South Sudan’s Program to Determine “The December 15th” top Twenty Media Influential

“… None of us got to where we are alone, whether the assistance we received was obvious or subtle, acknowledging someone’s help is a big part of understanding the importance of saying THANK YOU! – Harvey Mackay”

Oct 08, 2015 (Nyamilepedia) – It is often said that human beings do not only want their contributions to be noticed but also wish to be recognized and appreciated for good deeds that are likely to set off good precedents for subsequent generations. Despite that each and every person wishes to fulfill these fundamental needs, it is often the case that not every deserving candidate get recognized  for one reason or another.

As we begin to commemorate the 21-months-old South Sudan’s conflict, we believe it is time to collaborate to divulge the top selfless media anchors, who dedicated their times and resources to enlighten the world on the roots causes of December 15^th 2013 – Nuer Genocide, and kept the moral and unity of our people high.

December 15^th was a day of grief in many South Sudanese families, particularly among the Nuer ethnic group. It is on this day that many souls departed in a blink of an eye due to faulty leadership and tribal incitement descending from the top leadership in the country. Given its magnitude, even the lucky few who did not lose an immediate relative within the first few days, lost a soul mate, a close friend, a colleague or someone they knew and closely attached to. It was such a horrendous experience but an inevitable reality that most of us would live to remember for the rest of our lives. December 15 has become a trademark that would never fade in our memories!

“The December 15th Massacre”

On a brief account, in Dec 2013, a political dispute between Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar over the chairmanship, reforms and protocols of the SPLM party reached its climax. This internal turmoil reached it brim on December 14^th during the party’s long-awaited National Liberation Council (NLC), which was postponed several times but abruptly re-scheduled for this day.The first day of NLC was dominated by an angry and emotional president, Salva Kiir, who showed very little political will.

When Dr. Machar and six other top reformists boycotted the 2^nd day of NLC meeting on December 15^th, Salva Kiir and his generals plotted to arrest the politicians that night for “disrespect”. This attempt led into shooting among the presidential guards, which Salva Kiir announced as a coup masterminded by Dr. Riek on the 16th of December. Dr. Riek denies.

To the surprise of many, Salva Kiir’s presidential guards and his tribal militia turned on Nuer population, hunting them from door to door in what became known as the Juba massacre, an onslaught that has left some families extinct. This initial massacre, which lasted for days, weeks and months, set off a retaliatory civil war that we are currently battling to end.

To wind-down inequity and instability in South Sudan, patriotic South Sudanese, together with Dr. Machar Teny, work tirelessly to reform the country’s system of governance and social institutions which have been massed in tribal supremacy, corruption, land grabbing and marginalization of the weak, poor and minority tribes. This could never have been possible without priceless sacrifices and dedications, be it in term of blood or resources. As we obviously know for any movement to accelerate into the implementation of its objectives there must be identical care in;

Military: a faction to pressure the political adversaries by using a grounded resistance to force the aggressors to their knees and to promote its political agenda, locally and overseas.

Political Wing: a branch practicing politic as a theory to influence people to adopt and accept certain revolutionary believes and grievances. It is a way of expressing view in diplomatic manner!

Media: One of the most important factions utilized to support both military and political wing in term of supplying information, mobilization, and time management.

The three factions patently demonstrated their importance and tremendous successes within the last 21 months and therefore their actors equally deserve to be heavily acknowledged in kind. It is for this importance that we have dedicated some times to develop a scheme that will identify the top 20 media warriors of Dec-15^th Genocide. If you take a quick glance on the leadership of the SPLM/A in opposition the three wings have their own chiefs; the military wing is led by Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual, with Dr. Riek Machar leading the political wing and Captain Mabior Garang De Mabior leading the movement’s media wing.

One may ask himself on why we are orchestrating a program that is supposed to be done by Comrade Captain Mabior Garang? Well, this project is run to commend those who were not officially mandated to operate under the leadership of the SPLM/A in opposition. We are doing this to reward individuals who steadily pick up their pen to write awareness accounts on Dec-15^th Genocide without receiving any official invitation from the SPLM/A in opposition leadership to support the movement.

When the war started in Dec-15^th /2013, many people ran for their dear lives including Dr. Machar than after a week or so they started to assemble and reconcile with their own spirit before embarking on the mission of resistance. Locals’ soldiers and politicians who were touched by the cruel treatment of Salva Kiir’s militia, Mathiang Anyor, joined the camp of the opposition. Later after guaranteeing the safety of Nuer and none-Nuer inside the UNMISS campus; a new independent media faction emerged, a faction popularly known as “South Sudan’s Media Warriors (SSMW)”. This faction was highly dominated by Nuer intellectuals worldwide. The vision and the mission of the Social media warriors is to support the opposition movement under the leadership of the able Dr. Machar, who vows to create federal state that will be founded on true justice, liberty and prosperity.

The Social media warriors were campaigning under the theme “Kiir Must Go”. In their campaign they recommended numerous strategies to topple Salva Kiir’s tribal regime; they created website, blogs, debate forums, twitter accounts and Facebook groups to ensure a timely delivery of breaking news and opinions to all the internet users. This is a role that was played by thousands of people worldwide, however, for the sake of this scheme and due to other constraints, we will focus only on the top 20 major contributors.

Major Selection Criteria For The Top 20 Media Warriors of December 15^th,

Dear readers, we have abstractly defined the “social media warriors” based on Dec-15^th Genocide, however, our targets are mostly those whose contributions made a brilliant impact on other internet users and the community at large. These warriors contributed by developing websites, elaborated creative events, creating of noble graphic designs, frequent and eloquent opinion writing, consistent sharing, tagging, and timely spreading of inspiring news and opinions. Therefore, to narrow down the large pool of mass social media contributors into only top 20 requires a concrete criteria that will achieve this goal without bias or favor. These criteria must be authenticated by two third of the campaign team and audience.

To avoid puzzles, limited eligibilities criteria, which are currently pending endorsement, have been suggested to help adjudicators determine the Top Twenty media influential.

As an effective requirement, the overall verification committee collectively agreed that the first top five participants of Dec-15^th media influential must have written their first article or Facebook status between Dec-15^th, 2013 to March 15^th, 2014. This is to ensure that the participant’s contribution is technically meant for 2013 South Sudan’s conflict. Secondly, in order for you to be a participant in Dec-15^th top 20 list, your contribution must meet at least three or more of the following requirements:

1. The Participant must be an active member in Community and Movement’s programs, particularly, the first Commemoration event of Dec-15^th in 2014 and the RED-CARD rally of July /2015.
2. The participant must have written at least five or more articles that talked about South Sudan’s 2013 civil war.
3. The participant must have at least fifty Facebook timeline posts about 2013 south Sudan’s conflict.
4. The participant must have at least fifty Facebook’s tags, and shared inspiring news and opinions that related to South Sudan’s 2013 conflict.
5. In case the participant is a graphic designer, he must have designed five or more notable political designs that illustrate political importance of the reform.
6. The participant must have developed a website or a weblog that has been active to date.
7. The participant must have created or actively participated in media forums or social media groups.

December 15th top 20 Compression Process

Due to the large pool of South Sudan’s Media Warriors (SSMW) in social media, we have agreed that all the participating countries must investigate and select their top 4 most influential candidates that qualify for the top 20 list of Dec-15^th Media Warriors. To trim it further, the overall verification committee will evaluate all the collected lists of four to identify the finalists who would be thereafter announced as the top twenty.

On the verification process, the committee will go through your Facebook timeline posts and search for articles you wrote. The overall verification committee also has the rights to investigate your commitment to the community and the movement activities.

Why are we doing this program now?

One of the reasons why we are doing this program today is to pave ways to the future South Sudan’s media investigation officials whom will be commissioned to carry on the task of identifying the Media Warriors of the event of Dec-15^th for historical record. According to our calculation, in one or two years time, some media contributors may be forced to deactivate or abandon online activities due to other life’s commitment.

Furthermore, many South Sudanese icons in the past were intentionally forgotten in the History of Sudan and South Sudan because we, South Sudanese specially the Nuer don’t value or cherish our sons’ and daughters’ achievements. One of the most popular saying in South Sudanese communities is “What makes him better than I?” I understand that other people may have different interpretation to what this saying means yet it is generally means Envy because if we intentionally meant equality and peace, we would have applied the wisdom of Jesus Christ demonstrated in Mark 12:17 “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

Another issue we are confronting is lack of recording important events. If you ask a 15 years old school boy about a man named Mut Duang Mar Chak, his answer would obviously be “no idea” because his ancestors never thought of leaving a written draft of occasions or events that took place in the past. For your information Mut Duang is a brave man from Gajaak community who smack-down a British warplane with traditional stick (Weath) made of heavy wood. This man would have been one of the country’s heroes but due to the leaking of the country’s history, Dr. John Garang De Mabior becomes the only known South Sudanese Hero. Therefore, we are urging all the youth of this 21^st century to open a new beginning, a commencement where history is written accordingly.

To be continuing…..

In the next article we will name the venue to hold the ceremony where we will bring together the top 20 best media influential of Dec-15^th genocide. We will also display the official logo for the Campaign.

To be a participants or a supporter of this program in Facebook please CLICK HERE

This program is initiated by Zechariah James Machar with the support of Deng Elijah Hon Top and many others. Contact details: zee4yo at yahoo dot co dot uk / dengsimon2000 at yahoo dot com