President Kiir’s Speech Pleased the Extremists

By Philip Thon Aleu, Juba

March 19, 2015 (SSB) –  Supporters of President Kiir turned out in huge numbers to listen to his speech and they never left empty handed. The president offered them something to take home — ‘the take away.’

President Kiir, however, drew a line between his supporters; the moderate and extremists. The first part of the speech convinced extremists that the president won’t sign a bad peace agreement to end the conflict. He made that clear by going through the history of liberation and how much energy he invested to realize an independent South Sudan.

The president took his rival, Riek Machar by horns, and exposed him as power angry man who will stop at nothing but power. He made that point clear and revealed his determination to narrow Machar’s chances – particularly those violence means Machar is using.

On the other hand, the moderate supporters of the president were not moved by calling names of tribe. Nobody can deny that our tribes are our identity. But when used politically, it is dangerous. The hopes of moderate supporters were dashed when the president mentioned Nuer and Dinka in reference to 1991 and 2013 and the power sharing.

This ‘regional/tribal’ rhetoric foundation was laid by cabinet minister, the supposed representative of the opposition parties at the SPLM rally. Minister Martin Lomoro said Equatoria would do everything to ensure that Wani remains the second powerful man in the country.

This part of the speech, in my view, achieved little.

But the president won the support of many South Sudanese, I mean the nationalists, in my view, when he raided sanctions and UN trusteeship. We shall be left with nothing if our country is taken over by foreigners and I salute the president for making that point clear.

In the end, the president did not win new supporters because he never talked about his government plans to end the war. All that he mentioned is what he rejected from the rebels but never presented to South Sudanese his own plans. That left a lot to be desired.

And so I am of the opinion that the extremists were satisfied at the end of the day.

To the opponents of President Kiir, there is no justification to continue the war after the president’s speech. There are many interest groups exploiting this chaotic situation in our country and no South Sudanese is above the national interest.

What South Sudanese need now is peace. Peace gives formal education the chance. Formal education gives the western democracy the chance. It is western democracy creates this thing call nation. In the beginning we were tribes.

Now we are a nation with many cultures, languages and norms. It is only education that will compromise those differences. Not war. There is no winner in the war!

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