By Julius Nyambur, New York
January 9, 2013 (SSNA) — The quest for fame is misguiding people into thinking that, perhaps doing everything in order to get anything could earn one a celebratory status. Well, being ambitious and for good reason, applying just means, is acceptable. Unfortunately, self-proclaimed activist like Ateny Wek is one of those elusively chasing fame by malicious means. His recent propaganda that a “Priest” preached HATRED during the New Year Eve sermon at St. Joseph Parish, Juba, exposed his hypocrisy.
There are egregious reasons why the public should be concerned about such an espionage mole. Here is why. Overtly Mr. Ateny has been yapping as anti-government. He has written and spoken publically about the essence of freedom. Alas! Don’t be duped. For you could be mesmerized by a covert agent. During one of WAKE UP JUBA’s live interview, the gent wished how he could have been one of the top Commanders had he joined the movement (SPLA). He rambled about his desire while asking guest Lual Diing Wol. Compare that with his stance “against” the government.
Secondly and currently, Mr. Ateny projects himself as an authoritative columnist, an advocate, and/or a vowed human rights defender. He strives to do this through his habitually and monotonously lengthy, and oftentimes, sloppy writings. It is immaterial here to provide statistical figures on how many folks really do or don’t read his articles in entirety. However, experience and scholarship have it that unnecessary lengthy writings rarely command readership. His wild allegations about the “Priest”—or perhaps no priest at all, but a prank to retain attention in the public eye—contradict his advocacy. Mr. Ateny will opine and rant about anything, sensible or not, as long it bears his NAME: ATENY WEK ATENY—a member of blah blah….
Alarmingly that title leaves a lot to be pondered about, given that the “champion” of freedom and liberation is also a member of the South Sudan Constitutional Review Commission. Constitutional making are the reserves of legal technocrats. By the virtue of being a Member, Ateny is assumed to be sharp, competent, articulate, and cognizant of what is constituted in the legal document. I beg to differ. Whereas Mr. Ateny’s right and freedom of expression is warranted and respected, his recent attack on a Catholic Priest of St. Joseph Parish in Juba sounded farfetched and blackmailing. It is farfetched because it lacked context about the alleged HATRED; blackmailing because it did not establish the identity or brief description of the priest. It could have been a total make up to impress his “funders”!
Moreover, the claim is overly prejudicial, instigating, and fraught with reckless threats—accusing the “Catholic Priest” of being “a Kokra-man” (Kokora), and that the “St. Joseph Priest shall soon joint his Catholic counterpart who preached the killing of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.” It is mind-boggling to grasp the author’s position. Which begs the question: Was he speaking on his official capacity as a “member of the Constitutional Review Commission”, or has the temperamental “columnist” been secretly assigned to initiate and report “malicious charges” without due verification?
There is a dividing or rather defining line between espionage and being a “columnist” or an “advocate” for that matter. Espionage is the act of an oppressive system in the pretext of national security. I am tempted to think that this is not what Mr. Ateny would or could drift into doing. Unfortunately his writing about the “Priest of Hatred” did not reflect his ubiquitous pride of being an “advocate” of “peace and prosperity” as he claims. Instead his attitude portrayed him as hypocrite, contrary to his recent posture as champion of freedom during late Isaiah Abraham’s requiem. I say hypocrite because the priest, like any South Sudanese citizen, is entitled to express his frustrations and what is widely viewed as betrayed vision.
Ignorant or not, cognizant of “what is meant of a city and what is the nation all about” or not, the concocted “Priest’s” utterances do not constitute criminal elements, whether viewed from the lenses of a layman or counsel’s. If anything his critique is socially and politically correct. What is this crazy influx of all people pouring into, and lingering around, Equatoria as if this was the sole Goal of the Movement? Point of fact is, anyone against chastising the notion of moving to towns must be guilty of abatement—aiding creates vacuum in those other states, hence insecurity. Moving to towns is the truest manifest of LAZINESS! It is the unconventional lame excuse of lazy PEOPLE, who unsystematically march to towns in the name of, “looking for opportunities.” You are 40 years, uneducated, obsessed with wearing suits on daily basis, and insist you are “looking for opportunities? Really?!
The fallacy of the preceding argument is self-inconsistent at best. If it were valid as Mr. Ateny wants the defamed Priest believes, the same should be seen or heard applying to all the ten state capitals of the South Sudan ten States. Certainly, it is not the case. Matter of fact, it is as illogical as Mr. Ateny’s illogical assertion runs below: “If this government is to relocate to Mogadishu, the people of South Sudan would have all gone to live in Mogadishu. As, the Catholic Church’s eyes are on Rome and Pope, South Sudanese’ eyes are on Juba and whoever that govern South Sudan.”
It is the conglomerate failures of recognizing and respecting others’ perspectives (the Priest included), their freedom of expression, coupled with posting and publishing dumbfounded gibberish as the author referenced above that leaves one with no option but to chip in and fill the “gap.” After all, how does one who claims to be an advocate for freedom justify his portrayal of others’ freedom of association and expression as instigation?
Mr. Ateny Wek Ateny is not what he claims to be. His tone of writing is shrewdly arrogant, indicative of an agenda sparingly different from that he hoodwinks the public to believe. He is basically doing everything to get anything. In five words, he is ambitiously chasing fame.
Julius Nyambur Wani authored this article. He can be reached at: [email protected]