By James Tot Mathiang
October 29, 2013 (SSNA) — Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, is not a strategic leader, but a one way thinker. Look, in July this year, president Kiir dismissed his entire cabinet including his long time vice president, Dr. Riek Machar, in a move which was seen by many as a wrong and uncalculated decision. In the same month, the president has also ordered his legal team to investigate the SPLM secretary general, Mr. Pagan Amum, who had been one of the vocal challengers of some of the Kiir’s decisions including his suspensions of the two cabinet ministers.
Back in 2012, the president Kiir has ordered the SPLA army in an attempt to crush David Yau Yau, militarily, but last month the same Salva has ordered the arrest of SPLA generals who participated in the military operation in Jonglei State.
Another move which generates a lot of questions to the leadership of Kiir is that two weeks ago president Kiir has graduated about 3,000 soldiers whom he recruited illegally from his tribal men without notifying his General Chief of Staff James Hoth Mai. Ever since the president sacked his entire cabinet, the government is seems to be partially functioning.
However, it is not surprising that the current government is not functioning well because almost all the important members of the SPLM including the former vice president who were working tirelessly are being left out. The worse scenario however, is that president Kiir and his cabinet do not only seem to be reluctance in the case of Abyei, but last week the government of South Sudan has made it clear that it is not supporting the referendum of Abyei to go ahead even though it was legally scheduled.
Despite the opposition of both Sudan and South Sudan governments, the residents of Abyei including some senior members of SPLM have decided to go ahead with the referendum unilaterally. So, the question now is what would happen if the Sudan government decided to militarily stop the people of Abyei from going forward with the referendum? Would president kiir take our people back to war with Sudan? Or he would just take a back seat and watch the people of Abyei dying?
With all these problems our president put himself in every minute, I would like to conclude that our president’s days in the office are numbered, unless the president change this old leadership style into “bureaucratic leadership.”, That is to focus only on policy and procedures and seek to keep things blond and well-organized.
The author is a South Sudanese living in Diaspora, and he can be reached at [email protected]