SPLM’s political tricks: Appointing crooks in cabinet
By ElHag Paul
August 31, 2011 — Now that calm is returning after the storm of decrees number 29/2011 and 30/2011 of 26/08/2011 appointing national ministers and deputy ministers of the first cabinet of the republic of South Sudan, let’s with sober mind look objectively at this so-called widely accepted balanced appointments. It is good to reflect to check whether we are doing the right thing.
Kiir has been showered by congratulations and gratitude for his wise leadership in selecting hard working people to help him in developing the country. It has so far been good to see the most aggrieved (Equatoria) at last feeling relieved and happy. The cabinet is not only balanced in terms of states representation but it has gone a long way towards partially addressing the gender neglect that our sisters and mothers have been subjected to due to our society’s patriarchal structures.
We’re duped by Kiir and SPLM: This cabinet on the face of it looks good from all angles. But the sad thing is that our satisfaction with it is based on emotional heat of the moment without any in-depth analysis. Our (South Sudanese) pacification by SPLM/A appears to have affected us to the extent that we have ceased to be foresighted in approaching things. SPLM/A has turned us into superficial people who do not look at things under the surface to make an informed judgement for what is good for us. The jubilation with the announcement of the first cabinet of the Republic of South Sudan points towards that end. If we (South Sudanese) were thoughtful enough we would have known that we have once again been duped by Kiir and SPLM.
Let me take the example of Equatoria, before Kiir dished out his decrees, the people in that region called for a lean government with fair representation. One of the objectives for this call was to have a small government in order to save money which can be redirected towards development of our country. The other and most crucial was to have people in the government who can stamp out the rampant looting of the government coffers. That call was not in any way intended to just have ethnic Equatorians represented in the government for the sake of representation only as it is the case now. Equatorians wanted people who can honestly work towards the development of the entire country regardless of region and tribe to show our brethren from the other regions that being a government servant means serving everybody within the territory of South Sudan and not only ones relatives and tribe.
The Equatorians wanted to be an example of good governance. Now let us look at the new cabinet. Although this cabinet fairly represents the states and people of South Sudan, it is not going to be any different in managing the affairs of our country. Do not expect looting and corruption to stop. It will be business as usual. Perhaps the previous cabinet was even better because one could straight away criticise it from the word go. This one is different, it is craftily put together to allay fears of tribal domination and yet promote SPLM corruption and oppression.
Kiir’s appointment of the 10 Equatorians in the cabinet is enormously disheartening. Out of these appointees there are one or two Equatorians who are people of stature and dignity and it would be unfair to point any figure of blame on them, but the rest unfortunately do not have the characteristic of what constitutes a people’s person. Most of these people are nothing other than ruthless opportunists who exploit every opportunity to further their own personal interest at the expense of the people of South Sudan. To drive the message home it is important that we group these people according to their behaviour in the past.
Opportunists in cahoot with Arabs: First there are the Muslim-Christians of Turbi who have had their bums stamped with the Muslim Quranic verse, ‘No God but God’. This group made up the membership of NCP before our referendum in 2011. They sold out to the Arabs to enjoy privileges of the regime that most abused South Sudanese. When Bashir was murdering South Sudanese such as in the Juba massacres of 1992, they were in cahoots with him and the NIF. They distanced themselves from the people’s struggle in the South. As a result they were made ministers and governors during all that time.
What development did they do in the South? Let us take Juba. Did they build any hospitals or schools? Did they provide clean drinking water to the people? Did they construct roads? Did they even protect South Sudanese from being massacred by their Arab masters? The answer is ’No!’. They did nothing but enrich and fatten themselves. These are people who have no allegiance to anything but themselves. NCP had open cheque for this group during the 2010 election, but its performance was pitiful. The South Sudanese did not vote for them because South Sudanese knew them.
SSDF who betrayed objectives and sold out to Arabs: The second group is that of South Sudan Democratic Forum (SSDF). I was part and parcel of it during its formation in early 2000’s at Archway (University of Middlesex, Whittington Campus) in London. The intention of forming this party was noble in that it was intended to counter SPLM/A mismanagement of our struggle. However, just before signing of the CPA in 2005, they sold out to the Arabs and some of us who disagreed with this treachery resigned from it.
The Arabs bought this joint to counter SPLM/A internally after the peace agreement. They lavished money on SSDF which was manifested in the 3 posh offices it opened in Khartoum, Bahari (Khartoum north) and Omdurman. NCP bought over 300 vehicles to this party and its began to swim in money, with the leadership building modern houses in Khartoum, Juba and the other towns in the South. The South Sudanese saw their treachery and in spite of the vast amount of money they had from NCP they miserably failed to win any seats during the election in 2010. The South Sudanese saw through their deception and distanced themselves from it. SSDF has not been able to show any positive and alternative leadership because of the greed of its leadership for material things.
So, what has this group done in the South in terms of development? The answer is nothing. The only development they achieved was personal in terms of building villas for themselves. Although Bashir imposed one of them to be a minister in the South, there was no sign of any production. We still import tomatoes and food materials from East Africa. If anything, this person was instrumental in dividing his own people back home due to sale of community resources to foreign company in which he owns shares.
Weakness of Equatorian SPLM members: The third group comprise the Equatorian SPLM members. This group has one advantage over all the others. They truly stuck to the principle of liberating the South. This can not be taken away from them and I take my hat off to them. One way or the other I, as a South Sudanese am indebted to them. However, their weakness was that they failed to bring enough pressure on SPLM/A to change in terms of advancing democracy and promoting good governance.
In the light of this, they too failed in showing leadership in the South. Worse still they indulged in the excesses of SPLM’s mismanagement of the resource of South Sudan. So since they have failed to demonstrate leadership in SPLM they can not be praised as good leaders among Equatorians because doing so means pandering to Equatorian bias. To complicate things, this group is now joined by the Muslim-Christians of NCP who jumped shipped after the referendum results muddying the waters.
Kiir choice of those easily blackmailed: It is important to note that these three groups are not peculiar to Equatoria because they are replicated in the other regions of the South. Not surprisingly, Kiir also used the same model of selection of ministers for his new cabinet from the other regions. From this we can deduce that apart from the one or two people with integrity selected by Kiir and SPLM, the criteria they applied was to go for the opportunistically corrupt South Sudanese and their parties who could easily be blackmailed to do their bidding.
The opportunism of these groups was clearly demonstrated by their behaviour during the debate over the draft transitional constitution. Initially, the 5 parties that eventually allied with SPLM worked with all the other opposition parties for an amended DTC (Draft Transitional Constitution), but when the time came for biting the bullet they buckled simply because they knew that should they not support Kiir and SPLM in their devil’s brew, they would not be given a piece of the cake. Having failed to secure support and confidence of the South Sudanese during the 2010 election, they were under no illusion about their political position.
They also knew that should the DTC fail, and if the country had to go for another general election, they had no chance of being elected. The South Sudanese know them so well that the possibility of being elected was so remote. So, the only way for them was to sell out to SPLM by supporting the DTC to obtain MP positions in the parliament and ministerial positions in the new cabinet.
Appointments an affront to Southerners: Decrees number 29/2011 and 30/2011 are not about good governance and good representation, but about SPLM foisting discredited, corrupt and failed election candidates of 2010 general elations on the people of South Sudan to serve the interest of the masters. This constitutes oppression of the legally elected MPs of 2010 general elections and the electorate (South Sudanese).
Kiir’s choice of appointing failed election candidates to the parliament is an affront to the people of South Sudan. Which constituencies are these people going to represent? They can’t claim to represent the constituencies that rejected them in 2010 elections because these areas have made their choices already and they are being represented in the parliament. Yet Kiir’s appointees come from those areas and they will go there to masquerade as MPs fomenting divisions among the local people. Apart from undermining the powers of the legally elected MPs, the appointment is an utter waste of state resources.
The question to ask is: why is Kiir wasting money on duplication of services and fomenting divisions among the people? The answer is clear. SPLM modus operandi has always been divide and prevail and here they are doing what they specialise in. It isn’t about unity and peace, but about Dinkocracy.
Kiir and SPLM specialization in Dinkocracy: Kiir is unbelievably contemptuous of the South Sudanese electorate. His appointment of unionist NCPs, opportunistic crooked South Sudanese, and principle-less people into position of power in the South is breathtakingly arrogant. This translates into oppression of first class order.
What Kiir is telling the South Sudanese is that although you the people have correctly assessed and made a choice to reject these people during the general election in 2010, nevertheless he singlehandedly will go ahead and appoint them to a position of power regardless of your opinions and feelings. You can go hang if you like. This is what the English people call throwing down the gauntlet. It is up to us to decide how to respond.
SPLM/A culture of irresponsibility: We, the South Sudanese, are constantly abused and confused by corrupt politicians because we have allowed SPLM/A to successfully cultivate a culture of irresponsibility in our society. Politicians in South Sudan get away with murder all the time. When they do not get what they want they prostitute freely by mixing with the worst enemy of South and yet when as usual they get disappointed in those quarters they run back so fast to be welcome home.
Take the case of Riek, Lam, Kerubino, Arok Thon Arok and others during the war. These people kept defecting to and from the enemy, each time causing the loss of innocent lives without any accountability? Astonishingly, every time they behaved like that they got rewarded with promotions and high positions. Similarly members of the groups mentioned in this article have manipulated the South massively with impunity.
Kiir rewarding crooks in cabinet: In the new cabinet, Kiir and SPLM are again rewarding these crooks for their anti-South Sudan activities. The Muslim-Christians who are now safely in the bosom of SPLM as well as SSDF are being rewarded for campaigning with Bashir during the referendum against the very country they now represent and lead. What a joke!
Surely, if South Sudan under SPLM continues to promote this obnoxious culture, it is will continue to remain in a vulnerable position until the foreseeable future. In any society, even in ours prior to 1983, culprits and criminals get punished as a deterrent. Accountability is a must if society is to protect itself.
Rewarding bad behaviour is the surest way to promote it. Pavlov, the psychologist who specialised in behaviours argues that people can be conditioned to behave in a certain way by rewarding them each time they behaved in that way. Say for example, if you gave a child a sweet each time he/she cried, such child learns that to get sweets it only needs to cry.
So, Riek and others learnt that each time they went to Khartoum and came back they would be rewarded with high positions at the expense of the others. As a result, Riek ended being vice president of independent South Sudan by playing this pedantic political game.
For South Sudan to rise up to the challenge of being a truly independent country, it needs to address its history by correcting the ills of the past and to stamp out this culture of accommodation. People must be brought to account for their behaviours. We can not afford to let criminals run amok in South Sudan unless we want it o be a failed state.
Kiir dodges check by parliament: Back to decrees number 29/2011 and 30/2011. Kiir is wrong to dish out these decrees because by doing so he pre-empts any checks by parliament. The purpose of having a parliament is to ensure that they check on the highest appointments in the land. As a democracy that they claim to be, one would have expected that Kiir would nominate the ministers and then pass the list to the parliament for ratification. This process was abused by direct application of the decrees.
What we have now is a fait accompli appointment that can not be vetted by parliament any more. What kind of democracy is this? Dinkocracy does not recognise rules, systems and structures.
Supporting own tribes isn’t nationalism: Yes, as a parting shot we want a balanced cabinet of all the people of South Sudan, but such a cabinet should be made up of people with stature and high integrity who can deliver. We should not be content because the cabinet has people from our tribes and here I believe we Equatorians have faltered. Supporting crooks because they come from our tribes is not nationalism at all. It is the very thing we accuse the Dinka of. Why should we blame the Dinka if we are going to behave like them politically?
Crooks in Kiir’s cabinet: I for one would not have spoken out against Dinkocracy if the system provided the average South Sudanese with all the services a state is supposed to provide. I do not think that Kiir’s new cabinet composed to a large extent of a group of crooks who have always lived off the suffering of South Sudanese is going to deliver because of their known record. They are in these current positions because they traded the interest of the people for SPLM’s Soddy DTC.
These people have no stature, integrity and decency of true leaders. These people were rejected by South Sudan electorate in 2010. Putting everything together, it is hard to see how we can congratulate Kiir in his Devil’s work and expect good governance.
Elhag Paul can he reached at [email protected]