The SPLM and the carnage of civilians in South Sudan

By Aluong Deng Bul

In the personality of Gen Salva Kiir Mayardit, SPLM is an empty political entity with leadership void and a liability to the people of South Sudan. SPLM had lost track in between translating its programs into national agenda and running a genuine stable state with inheritable functioning institutions. This guerrilla mass movement which turned into a ruling political party on signing the CPA found itself mesmerized with achievement of peace which was essentially attributed to its only brain Dr. John Garang De Mabior.

With his sudden death, SPLM became a political orphan with nowhere to rely on in term of brain but face well-built National Congress Party NCP, a partner in the implementation of the agreement. SPLM had never had any semblance structures of governing modern state but only had a guerrilla war council whose members later on turned into parliamentarians. The only governing tool these guerrilla generals who later turned into politicians in a matter of night had was stories of war fought, and that became a short lived story. Constituencies had huge expectations to be met by these self-anointed politicians. President Kiir and his former VP Dr. Riek Machar got them elves engulfed in meeting seas of people’s expectations yet they were literally political orphans of their own ignorance, especially Salva Kiir, the Garang’s most preferred long time close friend and deputy chairman in the SPLM also proved himself the worst in term of knowledge gain from late leader Dr. Garang whom many described as charismatic leader. Kiir’s long time association with Garang would have been an added advantage compared to his current empty handedness in leadership styles.

Those who inherited the party upon the death of Dr. John Garang found themselves hypnotized given the absence of desired skills in managing a modern state. The personality of President Kiir as bandwagon in the SPLM vision had none to offer other than continual bragging-reciting expired credits of having stayed on in the movement without lifting feet anywhere, something which saddened movement’s prostitutes or those who bowed cheaper in the course of liberation struggle. Dr. Riek Machar, the de facto leader of those described had ever found himself no equal to Salva Kiir in term of leadership skill though the movement had a queued seniority based on date of arrival during its formation or date of joining the movement in 1983.

Former vice President Dr. Riek Machar, a self-proclaimed heir of ancient Nuer divine leader-cum Prophet Ngundeng Bong had reluctantly accepted to work as Kiir’s subordinate. Kiir suspicious of himself knew that and vice versa. The two great Nuer and Dinka opportunists rocked the boat sailing South Sudan to implementation of CPA. Salva Kiir, like his former vice president could hardly concentrate in overseeing affairs of the South in the collegiate presidency in Khartoum. Dr. Riek was left behind to plant his fame to take leadership, something which made Kiir restless in Khartoum. Machar on the other hand found no time to concentrate in building inheritable modern state structures. He too was busy weighing on Kiir’s weaknesses.

The SPLM as a party found itself turned into bedbugs, killing its own supporters in order to elongate it fragile life. Translating SPLM guerrilla political programs into running affairs of autonomous region stalled on o explainable account. The two men could only busied themselves in the fight to holding onto and taking of power. President Kiir who hardly takes initiative in face to face confrontations in resolving leadership crisis, failed to face his vice president in his unwanted behaviors. Kiir thought exposing Dr. Riek to public would either exonerate his reluctant sluggish leadership. Riek on the same account had foolishly too thought failure of government would only be attributed to Kiir as an individual. In Riek’s view, Kiir was just a dead log before a sailing boat, thus he deserves no place in nation building theatre. His only prayer was to let chaos reign so that public outcry could easily frustrate him to pave way. As somebody who hardly sees where he had gone wrong, Kiir held on to power through supports of no constituencies’ politicians he single handedly brought to cabinet. In 2010 Sudan’s general elections, majority of those Kiir accused of coup now, failed to secure parliamentary seats, thus presidential powers plus SPLM 5% allotted powers to chairman, redeemed them from shame of losing elections in their constituencies.

It was in the same 2010 general elections that SPLM’s civilians’ carnage in the name of protecting golden boys started. Late George Athor Deng felt cheated in favour of Kuol Manyang, the current minister of defense. SPLM had already mastered art of killing people in the name of preserving golden geese. Thousands of people perished in Jonglei and Unity state in Deng’s related rebellion. Without understanding complex power struggle within the ruling SPLM, one would always remain an outsider who sees South Sudanese as chaotic and ungovernable. The issue at hand is the party with sluggish ideas which could hardly be improved upon. The party could not exert effort to review its programs without Dr. John Garang, and this is where one would arrive at a conclusion that there can’t a rejuvenated SPLM without Dr. Garang.

SPLM is indeed an evil of the people of South Sudan. If President Salva Kiir who brags about pronouncing himself as a founding member of the party in 1983, you wonders the level of knowledge he had at the time given that human being keeps on improving and perfecting in aspirations. The harsh reality the current party leadership can go to bed with is that late Garang founded the Movement alone while those claiming membership in it were just mere bystanders in the process. The end is justifying the means. Another harsh reality they should also go home with despite occupying high echelons in the party for long, is that they were mere spectators in daily running of the movement, and as such they don’t have what needed to transform this deformed party. In order to keep public keep on lacks of developmental programs, SPLM thugs had to manufacture this war as a means of lengthening their lives, something NCP has perfected in Sudan.

Aluong Deng Bul is a concerned South Sudanese and be reached at [email protected]