To President of South Sudan on corruption

By Steve Paterno

June 11, 2012 —

Dear our President,

With amazement, we have noticed your government has taken significant measures in combating corruption so as to recover the stolen funds by the former and current government officials. For example, the Anti-Corruption Commission already sent out thousands of forms for government officials for declaration of their assets. Some of the official candidates who received these forms never bother to respond in declaring their assets as required by the commission. So, leave those officials alone. By choosing not to respond, they are telling us that they don’t care about the country. As for those officials who responded to the Anti-Corruption Commission’s request, please, Mr. President, make sure that their declarations remain confidential. Only you and perhaps another one official from your government should be the ones to know about these people and their crimes. You know it is incumbent on all of us to protect our public officials at all cost from shame and prosecutions related to corruption.

We have also heard you, time and again, denouncing corruption in your speeches. Every time we hear you denouncing corruption, we are very happy. So, keep talking about corruption, but please, do nothing about it as it is a sacred subject. The English people have a saying that words speak louder than action and that empty vessels make the loudest sound. Therefore, you must maintain your speeches to be the loudest of all the voices. Actually, you can decree yourself and all your speeches to be the loudest of all the voices in South Sudan for the purpose of having an impact.

We have realized that the evil regime in Khartoum has been stealing our resources for years, hence, they are our enemy, but worst yet, we have enemies from within who steal our money in tune of billions. To be exact, you identify those enemies from within and told us that they stole our money in tune of over four billion dollars. Just as Khartoum declares war on us, these enemies from within also declare war on our country by looting it with impunity. However, let’s behave nicely toward our all enemies, whether they are in Khartoum, Juba or across the international boundaries. As the president, you must decree immunity for all the enemies of South Sudan so as we don’t annoy them. We cannot afford to tick off our enemies, especially if they are responsible for stealing our resources, making us their own hostages.

Since you know these looters by names and addresses, we want you to write to them a personal letter. You must assure them full immunity and confidentiality for their crimes. Please, Mr. President, beg these thieves to return some of the stolen money if they can, because our country is going bankrupt now and need those monies back. However, if they choose not to return some of these stolen monies, it is well and good. Wish them luck and in return, they must wish our country luck as well.

We also want you to write a letter and inform friendly countries that your government has officials who loot our country off its resources. But don’t give away the names of these officials to the foreign governments. No one should know who these thieves are, for the fear of shame and prosecutions. You must make sure that they are not prosecuted or shamed for their crimes by other countries.

We trust you Mr. President for the great effort in not trying to piss off the enemies of South Sudanese people who loot the country’s resource with absolute impunity. Let’s hope that these looters will eventually be satisfied with their crime spree. May be you can even decree these thieves as official looters of South Sudanese resources so that they must enjoy their status with the full privilege of a presidential decree.

At any rate, good effort thus far from your most needed leadership, particularly at this time of crisis.

Steve Paterno is the author of The Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lohure, A Romain Catholic Priest Turned Rebel. He can be reached at [email protected]