SPLM official in Unity state says party traumatised by tribalism and corruption
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July 9, 2013 (BENTIU) - The deputy chairman of South Sudan’s ruling
party in Unity state said on Tuesday that the top leadership of the
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) is traumatised by unrest
caused by tribalism and corruption.
JPEG - 20.2 kb
Unity state governor, Taban Deng Gai in Bentiu, Unity state, April 5, 2012 (ST)
Samuel Lony Geng made the statement to a huge crowd in Bentiu during
celebrations to mark the country’s second independence anniversary,
just days after the elected governor of Unity state was sacked by
president Salva Kiir.
Kiir’s deputy, Riek Machar, has written to the president asking him to
reinstate Taban Deng Gai, suggesting that the move violated South
Sudan’s constitution. Following his surprise ouster on Sunday, Deng
has claimed that he was sacked for political reasons.
Joseph Nguen Minytuil has been appointed Unity state’s caretaker
governor, after Kiir used his powers under South Sudan’s constitution
to remove a state Governor in the event of threats to national
security or territorial integrity. Machar’s letter questioned whether
this was the case in Unity state pointing out Deng’s role in a rebel
movement ending its insurgency against the government.
Should a governor be removed, the constitution stipulates that fresh
elections should be organised within 60 days, however this has not
happened in Lakes state where a caretaker governor has been in power
since January.
In his public address on Tuesday, Geng, a former agricultural minister
in Unity state, called on the ousted governor to continue to challenge
tribalism in the ruling SPLM.
He described the ex governor as a good leader who had committed
himself to the SPLM’s cause. Deng, like most other senior SPLM
politicians fought in the two-decade Sudanese civil war that led to
South Sudan’s independence on 9 July 2011.
However, since independence critics and more recently some of the
SPLM’s most high profile international supporters have bemoaned the
state of human rights, press freedom, corruption and tribalism in the
world’s youngest nation.
Geng said he was sure that Deng’s removal was undemocratic and was
made on the assumption that he would not support president Kiir’s
attempts to secure a third term in office from 2015.
After his sacking, Deng told Sudan Tribune that he suspected Kiir
removed him on the mistaken belief that he wants to be Riek Machar’s
running mate should the vice president, as appears likely, go for the
top job in two years time.
Senior members of the SPLM in Unity state have also claimed that this
was the reason behind Kiir’s decision.
”We have strong faith [in the] former governor. His going to Juba will
reduced the ill-treatment of tribalism among some leaders in South
Sudan”, said Geng.
Geng encouraged the former governor to campaign for unity among South
Sudan’s many tribal groups, some of which remain suspicious of each
other as a hangover from the factional fighting that typified the
independence struggle.
Since the SPLM achieved long-sought-after independence for South
Sudan, Geng said that the party had lacked "vision". Recently many
SPLM senior officials have blamed the national chairman of the SPLM,
Pagan Amum, for failing to effectively manage the party.
On Monday the former governor said the president had been taking bad
advice from people who did not fight alongside them in the civil war
and warned that if Kiir continued to listen to such as advice his term
may come to an end before the 2015 elections.
The feeling on the street in Unity state’s capital Bentiu is that
president Kiir - who hails from the Dinka, South Sudan’s largest
ethnic group - is targeting senior politicians from the Nuer tribe,
the second largest group.
Both Machar and Deng are members of the Nuer ethnic group. The other
governor to be sacked by Kiir this year, Chol Tong Mayay of Lakes
state, is, like Kiir, a Dinka.
The Nuer are the majority tribe in Upper Nile and Unity state which
produce most of South Sudan’s oil. Many South Sudanese are concerned
that not enough is being done to retrieve the estimated $4 billion in
oil revenues that has gone missing since the SPLM came to power.
In 2012 Kiir wrote to 75 government officials asking them to return
the funds and he used his speech on South Sudan’s second commemoration
of independence on Tuesday to reiterate that his government will no
longer tolerate corruption and vowed to persecute people involved in
such crimes.
Two senior ministers were recently suspended while they are
investigated over a large government acquisition that was not approved
by the relevant ministries or the president.
A senior official in the Unity state government told Sudan Tribune on
Tuesday that main reason the president had so far failed to arrest
those suspected of large-scale corruption was because the majority are
alleged to be from Kiir’s homes state of Warrap.
(ST)
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