The Tragicomedy of Endless Resignation and Rebellion in South Sudan
6 min readBy Deng Kiir Akok, Juba, South Sudan
February 18, 2017 (SSB) — Dictionary.com defined resignation as formal statement, document stating that one gives up an office or position. While on the other hand, rebellion is a resistance to or defiance of any authority, control or tradition. Except for Nhial Deng Nhial’s resignation in 2006 from his post as minister for regional cooperation of the defunct Government of southern Sudan. Since then the others who followed had been on zigzagging. No one has ever followed the normal resignation procedures.
In normal procedures for resignation one needs to send his/her letter of resignation to employer and then wait for an approval that will not last than two to three weeks. In most cases for South Sudanese, they do not follow these steps. As a result, they quit before their boss sign or approve their letters. Some took an online resignation as the case of Thomas Cirilo, the former deputy chief of logistics.
Proper procedures were not applied in the Lam Akol’s resignation letter last year as minister for Agriculture and food security. He made sure he was in Khartoum before announcing his resignation. The same method was used by Thomas Cirilo, The author of this piece is wondering why does most South Sudanese resign while they are outside the country? They usually resign their positions while in Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. Lam Akol and Thomas Cirilo are now the living examples for those who resign while abroad. Akol did not take long in this position before resigning from last year formed Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU). He was by then in Khartoum.
He was waiting to hear the whereabouts of now exiled rebel leader and former first vice president Riek Machar who was forced to flee the country after the battle of J1. Until the Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS) comer ended up in hospital in Congo and was referred to Khartoum later for further medication.
Lam announced his intention to resign his position as the minister for Agriculture and food security. In his resignation letter, he cited that the peace agreement has failed. As such, resigning and rebelling against the system is a new phenomenon facing the government of South Sudan.
Nobody knows what will happen next after Wol Deng Atak, former deputy head information commission, Lam Akol, former minister of Agriculture and food security, Thomas Cirilo, former Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) deputy chief of Staff for logistics, Gabriel Duop Lam, minister of labor, public service and human resources and Khalid Loki, head of the SPLA military tribunal, have resigned.
But for Dinkas that resign, their reasons differ from other tribes. The question that asks why the Dinka tribe is bigger than other ethnic groups and its domination of the army. That said after his resignation letter was approved.
But the question is that; what kill those who resign outside South Sudan if they resign while in the country? The issue is that, they have other hidden agenda in their hearts which is rebellion.
It could be a reason they make sure they are not in South Sudan before making their resignations public. The fresh one is that of Thomas Cirilo. In fact resignation in the minds of some South Sudanese politicians goes together with the rebellion.
But in a real sense, resignation has nothing to do with rebellion. It’s a new style for politicians in South Sudan. Something which cannot happen in the United States or in a democratic world. Because of my observations, Americans resign if there are grounds for resignation and stay in America. But that one cannot happen in South Sudan. What’s wrong with our people? They resign their posts and go to America or Kenya for the case of Wol Deng Atak, Sudan for Lam Akol and Ethiopia for Thomas Cirilo.
Moreover, every person that resigns whether from the government or in the army does not miss Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) and its Dinka ethnic group out of their main reasons for resignation.
Those who resign their positions blame Jieng Council of Elders for being a big driver for president Kiir’s government. And that, Dinka dominates the national army, which needs to be reversed.
In my own view, this author would tirelessly work together with other ethnic groups in South Sudan to keep the Jieng Council of Elders away from the President’s office if that’s the only reason for these people leaving the government and the army in big masses.
By doing so, we would make sure that the office of the president is out of reach of Jieng Council Elders. It will be a joint work by this author and other activists to call for it to distance itself from the state affairs. Or he will go as far as calling for it to move its office to Wau. This call will put it under pressure from all the citizens of this country.
Also, activists will make sure it would not mingle up in running of the country. Yes, there is a solution to this problem of Jieng Council of Elders. We can build a wall around it. That idea would only work if we ever wanted to lock it up in a wall that we have built and forever forget about it.
But one thing will not happen. The balancing of ethnic groups in the army cannot and will never happen until any power would test the creator to turn hyenas into cows with horns. If those cows are without horns, then that one would be called a partial turning of hyenas into cows.
This is the fact that Dinka tribe are the majority. That’s to say, in every corner of the world, there is a Dinka. There’s only one country in this world and that’s Somalia the author is not sure whether Dinka lives in it.
This’s because they do not feel secure to stay in there. Take this simple example, in the Diaspora, Dinka are the majority. Leave alone the fact that Dinkas are in a large number of neighbouring countries.
They are now outnumbering Ugandans in Kampala and Kenyans in Nairobi just to mention the few. If any politician thinks s/he would ascend to power by any means and start the unstudied idea of balancing the ethnic groups in the army, or send home extra Dinka soldiers that would remain during the balancing, he would be committing suicide.
Because these soldiers that would be sent home will group themselves and form a militia that is more dangerous than the present White Army in Upper Nile. I do not know what would that militia be called.
In conclusion, resigning and rebelling with reasons that Jieng Council of Elders interferes with the state affairs and that Dinka tribe dominates the national army will not solve the current crisis. I think no one would be willing to question the nature. Why this ethnic group is bigger than the other? This is the question being asked by smaller ethnic groups. Even Dinka themselves do not know why they are majority in South Sudan. It’s the nature that makes them like that.
I bet that any politician with a believe that s/he would cut the number of Dinka when s/he is power would have his/her idea rotten at birth.
The writer is a blogger with blog address https://dengkiirsouthsudan.blogspot.com. He can be reached at dengkiirsouthsudan@gmail.com. Tel: +211912186333
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