A Suggestion Letter to his Excellency President Salva Kiir Mayardit
Dear Mr. President
By YihHon Alewei, Juba, South Sudan
September 27, 2016 (SSB) —- Our country has been experiencing turbulent since, from George Athor and David Yau Yau rebellions to Riek Machar madness of 2013. Our country has never been stable. The expectations of our people have been buried before their eyes and the introduction of suffering re-surfaced again.
Mr. President as our leader, you have to start listening to us… You need to introduce radical policies that will help our country to get back on its feet. You need to show to the people that you are the man they depend upon. As a president,
- You have to start visiting the areas that have been affected by war, by doing that Mr. President, it will give our people back their confident in you as their leader.
- Take out all our people in UNMISS care and relocate them to their respective areas and provide security for them. After that, ask the UNMISS to respect our sovereignty or else leave our country since their extended mandate expired on the 12th of August, 2016. Stands your ground and keeps saying no to their additional troops. If you have taken out all the IDPs in their camps across the country, there will be no point of having more troops in the country.
- Stop recycling the same people, many people have been in government since 2005 but there were no results produced by them since. Discontinue some of them and bring in young people. Don’t you know Mr. President that your legacy is in a crossroad here? You are one of our liberators and as such, we don’t want your legacy to be tarnished before your eyes. Do something about it. You didn’t give your youth life up and fought for the country just to end up without a legacy.
- Give the Ministry of Justice more powers to try those who ran away with public money. Look at the way Pagan Amuom, Majak Agoot and Bakoros are defaming the government they were part of in the US. They have embezzled millions of dollars and now they are campaigning for our hard-won country to be given to the UN. How ridiculous is that? Riek Machar had been with you in the same government, but rebelled when he was asked to step aside because of his lunatic behaviours. How sad was that? All this happened because our Ministry of Justice is too soft..and no wonder they refused Justice Telar Ring to take over the department when you did the reshuffling three or so years ago. Riek machar has a very serious charges in which if it was in the developed world, I believe he would have been rotten in jail since the day we got our independent because of his 1991 atrocious in Bor. Due to our weak institutions gave a window to foreign NGOs to interfere in our affairs Mr. President. Look at the Sentry Reports..how demising was that? Publishing your name, Luri military base, your resident in neighbouring Kenya along with other senior military officers was a breach of local laws. It happened because our Justice system wasn’t properly working. If there were corrupt officials in your government, it is not US NGO job to investigate but our local institutions. Give local law agencies more powers to deal with our local corrupt officials.
- President, try to have a close look at our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. As a future diplomat and somebody who have gone to school of International Affairs, all our foreign relations start in that Ministry. Why? The Ministry is the window for our foreign relations. But that is not the case now… Because our very vital Ministry has been turned into a private enterprise by every Minister who headed it since our independent. As your strong supporter because of your past, I would like you to introduce vetting process which was used against Justice Telar Ring when he was proposed to head the Justice Ministry. Every Minister who has headed that Ministry sent most of his relatives abroad to represent our country Mr. President, which wasn’t right. Foreign Ministry Mr. President is our strength, the weaker our Ambassadors, the poorer our foreign relations would be. To prove that, you have seen during the rebellion of Riek Machar, he was welcome in Nairobi during his rebellion with a red carpet. How ridiculous was that? It happened because we have a weak Ambassador in Kenya. After that event, I didn’t see our Ambassador on the media nor raising the issue with the Kenyan government. He remained muted during that event..what is his job then in Kenya? His job is to represent the interest of our country, but he terribly failed the tasked he was sent to do. The same to our Ambassador to Addis, Sudan, USA, Norway etc. Our diplomatic front needs strong diplomats for us to survive internationally.
- Invest in infrastructure. This is the backbone of the country Mr. President. Having a good infrastructure can boost our economy in many ways. Start building roads, railways, airports, waterways, bridges, clean water systems, electricity, dams and so on. At the moment, we have zero infrastructure. We only have the Juba-Nimule road which was built by donors. We have built nothing yet. Why having those ministries Mr. President? I will encourage you to take a road trip from Juba to your electorate one day. You will see how bad it is Mr. President.
- Have a word with our National Security Personnel. Their job is to protect our civil population from foreign malice. Let them follow foreigners more than their brothers and sisters. I’m saying this because I have experienced it myself when I was in Juba. My classmate and brother from the same town I came from followed me for some days because I have been away from South Sudan for some time, how sad was that? I’m his brother and a South Sudanese national..what harm can I do to my own country? None to be honest because I was born in that country and raised there until 2002 where I left looking for education. There are foreigners taking a lot of things out of our country and they got away with it..more attention is needed on foreigners than ourselves.
- President, be tough, when you said something, don’t go back because we depend on you, you are the leader. Don’t reward those who keep stabbing the country at the back. Many people have killed our people and still made their way back into your government. How sad was that? In developed countries, if you break the law, you have to deal with the consequences that followed. Don’t reward criminals. That will encourage other people to do the same, thinking they will get the same treatment the fore criminals have received. Give our Justice Ministry powers to do their job without interference from you or other politicians. That will lessen the foreigners’ interference in our affairs.
- Corruption is everywhere Mr. President; bring in radical policies to stop this rampage disease. It is draining our resources into the pockets of the few. We are very rich, but our resources have been misused by few individuals. Take charge and deal with them. The whole thing will be put on you at end of the day because you are the leader. A good example is the Sentry Report, their names didn’t appear on the report but your name did.
- President, our soldiers are our strength, without them, we can be very vulnerable to predators..do you know who our predators are? Well don’t look far then our neighbours and International community e.g. UNMISS..what we have in South Sudan is not in their countries..if we are not strong militarily, they can take it/them by force. Look after our soldiers both the dead and the living. I’m talking from experience Mr. President, my elder brother who joined the SPLA at the age of 14 died in 2011 leaving behind 9 kids and three wives. You know what happened during his death, nobody cares about him because he was dead. The division commander of that time even refused to give the vehicle for his body to be taken to his hometown for burial. Since I was there as a blood brother, I hired a land cruiser to take my brother’s body home for burial. That tragic happened while I was in Nairobi. I travelled home for burial, during the burial Mr. President nobody including the county commissioner came to pay their respect for a soldier who devoted his life for the country. In the developed world, you would have been there to pay your respect to him. After all this, his salary was stopped for whatever reason I’m not sure of! I was left puzzled Mr. President. I scratched my head and asked myself, is SPLM/SPLA is for the living. Our veterans both the living and the dead are very important to our cause and should be treated with respect before and after their passing. For the case of my brother, I have managed to send three of his kids to one of the developed countries for their studies and I’m supporting the rest in South Sudan. You need to look into this veteran issue with urgency Mr. President. You know how important our soldiers are. I’m sure you have witnessed it when Riek Machar came for your life at J1 in July, 2016 Mr. President. You have seen most of those soldiers lost their dear lives protecting their leader which was you. How patriotic was that Mr. President. Do something about it.
- Try to develop a good relationship with the outside world for the purpose of getting our stolen wealth back from those countries. How are you going to do this? Through strong diplomatic relations. Review our relationship with other countries both within the continent and abroad and see who the Ambassadors in those countries are? Check their credentials and make a new appointment of Ambassadors which is going to be based on merits but not on relationship between the individual with you or the minister in charge of the ministry of foreign affairs and International Cooperation.
- President, try to acquainting yourself with the public. You can do that by walking the streets of Juba and interact with people though it sounds risky security wise. Talk to people in person and see and hear their concerns in person. Visit those in UNMISS camps and talk to them. By doing that Mr. President will give you a sense of what is going on in people’s minds about you. The people you head only see you on newspapers, TV, International Media and social media but never felt your present in person. I’m one of them; I almost met you in person in 2012 when your motorcade passed through Kololo while the heavy police were holding us beside the road. Due to tough security you had, I ended up seeing only half of your hat. But in real sense, I was hoping to see your motorcade slowing down such that we can see or greeted you.
- Try to make a balance between those who got stars on their shoulders and those who don’t. In my observations, it is the only way to get employment right now in South Sudan. If you are not a soldier with stars, you will not be given a senior position in army or the government despite your qualifications. If you look at the appointment of Governors that you made early this year and the commissioners appointed by governors afterward tell a different story. Most or all of them are men in uniform, Mr. President, that one contradict the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan which was drafted by Southern Sudan Constitutional Drafting Committee and ratified on the 7th of July, 2011 by South Sudan Legislative Assembly.
This is the opening sentence of our constitution Mr. President;
“We, the People of South Sudan,
Grateful to the Almighty God for giving the people of South Sudan the wisdom and courage to determine their destiny and future through a free, transparent, and peaceful referendum in accordance with the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, 2005;
Recalling our long and heroic struggle for justice, freedom, equality and dignity in South Sudan;
Remembering and inspired by the selfless sacrifices of our martyrs, heroes and heroines;
Dedicated to a genuine national healing process and the building of trust and confidence in our society through dialogue; Determined to lay the foundation for a united, peaceful and prosperous society based on justice, equality, respect for human rights and the rule of law; Committed to establishing a decentralized democratic multi-party system of governance in which power shall be peacefully transferred and to upholding values of human dignity and equal rights and duties of men and women;
Conscious of the need to manage our natural resources sustainably and efficiently for the benefit of the present and future generations and to eradicate poverty and attain the Millennium Development Goals;
Do hereby, through this Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, amend the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan, 2005, which shall be adopted and hereafter referred to as the “Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, 2011,” and shall be the supreme law by which the independent and sovereign South Sudan shall be governed during the Transitional Period, and undertake to abide by, respect and defend it”.
The introduction of our constitution said it all Mr. President, “We the people of South Sudan” means you and I, him and her, them and they etc. So given what our constitution has said, “we the people of South Sudan” have a right to employment, property ownership, learning, travel both abroad and within the country, running for public office etc. People like myself who’s brother’s has died and have no living uncles have no way to be employed in the government no matter how qualified I’m. You need to put more effort into this issue Mr. President and get it reviewed.
- I just want to say something quickly about your advisors, Mr. President; advisors are people who have bigger brain than yours. In developed world, Presidential advisors are active and retired professors in different fields of profession. I have been following many of your advisors but in my opinion, they don’t give you the right advice when it comes to the affairs of our country. Most of the things that went wrong since the deception of our country should be half squarely blame on your advisors. I would like to suggest appointing those who have more experience than yours. In the developed world, leaders depend on Professors who have been lecturers for ages and retired or still teaching at the universities as well retired army generals. Those people are experts in their areas of specialisation. They can offer you accurate and update information that will help you as a leader and the country you are leading. Look far for advisors than your colleagues.
- Finally Mr. President, Dinka community members are dying in numbers both in the frontlines battling the insurgency and along the rough roads of South Sudan just because they are from the region you came from. That is not right Mr. President, yes you are from them but that doesn’t allow other tribes to kill them. It is wrong and I would like to suggest to your extreme authority to find a solution for this epidemic. They (Dinka communities) are called MTN in the country they devoted their lives for..this is alarming Mr. President. They are suffering in silence because of you..do something before they run out of patient. The people enjoying the government of South Sudan today were watching while most of them were rotting in frontliines. Dinka Community have intellectuals capable of forming insurgent groups but they don’t want to do that because they suffered a lot and as such, they don’t want to be dragged into dirt by the audience of our struggle. I have respect for you sir..I would like you to start listening to public opinions. The social media war that we fought with warlord Riek Machar, his IGAD Plus, UNMISS and the rest of the world was very fierce and tense and you have seen the results yourself. Public opinion is very important when it comes to country affairs. If you make decisions that seem to be affecting the lives of our people, consult with the people first to see what they think about it.
I hope you will take some of my suggestions if there is a chance of them reaching your desk
The author holds Bachelor Degree in International Relations with majors in International Diplomacy, Masters of Arts in Globalisation and Governance, Postgraduate Certificate in Migration Law and PHD in progress. You can reach him via his email: yihhonalewei@hotmail.com
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