and Fires

By Justin Ambago Ramba

October 22, 2008 — It is very clear that things are going very fast if not too fast in the south Sudanese capital of Juba. Girls were arrested and acquitted by presidential decree; the county commissioner was immediately fired by another presidential decree,

Then all of a SUDDEN , Mr Nhial Bol the editor of the Citizen paper was arrested by the security authorities over an article exposing the high and disproportional salaries being enjoyed by the GoSS ministers without having the least remorse to the under development and poverty that is riding the whole region.

Believe me I for one , I still respect the ministers – but I don’t agree with their greed which is almost equivalent of an occupation administration which they themselves end up creating a class struggle and it is always the proletariats who win at the end of the day.

Well I am now unfortunately made to conclude that with the successive south Sudan autonomous rules there have always been emotional and morally motivated judgements and unnecessarily and disproportional security interventions in the handling of our day to day challenges.

In the first post Anya Nya war south Sudan, this very Juba was buzzing the way it is now. Youth were quick to adapt to what was then considered as an out side culture. They could go Congolese with Franco and the T.P OK Jazz or Orchestra VEVE if they chose, or American with the Jackson 5, or Arab with Zeidan Ibrahim.

At the above time all conducted peaceful in the peaceful way as any social vogue has never ever been for ever and was always left for time to sort it out.

The came the smashing American dance of BUMP , thrilled by Carl Douglas’s , dance the Kong Fu, or the other famous group singers who sung the “That is the way Aha ….Aha ..I like it….Aha….Aha. It was in Juba that the whole bump dancing itself was modified by those energetic youth into the new version which came to be known as the automatic or continuous bumping, locally known as “Abu Mia”, that is a hundred bumps per song.

The way the kids were bumping all-over the place was a real social maniac and parents as well as the educationists became over concerned of the phenomena. Yet it was considered by most elders as an issue of the new generation and post war young – bloods of that time.

Sadly enough bumping found its way into the parties of the elites and even sooner than expected it was already the norm in the ministers’ dominated parties in the by then luxurious Juba Hotel.

Then the government all of a sudden declared war against bumping. Gooosh…… why the sudden change of heart? It turned out that some up there was bumped flat on the ground by one of physically fit young ladies. The H.E was in fact intoxicated above the bumping level, and the dance was more of collusion to him.

A presidential decree was immediately passed banning bumping in south Sudan. This is one awkward reaction and out of proportion, because bumping was on the fading out on its own.

Few weeks later some young people who behind were behind the news were arrested in the town of Wau in a party organised by the police administration dominated by the thrilling Jaluo Music played by the then fantabulous Police Jazz Band of Wau. The youngsters were arrested for violating the law as they were still bumping as they didn’t know the bumping was already banned. They were acquitted the following day, but the famous police chief was not sucked for that arrest. Something new must be coming in air since the commissioner of Juba is now fired for similar actions with youngsters.

So the question here is that is the Goss has begin to implement the zero tolerance on corruption by firing the Juba Commissioner or is it another of the so many SPLM’s leaderships reactions when trying to please some strong backers ?

We are all watching and we hope the SPLM renaissance towards good governance is a reality and we want to see more firing than hiring as far as corruption is concerned. Please chief Mayardit can you tell me that you have reviewed the CPA? And are you ready to fire the corrupted governors rejected by their own people as the public opinion says, be them in Bentiu, Torit or Rumkek, just to mention a few ?.

As for the editor Nhial Bol, it is a complete shock to me that someone who went to school should request his arrest. You can not arrest a mirror, because the mistake you see in the mirror is not actually committed by the mirror, but you are the one being reflected and you know that.

Please be fair to your conscience and the release of this gentleman should not in anyway be tied to any blackmailing otherwise we are just making a mockery of the political and press freedom promised to come with the CPA. Take care what goes around, come around take this advice because you can even be fired.

Let us implement the CPA to the letter and it is only by free press that we can shape ourselves into a people who in in regardless of their complex and different backgrounds can one day exist together as an independent nation -South Sudan – democratically governed.

I would be more on board if the killer of the Luluba singer who was killed in Nimule and unfortunately in cold as reported by Alfred Logune, an accredited south Sudanese journalist and an indigenous citizen. The least would be that the boss of the killer of the deceased and his proxy executer should be apprehended and fired from office and from life if Kiir is there for Justice.

What does it all amount to if the future south Sudan’s fate is left in the hands of people who are most of the time unconscious of what the people on ground are actually suffering from . It is high time the the current decision makers wake up to the challenges of the very fabric of the unity of our anticipated south Sudan nation , before history repeats itself on them.

The French Revolution, the Soviet Revolution, say anything – the Intifada – The post election riots in Kenya and it’s aftermath insecurity with all the impacts on the innocent citizens’, theirs lives and their properties, the least to say ……otherwise we are heading towards a real Rwanda – Burundi or frankly another Somalia.

And as things remain the way they are , with a ruling elite whose interest lies in the presences of the Dinka Bor in the Madiand as they are fleeing the Murle or whosoever is the one making them not to fell at home in their own home lands, then woud the Madi not just invite the Murle into the occupied and grabbed lands, as the adamant as the IDP’s are , the only way you can send them home fast tracking is by introducing in where they are now what made them originally to leave their traditional homes in the first place.

The dreams of a south Sudanese nation at any cost can not be achieved by those in power at the expence of the Ma’di people.

Let us all be educated that the meaning for Ma’di is here I am, and it is me whom you are seeing and dealing with . I just don’t appreciate what other south Sudanese are forcing us into, but if it be, then I am sorry it will inevitable come to be just like it is happening in the rest of the African continent.

The author is a south Sudanese doctor living in the united kingdom. He can be reached at [email protected]