When will President Kiir Get Tired of his Firing Spree of Ministers and Governors?
When will president Kiir’s daily relief and appointment of Ministers, governors and government officials stop?
Deng Atak ken, Perth, Australia
Friday, June 28, 2019 (PW) — My fellow South Sudanese people inside/outside of the country, I want to take this enormous and tremendous opportunity to talk to you about something which bothers most people, and myself included and that’s ‘President Kiir’s daily relief and appointment’. I’m fully aware that relieving and appointment of Government Officials does happen in any government around the world. That’s fine but what is happening right now in our country is absolutely exceptional and beyond imagination because it is out of context of normality, and it is louder than any other activities the Government of South Sudan does in the country because it keeps happening every day, every minute and every second in all government Institutions.
So, nothing in the new nation’s television apart from firing and appointing people, to the extent that it becomes boring and silly to many. It is unacceptable. Some people can be appointed to the new positions and end up fired with less than three months without even completing the handover process with an outgoing office. It is disgraceful and should come to an end if there are real people who care about the sustainability of this nation. Who is the problem? Is it the President and his advisors or government officials?
This issue made so many people wondered and so desperate to know, where does the problem exist? Is it the problem with the government officials or the president and his out of touch advisors who don’t know to select the right people in the correct position? The reason behind daily firing and appointing people according to president Kiir’s spokesman is “normal routine”, which is absolutely untrue because if it is, then why other officials such as; James Wani Igga, Kuol Manyang Juuk, Rezik Zechariah Hassan and more are still in power since independence of the country and no one fire them. Some of them provided written resignation paper before the president, but his Excellency rejected the resignations. The question is, what do they do that those who sacked failed to do?
Secondly, to make the matter worst president Kiir don’ talk to the people before making the sacking order, to inform them that they are on the way to go, at least he/she can be aware of what is coming. I heard the president once saying that he won’t inform the people when sacking them because he didn’t notify them when they appointed to the job, so why would he do that at the firing time. According to my understanding, I think the president got it wrong entirely because to appoint someone without informing him can be up to that person to accept or reject the offer but at the firing time, you should do the following:
1. Inform the person privately before engaging in the firing process.
2. Inform the public about the reason behind the sacking at least it will help the successor to avoid not repeating the same mistake in future.
I think those are procedures that can make the firing person and his supporters happy and satisfy, other than that it will be unfair and unjust sacking. For example, many people didn’t like the way of sacking Mr Aguer Payang Governer of Jonglei state Who knew about his sacking on national TV without any previous warning. Also, people didn’t entertain the idea the Minister of petroleum sacked while he was outside of the country. Amb Ezekiel LoL Gatkuoth tried harder to hide his unhappiness and dissatisfaction but still can be noticed on his face, and nobody knows how he will deal with it.
I agreed with him because he didn’t see the reason behind his firing. To be honest, the way both gentlemen fired it wasn’t appropriate at all; therefore, I strongly recommend to the president and his advisors to do this right for the benefit of this nation. They should remember this,” what goes around comes around”. Why do South Sudanese people accept president Kiir’s appointment in the first place? Is it for salary purposes? Or genuinely to serve the people of South Sudan? The only thing I don’t get it here is this, why do people accept Kiir appointment in the first place? Is it for salary purposes? Or genuinely to serve the people of South Sudan?
If it is for the salary purpose, then we are in deep trouble. Therefore, this problem won’t stop quickly and if it is to serve people of South Sudan than “declining the offer“ will be one of the solutions because you won’t be able to do development in such unsustainable environment where you could be sack at any time. So, my best advice to those who are potential to be appointed into the new positions is to reject the president’s offer. The people dignity, pride and principle shouldn’t be for granted under any circumstances. The rejection of his excellence’s appointment at least at once will send a strong message.
Lastly, my fellow South Sudanese people, the only way to make president Kiir or any president that will come after him stopping this misery firing and the random appointment are that people should have what it takes to say no to some appointments sometimes. As a citizen of this country, I advise president Kiir to treat people with respect and dignity otherwise, people will feel that the only mistake Dr John Garang made was appointing his finger at you to be his successor.
The author is a concerned South Sudanese Australian who can be reached by email: dengatak09@yahoo.com.au or by phone: 0434371590
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