Dec 8, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — The former governor of Jonglei state, Kuol Manyang Juuk, has appointed John Kong Nyuon, the acting governor of Jonglei State, as the deputy chairman of the State’s SPLM chapter.
According to governor Kuol Manyang, who doubles as the Minister of Defense and the SPLM Chairman of Jonglei State, his acting successor, John Kong, the former Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs, qualifies as a “nationalist” and therefore he is pleased to appoint him to replace his former deputy governor, Mr. Hussein Maar Nyuot, who rebelled Salva Kiir’s regime.
It is yet unclear if any proposals were made to replace the chairman, Kuol Manyang, as the SPLM protocols dictate, however, the former governor presided over the event in which his appointments were endorsed by the state’s SPLM leadership.
Gen. Kuol believes that the acting governor is a “true patriot” since he did not rebel the government despite that thousands of his ethnic Nuer were killed in Juba.
“When Riek [Machar] rebelled last December in Juba, a lot of people were killed. Many people followed him. But John Kong and many others did not [rebel] up to this point. I need him to be the deputy of the party in Jonglei state,” said Manyang.
Kuol, who was elected in a controversial gubernatorial election in 2010, has retained his positions as the governor and the chairman of the state chapter until 2013, when Salva Kiir appointed him as the Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs to replace Gen. John Kong Nyuon.
Following the outbreak of the conflict in December last year, many officials from Jonglei state including the Deputy Governor, Hussein Maar Nyuot, Minister of Law, Gabriel Duop Lam, among other officials rebelled the government of Salva Kiir.
Like other Nuer officials, both Maar and Duop have lost loved ones in Juba massacres. Hussein’s brother, who was serving in the ranks of SPLA, was pulled out from his house in Juba and extra-judicially killed in the present of his family in December 2013.
Like the former deputy governor, the state members of SPLM, who rebelled Salva Kiir administration are now replaced in Jonglei state and Juba. Unity State and Upper Nile are yet to meet quorums to replace the lawmakers who denounced Juba’s administration.
The replacement to the rebels, however, means very little to the SPLM/SPLA leadership, which has refocused its efforts to search for a sustainable peace and good governance in the country.
