By: Justin Ambago Ramba
Let us start with what our Professor wrote in his Gurtong editorial:
“This means that if the government was seriously convinced that the culprit in the loss of 4 billion Dollars was the Dura issue, there would be no mystery in apprehending these guys. Someone please tell the honourable minister to find another story with which to explain how we lost 4 billion dollars. We are not buying the line he is peddling on this occasion”. (Dr. Jok Madut Jok is Under Secretary of the National Ministry of Culture in Juba).source: Gurtong Trust – 13 June 2012.
June 17, 2012 (SSNA) — Professor Jok in his capacity as the undersecretary for the National Culture has practically diagnosed a deviant behavior in the minister of (mis)Information and Very Loud Broadcasting of Lies– in other words the government’s mouth piece have taken up to lies, in simple English.
At this stage it comes as no surprise that the National Secretariat of Culture has openly complained about Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin’s “non-nationalistic culture” for telling lies and the under-secretary (Dr. Jok) wants someone out there to tell the Minister (Dr. Barnaba) that the lies he has so far released in the media are becoming counter-productive to the system(earlier he denied the US State Department report on Human Rights records – which highlighted amongst other violations – and he Minister of mis-information called it an American “ concoction” – a quick reminder)
And not too long the habitual mis-informer was again lately caught on camera embarrassingly trying to manipulate President Salva Kiir’s Letter to the Seventy Five Thieves on the Al Jazeera TV show down in an attempt to empty it of its reformatory content. The details are what Dr. Jok protested against as stated above.
Brothers and sisters you are reading this article because it is written by someone out there who dares to speak up when people in the establishment are rendered non-functional. It is our joint hope that the entire cabinet and all SPLM led institutions listen to the voice of “common sense” and acknowledge that the SPLM as a political Organisation has completely failed the Republic of South Sudan and MUST all quit before quitting becomes compulsory.
For how many lies does the ‘supposed spin doctor’ have to tell us again and again before we the ‘down trodden masses’ of South Sudan finally tell him off?! Enough is enough – for mind you, lies can never fix a mismanagement of the scale committed by the SPLM intelligentsia in South Sudan. If President Kiir still has a week left in office, for sure he will do it better without this minister of “Mis-information but only loudly broadcasting lies”.
This takes us to the second part of the article and it is about the so-called austerity measures so far claimed by the SPLM led government in Juba. The problem with austerity measures is not how correctly you spell the word or you pronounce it. It is in fact how correctly and sincerely you plan and implement the measures. In a country were over 99% 0f the population is functionally illiterate, you cannot exploit this massive national ignorance to claim some kind of austerity measures when the masses were already “austeriated” [if can use this expression] beyond limits as a result of a non-existent service to start with.
The only austerity measures so far in action in South Sudan is to keep the grassroots in suspension through ignorance and a State perpetuated lies as the ones being propagated by the government’s supposed spin doctor – Dr. Marial in this Case! As a country less than one year old and with a population of only 8.5 million population, you cannot have a cabinet as big as the cabinet in the People’s Republic of China (Billion in population) or have a double decked parliament even bigger than theirs and you are supposed to be implementing a so-called austerity measures.
Truly all is vanity, although we are made to believe that some civic societies out there are doing their best to bring pressure on the National Parliament with the presumed intension of checking the existing status dotted all-over with impunity. Although this actually should have meant the unequivocal empowerment of the National Parliament so that it can nullify all those ‘junk of rubbish’ so far presented by President Salvatore Kiir in his manipulative attempt to settle the disappearance of the $4b dollars embezzled by non by his hand-picked colleagues, the job was however half-heartedly done!
An advice to the civic societies all across the Republic of South Sudan and here I choose to be as bold as I can:
“This is a revolution and must NEVER be allowed to be watered down by the kinds of Dr. Marial!”
You are now the hope and you can bring about the much needed change to your country when it now needs it the most. But should you fail, you can only blame yourselves for you CAN NOT use the same President Salva Kiir who is the main reason for the current pathetic status quo to salvage his own mess! You need to come in as the alternative.
Those who need a reminder will find the below quotation helpful as the so-called patriotic President tactfully swallows his most celebrated national policy in an attempt to please the thieves who have obviously proved stronger than the boss. This President has terribly embarrassed and disappointed the nation.
Quote: "I did not say the money was stolen neither did I say $4Bn has been stolen. I said the money has been lost somewhere and someone has to account for it. I have written to 75 former and present gov’t officials. This does not mean that these 75 officials are suspects but they have the responsibility. I will still write to some officials whom I had written to them and now claimed to have not received any letter from my office. I will again write to some more officials whom I did not write to them earlier." (President Kiir May 13th, 2012)
The Most Dangerous Lies Are Those You Tell Yourself
Lying to yourself gives you a false sense of security. The danger is that you will believe that ‘you are who you are not.’ On the other hand, you can deceive yourself into thinking that you are well beneath your self-worth, and therefore, rubbish yourself. It’s dangerous to lie to yourself, because you either place limitations on yourself, or paint a false picture of who you really are. When you constantly lie to yourself, it eventually becomes a reality in your mind.
“We tell lies when we are afraid….afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger.” ~ (Tad Williams).
Author: Dr. Justin Ambago Ramba. Secretary General – United South Sudan Party (USSP). He can be reached at: [email protected] or [email protected] (This particular article is dedicated to my niece: Amanda S.E.P.B. Pӧru )