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By Philips Al-Ghai
July 26, 2013 (SSNA) — In life there is always that scene you utterly dread –either in dream or reality. For some cabinet members, July 23rd 2013 is one of those days you simply need to erase from memory.
As president Kiir [with his face safely covered by the iconic mushroom-shaped, dark, cowboy hat] glided his eyeglasses towards the distal nasal cartilage, lowered his head half-way, and peeped [with intend] at his audience through the narrow space between the hat and the glasses; after reading the dying lines of The Republican Decree No.50/2013, you’d imagine a good number of ministers mumbling under their breaths: “Oh, bloody h-h-h-h-hell, it’s broken loose!”
You’d bet it must have been a total horror to those whose pockets were empty at the time and had no time to let miracles happen, wouldn’t you?
It’s understandable though. A handful will never have the slightest sniff of the next government for both known and unknown reasons.
I am not bothered by the general shake-up, anyway. I was one of those who, desperately, wanted a change. I feel it’s, apparently, incontestable that the SPLM is ‘rotten to the core’ and that someone had to take the initiative to clean it up. There are rotten elements within the party who are betraying our hard-earned independence with greed and self-interests. They had to be flushed out to rescue the country from sinking further below. Furthermore, the size of the government had to be trimmed to fit into the current economic situation. If these were the motifs behind the cabinet dissolution, then so be it. I won’t mind.
Rather, I’d only pray that those who have the potential to take S. Sudan to the next level get reinstated in the next government –irrespective of personal differences with the top dogs. I bet you’ll concur with me that it’s always healthier to have a productive rival, than having an impotent foot-licker [at least] in any system that prioritizes developmental goals more than supremacy goals. But that’s when wishes were horses….
A sheer number of people, nevertheless, remain critical about whether Kiir has finally decided to restore the legacy of the once adored SPLM.
Instead, it’s broadly hypothesized that the president is desperate to surround himself with the “Yes, Men and Women” [or call them “blind loyalists” if you want, or those who see the president as the law, and the law as the president] as a preliminary preparation for 2015 elections. You’ll never rule it out [at least in S. Sudan politics], will you?
Well, whether the cabinet dissolution was a genuine reform, or was simply meant to recruit a new group of “proven loyalists” is inconclusive at this stage. Let’s wait till the next cabinet is announced.
Meanwhile, hold your breath and keep your ears to the ground!
Philips Al-Ghai can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ Al_Ghai211.