By Luk Kuth Dak
April 16, 2011 (SSNA) — I have a total of six books authored by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. under my belt, in addition to other books written about him, one of which is: “ I may not get there with you,” by Michael Eric Dyson, PhD.
Armed with a PhD at an early age, Dr. King could have been anything and everything that he wanted to be in the real world, other than putting his life in constant jeopardy, as a liberator and a civil rights leader for the African- Americans people. But he loved his people so much so that he put them first, and he was ready to die to free them from the brutality of slavery.
“I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something that he would die for, he isn’t fit to live,” he told his followers.
When Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he decided to donate the entire purse to the civil rights movement. He believed that the prize recognized the movement’s importance, not simply his individual leadership genius.
Through it all, Dr. King’s admires often ask him: “Hey Doc!” “when are you going to run for the Congress or the House of the Representatives?” His answer was almost always the same: “It’s not my calling.”
But when the questions persisted, he literally told them that: “ I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.”
Case closed!
Contrarily, in South Sudan, it seems as though the only “ calling” for anyone and everyone, is to become the president, the vice president, or the speaker of the house, respectively.
Subsequently, even some folks, who can never point to anyone else as being a classmate, the likes the most disgraced, cold-blooded murderer, and the worst of all traitors in the history of South Sudan, the so-called Gen. Peter Gadeet, want to be the president of South Sudan, or else!
Worst of it all, there are some intellectuals, unfortunately, with flashy PhDs, who have basically made it a career in reaching their selfish and individualistic goals of becoming ministers in the government of South Sudan ( GoSS) only by riding the backs of those illiterates bullies of Gadeet’s caliber.
That brings us face to face with a couple of burning questions: What are the meaning and the importance of being educated, or earning a PhD? And how many presidents could we have at one time?
Here again, Dr. King puts it best: “ The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think creatively. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
Truth is, we can only have one ( elected) president at one time. I guarantee you that, if President Salva Kiir Mayardit weren’t an elected official, I, for one, won’t be in his corner. But because he was chosen, almost unanimously, by the people of South Sudan, he has not only my utmost support and respect, but above it all, my loyalty. Most importantly, he has the right to finish the term for which he was elected to.
More so, as humble as he is, President Kiir would be the first to tell you that there are many more other great leaders in South Sudan. He would even supply the list for you, because he knows, and he should, that those leaders will take their place in due time.
And yet, traitors like Peter Gadeet and Abdul- Baggi, Should have never been allowed to merge with the brave men of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), because they only sought the merger to make it easier for them to spy on the SPLA from within.
I rest my case!
The author is a vice president of the Sudanese – Americans Journalists Union, and former anchorman at Juba Radio. He can be reached via e-mail at lukedak@hotmail.com