Kiir’s interjectory of Militarized Democracy Marial Mach’ Aduot Mach, AUSTRALIA
JUNE 24/2011, SSN; In the situation filled with the legacy of war and its traumas, the key stockholders, especially the citizens yearning for the better governance and effective leadership always find it hard to allocate the leaders who are goal-oriented rather than the mindless leaders in the likes of Salva Kiir with parallel agenda bypassing the interest of the people. Fellow readers, I am not accusing the self-regulated political cadres in South Sudan for inability rather than an attempt to assert the system vested in political inaccessibility through the politics of denial, disavowal, and repudiation. This notion has warranted me to cast little doubt on the future survival of political system imposed by force rather consensus. One may wonder where I came with all these, but I am generally trying to emphasize and to add my voice to the ongoing debate and argument about the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan. In the lead up to the July 9, 2011, citizens of south Sudan are very excited about the change that is coming in their way. As the referendum results confirmed the wish of the people in Southern Sudan, their ultimate vision was to create a viable state based on the rule of law, vested in a constitution to be championed on accountability. This illusion was to create the political system that is active and inclusive and not reactive and corrupted with the view of creating a tyrannical system with less public consensus. I might have gone too far in pointing out the truth in the environment where mythical judgment and military supremacy are the wonders rather than public interest, but what warranted my outburst is the contrast in which president Salva Kiir, in his address to the Ten States’ Speakers meeting a few weeks ago, he unilaterally overshadowed the view of democracy when he accused his right-hand man, the deputy president, Dr. Riak Macher, of running a parallel government in South Sudan simply because Macher pointed out what others have seen except Kiir and his puppets in the current constitution. Democratically, the likes of Dr. Riak and others who hold dismay about the constitution are not rebels this time around, rather they're trying to correct the stalemate in the guiding Document so as to be democratic. This move in democratic principles is not seen as the scheme to undermine the leadership or government, but it remains as the opinion for the people. It's not always that not every aspect of political realm that people in the government or even in the same ruling party do agree all the time. But this does not qualify as illegal moves made by the current vice president in his quest for quick transition. The entire point of his argument was right and it remains so if the South Sudan is going to be a democratic state. In contradiction to democratic emphasis in South Sudan, General Kiir in his address was by no means in favor of democracy as a means where citizens can talk freely, in deeds and in words, in the interim, or shaky transitional constitutions. For the few of us with the privilege of understanding democracy, Salva Kiir's views toward this magical term (democracy) were less than the president's reactions. It might be unambiguously mentioned that without any change in his perception and system of ruling, then the South Sudan political system will be a dead-end and painful to those who have contributed much and now in desperate waiting only to be engulfed by political greediness. People of South Sudan are talking and thinking about celebrating their big day of independence while the top-brass of our nation are readying themselves with schemes and plans on how to rule for a long time unaccountable and unquestionable. I am disturbed, like those who have already expressed their dismay about the nature of South Sudan ruling document and how it is impersonated by President Salva Kiir based on the presidential powers to fire the governors who were elected by the masses, or without showing adequately how the parliament in the South Sudan or in the States should counter the president's actions. This means the president of the republic will be a god-on-earth when it came to decisions on who he should fire and who to keep and appoint. The insight of this will not only take us to dictatorship, but now it seems that we are heading to an unknown wilderness to be governed by the law of strongman. In political science, this system of strongman first is not computable with national notions and system of law, but it is a power-guided system where the decision of leader/s is respected rather than that of the people. That form of ruling can be expressed in many forms such as dictatorship, theocracy and oligarchy, where their instinctive venture in barbarism and self-serving. So where are we? Here the nature of our president is oligarchy, the form of leadership that works to keep power to the ruling elites by any means. It might be a premature call, but the signs of ruling aspects projected by our decorated general with few honors in the rule of law will hamper the hopes of the people who seek for a system vested in the rule of law rather than the inserting of a figurehead in the form of General Salva, who is lacking all aspects of governance including the effective understanding of democracy. As this is not the case, the main proposal is to have the constitution amended a bit to change the powers of the center and states, in correlation between the president firing the governors and the power of elections. The author of this article is a South Sudanese studying Political Science at Deakin University Australia. He can be reach at [email protected] COMMENTS, PLEASE CLICK HERE Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author(s) and do not represent those of the website -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. 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