By Peter Gai Manyuon
August 2, 2013 (SSNA) — The importance of the Internet is that it keeps information for us to refer to when changes happen. This is what happened recently in South Sudan, when the president appointed minister, the man who had once accused him of blatant dictatorship and lack of focus. But who am I to complain? He was already an advisor anyway? But such a continuous elevation is a bad picture for some of us in this country. If the president continues to reward people who abuse him then we shall be made think that this is the only way to power. Should it not be the other way around?
I did not sleep for some times since the formation of the new Cabinets. Why? It was because of irrelevant issues that Hon Telar Deng said about the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM), especially to the person of President of South Sudan when he was in Khartoum. If you read Sudan Tribune (quote) you will find that he has talked many bad things about the President. On the grounds of his previous lack of faith in the government of the SPLM, citizens of South Sudan citizen do not expect that he (Telar) will be given that sensitive position in the government.
Based on his critics to our leadership in 2008 where most of the people gave about fifty comments on Sudan tribune website analyzing what Telar Deng exposed to outsiders as some things very terrible to be aired out but it is ironically pleasing that he was one of the person who have come again and begun loving the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) more then President Salva Kiir who is the Chairman of the leading party in South Sudan.
He mentioned a lot of things about Government of South Sudan (GOSS) before the Independence especially to the current government and most of the facts are also on recorded on the Sudan Tribune websites. They were things that are done internationally regionally , individually are captured in the database for future consumptions of the citizen and that is one of the importance of Journalism, and to your information, you can log on www.sudantribune (NB: quote the real page of the article, not the home page of the website) website for more information about what the current Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development of the Republic of South Sudan said.
The title that is on Sudan Tribune Website right now stated that “Expelled Sudan SPLM Official accuses SalvaKiir of Dictatorship “that was published on Monday 24, February 2008 when he was in Khartoum by then. He continued mentioning the following things;
Just read with care dear countrymen and ladies for you to analyzed if he can be given that position in South Sudan government.
He said there is no democracy in the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) and they were never democratic to start with and that was quoted by AKhir-Lahza
“The chairman is now the center of everything in the SPLM since he is the one who expels people from the movement and the army without consulting with anyone in the political bureau he added.
Telar Deng along with AleuAyieny, the former state minister of interior, were expelled from SPLM’s political bureau and the national assembly as well as the SPLM’s membership in general as of December in a decree issued by Kiir.
The chairman’s decision was taken on the grounds of the report by the investigation committee that was formed to investigate Telar Deng’s statements in which he accused some SPLM members of plotting to topple Salva Kiir and Aleu Ayieny’s repeated statements in which he accused the Ugandan government of being complicit in the death of the SPLM’s former leader, John Garang.
But Deng said in the interview that he did not meet with the investigation committee though he said he appealed the decision.
The former SPLM official said that the two main reasons for his expulsion because he said that the Secretary General Pagan Amum “does not respect Salva Kiir and gives him no consideration”.
Deng said the second reason is that some people around Kiir told him that the chairman and the nominee for the secretariat “cannot be from the same region [Bahr El-Gazal] because other SPLM members won’t like it so you have to expel him so as not to jeopardize his chairmanship”.
“The SPLM chairman has no right to expel or suspend any member; this power is vested in the political bureau” he said.
Deng said that his expulsion is in line with other non-democratic practices inside the SPLM.
“There are things happening inside the SPLM that cannot be imagined. There is a General in the SPLA named BertoMamul who has been imprisoned for over a year and a half with no charges being brought against him. There is also Queen, John Macor and Martin Macway as well who have been detained without investigation or charges or prosecution” he said.
“The purpose of these bogus accusations and non-genuine trials is to reshuffle the cabinet and bring in new people which is what happened” he added.
Deng also noted that there is a power struggle within the SPLM between different factions.
“There is an ideological struggle between those who believe in new Sudan as a strategic direction for the SPLM in the context of getting rid of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP)” Deng said.
“Nowhere in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) does it mention anything about the new Sudan. The CPA is an agreement to end the war and achieve peace and democratic transition” he added, but when looking at this critically that mean he was not ready for the Independence for the Republic of South Sudan.
He further accused some SPLM figures of seeking an alliance with Northern opposition parties to weaken the National congress party (NCP).
“Why should we go to the Northern opposition parties to discuss the CPA? If we wanted to change the agreement why did we sign it in the first place? Why don’t we just sit down with the party who we signed the agreement with?” he said.
He further asked “Where would YasirArman, Malik Agar, Mansour Khalid, Deng Alor, and Luka Biong go if the South decides to secede? They are all communists and all of the people in the SPLM Northern sector are communists with only one southerner present” he added.
Deng said that the SPLA units are hungry and “they are trying to provide food for themselves through their rifles. When they are hungry they create this anarchy we are witnessing”.
On the economic front Deng said that “there is no development in the true sense of the word”.
“There are roads and hotels inside Juba and nothing else. This is contrary to the vision of Late Dr. John Garang who said that he will move the city to the countryside. Currently it is the other way around” Deng said.
“There are no roads in the countryside or services or goods or water or health or schools. The legitimate question is that where did the oil money that add up to $3.5 billion go? Why wasn’t the government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) able to get assistance from other countries?” he asked.
“There are phony jobs that exist in the south that are in excess of what is needed and their salaries are higher than anywhere in the world. The junior officer in the south is paid $4,000 monthly and there are commissions with managers who do nothing with an army of employees such as commission for combating corruption and human rights” Deng added.
Deng also accused the SPLM leadership of having multi faces on the issue of unity or secession from the north.
What I have seen, our beloved President is really a good person in some extent, he sometimes compromise about certain issue but this issue of Telar is beyond the obvious, and he does not deserve the position due to his critics to our beloved President General Salva Kiir Mayardit. If the Sudan Liberation Movement (SPLM) have good laws in placed, he should be taken to court of law due to his bad abuses about the party leadership under President or otherwise another person should be appoint again to avoid complains from the audiences because many people are really analyzing what he did in 2008 that is why some times keeping records is very important for the benefits of the generations to come.
The author is Independent Journalist who writes for Juba Monitor as a Columnist and can be reach at,[email protected]