The Selflessness of Bany Kuol Manyang Juuk Chaw
7 min readSelflessness, Courage, Patience and Visionary: Rare Combinations of Unique Characters in a National Leader
By Kur Wel Kur, Australia
Kuol Manyang Juuk will Never Regret.
May 14, 2015 (SSB) —- Writing about people, places or about anything takes an interest. Some people become interested in their relatives and friends. Some admire places of their connections or places of their wishes and they write about them. While writing about exceptional people (regardless of any relationship) or about topics close to our hearts, tip-top the love of writing. I had picked up glittering nuggets in some people whose bloodlines never crossed mine and wrote about them on this site (Paanluel Wel). So I hope writing about Kuol won’t attract “accusations of being labelled as selfish”.
How I wish I were a microscopic brain-worm to wiggle myself in Kuol’s brain. To find his secrets of processing information, which makes him a daring decision maker. Mistakes and corrections characterise lives of leaders but what defines exceptional leaders is their fairness of letting the law/order takes its course regardless of other forces (friendship and blood relationship ). Toughness and softness describe humans; however, it depends where each falls: inside or outside. Those who exhibit toughness externally, are soft from inside. Their actions rely on gossips, friendships and relatives. But those whose toughness falls within them appear speechless in the faces of situations. Leaders with zipped mouths repel gossipers. They see problems in different angles and their solutions to problems bud the hopes for a better future.
Born to Manyang Juuk in Pathuiyith, Athoc’s section of Bor and Keth Kuor-reng (pronounced as Kureng) in Adol (Gak), Gok section of Bor, Kuol largely lived most of his childhood in his maternal home. His maternal uncle, Athiu Kuor-reng sent him to Akol-Ajak primary school. He got initiated at his paternal home (Pathuiyith-Mathiang). He spent his youthful years in school until the birth of SPLM/A, a liberation movement, he sacrificed all his souls (self, family and relatives). A movement that delivered The South Sudan.
Leadership requires courage and selflessness
Great leaders are courageous and selfless. To liberate a country is frustrating for everyone but directors of the liberation shoulder more loads than the rests. During the war of liberation, many of his friends and relatives got pruned in one way or another until he was left a lone stander like a desert tree, but his courageous and selfless character sustained him to this minute. How he handled the loneliness is what I am yet to know from him one day when he comes visiting the tombs of his maternal uncles in Gak.
Selflessness will save our country one day. Our country engages in a civil war because a few people are selfless and our economy is drowned by inflation because most of our leaders including those who are policing others in embezzlement are selfish. If we were to borrow some characters from Kuol, then his courageous and selfless characters of saying the truth and working for it (truth) would do us good. Legends observe their surrounding, but they listen more to their within-voices. I regard Kuol Manyang Juuk as a legend and some people if not many, share this realisation with me.
Exceptional leaders project their decisions beyond tomorrow
Proactive projection of decisions is visionary. Kuol in his area of jurisdiction guided the mission of liberation to the highest level of his abilities. In so doing, he acquired himself enemies, especially among his relatives and friends who felt neglected. This blame game exists to this very day. However, his nature of giving same treatments to all, is the foundation of his selfless character. With this character, he expects all around him to lift themselves off from the grounds of mediocrity to the majestic heights of excellence. As a great leader, he guides the results of the mission.
He and his likes (insert: Daniel Awet Akot) executed the idea of preparing our nation for the second phase of liberation: the war of illiteracy. Literacy cures the underdevelopment. With this fact in mind, he did his part in Upper Nile regions while Awet directed the mobilisation in Greater Barh El Gazal. They’re the fathers of young educated South Sudanese today. The thousands of graduates who strutted away with their degrees last week in The University of Juba are the testimonies of Kuol’s projections and executions. What’s left now, is bestowing responsibilities of the nation building and rewriting of the constitution to these graduates.
Staying true to his character of being exceptional and visionary, Kuol appointed a young educated man, Nicholas Nhial Majak Nhial as the first mayor of Bor town. His (Kuol) peers viewed his decision as naive and insulting to the elders but his projection aimed for the best of tomorrow. Many young peoples do appreciate his decision of employing young and energetic graduates because the fierce under development needs fresh and best minds. So incorporating the youth (graduates) into caring for the nation, not just in defence but also in policies making will surely galvanise our country in terms of development and defence.
An example of a dream come true was when trouble makers from Greater Pibor sneaked into the territory of Bor and disturbed the tranquility of the area. Nicholas Nhial as a mayor and the commissioner, Mameer Ruuk mobilised the youth and pursued the trespassers until they ran uncoordinated. They ran for their dear lives and with empty hands. To accomplish that mission, the mayor and commissioner lifted the morale of youth by being with them. And the fact that they (Mameer and Nhial) are young, determine the results.
Great leaders are patient
They can, sometimes, settle for less for the sake of the country. Kuol, in his military career, observes the principles of self-discipline and patience up to this moment. In the leadership curses in South Sudan, many appointees, weak-hearted self-proclaimed leaders and those who hung around great leaders as households have turned South Sudan a contesting club for leadership. However, Kuol waits for appointments from his senior, the president. He never preempted information or based his decisions on empty politics. You can recall the leaked news of his false appointment as the minister of defence in 2012. Many ill-wishers ran between the president and him, spreading lies, but he stood firm and rose above all odds of Juba’s rumors.
Negating the wisdom in this saying: ” Patience is the mother of cruelty”, I admire to write: Impatient is the mother of all rebellions. All rebels whether active, passive or undecided are impatient retards who keep dreaming of either bending or breaking the rules of harmonious societies. Some people may wonder about what causes impatience but greed feeds impatience. Selfishness grows and nurses greed.
In the rising and falling of our country, each of us is left to observe the greatest leaders, dead or alive. As he (Kuol) strikes among us, we cannot appreciate the breadths and depths of his exceptional leadership until hundreds years after this generation’s burial. This notion of seeing the importance of exceptional leaders after they left offices or left us because of their deaths, is a sickening weakness of human’s character. After the burial of Dr. John, before his corpse disintegrates, we cried rivers, asking God to raise him back to life so he could lead us but when he walked among us and preached the idea of “good governance”, we turned to him deaf ears and blind eyes.
To rest this article, public roar in excitement, voting in their most desired leaders into public’s offices; however, when those leaders fail, the public lose confidence in them; the public would boo them out of the public’s offices. Leaders cannot satisfy every voter, even the leadership saints such as Dr. John Garang retired to their graves with some people’s grievances. I assure you, no leader is perfect even Jesus, the healer, the redeemer, the manufacturer of miracles and the co-creator of the universe left us condemned.
In the same vein, Some people fume with anger at Honourable Kuol Manyang but when Kuol Manyang Juuk retires, he won’t regret because he offered all his strength and soul could afford for the betterment of South Sudan. As I write this note, I understand that no characters greater to be in a leader than selflessness, courage, patience and visionary. Kuol is a living testimony of these characters. I hope he can lecture in military academy (if the government initiates one) after his defence post.
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