Can Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) be trusted to play positive roles in South Sudan?
4 min readA Comment on Hon. Aldo Ajou Deng’s article: “President Kiir should use Dr John Garang’s precedence to unite the Mother SPLM”
By Truthhurt, Juba, South Sudan
April 30, 2017 (SSB) —- Reading through Hon. Aldo Ajou Deng’s article posted on PaanLuel Wël’s, which dated April 28th, 2017 and titled “President Kiir should use Dr John Garang’s precedence to unite the Mother SPLM”, I couldn’t agree more with him on this because the Bible says (Ecclesiastes 8:3) “There is time for everything … a time for war and a time for peace”.
And without any doubt this time is a time for peace in South Sudan because we have already witnessed destruction of human lives, displacement of millions of citizens from their homes, insanity prevailed for so long, political class inability to resolve their differences amicably & peacefully and the list goes on.
Therefore, Hon. Ajou’s call for President Kiir to use Dr John Garang’s precedence not only to unite the Mother SPLM but to also bring lasting peace in South Sudan is right. However, the question is will President Kiir listen to the voices of peace this time around Or will he stick to his usual way of a none compromise strategy which he has been using for quite sometimes now, is yet to be seen?
Of course, President Kiir has contributed immensely both to the liberation struggle as well as the independence of South Sudan therefore, he deserves undisputed credits unfortunately, he fails to understand that Dr Garang achieved so much not through war but through compromise. And it was through compromise where he negotiated and achieved the followings on behalf of South Sudanese people:
- He negotiated in good faith with the leaders of Anyanya II and reconciled the SPLM with Anyanay II to unify the forces against the main enemy, “The minority clique regime in Khartoum” in the late 80s.
- He single handily negotiated a just peace & reconciliation with both Dr Riek and Dr Lam Akol then reinstated them back to the top leadership in 2002.
- He reconciled with Kiir himself in Rumbek in 2004 to the extent that he (Dr Garang) allowed everyone to hire their grievances in public against him including General Kiir something that he (Kiir) would never allowed to happen in his watch!
- And lastly, he has successfully negotiated the Comprehensive Peace Agreement also known as CPA in 2005 with the Regime in Khartoum which gave South Sudanese people their freedom & independence.
Yet, President Kiir who have been very close to Dr Garang since the inception of the SPLM until his untimely death in 2005 does not in any way appreciate the importance of compromise as the only best option to resolve conflicts between leaders. Instead, President Kiir has a tendency for initiating violent since he took over the leadership of the SPLM either with whoever questioned his leadership’s style and in most cases with Dr Riek in particular then play a victim role at the same time which is undoubtedly contributed negatively to the current mess in the country.
In conclusion, to use Dr John Garang’s precedence to unite the Mother SPLM one need to be a genuine peace maker. Unfortunately, President Kiir unlike Dr John is not a genuine peace maker but sadly enough he is a true war maker who did not only squandered his good legacy for a search of a win-lose victory against his political rivals, not to mention the fact that he has also intentionally let go numerous opportunities to avoid the predicament that South Sudan is currently in!
We are all aware that the only reason why this devastating conflict is still dragging on is his (Kiir) inability to comprise with his rivals and worst of all he tends to sabotage any attempt to reconcile him with his perceived enemies! So, if he is a true peace maker as many of his die-hard supporters would want us to believe then I challenge him to organise a face- to- face meeting with Dr Riek among other opposition leaders outside South Sudan, negotiate with them in good faith and by doing just that you will see this senseless war will come to an end sooner than later.
Otherwise, the only way forward is that the Jieng Council of Elders – JCE as an advisory group to the President seriously need to advise General Salva Kiir to step down peacefully and give chance to someone else in his party who can use Dr John Garang’s precedence not only to unite the Mother SPLM but to also bring lasting peace in South Sudan as call for by Hon. Aldo Ajou Deng.
The opinion expressed here is solely the view of the writer. The veracity of any claim made are the responsibility of the author, not PaanLuel Wël: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB) website. If you want to submit an opinion article or news analysis, please email it to paanluel2011@gmail.com. SSB do reserve the right to edit material before publication. Please include your full name, email address and the country you are writing from.
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