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Contributor's Lako J. Kwajok Politics South Sudan

KIIR AND MALONG ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

By Dr Lako Jada Kwajok,
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (C) accompanied by army chief of staff Paul Malong Awan (R) attends an independence day ceremony in the capital Juba(Photo: ghettos)
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir (C) accompanied by army chief of staff Paul Malong Awan (R) attends an independence day ceremony in the capital Juba(Photo: ghettos)

April 16, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —- As much as peace in South Sudan is within reach, resumption of war and descent into chaos is much closer than you think. The return of the opposition leaders to Juba would have naturally filled every heart with optimism. However, this is not exactly the case in the current environment engulfing the country. What accurately depicts the situation is what I call as a state of cautious optimism.  The Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan ( ARCISS ) is an opportunity for the regime to allow the country to climb out of the hole dug by its catastrophic policies. Squandering this precious chance for achieving a lasting peace would lead to one thing only which is a definite and rapid fall into the abyss.

A common theme among the regime’s supporters is the scapegoating of the President’s aides and colleagues in the cabinet for all the shortcomings of the government. Some would even say that the President was let down by people he trusted but failed to deliver. What they neglected to explain is – why did he keep all his cronies despite mounting failures? And why no one was dismissed for good or ended up in jail? Those who were relieved from ministerial posts were made Presidential Advisors, Ambassadors with or without portfolios or just allowed to go into hibernation in the SPLM party at taxpayers expense. Moreover, no one among them seems to have the courage of questioning the President’s personal responsibility regarding the dire situation in the country. It’s a misleading notion aimed at presenting the President favourably and rendering him the false image of being a fair-minded person. The fact of the matter is that President Kiir is no different from his cronies.

Last week, the media outlets circulated troubling remarks from the Chief of General Staff, General Paul Malong, I quote ” I will wait to see how he would be the president in our presence. He would be a president in my absence. ” He was referring to the expected arrival of Dr. Riek Machar in Juba to kick start the formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity ( TGoNU ). The word ” absence ” in his remarks could mean one of two things – either he would resign his post or that Dr Riek Machar can only be President over his dead body.  The former is less likely than the latter as there is no way that he would leave his post without being fired. His words displayed a massive ego and implied authority over the regime’s decision-making process. In a democratic government or indeed any government, such remarks would have cost him his job. A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation was sacked by President Kiir with a decree read over SSTV. The reasons for dismissal were not given. However, many observers have attributed it to a document signed by him and sent to the UN High Commission for Human Rights, in which he referred to Dr. Luka Biong, who hails from Abyei, as a Sudanese national.

It was a lie meant to mislead that UN organisation. The former Minister indeed made a mistake, but it’s quite trivial in comparison to what  other members of the cabinet did but allowed to keep their positions. The said document affected one citizen and not the whole Abyei community –  it did not point out that Abyei belongs to Sudan. Furthermore, the regime did join the Sudanese government in rejecting the unilateral referendum conducted by the Abyei civil society in 2013 that overwhelmingly supported joining South Sudan. That decision by our government though met with dismay from the general public was not perceived as an admission that Abyei is part of Sudan. What the former minister signed did not mean a change in policy or that our government has forsaken Abyei to the Jallaba government. Therefore, it’s reasonable to believe that there are ulterior motives and a double-standard policy behind the dismissal of the former minister. With that being said, I am not by any means defending the former minister – he is an integral part of the corrupt and failed regime that has destroyed the country.

Coming back to my main topic, those remarks by Malong, should have led to immediate dismissal from his post. It’s a problem because what he said is very antagonistic to the single most important policy benchmark required to be adhered to by the government which is full implementation of ARCISS. The problem with those utterances is two-fold. Firstly, there is nothing in the agreement that would prevent Dr. Riek Machar from becoming President of South Sudan should the position become vacant for whatever reason during the transition. Also he is entitled to be the Acting President While President Kiir is outside the country or in the event of being incarcerated by illness. Secondly, Malong’s job description does not give him the right to wade into matters related to government policy. His job is purely non-political, and we have an example of his predecessor, General James Hoth Mai, who had run the military by the book.

Needless to say, Malong has overstepped his authority on several occasions. His outrageous statement in August 2015 that the regime would rather follow the footsteps of the likes of Al Qaeda and Boko Haram than to sign the peace agreement hasn’t been forgotten. That statement alone should have resulted in a swift dismissal because of its enormous implications. I was amazed that in a world where a war is being vigorously waged against international terrorism that includes the above infamous terrorist organisations, Malong’s statement drew negligible or no reaction at all from the international community. Perhaps the formidable powers that are engaged in the global war on terror, regarded Malong’s utterances as empty threats from the Military Chief of a government that was saved from collapse by a foreign force. Lack of action does not mean what Malong has said was entirely ignored. It has already tarnished the regime’s image as a government harbouring elements with terrorist inclination. The consequences may come in the form of difficulties in securing loans from the international monetary institutions, problems with admission into international organisations and plenty of others.

However, the most bizarre situation though was Kiir’s refusal to sign the peace agreement in Addis Ababa on 17/08/2015. The reason he gave was that he needed to go back to Juba for consultation with his colleagues in the cabinet. It was a move unheard of in what is known as state protocols. The typical approach is for the head of the negotiating team to travel to Juba for consultation with the President in the event of a stalemate during the negotiation. The president only attends the negotiation venue at the final stage prior to signing the deal. The whole thing was unprecedented because he is the top man in the government and as people say ” the buck stops at his desk.” That leaves one to conclude that the president does not have total control over the decision-making process and that other strong players have to be brought on board before a final decision could be made.

The above scenarios have led to speculations about who runs the country. If Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin could be relieved of his duties as stated above, why not Malong who has apparently committed much graver mistakes? The fact that he gets away with any destructive statement and remark indicates one of two things. Either that President Kiir totally agrees with him, or he is the real centre of power in South Sudan backed by the Jieng Council of Elders ( JCE ). In either case the prospects for a lasting peace is quite grim. South Sudan would be better off with the likes of Paul Malong kept out of office. Unfortunately ARCISS does not prescribe removing those who are overtly anti-peace from their positions. Nonetheless, the formation of the TGoNU should offer the tools to tame Malong and his cohorts. It will be inexcusable and detrimental for the opposition to allow Kiir and Malong to do business as usual.

The author is a concern South Sudanese who can be reached at lako.jada@hotmail.com


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5 comments

Tolio April 17, 2016 at 7:13 am

General Malong’s good comradeship with President goes all the way back to days of liberation struggle. It must stay like that. kiir can’t fire Malong. kiir has no benefit to gain from sacking his loyalists to appease oppositions. By the way Malong denied he ever said Riek Machar could ever be president in his absence. He said the story was made up by Sudan tribune.

Dr Riek can’t be acting president if Kiir is absent. The transition is a government made up of participants representing separate political parties and their military wings.

It is the vice president Wani Igga of the same party with president kiir that shall always be acting president, not Dr Riek who shares power with the government under his own independent party.

If Obama goes out the US, it is his vice president from Democratic Party he comes from that acts as a president, not Republicans with whom they share power.

If Riek machar becomes president, what do you think will stop those whom he always mutinied from become the rebels?
He should get the same flavor he thinks the incumbents should enjoy when he is not one of them. That is what Malong meant by Boko Haram and related. It is not because he likes terrorists as some perceive. People celebrate rebellions and worship rebellious leaders in South Sudan. That makes it okay for anyone to be a rebel tomorrow.

Reply
bwana ya watu April 17, 2016 at 9:14 am

Tolio your afucking. Sheet of those who are enemies of peace to prevails in south Sudan. You have to know that this country does not belong to your fucking tribe dinka to support nonsense. Malong. And kirr are all iletrate generals who don’t know what human rright is. And bing paracial anduneducatedm can spoil the name of dinkas

Reply
Tolio April 18, 2016 at 6:36 am

Bwana ya mujinga

You are a hundred per cent wrong. I am not anti peace. Your filthy language has no place in this context. Besides, I never said South Sudan belongs to Dinkas only.

All I said is, President Kiir can’t fire general Paul, for they are good comrades with good mutual obligations. I know both of them very well. Oppositions like Riek Machar and others aren’t as good as both Kiir and Paul. Riek killed thousands of Bor Dinka civilians in 1991. Kiir and Paul never did.

About literacy, President Kiir and gen Paul are fluent in Dinka and Arabic. They also speak and write good English. you can check out their speeches on youtube. They are written in English language.

You want to know who the real example of an illiterate person is? Well, don’t be surprised that it is you. You won an idiotic championship gold medal in misspelling words like illiterate and right. You failed to capitalize nouns and words beginning sentences. You began some sentences with joining words. You placed punctuation marks incorrectly. In addition,you used swear words which are aliens to this forum.

Finally, I disagree with you that both President Kiir and Malong don’t know human rights. They know human rights. It is why they fought to liberate the country from Arabs. Under Khartoum, our hands were cut off as prescribed by Sharia to which we didn’t consent. We were enslaved against our will. We were subjected to diseases and poverty. We were killed, for we weren’t Arabs and so forth. After Kiir and Paul Malong fought Khartoum, all those rights we were losing are restored today. If you couldn’t accuse of them of human rights violations those days,then what you now say against them is a propaganda with tribal influence from your warlords who want to ascend into power using distortions.

Dr Riek Machar massacred thousands of Dinka Bor civilians in 1991 and recent war in Upper Nile. Blame him for he started it. What’s wrong? You can’t blame him for he hasn’t killed Equatorians? I see it makes it none of your business when he killed Dinka civilians for you hate Dinkas.
Mind you, Dr Machar killed those civilias while he was literate and that is a violation of human rights. If people don’t violate human rights as a result of their education or literacy, the man with the PhD shouldn’t have done killing in the first place and be blamable today.

Reply
Dr Lako Jada Kwajok April 17, 2016 at 9:49 am

Tolio,

It took him 10 days to deny it which means the denial is a lie.

Reply
Tolio April 18, 2016 at 4:45 am

Dr Lako

South Sudan has no better communication networks. This website always experiences technical breakdown. It could be one of the factors why it took general Malong ten days to tell his side of the story about the controversial statement.

In South Sudan, most people aren’t media savvy and Malong might be one of them. What the government needs to do is set up communication channels and employ media professionals for its various departments to monitor what is said about them and then refute news stories that are incorrect.

There is no doubt many local news websites about South Sudan lack reliability and credibility. This is because most local journalists are amateurish and tribal. They have no professional media ethnics and write subjectively because of their affiliations with their tribal warlords and politicians.

A journalists should write objectively and follow prescribed professional code of ethnics or standards. Doing so makes the journalist neutral;unbiased and incredible expert in his or her field of work.

Reply

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