Duk Community in Diaspora: Position Paper on the Distribution of Power in Jonglei State
12 min readTo: H.E. Philip Aguer Panyang, Governor of Jonglei State
From: Duk Community in Diaspora
Subject: Duk Community in Diaspora Position Paper on the Proposed Distribution of Legislative and Executive Positions in the new Jonglei State’s Government.
Dear Governor,
March 6, 2016 (SSB) — We are registering our profound thanks to the President of the Republic of South Sudan, His Excellency, General Salva Kiir Mayardit, for having taken the bold decision to create 28 states out of the defunct 10 states. This has been a popular demand by the people of South Sudan to bring their government closer so that the much needed services are delivered much faster and with sense of accountability.
Duk community in Diaspora is also welcoming the appointment of Philip Aguer Panyang as the new governor of new Jonglei State, and is appreciating him for having accepted the position to serve his people. Also, Duk community in the US is equally thankful to our politicians for their tirelessly efforts in lobbying for our own state.
Finally, we also want to thank the entire community of Jonglei State for welcoming their new governor Mr. Philip Aguer Panyang. We hope that their warm welcome is a good start for the state in term of unity among the three sisterly counties.
In this regard, we believe that politics, if exercised in a democratic atmosphere, is the fairest game where a voice of civil population is heard.
After being governed under ten states for the last ten years, we believe, as mentioned earlier, that the creation of 28 States is meant to devolve powers and makes delivery of basic services, in term of development, to the peoples at the grassroots much faster. Moreover, this thought of taking services to the people is being expected to be very inclusive in any level of decision-making, which includes the governorship and the state MPs. Therefore, fair representation of the sisterly three counties is much expected.
However, Duk community in Diaspora has learned and confirmed the alleged underrepresentation of Duk County in the new Jonglei State. The people of Duk County are dismayed by this attempted marginalization and have voiced their concerns in their position paper, stated “Duk County Community Position Paper” that was addressed to the minister of information, as well as Chairman of Greater Bor Community, Hon. Michael Makuei Lueth.
On that position paper, it’s indicated that Duk County was underrepresented in the previous Jonglei State with only two MPs, out of forty eight, in the state’s assembly. Still Duk didn’t complain though with such unspeakable biases.
Such trend is about to carry on into the new Jonglei state and we, as citizens of Duk County, wondered why should we suffer from unbalanced distribution of powers among our communities. Why is this and we have been standing in support of the people’s movement, the SPLM, from its inception until today?
From today on, the people of Duk County are in demand of their alienated right, and reject being subjected to injustice and denial of equal representation that is guaranteed under the transitional constitution of the Republic of South Sudan. We reject prevalence of one-sided decision-making mechanism that has no legitimacy under the constitution of the republic of South Sudan.
We are strongly appealing to the Jonglei State government, under Governor Philip Aguer Panyang, the SPLM leadership, and all the SPLM supporters, to respect the SPLM guiding Principles number 8 and 9, which spell out clearly in the splmtoday.com. The guiding principle number 8 states that there should be “justice and equality for all irrespective of ethnicity, religion, region, social status or gender.”
Therefore, Duk County, as a supporter of SPLM, has a right to be fairly represented as other counties. Moreover, SPLM is the ruling party in Jonglei State, hence, all the SPLM members should respect the SPLM guiding principle number nine (9), which states that SPLM shall be guided by “accountability, transparency and good governance.” Therefore, the alleged underrepresentation of Duk County is a violation of these principles, and could result into conflict. Find that fact in the Conflict Dynamic International (2012) reports, which indicated that widespread perception governance structures are biased in favor of certain groups, and this may incubate unexpected conflict among communities. This assertion is absolutely proved by the action of Bor County MPS by allocating their county the greater number of legislators.
According to Bor county MPs’ proposal for the upcoming Jonglei State Assembly, Bor County will receive 12 MPs, Twic East County will receive 6 MPs, and Duk County will take 3 MPs. They (Bor County’s MPs) also demand four counties out of the seven counties that being proposed for the new Jonglei State. Twic East County will receive 2 counties, and Duk County will remain as one county. This is ridiculous and unthinkable distributions.
Duk County members, both at home and in the diaspora, are strongly rejecting the Bor County MPs’ Proposal based on the following evident:
- The Establishment Order No. 36/2015 AD for the creation of the new South Sudan’s 28 states didn’t mention the population rather than focusing on devolution of powers and taking resources closer to the people. In this regards, the president of the republic of South Sudan, H.E. Salva Kiir Mayardit, has allocated equal cabinet members (7) and legislature members (21 MPs) to every state regardless of the population. For example, Eastern Nile State, which is composed of 6 six counties, Renk, Melut, Akoka, Bailiet, Maban, and Pigi, received 7 ministers and 21 Mps. The same with our new Jonglei state, which is composed of 3 counties of Duk, Twic East, and Bor, has received that equal number. The same numbers are also given to Terekeka state, Gok state, and Twic state, which are composed of one county each. So where did the Bor County’s MPs get a distribution that was based on the population?
- The decree on the eve of Christmas, which was afforded for the dissolution of the South Sudan 10 States, and the appointment of the governors of the 28 states, had also dissolved the branches of 10 states governments; and therefore, Jonglei State parliament was also dissolved. It is an obvious fact, and we wondered of why Bor county’s MPs failed to comprehend that simple fact! There’s no any legal ground whereby the 14 MPs, who remain in the new Jonglei State, could debate on the affairs of State before the full parliament, which will be consisted of 21 MPs, sworn in. Unless they are working against the Establishment Order No. 36/2015 AD, which is for the creation of the new South Sudan 28 states.
So, with that being said, we would like to inform his Excellency, the president of Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, to deal with those MPs who have violated his executive order.
- In regard to population, which is a claim of the Bor County’s MPs that they have two hundred and twenty one (22100) thousands, which enabled them to obtain the 8 seats in the former Jonglei state, does not hold any truth in the new Jonglei state? Why? Because (A) Nuer, Anuak, Murle, Kachipo, Jie and Padang, who were counted in Bor town, are no longer residents of new Jonglei state. They moved to their new states of Boma, Eastern Bieh, Western Bieh, and Eastern Nile respectively; (B) the war-disabled veterans in Pariak are not in Jonglei state payroll, but under the national commission of War Disables and orphans. So, they should not be represented in the Jonglei state’s assembly. (C) Division 8, which is stationed in Panpandiar, is not in Jonglei state payroll either, but Bilpam payroll, and they should also be excluded from Bor County’s Population; and (D) the residents of Twic East and Duk Counties, who were counted in Bor town during the 2008 census, were intentionally added to the Bor County’s population; thus, they should not base their claim on that as well.
Having said these, even in the new Jonglei State, the reason why other counties populations (now Duk and Twic) should be subtracted from the Bor County’s population is that Bor County does not treat Bor town as headquarter for everyone, which was exactly the case Bor County took all 4 MPs based on the 2008 census. In fact, if they were caring enough of others, they would have given 1 or 2 MPs to other counties in order to echo thought of diversity and ownership of Bor town as the headquarter for everybody. In this case, in real sense, there was no diversity being considered by the Bor County’s MPs. It was just shameful self-aggrandizement on expenses of others. Bor county’s citizens are not the only ones to qualify to represent the diversity in Bor town.
With those facts being said, even though we sit down as 3 counties and discuss how to distribute our 21 seats, the previous Bor County’s 8 seats will still be a disputable barrier. Unless we go back to the 2005 allocation of seats in which Duk county had 2 seats, Twic East County with 3 seats, and Bor County with 4 seats. The 4 seats given to Bor County after the 2008 Census are full of dishonesty and should be disregarded. This Gerrymandering is unacceptable!
- With the exodus of 8 counties from the new Jonglei State, we don’t really know the population of Bor County now. We know the population of Twic County which is 85 thousand and the population of Duk County with is 65 thousand. However, Duk County is not a half of Twic East County. Our simple mathematics tell us that if you divided 65 thousand of Duk County by 3 MPs, that mean one district equal to 20 something thousand. If you subtract 65 thousand of Duk County (represented by 3 Mps) from 85 thousand of Twic County, you left with 20 thousand, which is equivalence to 1 MP. So how did Twic East County get 6 MPs, while Duk County with 3 MPs? In real sense, if Duk County got 3 MPs, Twic East should have 4 MPs, and if Twic East County got 6 MPs, then Duk County should have 5 MPs. We believe that something isn’t adding up here!
- The Bor county’s MPs should also know that countries, states, and counties are not allocated based on populations. For example, China with population of (1.357 billion), USA (320 million), and South Sudan (8 million), are all countries regardless of their populations. California with (38.8 million), former Jonglei state (1.4 million), and former Western Bahr el Ghazel (333,431), are states. Cook county in Chicago, Illinois, USA (5.241 million), Abiemnom county (17,012) in Unity state, and Nagero county (10,077) in Western Equatoria, are counties.
So, Duk County is qualified for two or more counties no matter what population it has! The only levels of government, which are allocated based on population, are districts. However, the previous South Sudan districts were based on tribes, sub-tribes, sections and clans. If that was not the case, there was no reason that Bor County, Duk, Twic East, Wunror, Ayod and many other counties should not share districts at their borders. The current districts have not been based on the population either because the decreed No. 36/2015 AD for creation of the new South Sudan 28 states didn’t mention districts.
Even if the new Jonglei State’s people would have dishonored what has been done at the national government level and went on for a community based approach, then the three chairmen of Duk, Twic, and Bor communities inclusively should have been parts of the decision making. Also, on the government side, the Chief executive, Gov. Philip Aguer Panyang and other politicians from 3 counties should also have been part of the decision making as well. But since the Bor MPs took the unilateral decision, the Duk community is no longer interested on the community based approach of distributing these seats either, rather than equal sharing of the MPs for 3 three counties. We are demanding that Duk County must be given 7 MPs, 2 Counties and 2 ministers, period! Our claim in this regard will not stop until resolution is made or Duk County is being disregarded as not a part of the new Jonglei state’s government.
To illustrate it more in details, the 8 MPS that represented Bor County have used unclear formula (a ratio of previous representations) according to our analysis, and used their population of 8 legislators to dominate 6 legislators of which (2 Duk MPs and 4 Twic MPs) were overridden, and allocated 21 new legislators using that ratio. This kind of behavior, if allows, will be a precedent for any upcoming opportunities. Thus, the domination of the Bor MPs will persist, and lead to the marginalization of both Duk and Twic East Counties. This apparent evidence of marginalization is reported by Conflict Dynamic International (2012) that there is a popular perception that independence has left some communities marginalized, and they will remain marginalized if no appropriate correction action is taken. Duk county is rejecting this trend, and is ready to fight by all means to let not this creeping marginalization sees its dawn. Duk County will not accept being given more cabinets in compensation of the corrupted MPs seats, either. We need law-makers and ministers to be distributed equally.
In fact, for coexistence and prosperity of our new Jonglei state, we urge our senior elder, minister of defense, as well as the chairman of the SPLM Party in Jonglei State, Hon. Kuol Manyang Juuk, to intervene. We believe that if there is any confusion or misunderstanding within our community, your intervention is always expected even though you are not current a chairman of this community. On the same token, we will also urge minister of information, as well as the chairman of Greater Bor Community, Hon. Michael Makuei Lueth, to share his view on this issue. Otherwise, your silent will be taken as an approvable of the Bor County MPs’ proposal. We also need an effort from Greater Bor Community leaders across the globe in order to hold the unity of these three communities. Duk people’s patience is still eminent although there were some uncomfortable incidents and bigotry statements uttered by some members against members of Duk County in the past. We make it certain that the people of these three communities should remain together and never complain of any inequality and imbalance when it comes to sharing and distribution of opportunities and resources. We urge that let there be no anyone overlooking one another or county. We are all equal and should base the sharing of our opportunities and resources to reflect our fundamental guiding principles as one united community.
In conclusion, we recommended that:
- Duk County needs the new Jonglei state to create and implement a system that sees all our people equal before the law, a system that is so inclusive of all or shows a fair sharing of representations from Bomas, payams, counties, and the state level. Duk community, like other sisterly communities, will support a system that recognizes them equally. We will not support or accept an intended marginalization of any community, but we want Jonglei state to build a strong form of good governance, which our neighbors or South Sudan as a whole, will learn from.
- We need law-makers and ministers to be distributed equally.
- We are equal and should base the sharing of our opportunities and resources to reflect our fundamental guiding principles as one united community. Equal sharing of power among the 3 counties of Jonglei State is necessary in order to avoid domination of one group and their interests over the other.
- We reject prevalence of one-sided decision-making mechanism that has no legitimacy under the constitution of the Republic of South Sudan.
- We also suggest the establishment of 9 legal committee members (3 from each county) to revises the new Jonglei State constitution. We hope our Governor will listen to us, for our coexistence as one state and one community.
Signed on Behalf of Duk Community in Diaspora by:
- Yol Goch Achiek, Chairman, Duk Community USA
- Aguer Maker Duot, Canada
- Deng Majak Piok, Australia
- David Awuol Deng, Deputy Chairman, Duk Community USA
- Mayen Makoor Guot, Chairman, Nyarweng Community USA
- Simon Galuak Chop, Chairman, Hol Community USA
- Joseph Machiek Mark, Canada
- Deng Thon Ador, Australia
- Solomon Mading Awan, General Secretary, USA
- Maduk Manyang Angok, Treasurer, USA
- Simon Majur Deng, Information Secretary, USA
- Andrew Magoor Thanypiny, Relation Secretary, USA
- Dhieu Deng Leek, Member, USA
- Michael Maruon Ayiei, Member, USA
- Joseph Akol Majak, Member, USA
- Akuol Chol Majok, Canada
Copy to:
- Kuol Manyag Juuk, SPLM Chairman, Jonglei
- Michael Makuei Lueth, Chairman, Greator Bor Community
- Commissioners of three Counties of new Jonglei State
- Chairman, Bor County Community (National and State)
- Chairman, Twic East County Community (National and State)
- SPLM State Secretary, Jonglei State
- All Greator Bor Legislators (National and State)
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