By Kuach Tutkuay,
Opinion.
July 9, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — In his letter dated 8 July, this young man took the challenge to openly criticize me on Juba Monitor Newspaper as a respond to my letter to James Kok, whether it was out of fury or flattery, I don’t know, but the writing sound more of flattery–writing to please. I did not wish to retort to this flattery for I believe that this fellow have an axe to grind with, which may be quite peculiar to the ideal of a healthy political debate. My fellow kinsman attacked me on an op-ed and gave all his over hundreds reasons to writes which to me all summed up to one thing–dependency syndrome. My open letter to Honorable James have nothing to do with this young man nor has his name been inked in that letter, I barely know anything about his existence. It was a bolt from the blue to me that Puok, which I have known for quite a while as a guy out of place, could make it to the media and manage to write an article. I thumbed up to the good Samaritan who wrote you this article for I am quite skeptical about your very essence capability to inscribe a comprehensible piece.
To shade more light on your argument, I want to remove some clauses, that, “I grew up under the hand of James Kok.” and that “my education is from James Kok” That is quite a distorted fact for I came to know James in 2010 election during which our interests coincided and I was supporting him for the seat he is holding today. Unless you are telling me that I grew up in 2010. Throughout my study in Kenya, I never knew whether there is someone in the name of James Kok, leave alone paying for my school fees. I will leave that to the readers whose logic is not overshadowed by the dependency syndrome. If only you had the chance to consult the one you deify, James, he would surely deny these statements of yours. As for your proverb that I will “lick my vomit” I want to tell you that I will never lick my vomit because I have learnt to lick from my sweat. I teams up with people not to be a parasite to them but to achieve a common cause.
I want the readers also to know that I actually worked in the same ministry with James Kok from August 2010 to July 2011 but that does not necessarily mean he should pull me by a rope like a goat being led to the market, I am a rational being and have my own way of seeing things through. After all I worked because I have documents. James Kok is the area MP representing our community, a fact you won’t quite comprehend as to why I chose to write about him alone among many other Fangak politicians. Moreover, he is the one that bawls louder than the rest and someone who really love him to lead in the foreseeable future should give him a peace of advice to heed, this, you are lacking in nature for all you want is “if my stomach is full, who cares!” forgetting the empty stomachs in Fangak who suffers day and night. If this is it, it is in itself a breach of social contract whose terms dictates that community gives leadership in return for protection. Since you are not a social scientist, this doesn’t make any sense to you, but it ought to be. To put it simply, don’t you think we have social responsibility to support and protect the community and serves their needs. I came to conclude that from where good leaders turned their back, the poor ones turns their stomachs.
You said also that I am “playing with fire” who is fire here? you or James? I had thought for all this long that your uncle lead us by knowledge and not fire, had I know this earlier, I would not have any business to do with him. To show that your argument is not genuine but a mere flattery, you said James Kok is a “rare leader”, on what basis, you never tells, whether professionally, politically I don’t understand. Well, you called him a “rare leader” but I would rather call him a “rear leader” and several circumstances proved this beyond doubts. I would have appreciated your writing a lot had it not been played at the backdrop of flattery. Whenever one write to please, it always overshadows the authorial voice and one always end up being subjective on the matter in question.
Let me tell you why I teamed up with James in 2010 election. James was the only potential son of Fangak who was working hard for the liberation and standing firm with his community. As I quoted this in my previous article, I always identifies good qualities of a person even after he or she loses the dignity. I also want to tell you where I fall apart with James, it was the very day he called us for a meeting which I described in detail in my previous article. During the meeting, when I realized his political myopia coupled with his hind-sightedness, I tried to lend him some foresighted advices which quite sound Greek, if not French, to him. At that moment, I realized that we were all aboard a wrong wagon and debarkation wasn’t an option to him, moreover, I was not willing to give away my principles in return for a blank check with not even a promise to pay written upon it, so, to hell with that “gentlemen agreement.” Everything happens for a reason–sufficient reason, I like it that all the shuck have teamed up, it has always been incredibly cumbersome to identify a mere shuck from a leader. Now a yardstick has been presented forth to the Fangak community under which everyone will be measured. We are not trying to establish a canon vis-a-vis Fangak leadership as the Catholic canon has long been established, but it is something quite complementary to that in which reinventing the wheel is not the best medicine. Blackmailing is over, and, Oops! the die is cast.
I know you Mr. Puok, very, very well! After a driving experience in the ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, you bamboozled your way through by procuring a Sudan School certificate, to secure you a place on top of Fangak Youth Union. You applied the same tricks, supported by this crisis to earn you a star in the army, someone who doesn’t even know ‘attention’ (tibaa). You want to trick your way again by becoming a writer through other people’s ideas, I want to assure you that education is the only think that one must acquire from the classroom, no shortcut. A writer-cum-SPLA, eh! If our laws still above us, as I believe they really are, you could be jailed. A soldier is not allow to play a role in politics, but because you don’t know your stance, nor your destination, we cannot teach an old Rambo new tricks. You blindly joined James’s camp without having to critically understand the phenomenon behind many people deserting the camp, I hope you will be safe than sorry. James’s camp is good for someone who could not think beyond a mere mouth-watering daily bread, but you must uncoil your tail to be legible to this.
I went to school neither to flatter people for a job nor to be employed by people from Fangak. My young life has been marked by a story of struggle. To bring yourself to my echelon, I am sure, those who know us will knit their brows. 2nd Lieutenant-cum-houseboy! The best you can do now is to solicit some money from James Kok and come over here in Kenya to further your studies. For how long will you depend on articles written by others? For how long will you remain tied up in James Kok’s apron. I do not want us to argue over trivial issues. I want to tell you to stop threatening people, South Sudan is free for everyone and do not take this crisis as an opportunity to fight, betray and kill your own kinsmen, you may need them soon. I have nothing to argue with you but since you accepted to be a political CD, I will use you to explicate my opinions on your Lords.
The author is a youth activist who participates in many different south Sudanese youth platforms and he is as well a freelance writer in matters pertinent to politics, justice, peace and equality for all south Sudanese. You can follow him on twitter @kuach444 or write him an email on kuachdavid4live@live.com, you may also call him on +254735707778
