An Open Letter to Hon. Michael Makwei Lueth, Minister for Information and Broadcasting
By Pal Chol Nyan, Juba, South Sudan
January 31, 2016 (SSB) — Hon. Minister of Information and Broadcasting, I am one of those who keenly and sincerely like your positions because you are always consistent and rightly insistent on your views. We have chosen to write to help the government fight corruption in the country. As you aware, the journalists are the 4th front of the branches of the government. We have bowed solemnly to reinforce the President with our pens in his zero-tolerance policy to vigorously fight corruption.
We know that human beings are born fallible and imperfect. The journalists and opinion writers should not be considered as an exception and holy in this regard. They do stumble sometimes in their opinions. It has never crossed anybody’s mind whatsoever to criticize or aggress individuals and any system. As one of the opinion writers myself, we have no reason to be critical of the very government which we voted for; but we feel that we shall be remiss if we don’t tell the public that there are corrupt individuals hell- bent on tarnishing the image of the country in the person of the President and his cabinet.
The reason of writing to you; is to bring to your attention what is befalling the journalists and opinion writers in their everyday life. Sometimes, when we write, with our undying love and determination to defend the constitution and peoples’ rights, we lose control of our emotions and speak openly against policies and how best we can end this man-made suffering in our country; with little do we know that what we write may backfire on us. We do it in writing because we don’t reach where the decisions are taken.
Then at this juncture, we are misunderstood and taken for being against the government. Honourable Minister, there are journalists now languishing in prisons without standing trials for opinions they wrote and considered defamatory by the concerned authority. I can’t believe that those who, guided by truth, write with a pen against bad practices deserve more punishment than the unknown gunmen who kill the innocent people in Juba with impunity.
I think the delay on the formation of the Media Authority, contributes in some of the unintended mistakes in journalistic work because there is no law in place to guide them. The media laws prescribe the limitations of the Journalists in the same way the Ten Commandments guide the believers. This being the case, my personal appeal to you, Hon Minister, my due respect to you, is that, the media laws should be put in place so that the journalists and the opinion writers write within the remit of the laws.
Should they infringe on any of the law enacted, then the government will have a reason to prosecute them for having overstepped their area of responsibilities. I have said it times and again that we must fight the criminals and the corrupt who are spoiling the name of the government. We always speak the language of peace and truth. Hon, minister, I write to you on a personal note to help resolve the case of Affendi Joseph of Maugif Arabic daily who fell victim of his own opinion and writing.
He is now being held incommunicado. If he has committed a grave mistake, consider it a slip of the tongue and I plead that he be forgiven. Hon Minister, this chap might have written his article under traumatic temptations as a result of the desperate situation facing us but not with ill-intentions. He should not be a cause for alarm. What is worrying and needs our collective duty is this corruption and the dollar war now being waged by the dollar rebels in the market and the central bank.
We must close our ranks and do our sand model on how to defeat them with heavy casualties. I will sacrifice in that war. The government should direct all its energies towards stopping these subversive activities. The SPLM is people’s movement and should swallow all the bitterness and forgive those who may wrong them. We are under obligation of what is right for this country.
Needless to say, we must end this war because all sides to the conflict say it is senseless. All those who contributed in the corruption cases shall not be spared. We shall help the government to teach our people that South Sudan and SPLM are different entities because they don’t understand it. It is important to tell them that South Sudan is a country.
The SPLM is a ruling party but that not all South Sudanese belong to the SPLM party. We will not let you down on this issue. On Minister, I conclude by thanking you for your steadfastness and the sterling work you are doing.
With my kind regards.
Reach the author: palcholnyan@yahoo.com <palcholnyan@yahoo.com>
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