Instead of calling for UN Trusteeship, "take over temporarily" Comrade Pagan Amum
8 min readGiant of the SPLM— Comrade Pagan Amum: ‘Take over Temporarily’
By Deng Kur Deng, Pennsylvania, USA
August 21, 2016 (SSB) — It is rage and concern that has loomed over those whom should be in charge of our country. To give you an idea of how senseless this subject matter is getting. Recently, one of the unknown members of the SPLM—by name, Miss Susan Jambo—called you lazy, visionless, and all sorts of names, but I doubt the credibility of her words, as we all know that you, Comrade Pagan Amum, started the SPLM/SPLA, so you spent 21 years in the bush like many of us. You were very popular among South Sudanese, but your rating as we speak has gone down drastically because of your position against us.
With that in mind, though, how could you be lazy and visionless when you in fact created the vision through which the SPLM/A has succeeded? You are not lazy, nor visionless. You remain one of the icons of the South Sudan regardless of our current differences. Now, like many South Sudanese, I have this surge of anger toward you for betraying us at the time we the people needed your positive contribution. Yes, it is true that the state of anxiety in the country has created all kinds of problems, and you have become one of these problems.
With all due respect, my response is a condemnation of your recent involvement in the uproar of mobilizing the world against the people of South Sudan. The results of frustration in the country encouraged me to put my reactions into words not because I don’t respect you, though I find it very hard to respect you at the moment. We know for a fact that the U.N. Trusteeship’s intentions are known to be dishonorable, as there is nothing substantial that would come out of them, beyond pure chaos in our capacity as South Sudanese. No doubt, you are aware of these facts.
With that, what is pending after you cheered for “take over temporarily” is potentially fatal, and we shouldn’t give room for such a mess to occur. As a matter of fact, it should be noted that while your intentions for calling the Trusteeship are to denigrate President Kiir and disable his administration, you are not close to achieving these things you have aimed for.
If the U.N. Trusteeship’s intentions are going to cause destruction in the country, why should you support such self-inflicted destruction for the people of South Sudan? You must be reminded that we just came out of being governed by others —which wasn’t quite beneficial—so what is so crucial about being rule by the outsiders? You, Comrade Pagan Amum, are one of the founders, and since you confronted Khartoum, you made all South Sudanese proud of our identity.
Now our citizenship can no longer be questioned. You are a very important member of the SPLM and you have proven this to us as citizens and to Khartoum in particular. Your words mobilized us to secure and take ownership of our country. This very ownership, though, has been smeared with deception concealed under the aggressive tactics you employed, and we are told instead that the central position you are calling for is that of an intervention to subdue violence in the country, but that isn’t true.
You fought so hard for the ownership and the independence of the South Sudanese, but now, in your time in leadership, you want to hand over the people of South Sudan to outsiders.
In fact, we have begun to question your integrity and patriotism amidst all these tactics you have employed. It didn’t matter to me until it hit me when you, Pagan Amum, went vocally to express your views in favor of the U.N. Trusteeship. I seriously felt betrayed by my countrymen. Your recent position is contrary to what were considered to be allegations when people talked in their circle of acquaintances who they believed were behind fighting for U.N. Trusteeship, but now, it is publicly acknowledged, given out from our very own Secretary General Pagan Amum Okeich.
What shame! You went much lower in your thinking more than you deserves among South Sudanese. And now you have adapted these inexplicable behaviors, which itself has allowed many citizens to begin questioning your leadership and the sense of comradeship you exhibited during the civil war.
I was personally dismayed and felt disrespected when I heard you, Pagan Amum, admit, on Straight Talk Africa, the following words, “…[the] peace agreement has collapsed…” and you went on to state the following unfounded facts: “…now, the peace agreement is destroyed by President Kiir and the government of national unity is destroyed by President Kiir… and therefore there is no government in Juba… what we have is illegal body…and that is why we need regional and international community intervention to rescue South Sudan from these irresponsible behaviors by President and those who support him”.
What you said here reflects your opinions because we know the country is progressing with a serious functioning government and that the peace is being implemented through members of IO, and FDs in the government of National Unity.
Without a second thought, you exaggerated the problem regarding administration in the country in the following words, “…will not be able to solve the problem. They will actually take the country into total disintegration and, therefore, there is need to rescue South Sudan now from these tribalists and sectarian forces and factions that are now fighting…” It is unthinkable for you, Pagan Amum, to have positioned yourself this way when we know you have looted the country. You forgot that one of the biggest damages done to the country has been in looting the wealth of the people.
You went on to say, “…therefore, I go a step farther to actually call on the region and the African continent as well as the international community through the Security Council to take over temporarily the country…” There is no doubt that you are out of your mind. If you believe you were being sincere, try telling us how much money you have looted, and then we shall have every reason to believe you. This step you undertook is nothing but thoughtless. Just a chicken brain at work here. You haven’t explained to the South Sudanese your unbiased intentions.
Instead, you have covert reasons for resorting to the U.N. Trusteeship take over when you know the government of South Sudan is fully functioning under President Salva Kiir and his administration under the banner of the National Unity government, of which FDs members namely Deng Alor Kuol and John Luke Jok are part of. You haven’t said exactly what you consider to be a functioning or a non-functioning government in your case or description.
To gain insight regarding the U.N. Trusteeship, I am including what you are suggesting for a country that is governing itself and has a well-running administration. According to the U.N. Trusteeship, “The basic objective of the System was to promote the political, economic and social advancement of the Territories and their development towards self-government and self-determination. It also encouraged respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and recognition of the interdependence of peoples of the world.”
As you can tell from the above quote, these kinds of positions are strictly meant for countries like Somalia and Syria. In case of South South Sudan, they are nothing but distractions to our quest for peace and a stable country. Such call for U.N. Trusteeship is exceedingly stupid for a man who has called himself a liberator. You are wrong, and you will be defeated to make it abundantly clear. Now, what you are doing is the epitome of destruction, and we citizens who haven’t gained a single Pound refute such behaviors.
I know this for sure, that when imperious individuals participate, bad decisions are made, and this is why violence has not fully been addressed. Since you are talking about those who are being victimized, we will have to start with something much familiar to you. When Khartoum was killing a majority of the marginalized people of South Sudan, the people of Darfur, and the people of the Nuba Mountains, why didn’t the U.N. propose to take over South Sudan and the rest of the regions in the unified Sudan?
When Rwanda inflicted a terrible genocide upon its people, the U.N. Trusteeship wasn’t heard from. In West Africa, many countries suffered under unbelievable violence and an incredible lack of humanity was witnessed, but the U.N. Trusteeship didn’t prevail, whatsoever the case or the reasoning may have been. What is so particular about South Sudan now? Could this be a proposition of those who are interested in oil, or what is it that got countries interested in South Sudan? What have you calculated that we may need to know?
Well, we know this: violence has subsided, unlike when its first started, so there are no concrete reasons as to why the U.N. Trusteeship is urgently needed in South Sudan. It is obvious that the South Sudanese people are unified against the U.N. Trusteeship and the elements that are cheering for it. You must be sincerely told, Pagan Amum, that you are wrong for looting, and you are doubly wrong betraying people of South Sudan.
This letter was written by Deng Kur Deng AKA Raanmangar. You can reached him at pananyangajak@gmail.com.
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