The Sentry Report: A dash of cold water poured onto a thirsty man’s esophagus!
7 min readBy Kastro Deng, Melbourne, Australia
https://youtu.be/7DKhVjBxzYI
September 15, 2016 (SSB) — One can definitely attest to the fact that The Sentry Report’s on some of the most lucrative financial scandals in South Sudan by the ruling aristocracy, previously undisclosed to the general public, is a baby step towards transparency and accountability, and promises great posterity. The Report indeed presents a glimpse of hope to the deprived citizens to look forward to the future of their own country. Nevertheless, the report entails plenty of shortcomings. In layman’s words, the report is very much half-baked!
The answers to “WHAT” (endemic corruption) and “WHY” (opportunisms, greed, ineptitude, lack-of-patriotism and/or Spirit-of-Nationalism from/by the leaders) that seemed to be flying everywhere in the report are a common-knowledge amongst the citizens. The most important answers, which hold the key to transparency and subsequently accountability, are answers to questions such as WHO (stolen what), HOW (much was stolen), WHEN (was this amount stolen), WHERE (was this money stolen and how). Such questions were either purposely omitted or their answers were incomprehensible in the report.
Right from the country’s inception to present, South Sudan has lost billions of dollars that streamed from donors, oil revenues and loans borrowed from foreign banks and other financial institutions. I doubt that the entire sum of money that South Sudan government earned since independence was lost only within the last two years. A friend of mine once said, “The moment South Sudan got its independence, its corruption simultaneously gained its independence along with it.”
If my friend’s statement holds any validity, then what is so intriguing about corruption in South Sudan within the last two year? What inspired the Sentry Report to limit its investigation down to the last two years of the crisis? If the greater portion of the misappropriated fund is not accounted for in the report, then what justice does the Sentry Report intends to serve? In fact if anything, a dash of water poured onto a thirsty man’s esophagus does almost a disservice, and that is exactly what this report did to the citizens.
So WHY, WHY and WHY was the investigation confined only to the last few years of the country’s crisis? Do the public monies that have been stolen in the last two years hold any greater value relative to the ones previously stolen, between the intervals of 2005-2013? Could the monies that have been stolen within the last two years purchase a train fare to Heaven?
Allow me to get critical with this. Why was the reported only limited down to the last two years? It is pretty obvious that The Report intended to cast a dark shadow on one side (government’s side) of the political spectrum? The report indeed arrived at such an impartial conclusion.
Majority of the “Thieves” mentioned in the report are all SPLA-IG high-ranking officials and their kindred, perhaps with exception to Gen. James Hoth Mai, who was relieved and assigned to SPLA’s Reserve-List back in 2014.
But even then, the scandals reported on Gen. James Hoth Mai were committed well before his redundancy, at least while he was still an active SPLA officer. Notwithstanding the fact that General Hoth has been active on the Reserve-List to-date and has no official affiliation with SPLA-IO or the G10. I am not denying that the likes of Gen. James Hoth Mai have some stain on their shoulders per se.
In fact the facts presented, pertaining to the mentioned elites having been engaged in graft, in my view are quite indisputable. Public finances have indeed been misappropriated by the country’s top echelon and accountability would be the best way to appease the angry citizens. Moreover, commonsense would dictate that not all the government’s corrupt officials were revealed.
Albeit the report placed a lot of weights on the government’s side, The Sentry Report still could have come up with a much longer and detailed list on that respect. Nevertheless, what I am trying to emphasize is that, the report is grossly bias and such segregation has its perils.
The system in South Sudan is largely dichotomized and the political sphere amongst the citizens is already far too divisive. With such circumstances in hand, what fairness could such a bias report possibly serve? The report explicitly favored Dr. Riek Machar’s position a long with that of the G10. For start, the report blatantly stated that, “Although it appears that Vice President Machar has had ‘far less’ rent seeking opportunities, compared with President Kiir’s SPLA factions…”
What does this irresponsible statement imply? What is “far less?” How did the investigation even come to measure the magnitude of Dr. Riek Machar’s money laundering scheme? Oh wait, of course Dr. Riek Machar has had “far less rent seeking opportunities” relative to Kiir because the report was limited down only to the last two years.
Here is what is significant about the last two years. In the “last two year” Dr. Riek Machar was a rebel! With that having been said, one can only question how on Earth was Dr. Riek supposes to steal from the State owned revenues while he was in the Bush? Although credit has to be assigned where it’s due, I do acknowledge The Sentry’ Report’s attempt to disclose Dr. Riek Machar’s nephew, Bading Machar’s, implication with a Kenyan-owned security firm. In the report, Mr. Bading allegedly ‘violently took over’ KK Security Company.
However, I don’t believe that the bulk of Dr. Riek Machar’s relatives and affiliates’ corrupt deeds stop at him (Riek) and his tycoon of a nephew, Mr. Bading Machar. Where is the mention of Dr. Riek’s army generals? Where is the mention of Dr. Riek’s top party officials? Where is the mention of Dr. Riek’s Machar splinter group (the now integrated IO) and most importantly ‘where is the mention of the G10 and all other stakeholders’ whom have benefited from the illicit financial flows and the overall crisis if The Sentry Report is actually impartial and holds good intentions? Why limit the investigation down to the years that omitted a disproportional amount of embezzled wealth?
If only the Sentry Report extended its investigation all the way back to 2005, a lot more covert financial embezzlements could’ve been disclosed. However, since the report only focused on the era where Dr. Riek Machar and many other corrupt officials (now unaffiliated with the government) have no legal entitlements in the government or the State-owned assets, many are still comfortable with their luxurious lifestyles__ far from accountability. But that is not where our grievances as citizens stop.
Although Dr. Riek walked out of this trial holier than he actually is (apparently because he did not stole much in the last two years) because donors and other profiteers funded his rebellion, all the promises he pledged to the foreign donors to sell his rebellion will still have to be accounted for. In other words, whether Dr. Riek ever ascends to power or not, the citizens of South Sudan will still have to recompense the retrospective costs or debt that he incurred while pursuing his political aspirations.
To conclude, basically what I am saying is that we “The Fed-Up Citizens” want an honest, impartial, interest-free and transparent REPORT if transparency and accountability were indeed the sole purposes of the Sentry’s Exposé. We want to know whom stolen what from the year 2005 to present, such that we can demand accountability as citizens. We are the ones that will repay the accumulative national debt that the country is currently sitting under.
A debt incurred only to satisfy a few bellies at expense of the starving millions. We are the ones who brought this country its independence. We are the horses and the saddles that the leaders sit on as they ride us to conquer luxury and all the finer things in life. We are fed up and we deserve nothing short of the damn truth.
If transparency and accountability are not properly demanded, then one gross-miscarriage of justice can lead to a thousand more injustices. If one side of the political divide is favored over the other, then their grievances against the other side are only exacerbated.
We therefore demand that the future reports on South Sudan be impartial and just. We deserve reports that unite us as citizens in our stand against a corrupt system and corrupt public servants. Although this first Sentry Report on South Sudan has left us with a glimpse of hope, the satisfaction it provided thus far to our quest for answers could only be compared with a dash of cold water poured down onto a thirsty man’s esophagus (throat).
As for the citizens, at least a bit of light has been shed on some individuals. It’s your turn to come together and demand accountability. If the current officials accused of corruption could deny their charges and subvert justice, so should the 16 individuals sentenced to life-imprisonment for forging the President’ signature and stealing the money at the President’s office.
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