Leaders the world over think
about two paramount things: the PRIMACY of the citizens’ needs and the LEGACY
they leave behind long after they have gone. It seems, Mr. President, you think
less about the two mentioned above and more about staying in power. There is
one thing you have to remember as you stay on: time will come when you’ll be gone
either by political necessity or by biological and physiological necessity.
Power ends, but your legacy will
not end regardless of what it is. You might go down in history as the first and
the worst president South Sudan will ever have; or you can change course and be
the best leader South Sudanese will remember for generations to come. The onus
is on you!
Here are some things to consider
as we begin the New Year.
You
are the President
The only person who has the
ultimate say in what happens in South Sudan is you. Sometimes your speeches and
interviews don’t reflect that. When asked once by a journalist when peace would
be realized in South Sudan, you asked the journalist to ‘go and ask Riek
Machar.’ That was both ‘unpresidential’ and irresponsible. You were mandated with
confidence by South Sudanese in order to do things for them and in order to
show optimistic way forward. Riek Machar is a man who’s shown time and again
that he wants to lead South Sudan. That we understand very well. However, he’s
not the president of South Sudan. You claim legitimacy but you fall short of
portraying that. It’s time you remembered that you are the president of South
Sudan so act like it. Professing being the president is not what presidency is
about; you have to act in the interest of the people.
Stop talking and acting as if
there’s someone else; someone who’s actually the decision maker in South Sudan!
As the president, you need to account for the atrocities committed by people
under your command. Riek Machar will account for his own atrocities. As
president of South Sudan, who still has Nuer leaders in your government, what
would you tell millions of Nuer, who lost their loved ones in December of 2013?
You are the president so answer them like a president!
The
Peace Talks
Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA) was made possible because there was a will to bring peace and the
understanding that Sudanese had had enough of war. Taha and Garang, in the
interest of Sudanese people, took charge of the talks, showed courageous
leadership and made very painful concessions.
You are very much aware that
Seyoum Mesfin and IGAD have failed miserably. Unless you take initiative or
take charge of these talks, the very people who gave you the mandate will
continue to die of diseases, hunger and war. Dr. John Garang has left his
legacy in a very beautiful manner. It’s high time you make peace your legacy
because developing South Sudan will NEVER be part of your legacy.
Stop the PRIDE and POWER game
you and Riek Machar are playing and humble yourself in order to bring PEACE to
your people.
Listen
to the Citizens
It’s very easy for leaders to be
out of touch with people and their needs. And being an African leader, people
around you usually lie to you to win favors and be seen as the most loyal. Make
an effort to be in touch with South Sudanese citizens without any mediators.
This could be in form of well-organized town hall meetings or a monthly radio
show in which citizens can call in from rural areas and express their concerns directly
to you. In this way, you’ll have a chance to gauge what your aides tell you and
what the average citizen’s experiences are.
Media
Freedom and Political Opposition
South Sudan is doing exactly
what Sudan was/is doing. Your administration is doing the same thing you took
up arms to fight. I don’t know whether you don’t see it or you just don’t care. Newspapers are censored if they
criticize your administration, political opponents are intimidated, arrested or
killed and you rule through a decree like dictators do. These are not part of
democracy you seem to sing on regular basis. You’re doing exactly what the
likes of Nimeiri, Abboud and Beshir did. It’s high time you make South Sudan
different from Sudan.
Political opposition and the
Media are a mirror through which you can evaluate your performance. Allow
people to criticize your administration and then answer them with facts about
what you’ve done for South Sudanese. Intimidating journalists and opposition
figures gives an impression you’ve failed to deliver.
Let different political parties
debate openly on South Sudan Television. Get your best political brains to tell
South Sudanese your side of the story in open televised debates. This will
garner you more respect than the way opposition figures are intimidated now.
What you have to request through
relevant ministries is journalistic integrity. Journalists who violate their
codes of ethics shouldn’t be arrested by security personnel. They should have
charges filed by government lawyers and it’s up to the judge to decide.
DecreesThe word decree appears only once in the South Sudanese Transitional Constitution. And it’s only something to do with failure by parliament to pass the budget bill within 45 days: 88 (7). So where does ruling by decrees get constitutional legitimacy? Dictatorial leaders rule by decrees because they override their constitutions or don’t care about it. Whoever advised you to rule by these unconstitutional decrees is contributing towards your unpalatable legacy. It would have been better if these decrees where constitutionally mandated.
Building
a nonpartisan Civil Service
No country that hopes to prosper
can walk even a mile without a functioning civil service. There has to be
nonpartisan civil service that should remain in place regardless of what party
is in power. Civil Servants shouldn’t be loyal to any political party. The main
purpose is to make a given ministry streamlined and functional. In South Sudan
now, the minister is everything. And when the minister is removed, there’s
hardly anything that remains to tell the next minister what to do. If you hope
to do anything in South Sudan without a nonpartisan civil service then you are
living in a delusional limitless dimension.
Ask seasoned experts in
neighboring countries, or even in the ‘west’, on how to build and strengthen a civil
service sector in South Sudan. Records in any ministry should remain for future
records even when the minister is gone. How do you expect to develop a country
when the minister goes with records of that given ministry?
President
Museveni and Uganda People’s Defense Force
No right-minded South Sudanese
would dismiss the role Uganda played during the liberation struggle. Museveni
and UPDF have helped us a great deal. However, Museveni is a political and
diplomatic brother and everything he does for us is primarily in the best
interest of Uganda and Museveni’s political ambition. Museveni’s help to South
Sudanese wasn’t and isn’t offered pro
bono.
And we also know that without
UPDF, the ‘White Army’ would have probably gone to Juba and this could have
caused a bloodbath. But as you are well aware, Museveni’s help to us during the
liberation struggle was a function of Beshir’s backing of Lord Resistance Army
(LRA). And his current help is an attempt to keep Sudanese president Omar el Beshir
away from South Sudan and to project himself as Eastern African ‘strong man.’
The gravest part of UPDF
presence in South Sudan is that it portrays you as an impotent president whose
army can’t protect the capital and the government. Museveni tells the world
that he’ll only withdraw from South Sudan if Juba is secure. This tells South
Sudanese and the world one thing: you are incapable of protecting your capital
city and that you are president only because UPDF is protecting you. That
doesn’t sound like a situation of a strong president. It doesn’t matter what
you say about your military strength, UPDF presence and actions have portrayed
you as weak, incompetent and someone whose presidency they have protected. That
undermines South Sudan as a nation!
So wake up Mr. President and
listen to your people, allow free media and free political opposition, build
real civil service, bring peace to South Sudan and create respectable South
Sudan’s army instead of the current medley of tribal militias that make up
the SPLA.
