A response to SPLM spokes’ man Yien Matthew.

By: Carlo James Chol (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

This is the first press release in its kind since the formation of the different levels of SPLM's secretariats. Many including myself expected the new faces to focus more on the.....

 

building and the reorganizing of SPLM's capacity, to analyse the successes and the failures during the last four years and find ways forward rather than targeting their own members with such a release which lacks all forms of respect and full of lies. A press release is a means among many to convey information to the public about certain issues for the sole objective of clarification, condemnation, appreciation etc. It is never used as the channel of conveying abusive information or insults especially when such information is meant to correct certain behaviour of a member/s of the same entity.

Such an abusive language as it was in this case reflects the degrading standard of the SPLM active officials.This press release lacks all forms of respect and gratefulness to our leadership and further it reflects of how uncouth some of the appointed leaders in our beloved movement are and how they went to the extent of over believing in themselves as the sole contributors who can only safeguard it. Moreover, it lacks any form of organizational disciplinary which should have been done followed by some certain steps before it is brought forward for public consumption. This action informs us of how immature SPLM's structures are and how unqualified the cadres appointed to administer the movement daily activities lack the least managerial skills.

The paper accused the two members as being hidden minds which had continued to undermine the movement ever since H.E Salva Kiir had succeeded the late chairman Dr. John Garang de Mabior and as well as power hunters who had found themselves into high positions in the name of SPLM. To deny the contribution of Mr. Ghazi Suleiman and Dr. Lam Akol is indeed a very big Lie. Who does not know Ghazi during those hard years when he spoke boldly without fear of the NIF regime and how often he was a frequent visitor at Sudan prisons in defence of the poor and the marginalized people of Sudan? Can anyone deny this? Even our late Dr. John Garang will not deny leave alone Mr. Yien. For God's sake can the huge contributions and the self sacrifices H.E. Dr. Lam Akol made throughout the years of liberation be denied and erased simply with such a demean release? What a mess our movement has entered itself into. Is this how we treat our members when we think they have made a mistake, to destroy them or to save them? What is the line of SPLM that these two violated? By targeting our own members as such, is it not by itself violating the lines of the movement? Where is the freedom of speech our beloved movement keeps echoing and where is the democratic transformation we cry for everyday and keep on accusing the NCP our sole partner in the CPA as undermining these freedoms? If we cannot apply these principles on ourselves, how do we expect others to implement them?We expected our newly formed secretariats to assist GOSS to come out from the mess in which it is now. For this reason one shall be opted to ask whether these secretariats were really formed to reform or to destroy.

Look here people, to be in power is not a joke, we are dealing with people's future. This is not just a normal future, but a transitional stage in the history of our nation.  This at all cannot be compromised with and any minute or second wasted counts and shall have its negative impacts on this future. What is apparent now with the new leaders in South Sudan is that they seem to care less about our future and what our fate shall be after 2011. They are more self centred and busy enriching themselves forgetting the main objective by which they are in power. Look behind at the last four years in the interim period, what have we accomplished? We have created division among our people, we have created a situation where or almost are loosing the track for which the CPA was found for.

To go back to the subject matter of this paper, our SPLM's secretariat is never an exceptional. Right from day one after the formation of the different levels of the governments, some prominent figures in the movement especially those who considered themselves as the nearest aides to Dr. John Garang De Mabior started a situation of disliking some influential members in the movement, especially those who are thought to have caused the split in SPLM/A in 1991. This targeting concentrated on the personality of Dr. Lam Akol who is thought as the spearhead of that division. With the appointment of Dr. Lam as the foreign minister of GONU, this move seemed to have irritated this group and they made it a mission to destroy him. They kept on heaping accusations upon accusation on this great man. They attacked him at different corners and angles, they made people to believe that Dr. Lam was a bad man and against the marginalized people of Sudan when he was doing his duties as the Foreign Minister of Sudan. Most of them seem not to know the nature of what to be a foreign minister or were rather denying that. Dr. Lam did his best not to fail his country in whatever situation that required him, even if it involved self denial as he has always done. Our best witness to this complicated office could be Deng Alor. Look at Deng today what have become of him? A frequent visitor to Juba to escape the huge duties the country requires him to attend to. In order to remove Dr. Lam from the ministerial position, a certain situation was created and all of us know the famous withdrawal of SPLM cadres at GONU. Well, with that withdrawal never has Dr. Lam been given any assignment till our day. Furthermore, many situations were created including assassination plots. He was almost denied free movement among his people, where as well certain lies were created about him plotting to assassinate Reth of the Shilluk, who happened to be his cousin. Papers concerning this were distributed in Malakal by some chief who was caught red handed and when Dr. Lam opened a police case against this man to justify his position in front of the court of law, certain atmospheres were created including an arm resistance by the chief where a policeman was killed by the accused and the accused was never condemned. Why was the case not looked into by the court of law till today? This automatically gives us a clue that certain influential people or men in power were involved, therefore, they did the best they can to alter the process. What a world? This is the scenario my friends. For us who are in Sudan, it is not a surprise. These people's fear is what this Yien is reflecting in his press release. They have tried many ways as mentioned above, accusing him of having another party by name MSF, when it proved to be not true, they continued by distributing wrong information about the man in the media. Eventually, by the withdrawal of SPLM ministers in GONU in October 2007, they managed to dislodge him from the FM. This process continued with their harassment despite the fact that he was not holding any ministerial position. The latest now is not really justifiable. What Dr. Lam said in relation to ICC indictment of the President was totally his own position and not of his party otherwise he would have mentioned it in some of his speeches. We have different commitments to adhere including to the country. This is national standing for the interests of our people and not the shallow understanding of Yien and his companions. If presently we are not concerned with the issues of our country how shall we when we become independent? Look at South Sudan at its different corners and see the turmoil. Tribes are fighting tribes, clans against clans instead of living in a harmonized neighbourhood. Do you think these are accidents? These are all man made, to distort the whole interim period, loose the track of self determination for the concept of New Sudan which does not appear in the CPA and its protocols.Please South Sudanese open your eyes and see the damage being imposed on us. We do not want to regret in the future do we? Let us rally behind the leaders whom we think will take us to the promise land. We are sure that Dr. Lam Akol and those of Dr. Riek Machar Teny are much hated today because the cause of the split in 1991 was blessed in the CPA. The right to self determination of South Sudanese is our main objective. Let us put our hands together brothers and sisters to achieve this goal as one nation, to reach the promise land in South Sudan. Let us do this in the next coming election. Let us elect the people of our choice, who are now being hated for their truthful standing for the cause of this land. Get to know your leaders and do not be misled and deceived by those who have denied us for the last four years the simplest benefit from the CPA dividends in the provision of essential services to our communities.