By Dak Buoth,
24th August, 2017(Nyamilepedia) —— Mr. President in the unlikely event that the ailing former Chief of staff Paul Malong succumbed to illness you will be held liable because you’re now preventing him from seeking medication where he prefers; should he pass away, god forbid, his family and South Sudanese a cross divides will attributes blames on you, and that will haunt you sooner than later. This notion that you don’t care will not help you and the country of South Sudan. Sometimes, you must learn to care for the good of an individual and the country at large.
Mr. President this is too much; you can’t keep urinating on the heads of senior citizens without an iota of sympathy. You have to learn some merciful characters. With all due respect, what you’re doing now is not politic at all. In my view you’re just becoming inhumane to say the least.
You would not find real politician who kills his Friends and opponents alike.
Normally, a real politician keeps his friends close to his chest and entices his opponents by means of resource permitting and forgiveness et cetera. The ‘divide and rule’ strategy that you’re applying against our communities was an old tactic used by the colonialists. It is not supposed to be applied again in modern Africa by someone like you who once participated in liberation struggle for our country owing to its numerous disadvantages.
SHOW SOME SYMPATHIES
Over the years, you have been killing your distance cousins of Nuer Nationality en mass. But that is understandable because you and your cohorts have coined a notion that Nuers are the threat to your ‘leadership’. And it is for this reason why Nuers are no longer complaining of being killed by you. Nuer is combatant society, and in fact, they seem to have accepted to live by it, only time will tell, and the balance is history. However, to subject your closes buddy, Paul Malong who put his life in defense of the same is not normal by any imagination. You’re fondly aware and we all know that he has been unwell for sometimes now. He has been in and out of Nairobi hospital way back before his brutal purge. The guy is very sick and his situation is deteriorating from bad to worse.
YOUR AIDES ARE MOCKING THE SICK
Factually, fortnight ago his wife Mrs Lucy Ayak wrote open letter like this asking you to allow her spouse to seek medical treatment abroad as advised by his doctor. So far we have not heard your personal comment on the same. We have only heard some rhetorical and irritating reactions from your aides and members of your kitchen cabinet, your spokesman Mr. Ateny Wek and Gen. Awet Akot. If I can paraphrase, Awet Akot and Ateny wek replied to Mrs. Lucy Ayak via media that Paul Malong was not barred from traveling outside Juba, that he is not under house arrest, and that Paul Malong has not come to complain that he want to go out of the country for treatment. Do they mean to say Malong himself should come and complain to you and not his wife? Ateny went on to say ‘‘he doesn’t think Gen. Malong is sick’’. Gen. Awet in his response published on Sudantribune.com said that ‘‘people are calling me to inquire whether Malong has been arrested, and the answer is no. I am not aware’’. This is laughable. How can Awet denied his arrest and at the same time said he was not aware? However, whether or not he is under house arrest isn’t an issue, but the very disturbing and shocking sentiment is to hear Ateny Wek saying that Paul Malong is not sick at all.
THE WIFE AND HUSBAND ARE ONE AND SAME
Mr. President are your aides in better position than Malong’s wife to know his health condition? The answer is not. In her article dated 10th august entitled ‘‘does Ateny Wek speak for Presidency or Gen. Paul Malong’s family’’ his wife Lucy said ‘‘like any responsible and caring wife, it is my responsibility to know and ensure that my husband is in good health, and indeed everyone would expect that I would be the first to know if he is good health, and not anyone else for that matter’’ In view of the above views, i have reasons to believe or presumed that the duo are mocking the sick with your permission. But the question is, why would you mistreat your former comrade like that? You fought us together for five good years since December 15th 2013. This is unacceptable. There is an old adage which says ‘‘A king who betray his comrade does not deserve a crown’’ On the other hand, the duo’s responses showcase anti-African behavior.
Mr. President, you will concur that it is not normal to mock ailing person, and i would not be wrong to say Awet and wek are longing for Malong’s demise.
AFRICAN WAR ETHIC
Mr. President let me remind you, the reason I say their reactions and response contradict our African behavior is because in our African war tradition and custom, when you’re fighting someone and he has fall down or surrendered. You STOP, you don’t KILL him. If one kill a person who has surrendered he risk a tug of being call a coward. Instead you leave him alive.
In the same vein, when your enemy has voluntarily come to your home, you can’t attack him in your house; instead you welcome and offer him water because his coming to your doorstep portrays sign of peace and reconciliation in his or her part.
On 10th May, 2017 when you relieved Malong via presidential decree and via TV without prior notice, he then tried to go to his home town of Awiel with a view to curb his anger and avoid potential confrontation, because remember what you did to him is a provocation of highest degree. The following day you barricaded his way home with mercenaries and ordered his return to Juba whether dead or alive, and he did came back alive.
Now why do you bar him from seeking medical treatment? And if you wish him dead you would have ordered that he be shot the time he was in Yirol.
AVOID FEAR OF UNKNOWN
I heard via rumor that there is lingering aspersion or fear in your mind that Malong will launch armed rebellion against your regime if he leaves Juba? I think that is not true. I guessed Malong would not do that though he has substantial reasons to do so. The Guy is sick and old. I think he can’t attempt to try and undergo what Gen. Peter Gatdet and Gen. Gatwech Dual have done via trekking in thick bushes to Congo. In my last article dated12th May, I said Dinka do not back an Underdog. Were it not for this stance, you would have been in for a rude shock.
But again i do not think his illegal confinement or death will prevent or stop rebellion in South Sudan? Rebellion is not new phenomenon, and with the look of things around, I don’t think it’s gonna ends soon. We just need to admit to live in the era of war because the level of despondency and the amount of anger in peoples’ hearts is an immeasurable.
RESULTS OF JUSTICES
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, sir Mcllroy argued that ‘‘injustice creates insecurity, and ultimately it creates insecurity not for the oppressed but also for their oppressors’’ Mr. President I can tell you for free, that it is always the injustices and impunity that breed conflict and armed rebellion all over the world. And as long as we, the South Sudanese continue to witness and experiences injustices under your reign, we are yet to see an end of military showdown.
MY ARGUMENTS
Last weekend on 19th when I was expressing my ire over Malong’s mistreatment by you, one of my Dinka colleagues told me to shut up arguing that I should not advocate for Malong’s release, and that his confinement serves justice to the victims who perished during his time when he was still chief of staff. In my reply, I repeated what I said last year to my Nuer colleague after James Gatdet Riek Machar’s spokesman was deported from Nairobi. At that time Gatdet was about to be forcefully repatriated to Juba to face torture by vermin, and I wrote some statements asking President Uhuru Kenyatta not to deport him to Juba for its irregular.
That Nuer guy whom I was talking to happened to be Taban deng’s loyalist. He came to me after reading my appeal papers on media and asked me as follows: Dak why are you demanding James Gatdet’s release or you’re member of SPLM-IO? I told him that before I said yes or no, let me tell you something: first be informed that Gatdet is human being who enjoys fundamental rights before he become SPLM-IO member, and therefore his rights as human being prevails. I told him that I did not demand his release as member of SPLM-IO, but rather as individual who must live and enjoy life. Hence the question that James Gatdet is a member of SPLM –IO was a secondary, and it cannot prevent a none SPLM-IO member to point out where his rights are violated. Karl Marx said and I quote ‘‘Citizen or workers had a common interest more important than the national loyalties that might otherwise have divided them’’.
NO SOCIETAL RIGHT WITHOUT INDIVIDUAL RIGHT
One known legal Pundit and author of the book ”Peeling back the mask” said that people do not understand that liberal ideology is based on individual rights, and they do not understand that the cornerstone of all these progressive concepts flows from fact that human beings have fundamental rights that must be respected. Remember the society is the conglomeration of individuals, and therefore we cannot humiliate an individual person in the pretext of protecting community interest, never. More often than not, most of us are ready to sacrifice the individual for societal right not realizing that there cannot be societal rights without individual rights. Based on the foregoing legal theories, you will also understand and appreciate the reason why we must respect and defend each other’s right notwithstanding our differences with them, their political affiliations, tribe and gender. We must all learn to be our brothers’ keeper.
ATTITUDE CHANGE
Over the times, my clamor for change, justice and peace is guided by the principle of common good and impartiality. Hence, even those that I disagreed with including you Mr. President should not die. In other words, I don’t wish you brutal death or pain that you have inflicted on us. We are just striving to make change and urge you to embrace attitude change.
As an aspiring legal practitioner, I am advocate of the abolition of death penalty. And for your information those are some of the deals that we would like to install in the post SPLM era.
Mr. President I believe you and Paul Malong are party or privy to the murder of Gen. Tito Biel Chuor, and I can tell you for fact that it is very hard to live without that person. And still I can’t wish you bad luck or dead for doing so would be repugnant to the decease’s will. In his lifetime Gen. Tito Biel does not hold grudges, a principle i learned from him and uphold at pedestal.
Moreover, I am aware that you and Malong are the perpetrators of Juba massacre and other massacres across the country. Documentary evidences shows that Malong did trained the infamous ‘Dut-kubeny’ in Luri at the outskirt of Juba, and it was the said paramilitary forces that orchestrated the Nuer killing in Juba. But Still I still do not wish you to suffer the same up to now. In my view your death and that of Malong would not help the downtrodden in any way. But if you can live longer and see the forthcoming transformation and unity in our society the better, and that is my prayer.
BEING ORPHAN ISN’T GOOD
More importantly, Paul Malong’s son Mr. Garang Malong is my colleague, and I don’t wish him to be an orphan now. I lost my Mother when I was still a toddler. And I can tell you that it is very hard to live a life without one of your parent. In February 2017, senior Pastor Rev. George Riek who is roughly 70 years old told us at ceremony in Nairobi that he lost his mother recently, and from that day he became an orphan.
THE GOVERNMENT STARTS WITH YOU
Mr. President when i hear that an action is done by the government, it all started with you and others follow. Therefore if Paul Malong pass away in his current confinement, we would not say it was the sickness or the government that cause his untimely death, no. Some people say Malong is suffering from high blood pressure. if that be the case, such illness is very serious, and it became more severe when one is confine in stressful environment like that. Normally, Blood pressure requires regular attention from the doctor. Remember the case of Malong is a little bid different from other prisoners; the guy is your neighbor. He is indoor at your next door. The last time I was in Juba, I can recall how close are your houses in Hamarat estate. And I guessed you can even hear him coughing at night. But even if you arrested him, he should continue to enjoy his rights. Mr. President, remember prisoners have rights too. To be honest with you i condemn your uncouth behavior that seems to pay deaf hears to the human anguish and that rejoice when we are languishing in pain.
DISALLOW GENERATIONAL ENMITY
Mr. President, to avoid a fierce and generational enmity with Paul Malong Family members, allows him to go abroad as requested by his wife and children to seek medication. Nonetheless if Malong later choose to express his anger by joining or forming armed rebellion as you think well and good. Thereafter, you can start fighting each other in equal measure using all weapons at your disposal. Don’t fight a man who is lying on sickbed. Release Paul Malong Awan to seek medication abroad as requested by his wife Mrs Lucy Ayak.
The Writer can be reached for comments via eligodakb@yahoo.com
