President Kiir remains a symbol of poverty, hate and disunity in South Sudan, Part 1
5 min readGen. Salva Kiir Mayardit remains a symbol of poverty, hate and disunity!
By Sunday de John, Nairobi, Kenya
April 21, 2018 (SSB) — Five days ago, I posted a heading of the piece I planned to write on my Facebook page. I had desired to share my take on President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his governance of the country.
Today, I decided to publish the piece in its context. The readers ought to detach emotions and read with commitment so as to get the true content of the piece. Don’t let your thoughts be obscured by the blind support.
This author has been the unshakeable supporter of Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit. He had authored 4,368 articles in favour of President Salva Kiir Mayardit, his government and policies over years.
He has fallen victim on several counts as Kiir adversaries took him for a stooge, a paid mouthpiece. All I did had no association with payment and for your information, my name had never been written in any paysheet of the government since I was born.
I remained an ardent supporter of President Salva Kiir Mayardit because of my loyalty to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement since I joined it as a Jesh-Amer and my colleagues, seniors and juniors who happened to might have trained with me in Dima and those with whom we shared the sentiments on matters of concern like brother Agel Ring Machar can attest to this loyalty.
It seems, the unwritten doctrine of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army says, a chairman is a pillar on which we all draw our power of resilience, perseverance, persistence, enthusiasm, charisma, and of course success. He cannot be critiqued, questioned or betrayed. I did exactly that.
I gave my energy for the good of my people. My dedication to referendum matters and the cause of South Sudanese people have seen incomparable heights, I can attest, even Al Bashir and his uncle Teyeb Mustafa know. I didn’t betray my people.
These said I would also like to hint at how President Salva Kiir Mayardit had degenerated from a liberator to a violent kleptocrat.
His unwavering position as claimed has had cracks at some point. Note the Yei matters of those days and Mama Ayen Maguat can with no remorse recount on how things were to be straightened in Rumbek.
At the war front, President Salva Kiir Mayardit wasn’t the sharpest commander either. Who doesn’t know the size of Intifadha but had failed miserably to capture Rumbek.
If it is by bad luck that he can’t manage the country well, why wasn’t he lucky during war days but only to get the Presidency he mismanaged in a golden plate? I guess South Sudanese were punished by invisible powers. Was it bad luck to lose our able leader at the time we needed him most?
Chants of elevating Kiir above the rest are not based on his field successes, but obedience. I like his calmed personality but hate his inability to use his brain. If we were to celebrate war heroes, the likes of Gen. Oyai Deng Ajak, Gen. Malong Awan, Gen. Pieng Deng Kuol, and Gen. John Along among others or even the most Junior Nhial Maker Ayech I learned he was killed a year ago would have been celebrated everlastingly and not the less intelligent Kiir.
When I say Kiir is a symbol of poverty, do not react or fight back blindly. Just look at the streets of Juba, you will get miserable South Sudanese. Almost everybody manifests destitution. They beg on the streets. I don’t care which ethnicity, however, beggars are everywhere and it goes without saying, for the 21 year period, nobody was begging on the streets in major towns, even those in Khartoum had never begged.
Had it not been his lack of wit, oil wells wouldn’t have been closed abruptly following the capture of Heglig or Panthou which he announced while grazing a function in Nyakuron Cultural Centre where he behaved like a village bully. That is one dimension of South Sudanese poverty. I would say how later.
Does Kiir see people standing along the roads? Those are fuel vendors, thighs vendors or beggars all the same since they possess a common denominator. They are a product of his misrule. Most beggars on the streets of Juba are from our backyard, I mean President Kiir and I. We come from the same region. We are from the same ethnicity, one language but we have the most beggars and street people and of course, Presidency is too ours but it does us no good.
A point to ponder, why is Kiir’s convoy clad with tanks? Fear of his people. Why fear them because he has devasted their lives. In fact, Kiir is a bad omen even to Dinka that are being called names just because he has ruined the lives of everybody.
I won’t punish people from Awan because they are from the birthplace of Kiir, he is even a disgrace to them. Let’s dissect Kiir and his inept leadership. He should resign at least to restore a glimpse of hope.
The regime that hates the truth and kills truthtellers should at least pay an ear to facts. Death is the same, whether of hunger, bullet or bursting from much wealth and it comes to all. More on this soon, then on hate and disunity later.
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