Opinion | How Kuol Manyang is using Red Army Foundation to propel him to SPLM Secretary General

By Justin Lako

OPINION — As the saying goes, common sense is not common. The social media for the last few days has been saturated with multiple statements, threats and intimidation flowing from the red army foundation chairman, Mr. Deng Bol Aruai. Deng’s latest change in attitude towards the SPLM national secretariat took people by surprise since he is one man who has never slept out of the SPLM for a day since its inception.

What begs a question is: ‘what could have been the motive behind Deng’s latest corruption in attitude towards the party he had held so dear for decades, and for which he had sacrificed a lot?’ As there could be no smoke without a fire source. Deng Bol Aruai, was bribed by the pseudo- journalist Mr.Mading Ngor Akec Kuai to go berserk at the national secretariat openly and the national chairman H.E Salva Kiir Mayardit indirectly. There is no denying it!

The spurious journalist Mading used part of his kickbacks obtained from Bol Mel of ARC to bribe Deng Bol Aruai to mount a pressure using the red army foundation authority on the President to appoint Kuol Manyang as the SPLM secretary General. This development came to fore when news of the potential candidates rumored to be favored for appointment to the SPLM SG surfaced, in exclusion of Kuol Manyang’s names due to his old age and being a Dinka by tribe.

Up to this now, the names of the potential candidates before the president and the Chairman of the SPLM are; Hon.Louis Labong Lajore, Hon. Lam Booth, and Hon. Simon Kun Puoc. The proposal which filtered the candidates and subsequently produced the (3) senior cadres considered competence, age, education, regional power-sharing, popularity, among other things

Gen. Kuol was knocked out on several grounds. The fact that the chairman is a Dinka alone worked negatively against him, as the post of SG and the party chairman could not all go to one tribe regardless of the regions. Just to recall, the position of SG of the SPLM is the most prestigious party’s position and bundling it together with the position of the Chairman and allotting them to one ethnic group, would be a recipe to further fragmentation of the SPLM. Kuol Manyang and his group believe that President Kiir will soon exit from power and Cde Wani is unlikely to be supported by the Dinka community and therefore he stands a better chance of ascending to power if he occupies the position of the SG of the party at those deciding moments.

When this crucial information leaked, Kuoldit and his good boy Mading Ngor hatched and pitched a plan to intimidate the president through the red army foundation chairman to ignore the viable and logical political arithmetic on the table, double cross the rules of game and appoints Kuol Manyang. Kuoldit does not want any appointee who is not himself or among his henchmen and women. Since the previous proposal seems to be coming from people like Dr. James Wani, President Kiir and others, Kuol authoritarian characters might prevail if serious attention is not paid to this critical issue, which might lead to a potential split in the party.

Now that Kuoldit, Mading Ngor, Deng Bol’s strategy is making a headway, in the upcoming proposed meeting, kuoldit shall be there to say, ‘give me the SG position so that am able to control and contain the red army constituency from splitting and forming a parallel and splinter group within, breaks away to form a party of its own or align itself with the opposition to face the SPLM mainstream. This strategy at the onset does place the president who doubles as the SPLM party chairman in a weaker negotiating position and might easily influence him to succumb and surrenders reluctantly the seat to them on a golden platter.

To the sleeping masses of our nation; who are SPLM members, this is what the trio from Kuol Manyang’s camp are cooking. If you allow it to be served, not only shall everyone decides to abandon the SPLM to the (3) men who are running the show but the death of the ideology of the revolutionary and historical party based on the principle of justice, equality and prosperity for all regardless of tribe, sex, creed, religion or region would be inevitable

The author is a concerned South Sudanese and the SPLM Watchdog. He can be reached for more information at justinlako2020@gmail.com. 

---

The views expressed in the ‘OPINIONS & ANALYSIS’ section of Sudans Post are solely the opinions of the writers. The veracity of any claims made are the responsibility of the author not this website. If you want to submit an opinion piece or an analysis please email us here.