Lou Nuer Community reject 6-point betrayal letter by Nuer leaders to President Kiir
11 min readPresident Salva Kiir Mayardit’
Republic of South Sudan
Cc: Lou Nuer elders and Politicians.
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Lou Nuer Community Rejected some elders and politicians’ six (6) points Letter to the President as Betrayal and Shameful Act
APR/30/2013, SSN;
The Lou Nuer Community (LNC) worldwide is shocked and appalled by the divisive and unproductive move made by some of our elders and politicians, hence, the intention of this Press Release is to condemn them in the strongest terms possible. These elders and politicians are puppets and stooges of Gabriel Yoal Dok, Dr. Barnaba Marial Bejamin, and John Luk Joak, who have taken them to the President on Thursday, 25 April 2013, where they handed over the 14 April 2013 six (6) points letter which says “the Lou Nuer Community is hereby reaffirming that we are fully behind you and will stand firm with you in the 2015 General Election.”
The Lou Nuer Youth in general and Lou Nuer women and the Lou Nuer in Diaspora are outraged and disgusted by this betrayal of the Community by these elders and politicians who have chosen food above the LNC. We denounce it and we reject it completely. Calling for youth in general and women and LNC members in Diaspora to distance themselves from this political wrangling between the President and his Vice does not make sense since they have taken sides with the President, even though the Community has not taken sides yet; therefore, any advices from these elders and politicians is no longer worthy.
Before addressing whether this is the position of the LNC or not, it is worth mentioning that this meeting between the President and the individual elders and politicians comes as a result of the meeting which was held earlier on Sunday, 14 April 2013 in John’s house. In that meeting all MPs of the Greater Akobo were invited and the agenda was about theirs position regarding the current situation between the President and the Vice. At the end of the deliberation, all the MPs agreed to take no position until the General Election period in 2015.
Unfortunately, now we have learned that some of these elders and politicians have gone to the President where they made a declaration without shame and in disgrace that the LNC is fully behind him in 2015 General Election contrary to what was agreed in the meeting where they were all present.
These individuals’ elders and politicians were declaring this position without consulting with the members of the community in Greater Akobo Counties, Juba, or in Diaspora. How did they come up with this then? This is what we are going to address in the next paragraphs in details.
First of all, we would like to make it crystal clear that LNC is not a Political Party which can go simply the way these elders and politicians would want it to be as it is clear in their six (6) points letter. We are one Community and we are always united when there are things that threaten our existence as a people here in the Republic of South Sudan. We are united in saying no to this position.
We are also aware that we do not belong to one political party where we can go according to what the elders and politicians said. We do respect each other’s views when it comes to politics, and no one can make a choice for another in our community so what these elders and politicians are trying to do is for the first time since Mr. Peter Gatkuoth Gual and Mr. Chiech Lam were in politics.
Due to these reasons, we would like to make it abundantly clear that we did not hold a meeting as Community where we deliberated about 2015 General Election and agreed all to support President Salva Kiir. We feel that it would be premature to speculate on position since we have a long way to go. Why should we speculate on positions while we still have two more years to go?
The 14th April 2013 six (6) Points letter submitted to the President is only representing the position of those individual elders and politicians who wrote it and does not represent the whole community. Anyone who claims that it is for the whole Community should now know it is not. As a Community we will have a position when the time is right but not now.
The message to the President is that these three (3) guys will fail you if you will depend on them. You will fail the 2015 General Election; if you rely on them for everything, because they will never tell you what the Lou Nuer Community really want so that they can vote for you.
1. These elders and politicians are out of touch with the reality.
2. They are out of touch with the ordinary members of the Lou Nuer Community.
3. And they are out of touch with the mainstream of the Lou Nuer Community.
Let’s brief you a little bit about them so that you can know you will fail the 2015 General election, if these are your massengers to the Greater Akobo Counties in 2015.
· Starting with John Luk Joak,
John is a failed politician and has reduced himself to a Clan-Chief by listening only to his tribal mates from Cie-Kuayiea, let alone community Chief where community Chief is larger than a section and section is larger than a clan. Imagine if that is the status of the man in the eyes of the people of the Greater Akobo.
John is a failed politician who cannot convince anyone to vote for him, let alone voting for others and the good example of that was 2010 General Election where he lost in his home constituency to an Independence Candidate while the majority of the SPLM candidates won. John has no supporter in Greater Akobo Counties. Actually it was only in 2010 when he appears to be having people when he used to have a Youth Group Called Akobo SPLM Youth Group which was led by Mai Tang Ngor. That Youth Group was later disbanded by Mai Tang who got no choice but to cease its activities and disbanded it for good because the Chie-Kuayiea boys, including the current Commissioner of Akobo County, were on his neck that he has taken their uncle or father hostage just because he is getting along with John.
However, many people at the time see this as a jealousy from these boys. One of this boys is now the Office Manager of John in the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) that is Gatluak Puk. A Nuer with 6 Nuer Marks on his head with no qualifications and experiences, but only experienced in beer drinking and was made an office manager because he drink whisky together with John. While this chaos in the Group was unfolding John chose to be quiet and did not say anything to these boys at home to know it off from destroying the Group. As a result the Group disappeared, the very Group which was formed for the intention of promoting him.
· Dr. BarnabaMarialBenjiman:
This guy is a Dinka-born-again Nuer at his current age who always speaks in English in the LNC meeting. This guy is not serious and no one takes him seriously because he does not know ThokLoka, let alone ThokNaath; so, how can he deliver Lou Nuer Community to the President if John Luk who is a Nuer by birth and speak ThokLoka as well as ThokNaath cannot deliver?
Dr. Barnaba is only in Uror to raise his family in the name of representing Uror County or DakKaDiak. He has no influence in the Lou Nuer Community whatsoever.
· Gabriel Yol Dok or Dokweaa….
This is an old guard – an outdated politician still alive today in the Lou Nuer community. This old man is out of touch with most members of the Lou Nuer Community. In the last Election he cannot even convince his own area to vote for him, can he convince the entire Lou Nuer Community to vote for Salvakiir?
· Chuol RambangLouth:
· This is a stomach politician and lonely eater, stingy and selfish. This guy has no value in LNC and does not know how to speak, even in the Church, let alone Parliament or Political rally, so how can he get the Lou Nuer members to vote for Kiir?
We are not interested to take sides at the moment but we would like to dispute some of the points made by John Luk in the 14th April 2013 Six (6) points Letter to the President, especially when it comes to the democratic system in the SPLM.
Cde. John,
What democratic system is there in the SPLM when at the moment in the process of the approval of the basic documents you are setting up a dictatorship system?
1. For instance, if we have democratic system and should be maintained in our Party, why are you allowing the proposed 18 members of the Political Bureau (PB) to be appointed all by the Chairman of the Party after the 3rd National Convention?
2. Why should the Secretary General (SG), the Chief Administrative Officer of the Party be subjected to the selection by the PB and not the National Convention (NC) as usual?
3. And why did the suggestion for the term limit (for how many times) the Chairman of the Party can run for the Presidency of the Republic of the South Sudan was dropped in the process of the approval of the basic documents by the PB which you are part of —just to mention a few…..
By the way you have nullified and dissolved the National Liberation Council (NLC) and the NC by approving the proposed SPLM Constitution which has placed all powers only in the hands of the Chairman.
Another interesting point from John’s Six (6) points Letter to the President is, where he had made it clear that the Lou Nuer area is the worst affected and neglected which has been torn apart by insecurity and all kinds of problems, including lack of development in the RSS, yet, he and some elders and politicians from LNC are approving the work of the President and promising him another vote of LNC in 2015 General Election.
What a contradictory statement? What a world we live in, and what a Community led by fools?
From this statement is where you begin to know clearly how these elders and politicians of the LNC think when we are at a crossroad or a critical future. These elders and politicians of ours always put theirs interest first above the community and a good example of that is this six 6 points letter of John to the President of the RSS.
When it comes to the point that one should not campaign tribal in the letter of John, because SPLM has a system and political structures of solving these things is where also you begin to realize what John is doing here.
On the point of tribalism here, John is pleasing his master, the President and accusing the Vice President of being tribal only to secure his position in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle.
However, the good things for the accused is that gone are the days when one can lie much about you and people will believe it. These days one cannot lie anymore because nowadays the majority of the South Sudanese people are reading internet, newspapers, watch SSTV, and share what is happening on daily basis.
Having said that, none of the four candidates who have declared their bid for Presidency of the RSS are free from organizing people tribally. So, John should cease pleasing his Master by accusing people for the same thing which his master is performing.
In terms of the ones who are vying for Chairmanship of the SPLM and the President of the Country, we see it as their right as citizens of this Country and members of the SPLM contrary to the way John had alluded to in his appeasing Letter to the President.
Absolutely there are processes and steps to be followed in the SPLM in order to prevent division and split within the Party, but also it requires lobbying, mobilization, and campaign on the side of those who are vying for positions, unlike the way John would want us to believe.
In addition, these structures and Policy organs of the Party are not free from tribalism and dictatorship, instead they are turned into fields of domination by some over others because they’ve been rigged and not working according to the interest of all the members of the Party.
So why would John want us to believe in rigged organs and structures and not allow individuals to come up with their own ideas and say I wanted to be a Chairman or President as it is happening now?
Our message to these elders and politicians is to play a united role between the President and the Vice President by reconciling them, because taking sides will not solve anything but instead it will widen the differences between the two leaders. We need the two leaders to be working together for the development of the Country and for the success of the SPLM 3rd National Convention, as well as the General Election in 2015.
To the President:
Our Community has been torn apart by war and many things which some of them are caused by your government and you failed to provide solutions for it. Our community is lacking the following:
1. No roads from Bor to Greater Akobo Counties
2. No schools and health facilities in the Lou Nuer area which have been established.
3. Our community has been disarmed more than 4 times where we have been left unprotected and insecure.
4. We are the single largest Community in Jonglei, but up to now we have never been considered for Governorship Position.
We feel that we have two more years to go and we see this as a big opportunity for you to address some of these challenges before the Election, because our votes in 2015 General Election will not be influenced by number of ministers, Chairpersons, or Deputy Chairpersons you had given us or you will be giving us in the future, and also it will not be influenced by the 4 mentioned elders and politicians, but by the four mentioned points regarding development in the Lou Nuer areas, as well as the following four points below which we want you to make improvement on when it comes to South Sudan-wide.
Those points are here as follow:
1. Insecurity
2. Corruption
3. Tribalism in Ministries
4. And employment issue
There is a saying in America that when, “Ohio goes, so goes the presidency..” When we and our neighbors of Dinka Bor, Greater Fangak, Anuak, Kacippo and Murle decide in 2015 then it will be known that Jonglei State has decided and when Jonglei goes, so Goes the Presidency!
Singned: By Lou Nuer members worldwide.
1. Peter DakNhial– Chairman- Jonglei State; 2. Simon PurThok- Jonglei State; 3. BilGatluakChuol; 4. William BiliewJal; 5. Paul RuotGatluak; 6. Paul KuolGatluak; 7. James Pal Chuol; 8. GatdetReat Tut; 9. Simon BuomGatkuoth – U.S.A; 10. Tut GatluakChuol; 11. Tut ChuolGatluak; 12. Sarah NyachewChuol; 13. Mary Nyadow Tut; 14. CholGatluak Char; 15. Jima GatkuothDak; 16. Tut ReathDak; 17. John GatluakBidit; 18. Daniel Kun Chuol – Canada; 19. NhialKoangYiel; 20. WiyualChuol Tot – Australia; 21. Lam Deng Tut; 22. Peter NhialChuol; 23. NhialGatluakKoang.
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