Kiir’s impending tribal dictatorship versus the great hopes of our nation
6 min readBy SSN Editor:
“They (SPLM/A) have a tendency of dictatorship…” says Mr. Bol. “This is a culture of war in our country. When they were in the bush, a commander of an area was the judge, the police, the pastor… everything that was collected, it was given to him. Still there is a mindset from the bush,” from an interview in Aljazeera.net by Mr. Nhial Bol, Chief Editor of “Citizen” newspaper, Juba Aug. 01/2011
UNLESS President Kiir seriously evolved from his being as a mere tribal icon over the past six years into a real and genuine national leader of our new country, the future of our nation won’t be any different from that of any predestined failed African state.
Inarguably, the first regime of President Kiir was immutably characterized by a hegemonic tribal dictatorship and political indecisiveness which were so pervasive and paralyzing that only our people’s sustained perseverance to see Independence Day come to fruition, kept the south together from inevitable implosion.
Now that the momentous Independence of our nation has been consummated, it’s imperative on President Kiir to seriously tackle the existing or anticipated pitfalls and contradictions that will inevitably hinder any progress and unity in the new nation.
National unity and government: Admittedly, the ruling SPLM party has historically been severely strangulated by internal contradictions that have thwarted it from being embraced by all southerners as a national liberation movement.
Since coming to power in 2005, president Kiir, due to his own inherent leadership deficiency, miserably failed to bring about national unity or national reconciliation among multiple tribes.
Kiir hopelessly gravitated towards enabling a tribal domination of his Dinka ethnicity in all facets of government and the army (SPLA) so much so that spontaneous armed insurrections and lawlessness quadrupled across the nation.
World leaders and concerned quarters have sufficiently warned Kiir that his new government takes into consideration our national diversity and becomes inclusive of all ethnic groups but not the singular preserve of his tribe again, otherwise the future cohesiveness of our new country will be jeopardized.
Shambolic fight against corruption: Despite Kiir’s recurrent empty promises of extirpating the rampant corruption that has now become so deeply ingrained in the SPLM-mismanaged South Sudan nation, he hasn’t once resolved any single case of corruption.
Unprecedentedly, Kiir responded by either promoting those accused tribal culprits or simply had these criminals silently dissipate and blend into their tribal cocoons that are sinisterly protected by the president.
Just recently in Juba the president was on his knees pleading with these well-known looters to ‘please rehabilitate’ the millions of money they’ve in foreign banks, when he should’ve otherwise authoritatively ordered for their arrest and trial.
Apparently, there exists this illegality of criminal protectiveness and impunity callously accorded the alleged mega-millions dollar thieves like Akuen and Athian, a modus operandi that’s so pervasively used by the president, his vice, his ministers, his governors, generals and the party.
Perhaps the tribulations and ordeal to which Dr. Josephine Lagu was subjected to palpably exemplify the contradiction in the miscarriage and abuse of justice when the judiciary, the police and security are so heavily dominated by a single tribe.
What SPLM stole from Kenya. Just like the SPLM/A insipidly stole the Kenya national flag, they also stole the most corruption-engendering laws like the one that compels foreign companies operating in South Sudan to cede one quarter or a fifth of their share to South Sudanese nationals.
Furthermore, instead of encouraging nationals inside or in diaspora to run the country, today Kiir’s administration policy of saturating the government with those fortune-seeking, corruption-inclined experts from Kenya is the very antithesis of nation building.
Tribal misrule of law: The fact that the entire security apparatus including the army, police, prisons and so-called ‘National un-Intelligence of South Sudan’ are the preponderant exclusivity of a specific tribe people, the reign of misrule and lawlessness will still persevere in our country.
The whole world is fully cognizant of the unprecedented beating and inhumane torture of the National leader of the parliamentary opposition who was humiliatingly paraded naked in public and lost his teeth.
Unconscionably, President Kiir mustn’t allow a free reign of tribal dictatorship of terror in our new nation that was brought about by our united struggle and sacrifice so that some brainless tribal security people can arbitrarily arrest, torture, rape and kill any southerner without giving a suspect the full benefit of the law.
Furthermore, it’s utterly unacceptable that when the interior minister and the police chief of our nation have been publicly accused by the UN and Norway, a dear friend of South Sudan, of corruption and therefore incontrovertible damage to their reputations, President Kiir simply stalled and balked at dismissing these kinsmen and relations.
Also, instead of fastidiously deploying the security forces in areas like Greater Bahr-el-Ghazel and Greater Upper Nile where fatal tribal banditry and intra-clan wars and cattle-rustling and armed insurrections still persist, Kiir’s tribal security forces are unnecessarily too much aggregated in Juba, terrorizing a peaceful people and grabbing their land.
Sometimes the adage that ‘charity begins at home,’ isn’t always bad; perhaps, in our special predicament, it would only be needed for those of Kiir, Machar, Gier, Tito and the others to pacify their own backyards before they can boldly stand up and be counted as national leaders.
How hypocritical are these so-called leaders who would rather live ostentatiously in Juba but won’t care to even visit or get buried in their own ancestral villages or peacefully resolve the perennial cattle-rustling in their villages?
The future of our nation: As a people, we were previously united in our determination to get rid of the jellaba Arab imperialist; however, the future remains precarious if there will be no fairness, justice and equality.
Kokora should always be a good reminder and warning to the impending Kiir new government that you can’t callously deny any body his/her inalienable and constitutional rights.
As an immensely diverse society with pluralist character and serious regional sensitivities, the best way to avert the inevitable antagonism and rivalry between the ruling Dinka, on one hand, and Equatorians and Upper Nile (Nuer, Shilluk) on the other, is a modality of government of federalism with a smaller central government that is not as wasteful and unrepresentative as the current GOSS.
Even though Kiir might now just misconstrue that he’s won the first round of the unfair constitutional fight by imposing his undemocratic draft transitional constitution through intimidation, bribery and threat, this acquiescence by the regions is more of a truce and not permanent.
Never a visionary or radical leader who suddenly found himself at the top by circumstance and the hand of God, Kiir has shown over the years that he’s gullible and malleable to political manipulation by his tribe.
Finally, let’s studiously recall what Susan Rice of America eloquently elucidated in Juba on July 9, “South Sudan independence was born amidst great hopes.” Perhaps the great hopes will become realizable under Kiir.
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