The Bewildering Politics of the SPLM/SPLA in the Post-Garang Era
4 min readThe Politics of Post-Garang SPLM/SPLA Government
By Deng Diar Diing, Mombasa, Kenya
May 12, 2017 (SSB) — If I were within the close circle of comrade Salva, I would be worried, very worried. To those of us who studied science, experiments are carried out to develop empirical formulas and those formulas are iteratively applied while continuously incorporating constants and previously insignificant variables until you arrive at a stable scientific formula that’s applicable invariably.
Now, with the way the audience of war and targets have been shifting unpredictably, I would be worried if I were within the circle. Stability and predictability are important in any operations and discourse for that matter.
Remembering 2012, the whole war started as a contest of egos between Riek and Cde Salva not to mention the Garang-boys coup d’etat folklore that got sung since Garang died and eventually got beaten down by more significant events.
This contest of giants intensified and became Nuer versus Dinka fanfare until Riek decided to invite Twi and Duk into it by coming to apologize at Mama Rebecca’s house. Though am not sure if that was really accepted.
As 2013 was getting the better of it, it shifted now to be Upper Nile war (except loyalists from small sections of the region who had strategic importance). So, the Nuers and, non-loyalists from Upper Nile were purged out of the government and condescendingly given treat they deserved.
The whole of Bahr Al Ghazal, Equatoria and our loyalists were up in arms against unsuspecting citizens of the other political aisle. Repetitively was the statement that Upper Nileans were fools who could allow war to rage at their backyard as we the Equatorians and Bahr AL Ghazal are farming and our kids going to schools!!!!
Some went as far as proposing the dismemberment of Upper Nile or have it disjointed from the rest of the regions for the problems of South come from not anywhere but Upper Nile.
Early 2014 was unbearable for many of us until this thing called MTN shifted the attention suddenly and now brothers in Equatoria became brothers in crime. It was going to be grisly if Wen Awan Anei did not step in to mobilize the full muscles of SPLA and Bahr Al Ghazal to take effective war against the two frontiers of Upper Nile and the Equatorian States.
Stability was achieved and CPA II was signed and promulgated before its subtle and inexplicable demise in July 2016. Still we counted on King Paul for our safety and that of Riek and his team.
For Riek to be grounded on stone wheels in South Africa, new political frontiers had to be generated that saw the exit of my family from Yirol and friends from Wau, Rumbek and Aweil from the Centre, effectively leaving the playing field for Tonj and Gogrial with few playboys of strategic discourse.
Of course, those who tried to maintain consistency could not keep long in the game as the horizon keeps shifting unpredictably…
I would be worried if I were from Tonji because it seems to be the next shell to be shed followed by Kuac, then Apuk, then Aguok and then finally Awan Mou!
Comrade Salva needs to watch out, his advisors may make him disown his biological children to please their vanity in oblivion.
Integrity comes from reliability and reliability is a function of predictability. So, please, please, please, take it easy on Wen Awan Anei. He was once all you needed to survive to be who you are today.
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