July 7, 2016 (SSB) — In his remarks during a workshop in Juba attended by the spokesperson of Dr. Riek Machar and President Kiir press secretary Ateny Wek Ateny, General Paul Malong Awan declared that the national army will be restructured based on the policy of proportional representation of all ethnic communities of South Sudan.
Quoting the SPLA chief of general staff, Lt. Gen. Paul Malong Awan, this is how National Courier reports the news:
“BILPHAM: SPLA to adopt proportional representation to curtail tribal dominance. The SPLA Chief of General Staff, LTGEN Paul Malong Awan has announced that the SPLA shall start implementing the policy of proportional representation. Lt. Gen Malong said, ‘I have agreed to transform the army to represent all ethnicities as per country population of tribes to avoid domination of army’ by any one given tribe. This means that the number of personnel of the SPLA of a given tribe shall reflect representative percentage in the overall population of that given tribe. For example, if Zande represents 5% of the entire population of South Sudan then the number of personnel of Zande origin in the SPLA shall be 5% of the entire army. This shall apply as well to the officer corps, where 5% of the entire officer corps shall be Zande etc.”
See “The Principle of Tribocracy (Part 3)”, section IV (for Dr. Riek Machar) and section V (for President Kiir), written in March 2015, for more information about the application of tribocracy to the national army (security quandary during the IGAD peace negotiation).