Saturday, October 29, 2011. Your Opinions and Comments Always Count and Impact Everywhere
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I don’t even know whether the government of southern Sudan he referred to does not have Acholi, Kuku and Madi? However, this much I can offer him, that the government is moving in the right direction to solve the ‘claim for land’ issues. We are a nation out of war and external and internal boundary demarcation will be an on and off problem. It may resurface in Loki/Qbase/Nadapal or Abyei or Pageri or A’boroto or Lasu or Awerial or at plots level in Juba/Rumbek etc and we shall maturely handle them. Dijango, RSS Land issue is national I believe that what Mr. D. Deng has written about the South Sudan land that is occupied now by Ugandans is unpatriotic, misplaced and does not bear substance. Fellow countrymen see those places as land that belong to South Sudan Nation and not as belongings of Kuku, Madi and Acholi people. Can you substantiate your claim that the occupiers were invited to do the unwanted? The fact that you might not be from a tribe that borders any country should not make you be narrow minded politically. Never allow your tribal sentiments make you misjudge national issues. This very issue is national and should be tackled diplomatically at a high level of our national government. Please, Sir I would like to apologize if I provoked you. However facts should stay as they are. Bura Bismark, Australia When will Nuer stop fighting? I don't personally understand what is so wrong with the Nuer people of Unity State, why do they like fighting throughout the lifespan of their own future? Is it really a culture in Bentiu Nuer people's lives to fight often without thinking about what comes out as a bad result after the war will come to its end? Do they really know that those accomplice rebels are now against the ruling SPLM/A government's system? Whatever those rebels are doing will still reflect on their children's future, leave alone that they are proud of the rich land's oil in the Unity State. How they could be respected for whatsoever comes out of that Unity State's soil to be granted to them for the State developments, while those rebels are completely confused with the warmonger? They don't even think that they are combined with other ethnic groups as their co-share partners in the Unity State. I felt shock when I heard once that our Unity State has been warned by the rebels who are claiming that if the State's government doesn't move or let its foreigners as well as NGOS leave, then the Unity State will see the consequences as soon as possible according to the dated article. I am tired of our Unity State's governor Taban Deng, who never cares about whatever is bothering the State's security stability because of his disliked leadership, as he is the South Sudan's President Salva Kirr's best friend. Peace must be prevailing in the nascent South Sudan, stop warmongering amongst ourselves and let's call for peaceful settlement so that we can develop our country's good image with our soft hearts. Monyluak D. Kur, Omaha,NE,USA. Minister Nyaba is part of the problem It looks like the Higher Education Minister, Dr. Nyaba is in his own world; and does not want to match with the changing world and technology. He has failed to look into priorities for the ministry; and could not think that there are stockpiles of students since 2008 who were to join university, but could not do so because of the problem we are experiencing since the breaking of Sudan into two and he's one of the problems. One should tell me and Nyaba why are these private universities having students studying in them. Where do we expect our children to study, especially those who can not afford to study abroad? There is a say that "an old dog can learn new tricks, but if the new trick is to run faster.. what do we expect the old dog to do? Joe Paomo, RSS Occupation of Acholi and Kuku Lands by Ugandans is their own Making not the States. Dear editor, allow me add my opinion to the debate regarding the occupation of Kuku, Madi amd Acholi lands by Ugandan communities. In my view, it was these communities that invited the Ugandan communities to occupy part of their lands due to their refusal to identify themselves as Southern Sudanese during the war. It was common to hear members of these border communities identify themselves as Kuku, Acholi and Madi of Uganda in order to avoid being conscripted into the SPLA. In addition, their children received services such as education and health care from the Government of Uganda. If things have turned out to be good on the side of Southern Sudan, they should then quietly come back without involving the Government of South Sudan in their claim for land. If their land is taken, they then need to blame no one for the occupation but themselves. D. Deng, RSS The insecurity in Juba is spiraling out of hand Last night, the 26th October 2011 was the worst night for many residents of Gudele and areas adjoining the ministry of animal industry and fisheries as gunshot rang the better part of the night till down. This is just one of the many instances of insecurity in South Sudan. The rural areas of most states are known to be awash with small arms and there is definitely a proliferation of these small arms into Juba albeit disarmament was carried out in the city in the recent past. This trend if not checked in time is going to lend our infant city a negative publicity. I am told this group currently terrorizing the city suburbs are made up of young men high on drugs. They are known to be reckless and trigger happy. I call on the authorities to act swiftly. The patrol police seems to be ineffective in dealing with this current mayhem in the city. Okpolo, Juba South Sudan South Sudan's ruling party SPLM should stop its attitudes of oppressing its citizens or politicians from freedom of expression Indeed, we all have suffered the same problems around corners of the world because of the longest unrest civil war in our recent nascent country of South Sudan with her former enemy of Khartoum. In fact, we can't harass our citizens or opposition leaders from expressing their viewpoints based on the ways our new country's systems are being run, if we do not allow our citizens or opposition leaders to challenge on the ruling party government's systems then our concern means that there is no democracy we have been echoing about, since we were tethered on bondage byKhartoum as the slavery master holder. I would like to urge our leaders of the South Sudan not to show their irrational behaviors against their citizens or opposition leaders. Why are you intimidating your own people because of their voices challenging your government's system, which is in its own disarray? Monyluak D. Kur, Omaha, NE, USA. Challenging relations between media and politicians My humble analysis and comment is: Politicians need journalists to reach the public and to receive feedback from the public. I was raised around many politicians in Sudan, beside my dad who is actually not a politician, but, you can call him an intellectual, who was addicted to Radio BBC world services and Times magazines in 60s to 70s, before he expired. Evidently, I have been around well known politicians for example; Late Uncle Moses Chuol Juach, late Uncle Joshua Deiwal, Late Uncle Peter Gatkuoth Gual, just to mention a few of them. They scan the major newspapers in the morning and the network newscasts in the evening, they all lived in our era, you can concluded that; the recent politicians have an access to the modern technology, “you know what I am talking about.” So, in my opinion, zero excuse for their failure to read and listen to local or global news. The close relationship between the media and politicians is both a symbiotic relationship, and an adversarial relationship, meaning they fight other. It’s really, challenging. Daniel A. Daniel, USA Would Dr. James Okuk, have a fair trial in that political court of South Sudan? To begin with, in any trial system, there must be some rules regulating how evidence is produced in the court and how the court is to perform its task of deciding the issues before it. This is particularly true in an adversarial system, where the parties to the litigation take the active role in obtaining and producing evidence, and seek to persuade the court to reach particular factual findings. Rules limiting the evidence that the court may consider are not essential since the court could receive whatever evidence the parties produced and give it the importance or "weight" the court thought appropriate. However, in Dr James Okuk's case it's political prosecution of opposition party members which the court need to think carefully if it's a real court. Because people need to see the difference between civil and criminal proceedings existing in respect of how the court actually decides the factual issues on the basis of the evidence. Protecting of a juvenile president is not the answer of court in the real world. The court in south Sudan needs to be independent from any political influence because that is not the way the laws of the country should be enforced as far as people concern for the common law, the law of nature and statute law, all have the principles of justice other than individual arguments or powers within the political circle of SPLM/A. If innocent citizens are prosecuted in South Sudan because of their political stand, that is a wrong thing to do. We can not justify the prosecution of individuals because of political stand as I have learned from the Sudan tribune that Dr. James Okuk was arrested because of political reasoning. In conclusion, please let us work hard to stop SPLM/A elements from their political conspiracy, so now we have a country whereby each state should be a confederate from that mess government ofa juvenile. By Yap Khot Chung, Australia Okuk should first quit government Concerning the case of brother Dr. James Okuk, to my understanding, is that Dr. Okuk is a civil servant in the same Government. So if you are a civil servant in the same government then you don't have to criticize within. If you feel that things are not going according to the way you don't like then you can resign from your position as a diplomat and join the opposition. So you will be free to oppose the government as you like, that is the way democracy should work. Mothon Akol, RSS SPLM reminds us of Old Sudan It only took six years for SPLM to attained a PhD from NCP's college of nasty and dirty political games, of how to deal with civilians and opposition but it's very hard for them to obtain a simple certificate in democratic establishment of South Sudan. But then why did some of the SPLM cadres make noise when the NCP was cracking down on protest and arresting opposition leaders? Today they arrested Dr. James Okuk, because of his writings or freedom of expression as it's been exercised in many democratic countries as South Sudan is striving to be. This is not the only incident that is displaying South Sudan as a non-democratic state. The issue of students protest in Wau and Rumbek were met with excessive force is also one of the fresh examples. The NCP might be reasonable in their dealings with the opposition parties, because the emergency laws are still very effective in that country, but what about SPLM, what is their justification for all these messy situation in the country? The SPLM government can't continue to hide behind the past excuses of being inexperienced. It's time to shoulder her duties and obligation and to be accountable for any error committed by her organs. The SPLM is now surviving on her old past achievements, because for the last 6 years SPLM have nailed her reputation seriously. Finally, stop to remind us of old Sudan regime practices and policies. Pitya lo Tongun, RSS Okuk arrested for his words Chief Abiko, You are wrong not because you support Dr. Okuk with his democratic policies as you may think but wrong when you said Dr. Okuk is arrested by president's tribe. How come you said this tribalistic word but yet you said we want peace in South Sudan? How many people who have been arrested since independence day up to now of which most of them come from the very tribe where president Kiir comes from? To be honest, Dr. Okuk deserved to be arrested because his words are numbered since during referendum up to now. I remember his reply to my response I made regarding his article he wrote when I was in Khartoum in the Citizen newspaper, that South Sudan needs more 20 years to separate from Sudan or else, it will be meaningless to be a separate nation. When I asked him how about this in the email I sent him, he said even the UN, the International Community and the world at large will not accept South Sudan independence from the North. Look how bad his mouth was!! Dr. Okuk is not arrested on tribal basis but his idiotic politics. He has a bad mouth. Malou Manyiel, RSS Dr. James Okuk is entitled to his opinions Those who have arrested arrested Dr. James Okuk, Ph.D, are from security organs working in the government. Those who have arrested him unlawfully should be arrested and investigated to find the motive behind his arrest in Juba. We know him in the forum South Sudan Nation Discussion Board for his articles and pieces he wrote as his freedom expression on democracy. Those hired "HOOLIGANS and THUGS" want to liquidate him in cold blood on behalf of the government. They're TERRIBLY VERY WRONG at this point! They should keep down their grudges at heart! We need absolute peace in the South, we do not want to live in TERROR. Dr. Okuk is "a free thinker!" in his criticisms. Some of President Kiir's interest groups in the government from his tribe got vexed for his freedom he was expressing himself on political issues but this does not mean he had a personal diatribe with the President himself. Okuk is entitled to his political opinions which most can agree or disagree with. Let us live in peace and in harmony. Where is Democracy now in the South? Chief Abiko, USA Meaningless tribal celebrations Juba has witnessed for the last months after the appointments of the Ministers and their deputies several tribal appreciations to the President of RSS for appointment of their sons and daughters to the executive positions. This appreciation has been seen in the tribal ceremonies organized in Jub , the last of which is by the Pajulu community in Juba today. I do not object to such tribal gathering, organization and appreciation to the president but the question that begs an answer is that of the other small tribes in South Sudan which since in 1956 have never seen their sons and daughters in such executive positions. I have heard of people talking that such small tribes have no qualified manpower. Will such gatherings and appreciations help us in South Sudan in eliminating tribalism or fight for our representation always? I must say that it is be discouraged and we must applaud the small tribes who have been quiet and not asking for a celebration for being in the cold. Mr. President it is time that you try to reduce occasions that create tribalism in our society in South Sudan. I for one do not see any value in organizing an occasion for our sons being appointed in the executive branch of the Government of RSS. I think we have to be educated in this area in order to avoid tribal fight for position and the celebrations that will accompany it and this has to be done with the politician who have been appointed, I hope we will learn and reduce these sort of celebrations in the next appointments in 2015 or the next reshuffle somewhere during the journey. Dr Andy Murusal, University of Juba Mr. Kiir will follow the foot-steps of John Doe. What a political shame within the ruling SPLM/A for arresting Dr James Okuk and his mates for their freedoms of expression. The government is accountable to the people, of the people and by people, not by tribes or individuals. In June 2002, John Doe said, "the peace does not belong to him." Well, may God and Ngundeng Bong help those who are being treated as the time passes by. Yap Khot Chung, Australia Juba University academic promotions questionable I think this debate is a good one. I particularly want to add to the comment about standard at Juba University. The promotion of the academic staff has been reported to be in shamble. There are several people who have been promoted to the status of professors, associate professors, assistant professors without the requisite qualifications. People who have been driving taxis in London were elevated immediately on their return to associate professorship, and yet they do not have any record of publications or teaching. Some of the staff who are yet to receive their PhD have been promoted to assistant professorship!! And there are more examples. In the past, one of the well known writers in Africa was denied professorship by the quacks who sat on his panel of promotion in the same university; they're promoted in this underhand way. It is time the Minister started a serious investigation in this matter, otherwise, the academic titles in Juba university will be useless and become a laughing stock of the world. Over to you Mr. Minister. Andy Kuch, RSS Employment for South Sudanese not aliens I fervently support Justin Opiny's idea of advising GOSS to invest in the region's human resources for a better tomorrow of the country. Our genuine and permanent security in terms of employment, education, health can only come from the sons and daughters of South Sudan and not aliens. Well, our priority should be to plan for a better future by using foreigners in positions South Sudan lack only on short term basis as Southerners get training in preparation for their replacements. Failure to do that will create problems in the future. Our doors for employment should not be fully opened to anyone for the sake of being kind or a payback for the help we got from the neighboring countries. Bura Bismark, Australia Recruit from the Diasporas It is not a surprise to see that most of the jobs in South Sudan are taken by foreigners mostly from our sisterly countries of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea under the pretext that we do not have south Sudanese with those qualifications they occupy. This is just the beginning[ it will be even worse if the RSS joins the EAC (East African Community). We have highly trained south Sudanese in Diaspora, why can't we create a recruitment department in the south Sudan missions and Embassies in diasporas to recruit those willing to come home and contribute in development. Those foreigners are just flocking to South Sudan to milk the economy and leave at later date and the vacuum for trained people will still remain. You will be better off with your own people who will use and keep the money in the country than taking it away. Some of the foreigners coming to the country are those abandoned by their country and may not have the genuine educational papers. Imagine another country like Uganda creating jobs for its citizens in south Sudan. What are you doing, RSS, to create jobs for your citizens? Justin Chicago Opiny, Canada Good leaders in RSS Republic of South Sudan will never stop or change corruption practices because it is their way of getting rich within four years to five years in power. South Sudanese, please stop corruption and let's develop our new nation minus tribalism, power-greedy people. Leaders should plan about the future of our generation in South Sudan. Agutmajak, RSS UNMISS Apartheid in South Sudan UNMISS presence in South Sudan is not for the benefit of South Sudanese people but for their own good. People are being killed in their present and the do nothing about it. They are driving all over in Juba, Malakal, Wau, Yambio, Aweil, Rumbek, Torit just to name few among other places. To be precisely honest, they are doing nothing apart from eating, showing off on UN vehicles and IDs in the public places such as restaurants, bars, rallies etc. On the top on these, they are practicing very bad discrimination against the South Sudanese who are working with them. For example, very simple example, there are UN shops in all the UNMISS compounds to make the life easy for the staff to buy personal stuff and avoid going far during working hours. The idea of placing those shops inside the compound was commendable and very much appreciated. But the so-call international staffs are abusing the usage of these shops. Only international staff have access to those shops and national South Sudanese staffs are not allowed to buy in those shops. Even the racists in South Africa were not doing this kind of things against the Blacks but the UNMISS does it in the board daylight. What is wrong with South Sudanese? Are we not part of the UN? South Sudan is a member of the and the staff which are denied their right have contract with UN. There is a greater need for the UN human right commission to investigate this and action against those who are imposing divisive rules. In other UN missions like the Nations HQs in Nairobi Gigiri Complex, all the UN staff with UN ID have the privileges to buy in the UN Commissary regardless of their nationalities and position. What is considered is your contract with UN and not where you come from. The UN HQ un New York is not aware about this discriminations being practice by the UN in South Sudan. William W Bol, Juba No future with undisciplined SPLA For those of you who witnessed the 1972 peace accord of Gen. Joseph Lagu, were the Anyanya-1 forces behaving exactly like the SPLA forces today? We are really wondering regarding the future of our country with undisciplined army which is so ruthless to their own people. Today one can say without any doubt that 90% of the insecurity cases in the South Sudan are caused by the SPLA. All the rebel movements in the country are ex-SPLA combatants, most of the land grapping cases are conducted by the SPLA forces under the command of their officers, the illegal tax stations on the roads are SPLA practices and leave alone individual cases that used to occur between civilians and SPLA where they beat the civilians brutally and mercilessly. That led me to question myself, for how long shall we wait to see SPLA transformed into responsible, disciplined national army? For the last 6 years of the interim period, SPLA got the lion's share of the GOSS budget compared to other government's institutions on the pretext to transform itself into a national army but all that went in vain and no one was accounted for that mess. Pitya lo Tongun, Juba Dr. John Garang is Not the Only Founding Father of South Sudan: Yes, Dr. Garang is a "Founding Father" but not him alone. We are proud to have his statue in Juba and other places in South Sudan as well as his head on all specimens of our currency. Nonetheless, this should not be the terminal. We need to go further and crown other "Founding Fathers and Mothers" in accordance with sincere criteria of selection and naming. It will make me more prouder to see statues of other "Founding Fathers and Mothers" of South Sudan being erected side by side with that of Dr. John Garang. We should write credible history of Founding Fathers and Mothers of South Sudan in an inclusive and sincere manner, and without tendency of creating a personality cult for any one particular person or tribe. It is important to be factual and honest in writing history. If being unionist is a political sin in South Sudan, then all SPLM/A's and other leaders have sinned. No one among them could be clean enough to take the first separatist stone and throw it at another leader. Also if change makes sense in political dynamism, all of these leaders should be given credit of having shifted from unionists to separatists, even at the last second of eleven hour. Dr. James Okuk Multi-party system in RSS A multi- party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of the government separately or in a coalition. The effective number of parties in a multi- party system is normally larger than two but lower than ten. It is a welcome political majority on the side of the opposition parties to form a merger for a single or two opposition parties instead of more than 20 in the nascent country of South Sudan. A multi-party system prevents the leadership of a single party from controlling a single legislative chamber without challenge. Brazil, Canada, Denmark, India and other democratic nations are some of the examples that have used multi- party system effectively in their democracies. In these countries usually no single party has a parliamentary majority by itself. Instead, multiple political parties form coalitions for the purpose of developing power blocs for governing. SPLM is doing a good job and we hope with the opposition parties merging against it, it will even be in a better position to lead the country in the right direction. SPLM, SPLM DC and the would-be United parties will serve the country better instead of so many parties some of which have no formal address and are tribal based. Political majority is needed in the RSS this will bring peace and stability in the country. We need to catch up with the rest of the world in development. Justin Chicago Opiny, Canada Alhag Paul, what is wrong with Dr. Garang and his New Sudan Vision? When I read the article by Alhag Paul, I felt disgusted not because he was disturbing the dead hero (Dr.Garang) but his intellectual blindness astonished me. After a long pondering I resolved not to comment on what he understood to be the benefit of his right to freedom of expression. It is his right, ok. But what he failed to understand is that the readers have the right to correct information. He disregarded this by falsifying the history of our struggle for freedom. Have a second look at this argument from that article: ‘Liberating ourselves without Garang: The provision of the Referendum in the CPA allowed each and everyone of us to decide for ourselves what we wanted. We individually (through the power of our votes) chose separation and thus liberated ourselves from the Arabs. It has nothing to do with Garang liberating us to qualify him as the father of the nation’. I am pretty sure you were not there from 1983-2010 when the South Sudanese fought for the freedom you are now abusing. If otherwise, how then could you have failed to acknowledge that people died for this country? How could you have failed to understand that the CPA was negotiated? Are you suggesting that your referendum just fell from heaven? My friend you need reminder that it took bullets to go to Naivasha and Machakos, and it took maneuvering to negotiate and implement that CPA. Everything I am talking about here was possible because of Garang. Whether Garang was a unionist or a separatist is not the matter; what matters is that he brought you the CPA and South Sudan. Yes, you were a separatist. Show us your CPA and your physical confrontation with the Arabs. More distortion from his concluding remarks: ‘In light of the above, the minister of Information should desist from promoting one section of our society as being solely responsible for the liberation of South Sudan with Garang as its founding father based on falsity. For this does not bode well for the future'. How does the Minister’s use of mass media to inform us on our history fit in with the fallacy of the promotion of your so called ‘Dinkocracy’? This is the same slogan the Arabs used during the war in order to divide and rule us. That history is not for the Dinka alone. You are included. Garang fought for the rights of all the marginalized of the Sudan but when the Arabs proved to be ‘too deformed to be reformed’ he settled for South Sudan. I don’t see anything wrong with this. South Sudan was founded on the New Sudan (equality regardless of race, tribe, religion) and the North is still struggling for it. Garang is your father! Chol K. Thon, RSS Merging of 18 Opposition parties a good idea I am for the merging of these said 18 opposition political parties to form a single party so that they practically can set their political, economic, social, cultural ideologies rather than being de jure political parties. According to Sudan tribune (October 13, 2011), “Leaders from at least 18 opposition parties in newly independent South Sudan are considering forming a single opposition political party capable of challenging the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), an opposition leader said Thursday.” When they (Opposition parties) merged together, set their ideological principles, register and get licensed, and operational in Juba, the current national capital city and elsewhere in all ten states, South Sudanese will then be able to compare and contrast the would-be "Big Three" political parties (SPLM, SPLM-DC, and the said upcoming merger) in terms of their political and economic visions which they can deliver to South Sudanese in years to come. Having only three de facto three political parties or two political parties in South Sudan if you will, will make them more competitive so that people better understand their visions, missions, and choose the preferred party that best addresses their needs and concerns, especially after four years from now and in the year 2015 when the next general elections take place. After all, what matters most is a government led by a party accountable and transparent to its people when it comes to delivery of social services and rule of law. To me, it doesn't matter whether it is SPLM, SPLM-DC, or another party. What matters to our widows, orphans, elderly, and all walks of life is the government led by a party that uplifts its people rather than letting them down. That is how democratic states/countries developed. South Sudan ought to follow suit. I am not naive to suggest that we will be a democratic country in accordance to the deemed Western democratic values, but that would be a process that requires time and effort. James Monyluak de Mijok Thon, Calgary, Canada -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
