Southern Sudan – Traitors still palling around with Khartoum
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- Category: Writing aboard the Kenya Airways: A story on coming to Rwanda for the first time
- Published on Monday, 28 March 2011 18:37
- Written by Akol Aguek Ngong, The New Sudan Vision (NSV), www.newsudanvision.com
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(Burlington, Vermont) – Folks, I have to agree with the old adage that says history has a funny way of repeating itself. Surely enough, you have got to believe it this time my fellow South Sudanese! An individual who was once a thief will always remain a thief. An individual who was once a traitor will always remain a traitor. The SPLM should have known this all along when it made that strategic decision to reward treasons by buying back the traitors with high ranking military positions and money. Sadly, the SPLM didn’t learn and our march to independence is being put to test once again. And that brings me to the issue of this piece, which has to do with the rebellion of Lt General George Athor Deng; Abdelbagi Ayii Akol; Yauyau; Oliny; Gatluak Deng; and probably the soon to be announced rebellion of Major General Peter Gatdet.
What track records do we have on these guys? Well, with the exception of George Athor Deng (but I disagreed with what he is doing now), all of these guys have been in Khartoum’s pocket one way or another during the 22 year struggle and they only had to jump the ship when the SPLM grass appeared greener than what Khartoum was offering them at the time. And naively enough, the SPLM thought their lust for money and personal gains could be assuaged by higher military ranks, and stuffed pockets with American dollars, but folks this is not working as we are seeing them flocking back to Khartoum once again.
Folks, let’s take these people for who they are: they are traitors. They have no political agenda whatsoever. These individuals may have been the agents of Khartoum to infiltrate the SPLA in the first place—in order to be used to destroy the South Sudan from within.
Surely enough, Khartoum cannot come to terms with the South Sudan walking away with its oil and the last attempt to prevent this from happening is to find their former colleagues and throw as much money as possible at them and have them carry out their agenda. I am afraid it appears to be working unless South Sudanese come to terms with it and prevent it from happening.
How could we prevent South Sudan from being held hostage to these individuals’ personal lusts for money and power? It is very hard to do but we all know what we can do. And what I hope we can do is what I would sum up as the Aguek doctrine (my doctrine), which says:
1. Trust not anyone who is associated with Khartoum because what such a person stands for does not represent South Sudan national interest (the interest you did vote for overwhelmingly).
2. Trust not any South Sudanese who uses a gun against another South Sudanese because the violence against one another has no place in the future of our new country.
3. Trust not anyone who thinks public service is about him because that is not going to move the South Sudan forward; it has to be a cause larger than oneself.
If we were to abide by this doctrine, these individuals will have nowhere to operate in South Sudan but we aren’t and they are at large literally undoing what may have been gained in the past few months of unanimous choice for independence by almost all South Sudanese.
The biggest question, in my view, is will 98% South Sudanese who overwhelmingly voted for secession see their hard-earned right to self determination jeopardized by these Khartoum pocketed, hopeless individuals? The answer is a big NO because, as Zechariah Manyok Biar said in his recent piece on sudantribune.com, using guns is not going to cut it for those who want to get into political power by force. We as South Sudanese have lost confidence in them and our role is to rise up above the tribal divide and say to them: enough with treason! You cannot show up in Khartoum and start issuing press releases against the South Sudanese Government and believe you will be supported by South Sudanese because we won’t, especially when we just voted to divorce Khartoum not long ago!
This is a sad day for all South Sudanese because it appears as if we are falling prey to the trickery of Khartoum that had held us back for over five decades! Any reasonable South Sudanese must be concerned with the latest developments in our soon to be independent state.
Let’s do something lest we may see our independence slowly slipping away or see South Sudan becoming “a giant Somalia”, to borrow the recent phrase by Hilary Rodham Clinton!
Akol Aguek Ngong is Assistant Director of admissions at the University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA
