Leaving Machar out of next S Sudan government recipe to anarchy – Weekly Citizen

By Dak Buoth Riek- Gaak

Talk to that man, president Salva Kiir Mayardit and his surrogates; let them understand clearly that leaving the SPLM-IO chairman Riek Machar out of the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity slated for November 12 2019 is a road to destruction in South Sudan.

If you read the preamble together with chapter one of the Peace Accord signed on September 12 2018, it tells us in bold words that Kiir and Machar must work together in the next unity government.

Hence, those who are excited to constitute a government minus one of the two must divorce the RTGoNU first before charting a new political path which I know will again put us between the rock and the hard place.

Some of us are of the opinion that the ongoing war came by mistake, but when you hear and look at these corrupt leaders doing these sad things deliberately, we must shun or tell them to stop forthwith, unless we also want to perish.

I think the presidency must have been misguided on this issue of leaving Machar out of the next government. And they should abandon this destructive idea for us to avoid losing more lives. In fact, nobody is telling them to vacate their seats now, so they should stop fidgeting and cease from speaking recklessly.

It must be said repeatedly that there should be no government formed on November 12 2019 for obvious reasons which everyone in South Sudan including the Standard Five children are familiar with. But, if Kiir saw it fit to the so-called TGoNU and formed new RTGoNU next month, Machar must be in it so as for him to minimise the cost of war in the country.

And because the latter has rightly said he was not going to be part and parcel of the government set for November, the only remaining option for Kiir is to discard the idea of forming RTGoNU government; instead let him leave the peace deal to mature as demanded by the zealous and perseverance people of South Sudan.

President Kiir made the announcement on September 20 2019 days after his meeting with Machar in Juba. The latest announcement by Kiir to constitute RTGoNU in November was an affront to this peace agreement. I have been asking myself simple question since: how can they form government on agreement that has not been implemented? The agreement must be implemented fully failure to which there is no government of national unity in November.

First and foremost, we need security arrangement completed; national army and police officers to be selected and trained on both sides; more importantly the so-called 32 and 21 states must be dismissed before moving back to the 10 constitutional states. It is after we exhaust these fundamental provisions of the agreement that we can at least begin the talk on how to form a new government in line with the agreement and in appropriate time.

The other day I heard the 1st vice president Taban Deng propagating this absurd pronouncement in his address to the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. But I wasn’t surprised because I don’t take him seriously. I must say the announcement to form a government on November 12 2019 has greatly affected the slow process of peace implementation in one way or another. It has so far placed vast majority in the war mood.

If at all Kiir and Taban are used to doing things systematically in accordance with the peace deal, the date of forming the next government was supposed to be communicated by the pre-transitional committee co-chaired by presidential adviser on security Tut Gatluak Manimee alias Tutkew and SPLM-IO deputy chair Henry Odwar.

Moreover, if indeed Kiir was in his right senses politically and aware of what the peace deal (R-ARCISS) entails, he would not be the one alone deciding and announcing the date of the formation of the transitional government of national unity.

The fact that Kiir had announced the date himself means he overstepped on the functions and duties of Odwar and Gatluak-led committee and the entire peace agreement. Thus, South Sudanese must be worried of such illegal and illogical moves taken by Kiir.

Obviously, what prompted Kiir and company to announce the date prematurely was sheer arrogance that does not have basis completely. We can ask: what makes them arrogant, and whom have they defeated? As matter of fact, the struggle is still going on, and it won’t stop until the day we win the clamour for democracy and the rule of law in South Sudan. No one will succumb to the rule of retrogression and stupidity of the day.

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. President Kiir is out to repeat his mistakes of the past simply because he refused to learn from the recent history. For those who don’t know, in 2013, Kiir sacked Machar irregularly and replaced him with Gen Wani Igga. You would recall that president and Machar were elected together in SPLM party in the 2010 general elections.

And in those elections, Riek was his running mate, thus he has no power under the law to sack and replace him for no reason. Soon after he refused to listen to the advice from the church leaders and other stakeholders, the civil war erupted on December 15 2013, and as a result thousand innocent people lost their lives.

In July 2016, soon after the formation of unity government that saw Kiir and Riek as president and 1st vice president respectively, the former hatched a plot to replace Machar with Gen Taban Deng Gai in total violation of the peace agreement signed in August 2015. This decision gave birth to the J1 massacre where hundreds people lost their lives.

Out of these political decisions by president, nothing has helped him and the country. They only generate death and anarchy. For how long shall we be in anarchy?

Kiir plan to reconstitute a new government minus Machar is clear violation of the peace agreement signed on September 12 2018. What would happen next is the breaking out of all-out-war countrywide.

So, Kiir and company need not to be warned of the danger of this latest attempt for they know it will plunge the country into other chaos. The notion to form a government comprising of the compromised folks such as Deng and Igga is an attempt to reestablish and entrench the Dinka dominated regime that we would not like at all.

The current government is a tribal regime, and we cannot afford to have it in Juba in the next four or so years

In any case, there should be no Nuer or Dinka dominated government in South Sudan. We would like to see all regions and tribes represented by their elected representatives who can voice their concerns openly and without fear of reprisal.

It was seen and understood by all that Kiir is not a national leader but Dinka leader. More often than not he, speaks his mother tongue on television and he favours his tribesmen in most government appointments home and abroad. On the other hand Machar is a leader whether you like it or not. And by leaving Machar out of government clearly means they are leaving the majority Nuer in the cold. Hence, they would continue to fight along with other aggrieved South Sudanese downtrodden who are also in the trenches. Currently, Deng is not in the equation in as far as Nuer political future is concerned, this I must say without fear of contradiction.

If Kiir is thinking of leaving Machar out with a view to maintain Deng then he is grossly mistaken. Deng has proved beyond doubt that he cannot represent or lead the Nuer people in their way forward. Taban cannot become Nuer leader by doing what he is good at doing at the moment.

He has since missed the point by trying to lead the Nuer by force. How would he do that while aware that Nuer is militant society? He has done more wrongs than good in his four years tenure as 1st vice president of South Sudan. Machar’s style of fooling the Nuer is working than his style of forcing the Nuer to drink what they don’t like. Machar is the darling of most Nuer peasantry but unpopular among the elites. And so if, we want to level and take South Sudan forward to the next level, Machar must be brought on board so as for us to have peace and cohesion in South Sudan.

President Kiir is afraid of Machar because the latter is coveting his seat, and this is the reason why he doesn’t like him in the government. But history tells us when Machar is in government he doesn’t complain much until the day he is removed. So, let Kiir work with him until when time prescribed by peace elapses in three years to come.

The plan to leave Machar out in favour of Deng is politically incorrect, and it is also illegal in so far as the revitalised peace deal is concern.

President Kiir prefers Deng and Wani in government because the duo appears to have been compromised. They are not a threat to him for they harbour no political ambition. Kiir likes those with no political ambitions but the peace deal loves all of them and thus the latter must prevail.

The writer is the chairman of Liech Community Association in Kenya. [email protected]