SPLM Secretary General Amum says Kiir’s suspension of ministers was
politically motivated
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July 7, 2013 (JUBA) – The Secretary General of the South Sudan’s
ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum Okiech,
has openly criticized the recent suspension of two national ministers
by President Salva Kiir Mayardit, saying Kiir’s action was wrong and
politically motivated.
JPEG - 28.8 kb
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement Pagan Amum Okiech (Reuters)
Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Deng Alor Kuol, and minister of Finance
and Economic Planning, Kosti Manibe Ngai were suspended last month for
alleged corruption over request and transfer of nearly $8 million to
an account abroad without authorization from relevant higher
institutions.
Kiir, also the chairman of the SPLM, lifted the immunity of the two
ministers who are also senior party officials in politburo and formed
an investigation committee to dig out the truth of the matter,
promising to prosecute them if they are found guilty of stealing the
money.
However in a press conference he conducted in Juba on Friday, Amum
said Kiir’s action left the real culprit untouched and instead landed
on the wrong victim, referring to Kosti Manibe.
"The Minister who approved the transferred amount is different, how
can you withdraw the immunity of Kosti and leave the person who
decided and signed the transfers? I agree with Kosti that the issue
was political,” Amum said, almost confirming speculations that the
current acting minister of finance and economic planning, Marial Awou,
was the true culprit.
He decried victimization of people seen to be political adversaries
while leaving the real culprits, indicating the wrong way the
leadership has been trying to fight the rampant corruption which eats
up the country.
Kiir last year wrote a letter to 75 former and current senior
officials of his government, asking them to account for the disputed
figure of $4 billion lost in the system.
This could be his first time to seriously investigate and/or prosecute
a senior official for corruption after the failed attempt to arrest
the first minister of finance, Arthur Akwen Chol, in 2007.
The top administrator of the ruling party, Amum, warned that such
politically motivated actions may general mistrust and tribal tensions
in the two-year old nation.
He is the first senior party official to publicly react to the
suspension of the two ministers who are seen to have been opposed to
Kiir’s bid for a third term in office either in party or government.
The party SG is also among the senior party officials who want to
contest against the incumbent who has been the party chairman since
2005, criticizing him of failure to lead the nation-state building.
Vice-president, Riek Machar, who is also the ruling party’s deputy
chairman and late John Garang’s widow, Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior, who
is a presidential advisor, declared their opposition to Kiir’s bid for
another term.
Machar commended Kiir for implementing the 2005 peace deal, conducting
the referendum and declaring independence of South Sudan, saying this
would be a good legacy for him. He announced his intention to succeed
him in the party chairmanship this year and in the 2015 presidential
elections in order to rigorously address the challenges of nation
building.
The speaker of the national parliament, James Wani Igga, reportedly
said he would only contest if Kiir abandons the chair. Analysts
however say Igga has no considerable support even within his home
state of Central Equatoria where he is being challenged internally and
this could well explain his current lukewarm position.
The party was supposed to pass its basic documents such as the
constitution, manifesto, internal regulations and code of conduct
before any leadership elections but the processes have mysteriously
come to a standstill.
The spokesman of the SPLM, Yien Matthew, in a Sunday debate on the
Juba-based UN-sponsored Miraya radio involving panellists from
different political parties and activists, admitted that there have
been unfortunate attempts by the leadership to avoid the conduct of
the national liberation council meeting and the convening of the
national convention where the basic documents could be passed and new
leadership elected.
There have been widespread speculations that president Kiir has been
thinking of either removing Amum from the party position or giving the
office of the president the power to organize such events due to
mistrust he has upon Amum.
However, the party chairman would have difficulty removing Amum by a
unilateral order since he was elected by the national liberation
council and not an appointee of the chairman.
Similar speculations also suggest that if Kiir continues to bend on
resisting the internal democratic transformational processes to change
his leadership he may also decide to remove the current vice-president
Riek Machar by a presidential decree.
The current transitional constitution however also requires 2/3
majority yes-vote of the national parliament in order for the
president to remove the vice-president, making it yet difficult to go
through.
Also concerns arise that any unilateral action against Machar by Kiir
would be unconvincing to many of the former’s supporters and can cause
resistance and tensions.
Analysts suggest that Kiir has no many other healthy options to look
at in the situation of such mounting embarrassing internal criticisms
and opposition by his most senior officials and closest aides in
government and party.
“In real politics he would rather call for an emergency national
convention of the party to elect a new leadership or step down from
the government and allow for fresh elections in order to save his
legacy,” said an anonymous analyst, who also expressed fears that
Kiir’s continuous act of lending a deaf ear to the unfolding situation
may groom tensions and even violence.
SPLM SPOKESMAN ADMITS FAILURE OF THE RULING PARTY LEADERSHIP IN GOVERNEMNT
The spokesman of the ruling SPLM, Yien Matthews, has admitted failure
of the leadership of the SPLM-led government, citing corruption as the
most challenging disease.
Matthews, who expressed the party’s official view during a Sunday
debate on the status-quo with representatives of other South Sudanese
political parties and civil society activists, blamed the failure on
the top leadership in government, saying they had detached themselves
from the party.
He said it was true that the party had lost “vision and direction” as
confirmed by the reports from the ten states.
He said the SPLM as a party was doing well but its leadership in
government was responsible for the failures such as lack of services
delivery to the people.
The party spokesman did not however explain how the same leadership
personalities in the two institutions could perform well in
formulating the party policies while at the same time failing to
implement the same party policies in government.
The party SG Amum recently came under fierce criticisms for failure to
implement the party policies to the grassroots level.
Amum has been in charge of administration and all the party states
secretariats and directly reports to the chairman.
(ST)
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