Opinion,
By Nyang Choir Puoch,
Dear honorable Bapiny,
August 26th, 2021 — In your article entitled “Bul Nuer community demand an apology from the Nuer community” dated August 22nd, 2012 in which you articulated some of your arguments against the Nuer community and how in your view the unfolding events past and present alienated Bul Nuer community who according to you were protecting the duly constitutionally elected president. In view of these arguments, I would like to make some important clarifications relating to the matter at hand and also to shed light on your own personal history so that a proper analysis is drawn as to whether your writing truly represents the patriotic figure you claim to be.
To begin with, let me inform you, Mr. Honorable, about the true narrative about the events leading to the conflict of December 15th, 2013 because you seem to be living in the world of oblivion. The issue was basically an internal SPLM party dispute over whether the president should contest again as the sole SPLM candidate for the position of the president or give way to others who wish to contest on the same ticket come 2015 general elections. This internal party democratic exercise does not in any way amount to a coup because it was a peaceful deliberation devoid of any violence. Understandably, what transpired in the night of December 15th, 2013 was orchestrated by the president himself since he would want to deal away with his political rivals dashing any hopes for party competition thereafter. As anticipated, the president succeeded in plotting his way out of this party rivalry and that is why he still maintains the highest seat of the land to this day.
Honorable MP, your preposterous claim that it was you and your subordinate turned your Godfather Tut Gatluak who vehemently defended the president from being toppled by what you termed the mutineers is an opportunistic posture of the highest order. How can the two of you boast of defending the constitution of a country you did not participate in creating and a president you did not elect into office either. It is a well-known fact that the two of you voted for the unity of the whole Sudan and moreover, elected his excellency Omer Hassan Ahmed El Beshier at the time when both of you were still in bed enjoying marital honeymoon with the latter before he could kick your asses out of Sudan – the event that prompted your impromptu departure from the country by then.
As for the support of Bul community to the government of South Sudan during the 2013 civil war, it was a support given under duress by silencing dissent among the Bul civil population and Gen. Mattew Poljang Top in compliance with your orders is on record for conducting the most egregious extrajudicial killings ever witness in this country. How many people lost their lives because they were being suspected of being opposed and contrary to the idea of singling out the Bul community from among the Nuer for personal gain. After the forceful subjugation of the Bul community to support the government has been fully realized, what benefits did these citizens gained out of all this disastrous gamble except isolation, humiliation and the stocking of enmity and hatred among the Nuer through your tribal tendencies. If you guys are God fearing people, you should not have subjected an entire community to this unbelievable and uncalled for agony of mental torturing simply because you want to build mansions and accumulate enormous assets at the expense of innocent people blood and lives, shame on you Mr. Bapiny.
Honorable MP, you should be reminded that the 1997 election that was conducted between Gen. Taban Deng and Mr. Paul Lily Mathot was difficult to be rigged as you seem to insinuate. During the election, the voting right was limited to the members of the legislative assembly whose numbers were very few compared to a public plebiscite. However, what went wrong in that election was not about rigging it but rather the conspiracy connived by people like you with the government of Sudan to dismantle the then South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM/A). It was through this conspiratorial engineering that the Nuer were fragmented by the Arabs because you seem to be thriving through confusion which enabled you to accumulate tremendous wealth at the expense of the suffering innocent Nuer civilians. No doubt, the curse that culminated to your backbone being broken in a scaffold with none other than your nemesis Malok Matai did not came out of nothing, it was God plan to punish you for the sins you continuously committed against your own people because in your shallow mind you think the blood money you are acquiring out of this mess are an end in themselves. How many mansions you had built on top of dead Nuer bodies who were deliberately killed by mercenaries like you so that you singlehandedly remain the sole beneficiary of the Nuer agony.
The exploitation you guys have meted on Bul community is something that cannot be justified with the simple concoction you are making to change the true narrative of events from their rightful historical perspective. If there is a community that has grossly suffered from wanton exploitation for the sustenance of few individuals’ welfare in this country, it is undoubtedly the Bul community. I have never heard of a single time and event when the Bul community were consulted to obtain their blessing on a particular stance right from 1984 when Paulino Matip rebelled against the SPLA Western Nuer command to 1997 factional fighting as well as 2013 South Sudan civil war during which the last nail of betrayal was put on the Nuer coffin. if anybody is touting that Bul have stood with the Sudan or South Sudan governments, that is a big lie because Bul has never been on one side all along hence, any attempt by a single party to talk on behalf of the entire Bul community is a misleading and futile endeavor to seek legitimacy through crooked means rather than through democratically popular consensus.
It is a complete surprise that Mr. Bapiny is still talking of those who rebelled against the government and those who are not as if he did not rebel himself in 2017. Does Mr. Bapiny really knows that his current coming to Juba came at the backdrop of the revitalized peace agreement on the resolution of the conflict in the republic of South Sudan, otherwise, he would still be languishing in the corner of Khartoum city. Rebellion has no distinction as he wants us to believe, if he rebels against the government in 2017, he should count himself among the mutineers’ club, a word he shamelessly loves to categorize to other people exclusive of himself. If by writing this article, Mr. Bapiny strategize to showcase himself as a loyal supporter to the government so that he can be welcome back, I believe this is not the right way to do it, brother Bapiny should be brave enough to declare his return to the SPLM rather than beating about the bushes by falsely portraying himself as the guardian angel of the government of South Sudan, the constitution and indeed the president.
Regarding Honorable Bapiny comment on the imminent disintegration of the SPLM/IO as could be exemplified by the recent split of the Kit Gwang group, this is a normal phenomenon in any organization and therefore should not be used as a justification to attack the leadership of the SPLM/IO. When Mr. Bapiny mutinied in 2017 against the government, nobody panicked as this is seen as a normal turn of event in any organization and the government did not disintegrate in the wake of his departure. Why would the SPLM/IO disintegrate because there is an internal rift, I don’t think a reasonable person would immediately procrastinate the doom and gloom of SPLM/IO as an organization due to that rift. Human experience has shown that those who usually celebrate at the grave tops of others are likely to meet the same fate themselves. So, it is not wise to rejoice because of others’ fall when you ironically, did not even put your house in order.
Finally, the assertion that the Nuer community should apologize to Bul Nuer because according to the author people had followed them where others had once seen as a bad side of history is a misplaced demand. If people are coming back to the government, this is because it is the same government they had helped create by voting for the independence of this country as well as for its president in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Absolutely, there is shame in coming to your government which you brought forth, instead, the person who should be more ashamed is the one who voted against the independence of this country because this is the highest degree of treason against the state and its people. On the same note, the claim that the Nuer should apologized to Bul Nuer is a similarly misguided demand, those who are draining the blood of innocent Bul civilians and who consequently enjoys luxurious and extravagance life at the expense of the same people should be the ones to apologize to the Bul people and not the Nuer community as shamefully demanded by the writer.
The author is a concerned citizen of South Sudan and can be reached through email at nyangchoir@gmail.com
