By Margaret Akulia, Canada
July 30, 2014 (SSNA) — “Last Wednesday, I made a well-attended rally in Juba in which I blasted both Kiir and Machar including IGAD” Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule offered as he outlined his Blueprint for South Sudan. He was protesting the deliberate exclusion by Kiir, Machar and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Eastern Africa of the masses of South Sudan in effectively contributing towards a solution to the bloodbath instigated by Kiir and Machar’s dysfunctional and genocidal so-called Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) cum Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in all its variations! The grassroots rallies Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule addresses in Juba serve multiple purposes including empowering the suffering masses of South Sudan to take control of the agenda for South Sudan. As a brilliant lawyer, he is fully aware that the masses of South Sudan have more constitutional authority than Kiir, Machar or their murderous SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly!
The rallies also serve the purpose of ushering in actual democracy in South Sudan where aspirants to the highest office in the land utilize persuasion, not gangland style murderous shoot-outs that are the conserve of a criminal organization such as the SPLM cum SPLA. Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule is a principled and zealous advocate for the rule of law. He is also a fearless and articulate voice for the suffering masses of South Sudan – the only voice that is capable of conveying the true wishes of the masses of South Sudan without being intimidated by all of Kiir, Machar and their debased so-called liberation movement. That is why the people’s front is demanding that his attendance at the Addis Ababa Peace Talks be a requirement for the talks to continue. Failure to include the people’s Lawyer and Politician in the Addis Ababa Peace Talks and continuing to stay silent about the barbaric manner in which the deranged faction of the SPLM oligopoly in government prevented him from boarding the Addis Ababa bound Ethiopian Airlines charter flight to the bogus peace talks will be viewed by the people’s front as confirmation that IGAD is colluding with the murderous oligopoly!
Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule wants the masses of South Sudan and not Kiir, Machar or their adulterated so-called liberation movement to map the way forward for South Sudan from the bloody crossroads their oligopoly has brought the country to! After all, in the democracy the rampageous Titans and their cohorts are swanking back and forth, it is the masses of South Sudan who hold the constitutional “Trump Card” and not the regressed oligopoly that continues to exude its intentions to force itself on the masses of South Sudan under IGAD’s incompetent watch! I am particularly referring to Kiir “leeching” onto his murderous presidency by abusing a plebiscite and calling it a so-called “democratic presidential election”, Machar promulgating a combating front as a democratic movement while disregarding the egalitarianism urged in “Riek Machar, adopt Nuer egalitarianism as your manifesto & watch your popularity skyrocket!” and IGAD showing shoddy signs of rewarding the SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly’s violence by turning over South Sudan back to the criminal organization in any of its variations.
Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule’s vision and Blueprint for getting South Sudan out of the lawless chaos the SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly is responsible for in the country is consistent with actual democracy which the masses of South Sudan are demanding forthwith. A government of the people, by the people, for the people, not the murderous and crooked version being vaunted by the lurid Titans and their cohorts. The people’s front concurs with Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule and submits that the masses of South Sudan are the ones that should be at the helm, not Kiir, Machar or their besmirched and impugnable so-called liberation movement! IGAD must listen to the masses if it wants to redeem itself from the haphazard job it has done to date. The “glorified mobsters” of South Sudan who masquerade as so-called leaders are hell bent on exterminating anyone perceived as a threat to their “criminal cartel” that is why they are unfit to govern in this day and age of democracy and civilization! The anarchists have made South Sudan into a diabolic country where organized crime is condoned and even encouraged by a sitting government that is why their debauchery must be stopped.
“My problems don’t seem to end at all” Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule had begun as he alerted the people’s front to a sinister plot by Kiir and his cronies, to exterminate the cream of the crop of South Sudan’s Equatoria region, starting with Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule himself. According to a very ripe and tested South Sudan grapevine, Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule was already on Kiir’s Equatoria “hit list” even before the barbaric manner in which Kiir’s security operatives stopped him from attending the South Sudan peace talks in Addis Ababa and IGAD refused to protest the savagery.
However, his stern rebuke of Kiir, Machar and IGAD at a well-attended rally in Juba must have infuriated Kiir and his cronies so much that they quickly hurtled him to the top of the Equatoria “hit list” above the three Governors of Equatoria, namely Governor Joseph Bangasi Bakosoro of Western Equatoria State, Governor Clement Wani Konga of Central Equatoria State and Governor Louise Lobong of Eastern Equatoria State. According to the ripe and well tested South Sudan grapevine, the quaternary of Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule, Governor Joseph Bangasi Bakosoro of Western Equatoria State, Governor Clement Wani Konga of Central Equatoria State and Governor Louise Lobong of Eastern Equatoria State were principals of Kiir’s secret plan to exterminate Equatorians because of their open declaration of support for a federal system of government that is being demanded by the masses of South Sudan and the influence they wield over the masses! In the case of Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule, it is also his unwavering resolve to be a voice for the suffering masses of South Sudan, his undaunted stand against the SPLM cum SPLA bullies and his extraordinary ability to articulate a democratic federal system of government of the people, by the people, for the people which will be sculpted at the grassroots level.
Upon learning of Kiir’s Equatoria “hit list”, advocates from the people’s front felt compelled to actualize the “African spring”, an unprecedented social movement that will utilize people and brain power not “gun power” to change the tide in Africa, beginning with South Sudan! They petitioned the United Nations Mission in South Sudan as representatives of the United Nations Security Council, to protect Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule and avert another Kiir initiated genocide immediately. Troika countries were included in the petition as prominent friends of South Sudan. The time-honoured United Nations Security Council through its mission in South Sudan took the necessary steps to investigate the imminent crime. The world organization continues to gather evidence for an astronomical case against the genocidal SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly in South Sudan, a probe which in the people’s opinion invalidates the inclusion of the oligopoly in a caretaker government or government of national unity! The immediate objective of the people’s front is to lend a voice to the suffering masses of South Sudan in all the 64 tribes of South Sudan who are being silenced by the armed and dangerous SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly. A second objective is to advocate for the effective protection of innocent civilians from all the tribes of South Sudan against the callousness that brought about the current melee in South Sudan.
Who says that the suffering masses of South Sudan have to go along with the twisted version of democracy being forced on them by all of Kiir, Machar and their dysfunctional and genocidal so-called Sudan People’s Liberation Movement cum Sudan People’s Liberation Army? Who says that the suffering masses of South Sudan cannot pursue a criminal case against the genocidal SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly in South Sudan themselves? Who says that they need permission from a gang of murderous bullies masquerading as freedom fighters to hold their own synchronous discussions about what they want? Who says that the suffering masses of South Sudan need permission from a dysfunctional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Eastern Africa to appeal to the United Nations Security Council directly? The masses of South Sudan have friends in high places and power which is being actualized with this launch. They can exercise their inherent right to a secure South Sudan by joining the people’s front and rallying the United Nations Security Council and the entire world behind them because they are the political bosses of South Sudan not Kiir, Machar or their genocidal oligopoly. As South Africa’s revered global icon Nelson Mandela used to shout, Amandla (Power)! The oppressed people of South Africa would respond “Awethu” (to us)! The people’s front now borrows that same slogan by shouting “Power to the People”!
Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule has a larger than life vision for a very secure, law abiding, highly developed and peaceful South Sudan where the agenda is controlled and directed by the masses from the ground up, not a criminal oligopoly planning to continue looting the country and short changing the masses. In his Blueprint for South Sudan, he has articulated a federal system of government that is well put together by the masses and not the misinterpreted, misrepresented and misappropriated version that is being used as an excuse to bully, threaten and murder Equatorians. Lawyer and Politician Peter Sule has a program for the masses of South Sudan that will protect the interests of all including the warmongering Nuer and Dinka tribes. It is a program that will be owned by the masses not a bunch of offenders flaunting a depraved form of democracy. The program includes federalism but not the barbaric and “psychotic” interpretation that is being used by Kiir and his cronies for threatening and slaying the masses of South Sudan.
The people’s front recognizes Machar’s redeemable qualities but it wishes to register profound disappointment in his failure to require that the masses of South Sudan and not his oligopoly map the way forward for the country beginning with a caretaker government and then a government of national unity. It is a stand that would have guaranteed him a place in history that is currently being occupied by only Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s revered son. It might even have garnered Machar enough votes to win a properly constituted democratically elected presidency the way it did Nelson Mandela! It would be the authentic democracy articulated by Equatoria’s gallant son Ladu Gore in “Solution oriented conversations with Lieutenant General Ladu Gore” which seems to have now been abandoned by his SPLM cum SPLA in opposition boss Machar. The one that the masses of South Sudan and the entire world would have celebrated Machar for if he had embraced the flat, non-hierarchical structure urged in “Riek Machar, adopt Nuer egalitarianism as your manifesto & watch your popularity skyrocket!” because that is what democracy looks like.
As their Big Brother and Protector, the masses of South Sudan might have forgiven Machar for his role in the bloodbath that has made their lives a living hell on earth and even plea bargained on his behalf for the International Criminal Court to consider him wresting South Sudan from Kiir’s genocidal claws as mitigating circumstances in their impeding case against the SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly for crimes against humanity. The suffering masses might have looked the other way the way Kenyans did when they gave Uhuru Kenyatta a nod by electing him as President of Kenya despite the dark cloud waffling over him because of the case against him by the International Criminal Court.
The suffering masses of South Sudan might have seen the light at the end of a very dark and long tunnel at last. They might have successfully wished away the dark cloud that has hovered over present day South Sudan for decades and even centuries, extending back to the archaic days of the Ottoman Empire where present day South Sudan was a hub for the vile Trans-Atlantic African Slave Trade! As things stand now, IGAD might wheedle the genocidal SPLM oligopoly into a power sharing deal that rewards their genocide and ignores what the masses of South Sudan want or Machar could easily shoot and murder his way to the presidency of South Sudan but that will be a “power grab”, not the heroic mandate the masses of South Sudan might have given him if he had advocated for the exclusion of his oligopoly in all its variations in a caretaker government and government of national unity. It would be far from the “knight in shining armour” grand entrance Machar would have made if he limited his initial role after the carnage his oligopoly set off in South Sudan to that of Big Brother and Protector of South Sudan’s masses from Kiir’s murderous bullies, criminal and uncouth private army! Simply stated, barbaric so-called leaders who openly condone armed robbery even if it is a demented cultural practice have no business leading a civilized South Sudan or any country for that matter.
However, notwithstanding all of the above, Machar can still make an extraordinary “U Turn.” He can still avoid being accused of the same “dictatorial tendencies” he purports to be fighting in Kiir by effectively allying with the masses of South Sudan. That means that the masses decide what needs to happen in South Sudan going forward and the SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly follows their lead because of the fact that in the democracy Machar is vocalizing, the masses of South Sudan have more constitutional authority than him, Kiir or their oligopoly.
For all intents and purposes, South Sudan’s so-called liberation movement has substantially locked out the masses of South Sudan from the peace talks in Addis Ababa and IGAD is condoning their bullying by continuing to relegate the masses to the sidelines in the major decisions respecting a caretaker government and a government of national unity. The SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly in South Sudan has guns to the heads of the masses of South Sudan which makes the IGAD led peace talks immoral at best. The oligopoly has locked their bosses, the masses of South Sudan out and it is forcing them to look in at gunpoint as they plot to divide their “spoils of war” and “stolen loot” with IGAD’s connivance. The total and shameful disregard for what the masses of South Sudan want has necessitated the formation of the people’s front, a third front to the ruckus the reckless SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly has caused. The front is being dubbed the people’s front because it is a “loose coalition” of people determined to challenge the SPLM cum SPLA monopoly and abuse in South Sudan. It is an advocacy group that will push for the masses of South Sudan to have substantial input into the country they want and not just go along with what a self centered genocidal oligopoly wants.
Other than speedy cessation of hostilities and an even speedier formation of a trustworthy non-genocidal and unquestionably impartial caretaker government, nothing is more important than dispelling the half-baked and ignorant inference that federalism in South Sudan demands stripping Jieng (Dinka) of their rights as citizens of South Sudan. Kiir and his cronies have set South Sudan on fire and a mere debate about federalism has added fuel to flames that are rising so high it will require the entire global community to rally behind the masses of South Sudan in wresting the country from the claws of the violent and unreasonable SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly. Kudos to Jacob K. Lupai and Elhag Paul for daring to provoke no holds barred discussions about the differences between the calls for federalism in South Sudan by Equatoria and Riek Machar (Jacob K. Lupai) and the callousness and dysfunction that has existed in the SPLM/A since its inception (Elhag Paul) because the people of South Sudan must have a full discussion about the good, the bad, the evil and the counterfeit as they relate to federalism for South Sudan and the good, the bad and the evil about a so-called liberation movement.
The world community has commissioned IGAD to get the SPLM in government and SPLM in opposition or whatever the corrosive oligopoly calls itself to desist from committing genocide against the defenseless masses of South Sudan. However that mandate is not a carte blanche to collude with the murderers by handing over the country back to them! It is not free rein to scheme with the so-called liberators of South Sudan so that the criminal gang can be re-imposed on the anguished masses of South Sudan. The oligopoly needs to be brought to book for crimes against humanity not rewarded by IGAD for violence and their homicidal culture. The felonious oligopoly has a twisted understanding of the difference between freedom fighters, mercenaries and a criminal gang and its members need to decide which of the three their organization is because it cannot be all of the above simultaneously! Actual freedom fighters do not expect to be paid or rewarded for their principled stand against injustice. Mercenaries expect to be remunerated for their services but they understand that they cannot just help themselves to a country’s coffers or make hare-brained statements like “we are born to rule over you” and “we liberated you so we can do with you as we wish” without being “kicked in the arse”. Criminals on the other hand understand that their dark “underworld” is constantly under surveillance and when they are caught, they are “kicked in the arse”.
If IGAD is unable to discern that the genocidal SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly operates by the rules of the military and it needs to be “commanded” to stop fighting and not negotiated with, the organization should consult with John Kerry who as a former military officer understood that the oligopoly would obey his orders as a superior and successfully “ordered” Kiir and Machar to sign a cessation of hostilities agreement between the two of them on May 9, 2014. Otherwise IGAD should relinquish its role to the eminent persons proposed in the letter dated June 19, 2014 addressed to Mr Barack Hussein Obama, President of the United States of America, the Rt. Honourable David Cameron MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Ms. Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway copied to Ms Kosazana Dalamini Zuma, President of African Union as well as the Chairman of IGAD asking for their urgent intervention in the South Sudan carnage.
As the purported IGAD led peace talks reopen after being shut down because of IGAD’s incompetence, the masses of South Sudan will be watching very closely while reserving the right to pursue legal action for negligence. “Slapping together” a lousy so-called government of national unity that constitutes the genocidal SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly in any of its variations to meet a deadline after squandering time and refusing to listen to the wishes of the masses of South Sudan is aiding and abetting a crime against humanity! IGAD will have blood on its hands if it insists on “patching up” the genocidal SPLM cum SPLA oligopoly and handing over South Sudan to the criminal ring! Treating South Sudan and its rich resources like proceeds of war and stolen goods to be divided among the SPLM cum SPLA criminals while the wishes of the victims of the crime who are the suffering masses of South Sudan are ignored by all of Kiir, Machar and IGAD is culpable.
If IGAD didn’t ignore the masses of South Sudan, it would discern that the most immediate item on their minds is to use all legal means possible to force Kiir to step down from his failed presidency so that a more competent and civilized leader or leaders recommended by the masses of South Sudan can take control of South Sudan immediately. With the categorical failure of IGAD to restore peace in South Sudan, the buck must now be passed onto the United Nations Security Council notwithstanding resumption of the so-called peace talks. What the world body does to stop Kiir from continuing to murder the masses of South Sudan so that a select group of his Dinka tribe and their foreign co-conspirators can continue to wreak havoc in South Sudan and plunder the country’s rich oil and mineral resources to their covetous hearts’ content will prove once and for all if the United Nations has the wherewithal to do what it was created to do, maintaining international peace and security and protecting civilians from being murdered in cold blood.
The suffering masses of South Sudan will prevail over the bloody guns and rise to become models for the rest of Africa. As President Barack Obama proclaimed during his presidential campaign, “Yes we can!”
Margaret Akulia is co-author of the sequel Idi Amin: Hero or Villain? His son Jaffar Amin and other people speak. She brings to the South Sudan dialogue a multidisciplinary professional background including but not limited to “grassroots activism”.