The return of a legend: Bring back our Pagan Amum…
By Peter Kuot Ngong, Juba, South Sudan
June 3, 2017 (SSB) — After reading the press release (attached above) from the SPLM Secretary General Cde. Pagan Amum (he is still the SPLM SG and that’s why Nunu Kumba is acting), I felt so happy that he expressed his support and that of his colleagues to the National Dialogue though with reservations.
He has also underscored that they are open to engage on those matters of concern to find a common ground with the country’s leadership and with other political forces towards ending the current crisis in the country.
I expect President Kiir and other senior ruling party’s members (Wani Igga, Awet Akot and Kuol Manyang) to return such a good gesture by inviting their long time bush comrades to Juba and have direct conversation without even involving a mediator.
They run the country and control the security so on a direct invitation from President Salva Kiir as a Chairman of SPLM to Pagan and his team, I believe Pagan will not turn it down since it will be in response to his below attached press release.
I discourage the use of foreign mediators here because not so many agreements mediated by them succeed.
If we can recall when Commander Kerubino Kuanyin and Commander William Nyuon were seeking to return to the SPLA on separate occasions, Dr. John Garang told those who were attempting to mediate that he doesn’t need a mediator between him and Kerubino or Nyuon because he doesn’t have any personal problem with them and that there was not any problem between them as Southerners but with the Arabs (Khartoum government).
He said “wo këch këk wonë Kerubino, acën tong tö ë kemkuo. Tong eekëda wonë Arep” in Dinka language. Meaning “there is no any conflict between me and Kerubino other than our general conflict with the Arabs.”
Dr. Garang personally established a direct conversation with Kerubino Kuanyin till when he returned via Nairobi and finally met Garang in Chukudum.
Why didn’t the children learn from their father?
As I said in one of my articles sometimes back that the SPLM leaders have forgotten the 21 years of horrible experiences in the bush fighting for a common course; to free South Sudanese from slavery and give them their nation. When you look at them closely they act as if they just met in Juba in 2005. They have forgotten such a long history of togetherness, unity and teamwork and resorted to fighting over the bread.
The legend…
If those with the bush experience can recall, when American President Bush took it upon himself to engage through phone calls Bashir and Garang and heavily using his Secretary of State Collin Powel to move between Khartoum and Nairobi, meeting leaders on both sides of the conflict, Khartoum was not ready to come to the negotiating table. Dr. John Garang designed a new political strategy to force Khartoum to come to the negotiating table by taking the war to Western Sudan (Darfur) and Easter Sudan (Amoshkureb and Kassalla).
The battles of Eastern Sudan were mostly fought for political propaganda and that’s why the world was surprised that after the capture of Kassalla in 2003, Garang ordered the forces to withdraw immediately. I remember BBC’s Focus on Africa presenter Joseph Warungu during an interview with Samson Kwaje asking if the battle was meant for Propaganda and Samson’s answer was “it’s a military tactical withdrawal and we are coming back. Our target is Khartoum. We have all that it take to march to Khartoum”
Pagan Amum was at the forefront of leading the political propaganda through political and military campaigns so that Bashir can sign the Machakos Protocol, a huge section of the CPA that included power sharing. Pagan was himself in New Sudan Brigade in Eastern Sudan joining Commanders Wal Athiu and Thomas Cirilo to help in political strategies that goes along with the military ones.
These included saving prisoners of war (POWs) from fighters, giving moral orientation to the fighters and designing political stories to keep them encouraged. Dr. Garang himself addressed the troops before launching an offensive on Amoshikureb. His son Capt. Mabior Garang was there at the frontline.
That political strategy employed between 2002 to 2003 led to the signing of Machakos Protocol by President Bashir who was too hard at the time. Even the battle of Torit under the command of Commander Oyai Deng Ajak.
Though Kassalla and Torit were captured and left for SAF to retake, at least it sent a clear message that no one would win the war, not SPLA not Khartoum. And that’s how CPA came about.
What I would like to say is that we have come a long way together and we have the responsibility to rescue our country from its current ugly state and make it great again.
Sometimes I hear that some intruders came into the system and began playing their politics to divide our heroes. They create complicated situations creating mistrust between President Salva Kiir and his comrades. And that a direct audience between the President and those purported to be against him becomes difficult.
The President is sealed off from meeting the targeted individuals. The motive of such people is just nothing but selfish interests. Now that the government has become very poor and they are richer than the government itself, I think it’s time they step back and give peace a chance. They have profited enough from the blood of innocent souls.
This has to stop if we are to revert the current situation in the country. Dialogue can be between two people, three people, four people, and the whole nation. So President Kiir should be allowed to sit face-to-face with the people he feels or others feel he has friction with.
In my conclusion, I would like to urge my leaders; President Kiir and the senior SPLM leaders to take it upon themselves to avoid use of South Africa or Ethiopia or Tanzania or Uganda or Kenya, and talk to each other directly.
Let’s make South Sudan Great Again!
You can reach the author via his email: peter kuot <peterkuot@gmail.com>
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