South Sudan needs a new order
This article is an open letter to H.E. Minister of Information and Broadcasting (GoSS) Paul Mayom Akec
By Nhial Bol Aken
December 28, 2009 — Your Excellency, I am writing to you as an individual and editor of one of the Southern Sudan leading newspapers (The Citizen) to alert you and the leadership of the Government of Southern Sudan that your recent remarks about media bills in an interview with BBC has signaled to the world that issues related to democratic transformation and bills of rights are subject to be question.
Your Excellency, since 2005, I have been alerting your government that without media laws, there would be a vacuum. Such absence of laws would allow individuals to make their own laws. I championed jointly with my colleagues to draft the media bills with the support of your Party (SPLM) and GoSS.
In 2008, we reached a great compromise position with your Ministry and the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development over four media bills but to our surprise, we were shocked with the media bills which were presented to Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly in October 2009
Your Excellency, the current media bills will create gaps and we hope to address these gaps without intimidation. Your complaint in the interview with BBC that someone approached President Kiir and asked him (Kiir) and I quote: Someone had approached the president asking him to change the proposed law – to add in parts which had been left out. The individual used the wrong channel and should not have gone straight to the president with this complaint.’
As an individual, I see President Kiir as a president of the people of South Sudan and the citizens of South Sudan have a right to complain direct to him.
Your Excellency, it would have made sense for you to inform the BBC that President Kiir is the President of the Ministers of the Government of Southern Sudan.
The BBC quoted you saying that you were not aware of harassments of Bakita Radio and people telling them what to broadcast and what not to air”
This statement also shows that you are not informed of difficulties facing the media houses in Southern Sudan.
Your Excellency, the aim of this letter is to alert you, your party and the leadership of President Kiir that the current media bills would invent war which I believe neither your Ministry nor the SPLM leadership is prepared to handle. Juba may witness stages before the SSLA to demand democratic media bills and this might develop into a bad image for your government.
Your Excellency, did the SPLM not demonstrate in Khartoum and before the National Assembly in order to demand passage of democratic media laws or their amendments to be in compliance with the Interim constitution?
The Media in the South is capable of staging demos to demand democratic media laws to be passed before the 2010 elections, and GOSS and SPLM could be on the spotlight with adverse publicity if your ministry doesn’t handle it carefully and candidly to implement agreed policies.
Your Excellency, your government through your short thoughts will be the one to lose with Southern Sudan now being touted as a failed state!
Your Excellency, your interview with BBC has pushed South Sudan Rights groups and Civil Society to stir public pressure. Public Pressure is coming as the last resort given the dragging on this issue for so long now!
As I listened to your interview, I developed the impression that some of you are divorcing the vision of the SPLM by inventing the Northern intellectuals’ creative lies into Southern Sudan. The history of Southern Sudan doesn’t know dictatorship and your attempt to champion bills that tolerate dictatorship will set a new political development of our people.
I, like many fellow citizens, rallied for the support of the SPLA and SPLM during the years of struggle. We were not blind as assumed by some of you; we were hoping that SPLM vision would translate into more choice and plenty of life’s sustaining needs such as cheap bread, clean water, good schools, and hospital, and freedom from fear of any sort. I strongly weighted myself to support SPLM policies simply because of these few needs.
Today, some of us are observing excellent fighters like you, President Kiir, Comrades Pagan Amum, the list is long, putting up a fantastic fight against the National Congress Party in the North while in Southern Sudan you are developing the desire to impose dictatorship. You deserve our applause. When you were fighting, we loved you dearly because there was that assumption that SPLM was the voice of the voiceless.
As one of the intellectuals, Your Excellency, your interview has set new political agenda, like the British system with Labour Party as a Service Party whereas Conservative party is a war party.
Your choice to ignore our demand for media rights means we will elect the SPLM (party of war) to fight the NCP while we are developing ideas to create another party of services and freedom of choice.
Your Excellency, history tells us that the British Labour party lost elections to Churchill’s Conservative Party when Hitler threatened to invade British Isles. Churchill won the elections but lost the elections at the end of the war. The Labour Party came back to power; don’t you think we will end up like British Parties, exchanging power between war and service parties? With your rejection of bills of rights, don’t you think that SPLM is a party of war, no more?
In short, we need a new order- that of freedom, choice, and opportunity.
The drafted media bills are an opportunity for the long deprived and marginalized Southerners to open their own political choices. I believe you fought for freedom but your current attitudes indicate that many of you do not know how to care for your supporters and what you fought for.
Your Excellency, your party made a lot of commitments to all. We were made to believe that SPLM was out for freedom but your current political attitudes toward the people whom you assumed to liberate shows that you were driven to the bushes by your collective dictatorship. However, I want to remind you that politics is a challenge for survival and one day, don’t be surprised if someone somewhere fiddles with the rules of the game in order to create a new political situation.
One thing is clear, Your Excellency, you cannot convince people’s hearts to be part of your dictatorship, failure, bad governance, corruption, tribalism and nepotism by being bad or intimidating. SPLM won us over by being nice to us in the past. The rule of free choice will one day win, even behind your back.
Your Excellency, human nature has the tendency to gravitate towards more freedom and more choice. And as long as this law of nature holds, the future belongs to those who want us to have more choice, not less.
Sincerely,
The author is the Editor-in- Chief of The Citizen.
Oduck Bol
South Sudan needs a new order
Nyial Bol. this is bullshit.
You do not need to beg human being or someone like your God to get you to heaven.
Just believe in yourself and stand for yourself instead of begging some else. Just take care of yourself and your family. Other wise ,you will be as my friends who was begging position in SPLM since 1983 and stile now they are bodies guards and their kids will be bodes guards also. Your language should be to your God, or whatever you believe in.
gaidit
South Sudan needs a new order
ITS TIME FOR TRANSFORMATION OF ARROGANT GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN TO TRANSFORM TO DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.
M.Cool.J
South Sudan needs a new order
Thank you for being frank Mr.editor.It is crystal clear that you are a born truth-teller and keep it up.
South needs order is true and indeed i see only those who need change will encourage that because most of our leaders are lost for bad.We were won over by the SPLM through trying to be nice to its citizens which is not existing now any more.
The Late Garang said that all Southerners are stakeholders of the government meaning we must heed our ideas and interests to make things work for us all.
If Kiir calls himself the cock when he is only a hen what does that mean because in this democratic world a man is only somebody who listens and discuss what to be done for the betterment of the whole community.
We cannot be misled my friends the Southerners in this time of elections.We must strongly stand for democracy and not dictatorship which is the oldest and the most stupid game in the world.
Kiir must give chance to others if he is not capable ruling the south by dictatorship which we do not want.Paul Mayom Akec must not use south citizens for that fucken business and he must know that we are there for a purpose.God created every one of us for a purpose.
They give the government this useless name(GOSS)-Goats Of Silly Sahara-that are madden by thirst and now guzzling any drop of pounds-fucken.
Time1
South Sudan needs a new order
Nhial Bol
Citizens is a respected newspaper that we all read, please do not go off tract and tarnish the image of the Citizens newpaper, as someone who works in media you have to understand what media itself means to you to everyone and to the country, what is its responsibilities and obligations, what do people want to see and expect fromt he free media? you have to understand that in every country even in the democratic country, there are rules and regulations which guide and regulate the media and press in all those countries, there is no country which has no media law or regulations, otherwise people will open up terrorists tv channels and newspapers and even attack some countries in illegal ways, There is media but there is media with responsibility, you have to air,broadcast and write news and articles that to not endanger the saftey of the country and does not create a situation of unrest and a threat to national security, you also have to understand about individual rights and privacy of all people including public post holders, then you have the issue of protecting the dignity of the country and its people and promoting the its culture of peace and freedom. so do not think that media bill means freedom for media to abuse and violate other people rights, otherwise the media will also be violating the same principles it is asking for itself, you cannot ask for freedom of media meanwhile you go and violate the rights, privacy and dignity of others and try to cause instability, this is not media freedom, so go and think carefully about what you mean by media freedom, do not expose yourself as a traitor.
Thyinka
South Sudan needs a new order
I am all for moderation( not less not more, more or less). If it is too much, it is not good just as a good deal may be too good to be true. The role of media is to provide accurate and reliable information. And to check government excesses so that government are held accountable for their deeds.
However, Media can also be a tool of propaganda as it is being used now by the North to achieve their own political objectives. It is important to consider media freedom in the South in the context of advancing the struggle of the Southern Sudanese and also providing the information that advance the the society’s goals and aspirations. The media outlets should be used judiciously because they can be hijacked by those who have scored to settle and by political opponent to blackmail their rivals. It is a balancing act.