Has James Hoth Mai Gone into Political Exile in Australia?
8 min readJames Hoth Mai Betrayed His Country and Went into Exile in Australia.
By Pal Kuoth Khor.
“He is here, he has been sneaked into that car by his relatives” A voice shouted at Melbourne Airport in Australia
James Gathoth Mai, a South Sudanese who was once trusted as the only third party in the country to protect his nation from internal and external attacks has gone to exile after his former Dinka president replaced him with a fellow dinka. Hoth Mai betrayed his country long before December 2013 when he started to conspire with a brutal dictator to champion the genocides in attempt to transform South Sudan from a democratic state into a military regime. Salva Kiiir, who was a brutal killer in the Sudanese rebels of SPLM/A before he became a president wanted to turn South Sudan to a military regime like that of old Sudan against the will of South Sudanese people who fought to be free for fifty years.
Hoth Mai, a voiceless vulnerable veteran, suffering from identity crisis, was appointed to the position of the army’s Chief of General Staff in 2009 to replace Gen. Oyai Deng Ajak from Shilluck Tribe. Hoth was appointed because he is a diehard Dinka loyalist, who is never expected to betray his dinka counterparts at any cost. Hoth has proven that he is more interested to serve the dinka people as a tribe or a nation for a long time but now the dinka leaders have betrayed him and he has to leave his country like a dog, with his shameful face down as he was being sneaked into a private car by family members in Australia.
Hoth betrayed his family and the Nuer.
During his daughter’s weeding to a dinka son in 2011, the uncle of the boy openly announced while looking at Hoth’s face that he gave away his daughter to a dinka to prove his over 30 years loyalty to the dinka people. The former central bank governor, Elijah Malok, was referring to Hoth’s support for the SPLM/A movement, when majority the senior SPLM/A officials such as Kerbino Kwanyin Bol, William Nyuon Bany and others followed Machar’s South Sudan Independent Movement. Hoth accepted that his daughter, Nyathon, was married off to serve tribal interest but not love.
Gathoth, as he was initially named at birth, has changed his name to Hoth or Oath. Gathoth dropped the prefix “gat” because it easily identifies him as a Nuer and not a dinka. “Gat” which means son and “Nya”, a prefix for a girl name, are commonly identified as Nuer names but Gathoth did not want to be identify as such. He is now stuck with “Nyathon” because if “Nya” is dropped the resulting name (Thon) would be for a male and not a female any more. Nyathon is married to a dinka and she is now a full dinka, with dinka culture and language.
Hoth is doing everything to continually betray his people, the Nuer people. This fully demonstrates that Gathoth is no longer Gathoth but oath to serve Dinka.
Hoth betrayed South Sudan
5 Dinka Deputies: Gen. Hoth Mai watched Salva Kiir transforms the country from a democratic state into a military regime but chose to praise him and worship South Sudanese Pound(SSP). Gathoth never say anything that would disappoint Salva Kiir or his the dinka tribe. He was fooled to believe that is how you serve a country but only in Dinka culture. He has been instructed to kill his people for him to be on the “right side of the history” and be recognized as a hero. Now, Gathoth is a hero but he can’t keep his face among his people. He is too shame, he has to kill his own brother to be called a dinka hero. Gathoth never knew that he was only serving a short-term tribal political marriage. Even Nyathon will one day be divorced and dumped like Oath himself. Hoth denied the tactic (coup), which was driven to kill the Nuer people but only after he was removed from the important position.
Maybe Hoth will be recalled back to service after this article.
The president deputized Gathoth with five dinkas, 4 from Bahr el Ghazal. The loyalist Hoth never questioned anything. He accepted the mandate as it was. The president removed all the non-dinka from the top positions and only kept Gathoth to be used as a bloody rubber stamp and he never complaint. Oyai Deng, from Shilluck and Mabuto Mamour from Equatoria were removed, just because they are non-dinka. To make it worse they had to be disciplined through arrests to ensure that they become loyal civilians. Both were accused of a coup and corruptions, and were arrested. Mabuto served nearly 2 years in jailed and Oyai recently served 4 months. Gathoth may face the same arrest charges because he denied a coup and that is why he has to run away to Australia.
Hoth has betrayed his country at large.
Gelweng: Despite Hoth was the chief of staff, the president recruited a tribal gelweng militia but he chose to applause it and kept quiet. The militia was equipped and trained using the national resources just to kill and displace innocent Nuer people. The main aim of recruiting a tribal militia was to revenge the 1991, which Hoth knew but still chose to do nothing. The killing of Nuer and assassination attempt on Dr. Riek Machar and other politicians, led by Hoth Mai, was meant to rubber stamp a military regime in the country.
Hoth shamelessly politicize the killing of his own young brother by Gelweng militoa, and adopted to use it as an example to convince more Nuer to approach their dinka enemy and be killed or fed with human fled like his brother. Hoth is suffering from inferiority complex.
Nasir:When Hoth failed to kill his own people in Ulang and Nasir, the birth place that he never visited for more than 30 years, he was replaced with the killer Malong Awan who recruited and trained Gelweng militia. Hoth again came out to tell the public that Malong deserves his position.
In less than a week, Malong’s Gelweng invaded Nasir, rapped, looted, killed elderly and burned down the entire Gikany Nuer. Hoth was still happy to announce that he has not betrayed his people, the Dinka Bor. But it was not long before Hoth realizes that he has nowhere to hide his shame anymore in the country. Hoth sneaked to Australia but that won’t be the safe haven for long. Hoth is on the run.
Coup: Although Gathoth knows that there was no coup; he never came out to dismiss the fictitious idea that was engineered to wipe out his own tribe. Hoth knew there was no coup but he continued to butcher his own people who were set up to be killed and humiliated so that the brutal dictator can build a tribal palace using the Naath’s resources. Hoth was the best tool to kill the Nuer because he is identified as a Nuer although he is a dinka in heart. After he was used and damped, Hoth came out to deny that there was no coup shamelessly through a dinka radio. But that was too late, more than 20,000 Nuer people have been killed in Juba at his orders. South Sudan is still bleeding from the genocides and retaliations from the victims because Hoth Mai betrayed the nation for the love of money.
Foreign Invasion: The helpless Oath Mai saw his country invaded by the brutal dictator of Uganda Yoweri Museveni, the enemy of South Sudan who killed Dr. John Garang de Mabior to install an illiterate leader Salva Kiir. Again Hoth Mai did nothing. The Ugandan army came into the country in July when Kiir forcefully overthrow his own cabinet in a silence coup and expected retaliation from the South Sudanese people but Riek Machar came out and save the nation. Hoth Mai just watched the mess and continued to conspire with the enemy of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit. The Ugandan army from July to December remained in the country yet James Mai did nothing as the most powerful militant in the country.
Hoth Mai watched the Sudanese rebels being hired by Salva Kiir to kill his Nuer tribe in Unity state and Upper Nile state but Hoth Mai conspired with the idea. His president hired M23 and Egyptians but again Hoth Mai did nothing. Now, the embarrassed Hoth Mai has gone into exile to hide his face from his own people. A big shame indeed for a son of Nuer.
Did Hoth Mai try anything? NO.
When governor Malook publicly announced the assimilation of Hoth Mai’s family through the marriage of his daughter it was Riek Machar who openly refuted the dinkilization of Gathoth. Riek warned that the marriage between Nyathon and Ajak must not be politicized because it was based on love. But the father of the daughter did not want to betray his people and his dinka nation. He accepted that Nyathon was married off to please Dinka tribe but not for love.
At his capacity as the chief of staff Hoth Mai saw 171 SPLM Generals under his command remove from the army because they were suspected to affiliate with Riek Machar. Hoth Mai did nothing. A patriotic citizen could have resigned but Hoth Mai was happy as long as he gets paid.
In sum, Hoth Mai was a spectator in his position as the chief of staff but more than a spectator he assigned and took devilish orders from Salva Kiir that killed many innocent lives. Hoth tolerated all the dictatorial tendencies but continued to conspire with the killer. Hoth Mai should have resigned or refused to take unnecessary orders from Salva Kiir. He should have enforced the orders that he feels appropriate for the nation and down play Salva Kiir’s dictatorial fallacies. He had the opportunity to restore the nation by being neutral between the politicians but chose to side with the killers of Salva Kiir. He should have arrested Riek and Kiir but he wanted to arrest Riek and leave the dictator on his seat to kill Riek Machar in return. Riek only wants to restore the vision of people of South Sudan but Salva Kiir and James Hoth Mai wants to restore the Khartoum military regime system.
The author, Pal Kuoth Khor, holds masters degrees in criminal justice. He can be reached at khor2013@hotmail.com
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