Is there a hope for change under Governor Deng Deng Akuey of Aweil East state?
8 min readBy Kuol Alberto Makuach, Juba, South Sudan
July 5, 2016 (SSB) — Deng Deng Akuei is one of those lucky persons to have been appointed by Salva Kiir in his December 24th presidential decree which finally sealed off hopes to revoke the establishment order which created 28 states in South Sudan. The 28 states issue now is a done deal never to be reversed. Instead what may likely happen after the return of Dr. Riek Machar is the creation of more states in areas that were unfairly amalgamated or left untouched yet they deserve division. This was rightfully hinted out recently by SPLM IO. So, be ready for more than 28 states in this “damaged” country.
HOW WILL AWEIL EAST STATE PROGRESS?
With the recent republican decree creating more states and the above state happened to be a beneficiary of this decree, the biggest concern now of the citizens is how this new state will develop thus fulfilling the vision of the SPLM party and that of the people. Success does not come from a single source but the many sources there is, the better the chances for a complete and enriching the benefits. With that in mind, I would therefore state at the onset here that, for this state to progress, there are a number of interplays for a better secured, developed and prosperous state.
THE PEOPLE ARE THE FIRST SOURCE OF DEVELOPMENT
A country full of lazy people does not progress, however, where there is workforce of committed individuals, faster and efficient development is visibly seen wherever one passes. The clear example is China where its population is a quarter that of the whole world and is doing extremely well because every individual is industrious. Aweil East State is home to more than five hundred thousand pax according to population consensus conducted in 2008. This great population can be of advantage if they take it upon themselves to be hardworking and discourage idlers. What it means here is that, for those that are lucky to get employed by the government they should do their best to produce better results for the community. As for those that may not get a chance to work for the government, they should be engaged in private enterprise or self-employment. Bright minds should be given a chance to exercise their ingenuity for the progress of our state. Those that do exceedingly well, should be recognized, appreciated and rewarded.
LAND
The whole of our country is blessed with exceptionally fertile land and though the concern of this work is not about the whole country, I shall narrow it down to Aweil East State. Aweil Rice Scheme is the first to be established in the then Southern Sudan region of the united Sudan. It can still be revived and squarely centered in the curved out area of Toch and still serves that purpose. The outcome of this scheme can feed the whole of South Sudan for a good number of years as once said by a Chinese expert on Agriculture. Furthermore, Tony Chol and Goknhom can be grounds for cultivating groundnuts, sorghum, millets and simsim as they have been. However, more needs to be done to improve the yield/outcome. These projects will employ a huge number of our local population.
Connected with land are the roads to access these areas for interventions.
POLITICAL STABILITY
Prosperity of any nation is achieved once there is political stability. Though there are no known political upheavals and no history of violence among our people since the Anyanya revolution, wrong elements may cause such and that would set bad precedence to the future generations. There are those that feel they should rule us as they wish and push down our throats what is not feasible. These tendencies should now be abolished and new ideas absorbed for peaceful coexistence of our people.
IMPROVE RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBORING STATES AND MORE ESPECIALLY SUDAN’S STATES
I know this may not go well with those that feel we should have nothing to do with the Sudanese, but allow me to remind those that have these divergence views that, it is a fact, we will continue to have Sudan as our neighbor. Again, Khartoum is nearer to us than Kampala. Furthermore, the route from Khartoum to somewhere within Sudan is tarmac and it only needs a small area to be completed for vehicles to be leaving from Khartoum and arriving the following day in our State compare to thousands of miles that need to be covered from Juba to here in a bad shape. The neighboring states’ resources need to be used adequately through improved relationship after all we are one people.
FREE AND OPEN DISCUSSIONS ON ISSUES AFFECTING THE STATE
It is a known fact that Aweil and particularly Aweil East State is home now to sycophants and easy going elements who do not use their reasoning to handle national issues logically, but rather, see things from that other angle. This group has been perpetuating wrong actions and influenced major decisions to their advantage. They are ‘yes men’ and followers of what the boss wants never daring to question and argue. This should be dropped and instead, free and open debating ground should be encouraged so that we benefit from wise and academicians in our state. The list is long but let me stop here and revert to the genesis of this article.
Having said all these, let me now turn to the protagonist for which this article emanated. This is Deng Deng Akuei, famously known as Deng Manyuom who happened to be the first governor of Aweil East State. Generally, Governor Deng is known for his moderate temper, social and soft spoken. He is not an activist but rather a shrewd leader. He is not an orator meaning his words are always short.
Well in saying all these, I must say at the outset here that little is known of him by his subjects in the area apart from being the son of a chief and he comes from a noticeable clan. Other than that, he is an outsider who lived for most of his life in Khartoum and Canada. The irony of it all is that, he never participated in the war of liberation yet SPLM followers shamelessly claim to be recruiting cadres, red army or former combatants in top seats. He does not fit in any of these categories. How he got the top job is still a mystery.
When appointed by his small political “god”, people celebrated but what they did not know was the real devil behind this appointment. He was not destined to fulfill the high hopes of the people as elaborated above but rather to fulfill somebody’s ill intentions and continuous manipulation of the affairs of our great state. How do you feel when being used?
The small god succeeded in using Governor Deng to accomplish his plans among which are: Relocation of the state headquarters to Malualkon the home town of a certain big fish in this government, hiring of the apartment of the big fish as the governor’s office. People have been accusing Malong to be the architect behind the relocation, but that is not true. Malong only supported the plan, but the idea came from the political god of governor Deng. These are designed in such a way that the political mentor of governor Deng who happened to be his small god, gets kickbacks from none other than the army chief.
Governor Deng appointed the small god’s friend and mentor who was once destined by Jallaba to be the commissioner of Wanyjok in the fighting of January 21-22 ( 2001) should the latter fall which did not happen because the Jallaba were defeated in the famous war of Titchok Mareng. Here again, one fails to understand the logic behind the slogan of the SPLM. How this commissioner was appointed beats reasoning. Deng and his commissioner are civilians while the rest of the commissioners are army officers.
Furthermore, how could one in his sensible mind dismiss his own secretary just because the brother of the secretary happened to be in loggerhead with one’s cousin? It is a myopic, unpalatable, barbaric and unsophisticated thinking. Wonders will truly never cease as often echoed by our Nigerians’ actors.
Governor Deng’s ambivalent decision on who to be the traders’ union chairperson, or bringing the two factions to find amicable solution and subsequent inclination to favor his own cousin brother. He even took the county headquarters to this cousin of his backyard claiming that it is a fertile land for cultivation. Is the county going to cultivate or to be cultivated?
Again, he has allowed traders (his cousin included) of whom he gets sweeteners to ruin his popularity since they influence his major decisions and that is too risky. The community stands to gain nothing in this. One of these is the renting of the trader’s house when the former county guest house is idle.
Finally, Aweil East State gets more than one million SSP every month from the taxes in the major markets of the state as well as from the border of Majokyinthiou. Since January 2016, nothing tangible has been done with that money. No government institutions have been built. Teachers went on strike because of no salary, thousands of our people went to Southern Kordofan and Darfur because of hunger and the list is long.
In executing all this to his political god, Governor Deng has proved beyond any shadow of doubt that he does not deserve this job. He should quit and allow someone else to lock horn with this marauding lion. The more we give consensus to this man, the more he will continue to exploit us. The earlier he quits the better, or else he will be asked to do the impossible by his political god.
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