The coin of power: Gen. Paul Malong aspires for president!!

[Elisabeth Janaina]

The coin of power: Gen. Paul Malong aspires for president!!
Oct. 17 Featured, Uncategorized 2 comments
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BY: ELHAG Paul, OCT/17/2016, SSN;

As South Sudan sails in high turbulent social, economic and political
seas, the tribally decorated head of the Jieng militia masquerading as
the legitimate chief of South Sudan army, General Paul Malong Awan
Anei, seems to engage in sinister activities.

In the second quarter of this year and prior to President Salva Kiir’s
early July 2016 orchestrated violence, General Paul Malong Anei’s
activities indicate an interesting development. His frequent
appearance then in public was suggestive of a person carefully working
to improve his image and also sell himself to the country as an
experienced and capable leader in waiting.

His activities should certainly raise eyebrows if only because as a
military man he should not under any circumstances be engaged is such
behaviour.

Worldwide members of the armed forces do not combine military duties
with political activities. The two do not mix. The rules are very
clear. An army man is an army man and he must not be involved in
political activities. He only waits for orders from political leaders.
As a person General Malong Anei has the right to pursue his ambitions
in any field but this has to be done within the ambit of his job’s
role.

It is doubtless that the recent political activities of General Anei
are in direct breach of military rules. Of all the political
activities he has been involved in, three are glaringly acts of
political campaign of huge proportions possibly pitched to win support
of the public as an exemplary leader.

Within the already stated period, General Anei sequentially bombarded
the country with the following activities: first, accompanied by a
media team he went to Aweil to claim credit for funding a huge
U-shaped three storied building for SPLM. The media portrayed the
story thus: “The former governor of northern Bahr El Ghazal state
(current SPLA Chief of General Staff) General Paul Malong Awan has
constructed the only and largest SPLM building in the whole country of
South Sudan, This will be remembered for generations and SPLM will
never forget about what General Malong has done.”

The bright yellow and dark brown painted building indeed is large and
somehow impressive by standards of that part of the world. Looking at
this building and reading about the person behind it is most likely to
positively influence the reader’s mind. But if one (reader) thinks
deeper, it brings up more questions. Where did General Anei get the
money to erect this building? Why should the largest SPLM office be
built in Aweil and not Juba?

Something surely is not right here. The alarm bell of massive
corruption should start to ring. Since when have army men become
funders of political parties? The fact that this SPLM massive building
stands in Aweil, and not Juba, the seat of the government clearly
symbolises Jieng ownership of the party.

Just think about it and note the statement of General Anei’s media
team. Does this not occur to you as a high pitch of personality sale?

Then secondly comes another interesting media exposure. The General’s
media team reported, “General Paul Malong is greatly providing
education in South Sudan.” “(He) is building a standard and modern
school in Aweil.”

According to the General’s media, “General Paul Malong hired
professional qualified and well trained teachers from outside and
within the country who meet the professional standards” “required who
are highly disciplined and able to maintain the school and to teach
pupils or students with the right education background and the right
education processes, so that every child, youth and adult in Aweil in
particular or South Sudan in general should have a chance to get
quality education regardless of whether they are male or female, rich
or poor, disabled or not, living in remote areas or in urban centres.

This is the main aspiration of General Paul Malong Awan. “The
presentation of General Anei here just does not come spontaneously.
This is a result of a carefully calculated and measured media
manipulation to sell General Anei to South Sudanese as the only other
leader available in the country. Some of the questions asked earlier
also apply here.

The third episode involves the most important section of the society
which paradoxically is the most abused by the SPLM: women. The
General’s media shamelessly declared, “SPLA Chief of General Staff,
General Paul Malong Awan knows that women of South Sudan are capable
of diligently serving their country.”

“Without the women, the bush would have been nothing. The women stayed
home to take care of their children and run the home as their husbands
were involved in the guerrilla war. Without women the peace would have
not been signed in both CPA one and CPA two.” Really?!

Is this General not the person responsible for the department that has
inflicted the most damage to women emotionally, mentally, socially,
economically and culturally? Is General Anie not responsible for
raping of women, beheading of women and children in Fertit land and
Equatoria? How is it that he now pretends to value women? Mockingly,
he invited the women to his house to offer them his donation of a
vehicle.

Why was this event done in the General’s house? Why was it a personal
affair? Why did the General not take the vehicle to the women’s
office? I leave you to draw your own conclusions. The photographs of
this event are very interesting. In them, General Anei wearing a blue
blazer with black trouser looking like a widowbird surrounded by
she-birds glides around portraying an air of importance while donating
a white Toyota vehicle to the women.

Certainly he felt great and very important. Such feelings are stuff
cherished by egomaniacs. Now, hold your horses.

For better understanding let us first briefly discuss the man named
Paul Malong Awan Anei for this piece to make full sense after which we
will come back to continue.

Like President Salva Kiir, General Anei’s background remains an
enigma. Stories have it that at around the age of 14 years or so, he
was a street kid regularly travelling illegally on the train between
Aweil and Babanousa on the Khartoum Wau-weekly train service. In these
travels which involved dodging the train conductors, he perched on the
roof of the train cars as a hawker selling cigarettes and a local drug
called “Sauot”.

While hawking and sniffing substances the young Anei became a hardened
petty criminal and a hustler feared by his age mates.

In his early twenties he is said to have traveled to Khartoum where he
honed his criminal practise until he got arrested in the early 1980s
for a serious crime. At the time Anyanya 2 was already active fighting
the Sudan government. Anei through corruption gained bail and as a
true criminal he could not stand to face justice he jumped bail and
ran to join Anyanya 2 and later on the SPLM/A through merger of the
two.

However, it is important to note that the criminal nature of the
SPLM/A is greatly attributed to its membership being made up at its
inception of professional criminals like Anei.

Peter Adwok Nyaba in his book ‘The Politics of Liberation in South
Sudan: An Insider View’ second edition 2000, reveals that “social
background was not made a criterion for the selection of the
combatants and, accordingly, people of all walks of life flocked into
the SPLM/A.

Thieves, murders, rapists and fugitives from Sudanese justice system
found a safe heaven in the SPLA and, when opportunity was there, they
easily relapsed into their old practices. Many of the criminals and
horrendous crimes committed against the civil population were
attributed to some of these social misfits masquerading as
‘revolutionaries’.”

In SPLM/A, Anei quickly rose through the ranks using his street
knowledge and skills to prove his fighting skills in his home province
of Bahr El Ghazal. In recognition of his service Dr John Garang
promoted him to a commander (knowing very well that he had not seen
the inside of a class room) and despatched him to Uganda to enrol in a
basic English course. This is the only formal education the man has
had in his life.

While as a commander in his home area, Anei set up courts and amassed
cattle for himself through fines imposed on the locals. He also
appropriated to himself a local market called Warawara which up to
this date he collects all the revenue to himself depriving the local
authorities of legitimate income.

General Anei according to reports always sees himself as the protector
of President Salva Kiir. In 2004 when Salva Kiir fell out with Dr
Garang and went into hiding in Yei, it was him who guaranteed the
safety of the former to come to the famous Rumbek meeting of 2004 that
reconciled them (Kiir and Garang) prior to the signing of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 with Khartoum.

Again in mid December 2013, General Anei jumped into protection of
President Kiir based on delusions expressed by the latter in September
of that year. According to Peter Adwok Nyaba in his article titled ‘It
wasn’t a coup – Salva Kiir shot himself in the foot.’

President Kiir “in Akon his home town, speaking to Dinka (Jieng),
which SSTV aired, Salva had this to say ‘………….look this power which I
have belongs to you. You fought and died for it ……….. Now some people
want to snatch it from me ……….. we (will) you accept it?

“Aci bag am” meaning we will not accept, shouted the people back. It
was in this context of retaining power that he ordered Paul Malong
Awan to recruit and bring to Juba three thousand young men which now
constitute his presidential guards.’

The above quote is very important because it situates General Anei in
the centre of the grave crimes against humanity committed in December
2013. Unfortunately, hitherto General Anei continues with his project
of crimes against humanity. No wonder the international community
describes him as, ‘the architect of immense human suffering.’

The latest atrocities are now taking place in Bahr El Ghazal against
the Fertit people and in Equatoria against the Bari speakers
respectively. However, all the signs now indicate that he is slowly
shifting his allegiance away from President Kiir to himself.

This can be deduced from three crucial things. First he wants to
escape accountability for his role in the December 2013 crimes;
secondly he wants to pre-empt President Kiir’s plan to replace him in
the army; and thirdly he wants to satisfy his ego.

The African Union Commission of Inquiry into South Sudan indentifies
the culprits responsible for the ethnic cleansing of the Nuer in
December 2013. These are the Jieng security officials among whom are
General Anie, President Kiir and the leadership of the Jieng Council
of Elders (JCE). The only way for General Anie and the Jieng
leadership to escape accountability is for them to remain in power.

The unforeseen consequence of President Kiir’s July 2016 violence has
been the spread of rebellion throughout the entire country.
Unexpectedly, President Kiir has found himself in a bind and he is
faced with either sacrificing General Anie in the hope of dividing the
growing opposition to Jieng rule or stare defeat in the eye from the
fast building opposition of all the people of South Sudan.

Last week information leaking out from J1 has it that President Kiir
wants to replace Vice President Wani Igga with General Oboto Mamur and
General Anie with General Agustino Jadallah respectively in order to
defuse the growing rebellion in greater Equatoria.

This is an interesting new developing scenario. The Jieng are now
faced with reality. Out of this they have no options except to make
sacrifices in the hope that they can hold on to power. General Anie
appears to have been chosen as the sacrificial lamb. How General Anie
is going to respond remains to be seen, but the probability is that he
may respond with a violent coup since he has already been preparing
for it.

As for President Kiir’s plans to try to bribe Equatorians the answer
is: it is too late because it seems now as though nobody wants Jieng
rule in Equatoria anymore.

General Anei no doubt is a control freak. His obsession with power
borders on mental illness. This can be observed from his activities in
the last two years. While he was a governor he felt insecure and made
himself the leader of SPLM in Bahr El Ghazal.

When he was made the Chief of Staff of SPLA, he continued to hog the
governorship and SPLM leadership leading into numerous conflicts
within the party. Because he is violent he gets his way with President
Kiir at the top. This part of his character can also be observed from
his private life. General Anei is said to have between 70 to 86 wives
most of whom he violently brought in to his life.

In his mind, General Anei appears to consider women as properties or
possessions. There is no love here. It is purely an issue of
possession and domination for him to exercise power. He views women as
factories of making babies.

It is possible that womanising plays a big role in his criminal
character because to have that number of wives and God knows how many
children, one would need to feed them and then cloth them. With this
harem, is it any wonder why General Anei appropriated Warawara market
and frequently starves his department of salaries?

General Anei’s possession of women symbolises his activities in
relation to possession of institutions of power, governorship, army,
SPLM etc. Simply put, the man is an egomaniac.

Now the coin of power is tossed up in the air. Will it be heads for
President Kiir’s plan or tails for General Anie’s violent ascendance
to power? General Anei’s earlier campaign of self promotion in the
media should be taken as a sign of his wish to lay claim to the
presidency.

The question is: has he got what it takes to be a president? Of-course
not, he is naked. Even his media promotion unknowingly exposes his
tribalism. For example, all the things used by his media team to
promote him are done in Aweil.

The only exception is the donation of a vehicle to the women’s
organisation. Now, is Aweil South Sudan? If he were a patriot why did
he not build in other parts of the country? A further crucial
question: where did he get all the money to do those projects?

Building self image fitting the characteristic of a president is not
enough to qualify General Anei for the presidency. He should not look
at President Kiir and begin to think that he can also be. President
Kiir is a real fluke created by extra ordinary circumstances of
lottery nature.

South Sudanese people have had enough of this lot. Whether it is
President Kiir with his new Machiavelin plans or General Anei with his
egotistic plan for power grab, they should know that they have lost
the trust of the people.

They can exercise power negatively as they do now using their militia
but they will continue to face resistance until they are brought down
to face the music. South Sudanese want their future president to have
the attributes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes in her book ‘We
should all be feminists’ as a person “more intelligent, the more
knowledgeable, the more creative, [and] more innovative.”

[Truth hurts but it is also liberating]

Elhag Paul
elha...@aol.com
@elhagpaul
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2 Comments

Deng Gatloak
October 17, 2016 at 6:04 pm

Excellent analysis. There are a few instigators of the trouble in
South Soudan. Hitherto they have hid by attacking aggressively those
who wish peace. Perverting the truth at every angle, scheming to
justify atrocities.
Acting surprised and outraged when victims strike back. As if the
victims of the horrendous acts raped themselves, cut their own heads
of or massacred and mutilated their own children. So is evil, we
recognize it when we see it, but most decent people can’t begin to
image what these psychopathic individuals are like. It is in the book
about Rwanda by the then military commander for the UN forces. Shaking
hands with the devil”, Malong is one of these figures.
Assisted by Lueth and Ateny to stir up hatred and conflict. Sadly
making young men loose their life in a conflict they neither
understand nor ever will profit from. Kiir sees it all happen but dos
nothing about it so we must assume it all happens with his blessings.
So far removed is Kiir that he never sees the survivers of his state
violence, the orphaned children, the mutilated women, the castrated
boys or the crying grandparents. Not for him to suffer hunger and
disease. Not for him and his ilk to see their children crying for food
and security.

South Sudan under Kiir has reverted back in time, back to the evil
ages it had so fought to escape. Under Kiir, progress is not possible.
Malong and his likes have robbed the country clean of anything except
its people. Investing in things to glorify themselves (did anyone see
the “throne” the Minsiter of Finance has in his office? And Kiir
wasting millions on (hats) and other useless paraphernalia to build
the charade, the look of government. But the sad reality is that there
is a government in form only, certainly not in function. The Ministry
of transport cant even fix potholes in the measly few kilometers of
bitumen roads in the capital.

These people are not nation builders, they rob what is not nailed
down (and sometimes they take that also).

South Sudan needs a break from these individuals.

Now, before the anniversary of the 2013 genocide. for the sake of
the children, for the sake of those who want to build happy and safe
communities. The gangsters have had their day. The world knows who
they are and so do we.

Urgently. Put a stop to the madness
Reply
info@southsudannation
October 17, 2016 at 7:20 pm

Elhag,
Whilst your exposition is very excellent, the sad reality is that
this criminal is already wrecking chaos in the nation.
Literally, the illiterate Malong is posited above the vice
president, he’s now almost the pseudo-president in Juba, always you
see him sitting nearest to the buffoon, Mayardit .
In comparison, those of Idi Amin and Bokassa, although illiterate,
were well disciplined colonial soldiers who rose to higher ranks on
their own merits, Malong is a spineless gangster who rose to what and
where he is now by murdering thousands to appease both Garang and
Kiir.
Already, Malong has been involved in two massacres of grand scale
and he is still killing the women and disabled in Equatoria and the
Naath and Collo nations.
South Sudan will possibly become another Cambodia or Laos in the
nearest future.
God help the nation.
Editor