A response to Walter Menya: Stop inciting South Sudanese against each other
Fight the proxy media war as you are hired to, but don’t incite South Sudanese to divide themselves on tribal bases: A response to a Kenyan writer, Mr. Walter Menya’s second article on daily nation on Wednesday.
By Bol Madut Ayii, Juba, South Sudan
October 13, 2016 (SSB) — First and foremost, I would like to send my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and the victims of the recent killings by terrorist on Juba—Yei road, Juba—Nimule and Torit roads, I would also thanks the relatives of the victims of terror killings for the spirit of nationalism and courage. You have shown to the Region and the world that you are law abided citizens who seek justice through due processes of law.
The despicable acts by terrorists and enemies of peace was to provoke the situation so that the people of South Sudan goes on rampage, killing each other but our great people of this nation are wise enough than the likes of Walter. The people of South Sudan knows their long history of struggle as brothers and sisters till the freedom was achieved in July 2011 and therefore should not listen to the voices of enemies of peace in personalities of this Kenyan writer the so called Walter.
Back to the topic, I was dazed to read an article authored by Kenyan writer Walter Menya which appeared on Daily Nation dated 12th / Oct/2016, and this is the second piece written by the same writer and I have to respond to him again as I did to his first article in July this year. The style of writing of this Kenyan who knows nothing about South Sudan and General Paul Malong forced me to respond to his rubbishes once again.
Mr. Walter wrote and I quote” General Malong is ordered by President Kiir to wage a war against other ethnics group who are not Dinka, he is one of the Dinka Generals who formed Dinka Militia called mathiang-anyoor” ended the quote.
Since this Kenyan miserably and ignorantly wrote about somebody he don’t know, and tried to provoke South Sudanese to kill themselves, I think it is astute to tell him who General Paul Malong is as well as the people of South Sudan. Paul Malong Awan is one of the freedom fighters who dedicated his lifetime to liberate his people from the oppression and marginalization and therefore no reason for him to be ordered to kill his own people which he fought for their freedom from the yolks of marginalization.
General Malong was instrumental in the formation of Anya-Nya two particularly in the greater Bahr el Ghazal Region. After he join the SPLM/A in July 1984 he was transferred to Hadit Battalion of Koryom Division. General Paul commanded successful operations mainly in the areas of Upper Nile, Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria mainly Eastern Equatoria like Latukei, Magwai and Pageri.
He fought various wars with Arabs and sustained so many injuries in the frontline and he did not think of retreat or betray his people like what others who want to be the leaders did. General Malong is known not only by South Sudanese but Sudanese as a freedom fighter and peacemaker.
He is among few comrades who are loyal to the movement (SPLM/A) which fought a successful war of liberation with Islamic Regimes in Khartoum and later joined politics when he became governor of then Northern Bahr El Ghazal State. While in Northern Bahr El Ghazal, General Paul was able to maintain peace and security within Awiel as well as with neighboring communities like Rezigat of Sudan, not only that he laid some foundations of developmental projects in Northern Bahr el Ghazal and the citizens of Awiel shall proof me right on this.
After successfully achieved some developmental projects in Awiel, the President appointed him (Malong) in April 2014 as Chief of General Staffs which is a normal administrative routine. General Paul took the assignment from his Comrade James Hoth Mai at a difficult time when the country national army was fighting the rebellion after December 2013 failed coup. Within few months Paul Malong was able to address some of the challenges that were facing the national army.
As chief of General staffs it is his responsibility to defend the territorial integrity of South Sudan, the people’s Lives and their properties from any external or internal aggressor. Being the chief of General staffs does not mean that he is there to protect President KIIR because he is a Dinka nor to order the killing of any tribe in this country, the mandate of any national army is to defend the constitution and the government but not personalities like the way this Kenyan writer think.
The region and the whole world knows how General Paul Malong responded to the rumors circulated on social media by saying that he is not representing Dinka but he is a South Sudanese citizen in charge of the national army as chief of General Staff and therefore have a constitutional mandate to protect the lives and properties of South Sudanese regardless of their ethnicity or religion.
Kenyan writer (Mr. Walter) who is fighting proxy media war should first clean his own house in Kenya before rushing to attack the personality of General Paul Malong and the SPLA. I thought Walter could be worried what the future of his country (Kenya) holds in the upcoming national elections since the style of their democracy is completely a tribal collision democracy.
His allegation that General Malong is one of the commanders who formed the Dinka militia called mathiang-anyoor is baseless. Mathiang-anyoor is composed of young men and women who voluntarily and proudly joined the national army in 2012 to fight Sudan Armed Forces who were planning to invade South Sudan, those young men taught tough lesson to SAFs in Panthou (Heglig) and other neighboring areas to Sudan which Bashir was planning to invade.
Mathiang-anyoor is a name of battalion like Koriom, muor-muor-, Jamus, Timsa, Lion, Katiba Banat, Tiger to mention the few. The fact that the name mathiang-anyoor is a Dinka word is immaterial and therefore does not constitute Dinka militia, and to this point I salute my comrades in Mathiang-anyoor battalion for their heroic sacrifices to defend the Constitution, sovereignty and the people of South Sudan.
It is very unfortunate that some Kenyan who claimed to be columnist or political commentators like so called Walter just woke up in the morning with their left-over black label and red-wine seriatim all over the nerves and spread rumors on various online media houses that people of South Sudan are going to kill themselves on ethnic bases.
Mr. Walter, there is no any chief of General staff of any national army who can be ordered to kill his own people unless if you were out of your sense at the time wrote your article on daily nation. Fight your proxy media war sponsored by some elites mainly from Western world but, be mindful that South Sudanese have the reasoning capacity to understand and judge what you are doing.
To my fellow countrymen and women, my message to you is that, there are those who are not happy about you being an independent nation with rich resources and therefore, the enemies are trying day and night to incite you so that you kill yourselves and disintegrated your country into country of tribes that shall be ungovernable so that they come in as intervention forces or whatever they named themselves and continue looting your God given natural resources.
There is nothing dangerous than media war so, am appealing to you all my people not to listen and believe on the rumors on social medias being created and circulated by the likes of Walter.
It is not the first time the enemies of our unity and progress gangs up against our nation but with the spirit of our national unity we always and shall continue to defeat them, let us unite ourselves to defeat the enemies of peace rather than divided on tribal lines. I am aware that there are few individuals among us who don’t need the peaceful coexistence among the people of South Sudan but they should be reminded that what they are doing shall not help us to grow as a nation.
What I failed to understand from Mr. Walter is that why is he always writing negatively about our chief of general staff General Paul Malong Awan and the SPLA (the national army)? Why you do always wasted your time writing nonsense about a freedom fighter who never one day turned against his own people?
Why do you keep on inciting the people of South Sudan to divide themselves on tribal bases as if you are going to be the President of this nation if it disintegrated into nation of tribes? Do you think South Sudanese are stupid to believe in your white lairs and fabrications on public media houses?
I doubt whether there shall be any sane South Sudanese who will listen to your media fabrications.
We struggled for so long and we have long way to go so that we build the nation that we fought and voted for her independence. I thought that Mr. Walter should use his self-claimed vast knowledge for the benefit of his country Kenya and for his African brothers and sisters in South Sudan rather than fighting Western sponsored media war.
In conclusion Mr. Manya, your whole article is nothing than wishful thinking and provocation so that South Sudan is disintegrated into the nation of tribes which is unachievable dream and believe me or not you will never achieve this media war.
The writer Holds Bachelor of laws (LL.B) from University of Juba and is reachable via bolayii93@gmail.com
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