Dinka council of elders denies forming shadow cabinet in S. Sudan

[Elisabeth Janaina]

Dinka council of elders denies forming shadow cabinet in S. Sudan

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March 2, 2017 (JUBA) - The Jieng (Dinka) Council of Elders (JCE) has
denied being a shadow cabinet advising President Salva Kiir on
national matters but pledged to support the independence of South
Sudan.

JPEG - 16.3 kb
Aldo Ajou Deng Akuey (Facebook)

“For those so far misled to believe that the JCE (Jieng Council of
Elders) is the main advisory board to President Salva Kiir Mayardit in
the governance of South Sudan, we sincerely and honestly tell them
that we are not any nearer to President Salva”, writes Aldo Ajou
Akuey, a leading member of the group on his Facebook page.

Social media and outlets are full of stories about the JCE’s role in
the country. All the major decisions taken by the tribal body and then
brought to the cabinet meeting for a formal endorsement, say
detractors.

However, Akuey who is the chairperson of legal and constitutional
affairs at the council of state denied the self-appointed tribal group
of veteran politicians was close to president Kiir.

“For those so far misled to believe that the JCE is the main advisory
board to President Salva Kiir Mayardit in the governance of South
Sudan, we sincerely and honestly tell them that we are not any nearer
to President Salva,” he said.

The official argued the legitimacy of Salva Kiir as the President of
South Sudan emanates from his struggle for the liberation of the
country not from his affiliation to the Dinka tribe.

“He was not built or elected by the Dinka community alone. If there is
anything in common between Salva and JCE, it is the fact that Salva is
a Dinka by birth and the Chairman of the SPLM to which our group is
affiliated by merits of the final liberation of our country and
ourselves as individuals and as a nationality,” he said

However, Akuey stressed that the JCE as an ethnic entity supports the
existence South Sudan as a free sovereign nation.

“We have the right to protect, preserve and uphold the ultimate
Liberation’s achievements of the Sovereign Republic of South Sudan.
The JCE has sworn not to let down the "independence and sovereignty"
as the fundamental achievement of the 21st century all the way from
1899 to 2005).

"We will not agree with any traitors whose mission is to temper with
the freedoms and rights of our nation".

(ST)

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The Sudan Tribune editorial team.

3 March 00:00, by Kuch

What is all these paranoia about this so-called Jieng Council of
Elders (JCE)? Every community in South Sudan has their own council of
elders. Jieng elders have been here since there were Monjieng people
on earth and they are not going to go anywhere and other South
Sudanese elders have been there ever since and they are not going
anywhere also>>>

repondre message
3 March 00:11, by Kuch

just because the current president is a Jieng/Dinka doesn’t
mean he doesn’t listen to others South Sudanese council of elders
advise. Simply put it this way, even during our liberation wars. The
Jieng elders were the ones that were approached by the SPLM/A to send
their boys to army to fight the arabs, they were the ones that used to
collect food and gave it to SPLA soldiers and many other things>

repondre message
3 March 00:20, by Kuch

and so do many other South Sudanese communities, they did
the same thing. I for one remembered, when I was fighting in central
and Eastern Equatoria in 1990th to early 2000. Whenever we went to a
village, we would asked for a chief home and we would be taken to a
chief home by any other elder. A chief of that village would made sure
that we were given water to drink and fed>>>

repondre message
3 March 00:29, by Kuch

and we would just made our camping on the village
gathering place and the next morning, we would thank the village chief
and his elders and moved on to our next destination. All those chiefs
and their elders used to give us their wise words of encouragement and
that is how we managed to fight the arabs (mundukuru) out of almost
all towns out of Equatoria>>>

repondre message
3 March 00:37, by Kuch

So fellows, l think this paranoia of the so-called
JCE has been hyped up a notch a bit. Why don’t other South Sudanese
council of elders call out the so-called JCE and even things out face
to face if they think the JCE are running a parallel government? For
me, what l see in our government is an overt corruption by whoever is
in the government>>>

repondre message
3 March 00:49, by Kuch

and in high position of authority. So l
believe these issues can be evened out during the national dialogue.
Even during our liberation time, even Dr. Garang was sometimes called
to answer some questions on how the liberation was going. Case in
point, l can remember was in 1994 in Chukudum SPLM/A convention as a
little boy a accompanying Senior SPLA commander to convention>>>

repondre message
3 March 01:03, by Kuch

a serious dialogue with Dr. Garang with
his senior SPLM officials and the SPLA front line commanders for some
days in Chukudum. Many liberation songs were sung, but my best song
that l still remember today was a ’Koryom division’ song to which many
of the convention attendees graduated from in early 1980th>>>

repondre message
3 March 01:24, by Kuch

and the song goes "Rajil kazab mamana,
taban mamana, pi kuliya Bongo ya---"in Arabic and which slightly
translates in English "a liar is not our man, a weak man is not with
us, at Bongo cadets training---" The song was sung in a way that
"kazab/lying" was overtly empathized towards Dr. Garang by the
convene-es while clapping their hands and smiling at Dr. Garang>>>

repondre message
3 March 01:34, by Kuch

and after the song, the whole
convention busted into laughter. Even some us the little boys, who
were standing guard all over the convene-es broke the our protocols
and laughed also. The word "kazab/liar" was emphasized to insinuate
that Dr. Garang and his senior SPLM/A commanders were not ’serious’
about the liberation, but ’lying’>>>

repondre message
3 March 01:46, by Kuch

Dr. Garang then stood up and
laughed also about the song and its insinuated meaning. Dr. Garang
then walked around the front of the convention while ’taping’ his hand
with his leadership ’stick’ that is similar to president Salva Kiir
’stick’ for over a minute and to cut the whole story short fellows.
Dr. Garang told the 1994 Chukudum convention that "we are not lying,
and we are not going to lie"

repondre message
3 March 01:57, by Kuch

again if at all we have
been lying to our each other and ourselves. The convention later
dispersed and all the frontline commanders went to their respective
areas, some were redeployed to other areas. And over eight months
later, we got some new toys and a bit advance and Dr. Garang would
just sprung up and the middle of the night and mingled with us.
Stories would be told, some of us would fall>>

repondre message
3 March 02:07, by Kuch

asleep, but were
advised that if you the guy next to you is sleeping, then wake him up
slowly. There were occasional SPLA liberation and battle song though.
However Dr. used to tell us not to sing but to listen. But we just
sung anyway and he would allow it since it an African way of going to
wars. War songs are a must>>>

repondre message
3 March 02:18, by Kuch

And l think, that
is how the SPLA gallantly fought back after we were squeezed to
Nimule, Narus, Jebel Boma and other little town after 1991 SPLM/A
split. So fellows, *dialogue* has been never been an enemy of anyone.
Even brothers of the same mother and father often have their own
spats, but they always down and even things out by a win-win
dialogues. That is how we do things>>>

repondre message
3 March 02:27, by Kuch

in our Nilotic
plains anyway. I am a Jieng/Dinka though, in Jieng/Dinka way of doing
thing. We have what is called "kon kooc/kon madang" that is *stop,
investigate the problem* before you take an action. And after you find
out the problem, then take action with an *absolute force*
imaginable>>>

repondre message
3 March
02:34, by Kuch

and l
think other South Sudanese communities do have the same way of doing
things, but our Nuer cousins don’t investigate things and why we in
the current problems. They are the ones that the attempted the foiled
coup in 2013, but as usual. our Nuer cousins went mad and blamed their
usual misadventure on their Jaang/Dinka>>>

repondre message
3
March 02:45, by Kuch

what
happened in Juba in 2013, if it were the Dinkas/Jiengs that were
alleged to have been to murdered by the SPLA. The Dinkas/Jiengs would
have responded like the Nuers responded and go and killed innocent
people in Bor, Akoba, Balliet, Malakal, Anasir and Bentiu. The
Dinka/Jieng elders would have first find out who was behind the
killing of their people and revenge thoroughly>>>

repondre message
3 March 03:10, by Dinka-Defender-General

Personally, I agree with Kuch that "we ]the Dinkas people]
have what is called "kon kooc/kon madang" that is *stop, investigate
the problem* before you take an action. And after you find out the
problem, then take action with an *absolute force* imaginable." I
believer Nuer people don’t have the word "stop" in their language and
that is why the slaughtered many innocent Dinkas people in their area

repondre message
3 March 06:15, by john akeen

I personally agree with Mr. Koch. Our cousins Nuers are like that
even Americans they got tired of them, this peoples they like war
killing, massive, hate, and destroy before investigation, believe me
if you want to know this people’s just go and find one of them and
tell him any lies and C what he is going to do, he’ll start killing
peoples infront of you before he investigate what is going on. B

repondre message
3 March 06:51, by Freedom Advocate

Kuch and your likes, you’re such a pathetic jienges who know
nothing about peaceful coexistence among the people of south sudan.
What is JCE and what is its role in the national affairs? Jienge is
one community and south Sudan is all south Sudanese property of which
no single tribe can claim messing up with its affairs. During the days
of struggle, we equally bled the same red blood of patriotism!