The SPLM/A-IO: A STOLEN MOVEMENT (Part 1)
By Buay Kandong Liem, Ethiopia
April 11, 2016 (SSB) —- After December 15th, 2013th’ events in Juba the Capital, like many others, I reacted to the rampant killings of the innocent Nuers. Those hearts breaking news pushed me to champion a campaign against Kiir’s elements in Nasir County resulting to out rooting the County Commissioner Dak Tap Chuol Mabor and his supporters on December 22, 2013. I was not acting on someone else’s orders. I was doing what was morally right for me as a citizen who was utterly appalled by the killings of humble dwellers in the nation’s Capital. I took risks and eventually sparked a resistance block in the Sobat corridor against President Kiir. General Gathoth Gatkuoth joined after we have liberated Nasir. Machar has no hand in Nasir’s fall. Our objective was, a hand blooded President must go and be held accountable for the lives of the innocent South Sudanese he had inexcusably killed.
It turned out we have sold cheap the Movement to people whom the history will prove not worthy enough to have been entrusted with the lead of a Movement that have spilled so much blood of so many people in a short period of time. Those who flocked in from across the country apparently joined the Movement to grab positions not that they have something to offer to advance the cause. They made their entrances cheap into the leadership’s positions with majority of them being handpicked in secret places. IO is a Movement with no criteria whatsoever to its leadership. That there are no requirements to leadership, the Movement is stolen from its rightful owners and been diverted to pursuing personal ambitions. What was supposed to change the course of affairs for better in an abused nation is hijacked and made a bridge to re-instate everyone to its previous occupation.
That the Movement is stolen is a long gone case. Everybody knows it. The based among us might be the ones who might not know of the fact. The political Bureau is formed; the National Liberation Council established; the National Members of the Parliament selected; ranks distributed; deployments arranged and other important committees organized. I was not in Pagak then but I was told when these titles were being divided, Pagak was like a wilderness field!… There were voices like this: “The time has come for everybody to take his share of the cake because Juba was at the door”. These are the leaders of our Movement…… Some even enjoy a rare privilege of having to hold 3 different titles and positions. We know those lucky ones with 3 big jobs. The Movement for whatever reason is strictly been turned theirs. I have been trying to make sense of the merits that grant these “duly” individuals those many titles in the bush. My question to Mr. Chairman and the Commander in Chief is, where is then our share of the cake? Was our being in the field a lack of fitness to deserve those distributed positions?
Many are those I met who are equally dismayed with the way Machar is handling the Movement. Some do go as far as questioning the moral judgment of the man himself for the man seems to have this tendency of always leaning towards those around him most of the time when it comes to assignments without having to foresee any problems that can possibly be triggered by that in a self-sacrificing Revolution. At times, these men have held the belief that Mr. Chairman knows his people and does know who is who? Now they know Mr. Chairman doesn’t know who might be up there who might have been a better deserving man and women. Whether one wants to take it or not our Chairman deals most of the time with those at sight specially those always looking-clean well-fed men and women. You don’t deal with a revolution that way I am not right?
It is just a big sorry that men like us are to be pushed to come up in the open with such articles as if they are dying for recognition. The truth of the matter is, Machar have forgotten those who have been dealing with the roaring thunders of Kiir’s heavy machine guns. He has forgotten them who had to exit and evacuate a fatally wounded comrade from the action’s site to those holding fake promises. He has forgotten them that went on harsh trails to receive him when he was running away from Juba for his life a fugitive. He needs be confronted even if it can be misconstrued by his worshipers. I have an equal stake like himself in this fight against Kiir. Only that the world is unfair some times. He must be told.
Speaking of confrontation at a time when Machar has only some days away to be in Juba is not feasible. After all there is this fact of impracticality from the part of Mr. Chairman to change anything this late. We must accept that those handpicked individuals are our MPs, our Polit Bureaus, our NLCs, our officers and high ranking officials. The Movement is a long gone case.
Back in December 2014 at Pagak’s IO first conference, I and a group of young intellectuals advertised a proposal which was calling for White Army forces to form their own resistance front independent from the IO’s leadership assumptions. We had a manifesto which was to serve as the declaration paper. The intention was to organize these vital forces so that their achievements wouldn’t be reduced to just violent reactions. We had wanted to officially line up their enormous sacrifices behind sound political objectives.
We do have also an equally important thought in minds—we don’t want their achievements to be claimed by others. By then Taban Deng Gai was enjoying himself as the “chief” of the IO delegations at peace talks in Addis Ababa. I and my colleagues knew it was the voices of the White Army guns who were confronting by then Kiir’s aggressions in Nasir, Akoba, Ayod and Bantiu that have sent Taban Deng to the peace talks he was enjoying himself at. Despite these facts, there was no one in the peace talks representing White Army. Taban was reporting on daily bases the successes of the White Army as IO’s at the peace talks to boost his position at negotiation tables. Cheaters of their own people.
The proposal would have avoided these inconveniences of the White Army to having to wait till last for their commissions had it been embraced. In that proposal White Army would not have to wait for one man to say OK you deserve a rank they have earned with their own unselfish sacrifices. In case one doesn’t know, White Armies are not IO forces. They were buying their own guns and ammunitions by selling their own cattle so that they will defend their people and their integrities. The common sense has it that forces that you don’t supply and command are not your forces. IO took advantage of the lack of organization within the White Army’s ranks. We were working to organize them so that their achievements cannot be claimed by IO and sell them cheap for their political outfit. Our effort was blocked because they knew it was going to drive them out of business. Now comes the promotions, White Army had to wait until everybody else is served first.
Judging the man for who he is I have come to learned our Chairman’s weakest points to have involved uncontrolled emotional dealings with things that need practicality. For second the disconnectedness of the man with those not at his sight seems to be his very DNA. To add one more if I might the man never has been good to identifying the right people into the positions of leadership. Any jerk can impress him and give him his trust to run things with him no matter how incompetent that jerk might be. But you cannot do that in a Revolution. They are lucky because this Revolution of ours is full to overflowing with people who do not know their potentials.
Those with high moral senses mourn the realities our Movement inherits. The so called SPLM/A IO leaders have been expensively dining in hotels on the Nuer Youths’ self-sacrificial sweats. This is the last truth one needs to know. What sent these men to their compatible hotels in their various places was the stand taken by the Nuer Youths upon confronting President Kiir aggressions. While youths have to do from scratch so that they can load up their unmatched machine guns against that of President Kiir to stop President Kiir’s advance moves towards the liberated territories, millions of dollars are monthly spent on the above amoral individuals’ upkeep, transportation and other personal demands. They eat and sleep in nice hotels fighting a war of media using their smart phones in their self-contained rooms far away from where the actions are while Nuer youths are engaging a well-equipped enemy on their behalves. If I were Riek Machar, I would feel morally guilty for not having to equip my tribesmen while expecting them at the same time to confront the enemy.
The Movement has not been just hijacked but since its inception. Machar has given it away to them that made their ways to the IO ranks through airplanes routes. Whether the Movement has been stolen or not, my last truth is that this so called SPLM/A In Opposition does not resemble for bit in principles and objectives the Movement I had in mind when I rebel against Kiir’s government in Nasir in December 2013. I had dreamed for a total change in South Sudan and was ready to commit my life to it no matter the costs. Those we thought we can collaborate with since the overall goal to rid of Kiir was the same betrayed us. Now they are going back into their previous occupations after reducing the huge sacrifices of the poor Nuer youths to nothing. I am not going with them. I must remain a rebel because the objective to which I first held gun for is not realized. South Sudan was a making of us all. I voted for its independence even when I was physically not in the country. A better South without Kiir and Machar and their followers is the one I will put my last breath into to pursue for the rest of my life.
To all the innocent people of South Sudan colorful as God put us into that land, we must rise awake to discover our common interests. Do we want South Sudan to stand in its feet a country like the rest of the nations around us or the idea doesn’t worth the efforts? Machar and Kiir are the reasons for the mess our country has been and still in. They are curses, the tool of the devil that had put us into an unforgettable history. Having a country is what defines a person in this modern world of ours. We need to work to have a country not entities with competing political interests. The war we fought has nothing to do with tribes. Kiir and Machar were the ones who tribalizes the conflict. In Nasir we killed our own Nuer men who were supporting President Kiir. We were not for Dinkas but for anyone who was supporting Kiir’s actions of targeting a segment of a people he was rolling. The South Sudan the people are going back into under the same management of the same faces that have caused its’ 3 years of turmoil will not work.
It will collapse at daylight in their watch. When will the world learn that South Sudan is not a personal property of Kiir and Machar and their families and supporters? Kiir and Machar are the South Sudan’s problems. They are equally guilty of the enormous atrocities committed in this victimizing war. Let them go together with all their supporters and families. Please help us to get rid of these blood hungry men. They have finished innocent people. The South Sudan I dream of is a country of peaceful coexistence, a country founded on the principle of justice, fairness and equal opportunities for all its citizens unlike the current South Sudan which have enriched a segment of individuals greatly.
May the days of the South Sudanese plight draw near to finish oh Lord God of heaven and earth.
Buay Kandong Liem one among the liberators of Nasir County in December 22, 2013, a discontented figure is reachable @ phallikhabuay@gmail.com. He is currently in Ethiopia seeing his young family after a long field work stay.
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