Now, it turns out that governing in South Sudan under President Kiir Mayardit and the FVP Taban Deng Gai is more problematic than we expected

By Santino Aniek,

April 15, 2017(Nyamilepedia) —— I have lived for almost 40 years; I remember the war between South Sudanese and Khartoum regime, the humiliation and the shameless rebellion of 1991, the assassination of John Garang in 2005, and the senseless war of 2013. But, until now, I have never been ashamed to be a South Sudan citizen. I always believed that, whether SPLM-IG or SPLM-IO, our leaders are basically good people who are reasonable and thoughtful, even if I did not agree with them. But President Kiir Mayardit seems be not reasonable, his decision against the will of Ruweng people is not thoughtful, and it is considered as a brutally betrayal. The men who President Kiir and the FVP Taban Deng Gai have chosen is a fraudster, a men who have done business with the mob, a discriminatory, and a hatred who thinks the people of Ruweng are always there only to serve their interest, men who knows nothing of the world, and they have no curiosity about the interest of Ruweng people. Moreover, I do not believe that these men are good and decent people, and if they were as other people think, they should not involved in this dirty business of the FVP.

For more than ten years, we have been hearing from the so-called leaders in Juba about how horrible those who rebel against the government were, and this was the best description they could come up with. But when it comes to cake sharing, the same horrible people will be the best people to the government to share the power with. In fact, a cruel and a rush decision by President Kiir and his FVP Taban that do not seem to have any new ideas or a reason to fix the core problems in South Sudan that has been facing our people since 2005. It is the same reason that causes many people in South Sudan to rebel against the government of President Kiir. And at this point, it seems to prove that his decision is always about creating a conflict and not actually trying to bring every lasting peace to South Sudanese people. Now, the ball is firmly on the court of Ruweng people, either to reject or to accept this cruel and rushed decision by two men who seem to adopt Khartoum tactic. The two men control the government and they share power by playing dirty politics. But President Kiir made a promise in the end by assuring every Ruweng citizens around the country to stay home, the Monday rally has been cancelled, and the dialogue should continue by bringing Ruweng people’s representative to Juba. However, the question in each and every Ruweng citizens is, did President Kiir or the Presidential Advisor, Hon. Tor Deng Mawien has lied to the people of Ruweng? Basically a version of as a bigger false promise by President Kiir that would be better tells by the people of Ruweng a fairy tale. And now everyone with the knowledge on this issue knew it that President Kiir is not going to keep his promise because he never did.

As always the case, it is actually has to be made up of words that lead to a false promise in the highest office in the nation. Hence, that false promise has to actually tell us something about who will win, who will lose, and the people of Ruweng are the losers while the FVP Taban is now the winner of this dirty game. Consequently, it tells who will be marginalized and how much it might cost the people of Ruweng for short-term security. And knowing that Ruweng people have the FVP’S plan in place and our people’s interest is getting picked apart by his supporters and interest groups on all sides is serious concern that need President Kiir’s reconsideration. Because the key is that the FVP Taban is starting to look as popular as ants at a picnic in South Sudan. Today, the people of Ruweng have to guess that with the FVP Taban is running the show in the entire country, our people in Ruweng land will not like the end result of this dirty game of interest. Therefore, our powerful friends of Ruweng people should start lining up in opposition to the President’s decision in order to reverse this betrayal against the peace loving people in the nation. This harmful decision will make Ruweng people insecure and toothless in the era of Taban Deng Gai.

Yet, perhaps the most threatening to the long-term security of Ruweng people is the return of the FVP Taban to Wuhn Danluel.  As it shows that ninety nine percent of the Ruweng people are complaining about how rushed this cruel decision was and what will likely happen to the security of our people in Ruwëng State. Meanwhile, the hardline of power seeking want to see this effort as some sort of Taban lighting up a light to them and also as a business as usual. And they are being propelled by outside groups to welcome this cruel decision. As a result of this cruel and rush decision, there is a lot of bad analysis in the camp of the FVP’S power seeking about what the presidential decree meant in terms of the security in Ruweng land. But ultimately, sadly, this will be decided by the people of Ruweng of the world whether to give up and let the FVP Taban to continue to marginalize our beloved relatives one more time in the twenty first century. Nonetheless, when doing big things is never easy, but making a promise is a lot easier in South Sudan, and this is how Ruweng people once again find themselves in the country where venerable people cannot survive.

In this toxic environment, here we stand as people of Ruweng and President Kiir is swinging the full weight of his Administration behind his FVP Taban leaving the entire population of Ruweng State in a dark hole. But however, maybe this will be enough to wake up the skeptical people of Ruweng who seem to be overwhelmingly opposing this cruel and rushed decision by President Kiir and his FVP Taban. Or maybe this effort will fall apart in spectacular failure in the history of Ruweng people and continue to do nothing as usual. As a fact, President Kiir has promised people of Ruweng that he will listen to them and told them that Them Machar will not take the oath of office as a governor of Ruweng State until the matter is resolved amicably base on the popular views. But, it is likely will dramatic political theater if President Kiir and his FVP Taban refuse to listen to this peace loving people in the nation. It is just a horrible shame that the stakes being toyed with thousands of Ruweng people and their security at risk by letting Taban Deng Gai continues to marginalize our people need a serious response now.

Finally, I understand why so many South Sudanese communities are disenfranchised and disillusioned, why there is mistrust of the government, and deep-seated issues with President Kiir, but I never, ever thought that this will result in putting Taban Deng Gai over the people of Ruweng’s interest because this people stood with President Kiir long enough to be rewarded like any other community who are enjoying due to their minimal contribution. It is true governing in the entire is difficult, but betrayal and difficulty are not the same. More importantly, I know many people believe that smart people and smart policies makers can fix our corrupt system of government in South Sudan.  President Kiir seems to think this way.  I’m assuming that President Kiir suggested during the national prayer day that his government and the community relations could be improved meaningfully by accepting responsibility and accountability.  Yes, a responsibility and accountability. With this cruel and rushed decision, I no longer believe that Juba is willing to fix the problem, as though the leadership in Juba is anything other than a mirror reflecting back to us the true nature of our democracy. They cannot fix the problem without a revolution of values and radical change to the basic structure of their leadership in Juba.  Of course important policy changes can and should be made to improve government practices unless President Kiir reconsider this cruel and rushed decision, or it will cause in South Sudan.  Furthermore, if we are serious about having peace in our country rather than a government at war with its own people, then we are going to have to get honest with ourselves about whom our government actually serves and protect or else to unity.

Santino Aniek is a concerned South Sudanese in Upstate New York, U.S.A. He can be reached at santino.aniek5@gmail.com and find me on Facebook, on Skype and on twitter @saniek.