An attempt to be politically correct is the road to political hell: A response to Rebecca Nyandeng Garang

[Elisabeth Janaina]

An attempt to be politically correct is the road to political hell: A
response to Rebecca Nyandeng Garang
Mar. 03 Politics, Uncategorized 4 comments

By: Daniel Juol Nhomngek, Kampala Uganda, MAR/03/2017, SSN;

Before I delve into this discussion, I’d like first to state one of
the Seven Social Sins from a sermon given by Frederick Lewis Donaldson
in Westminster Abbey, London, on March 20, 1925, in which he stated as
“Politics without principle.” Exactly, Madam Rebecca Nyandeng Garang
is playing a politics without principles.

When I talk of principles in this context, I mean an accepted or
professed rule of action or conduct or fundamentals, primary, or
general law or truth from which others are derived. In simple terms,
principles are what we believe in or morals that govern our conduct.

Morals or morality according to Oscar Wilde is the attitude we adopt
towards people we personally dislike. However, the fact remains that
whether we like someone or not, we should not distort facts to suit
our personal interests just because we want to harm someone we
dislike.

The fact that Nyandeng Garang dislikes President does not warrant her
to distort facts with the intention of destroying him politically;
there must be a limit to politics when it comes to the national
issues.

The institution of the Red Army is a matter of public importance and
it is part of our national heritage which we must respect and value.
However, reducing the whole institution into the institution founded
by followers of food and services is something derogatory and done in
bad faith by Nyandeng Garang.

To help those who have not had an opportunity to read the statement of
Nyandeng Garang on the Red Army, I would like to briefly repeat what
she said here. Nyandeng in an interview with Al Jazeera UpFront
program, on the topic entitled who’s to blame for South Sudan’s civil
war? (The interview can be accessed on:
www.aljazeera.com/programmes/…/blame-famine-south-sudan-170221192501168.htFebruary
21, 2017) accused South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir, of allegedly
using soldiers from the Dinka tribe to commit atrocities on other
ethnic groupings and called on him to step down.

When asked during that interview about her late husband alleged use of
child-soldiers she rejected a previous Human Rights Watch report,
which implicated her husband, John Garang for using child soldiers
during the over two-decade civil war.

However, when the Presenter on Jazeera pressed her about the children
among the soldiers, Nyandeng admitted, but justified the presence of
the child soldiers as a necessity. She is quoted to have stated —
“They children came with their parents and some of them just followed
the army because sometimes when they go with the army they can find
better services; food and things like that because we were in the
bush. Some of the children even leave their parents and they follow
the army. There was no official recruitment which was being done.”

As seen above, Nyandeng clearly rubbished the role and history of the
Red Army in the liberation and creation of South Sudan which by
implications means that the institution called Red Army Foundation
should have not been established in the first place as its members are
not important to the history of South Sudan.

What I can say about the above presentation by Madam Nyangdeng
concerning the Red Army is misconceived and above all, it is a
political error. It is the error because various reports contradict
what she has said. For instance, the Report of Human Rights Watch
indicated that in the early 1980s, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army
(SPLA) recruited and began training boys as young as 12 to fight in
its battle for independence from Sudan.

The child soldiers were called the Red Army (this is according to a
1994 Human Rights Watch report (pdf) and if you need it you can get
this report online by writing it on google search engine).

In relation to the above, the Guardian.com (visit:
https://www.theguardian.com › World › Development › Conflict and
development) confirms the Human Rights Watch Report that the children
who were later formed into the Red Army were not following soldiers
because of food and services in 1980s but instead, they were inspired
by liberation war.

For instance, the Guardian cited Adam Jaafer Manoah who joined the
SPLA willingly or without being recruited. Adam Jaafer Manoah as the
Guardian reported, left Yirol when he was 13 and trekked for nine
months from his home in Yirol, in what is now central South Sudan, to
a military training camp in neighbouring Ethiopia.

In the interview with the Guardian, Adam was reported to have stated
that and I quote,”I was going to liberate my country,” he said.

As the Guardian reported, Adam joined the Red Army’s Zalzal (or
Earthquake) Battalion and later became a political organizer and
fighter.

Then, the Guardian concluded with comment that “the use of child
soldiers is one of the more horrific moments in the history of South
Sudan’s creation, though the former Red Army members do not shy about
remembering their experiences. Instead, they are relying on the ties
formed in combat to organise a new front”.

Apart from the above two sources, there are many other evidences from
both primary and secondary sources that clearly show that Dr. Garang
recruited Child-soldiers and also some children joined the army
willingly.

The foregoing discussion proves beyond reasonable doubt that Red Army
members were not going to the bush for the sake of food and good
services. In fact, how can children leave home to join the Members of
the SPLA who were depending on their parents?

The SPLA soldiers cannot deny the fact that since 1983 and partly up
to date were and are still depending on the civilians who are the
parents of the Red Army. This means that the argument put forward by
Madam Rebecca Nyandeng to justify the presence of children in the bush
is incoherent, erroneous and fallacious.

In addition, it is malicious as it is perplexing to see Madam Nyandeng
Garang who considers herself as Mother of the SPLM/A denying the
documented facts simply because she wanted to sound politically
correct.

What she did not understand is that an attempt to be politically
correct is the road to political hell sometimes. This is because it
leads to political error and political downfall and political agony.

In this regard, if the people of South Sudan know their political
rights and right political leaders, Nyandeng and other political
gamblers would have been sanctioned and detained in the political
limbo. Thus, Nyandeng Garang would have definitely been sanctioned
politically because she is politically naïve and at the same time she
is a political gambler.

In addition, when we analyze her statement carefully, we can also
conclude that Madam Nyandeng wanted to deny the rights of Red Army
members to history of South Sudan because they were not her children
or children coming from where she comes from, Bor, Jonglei State in
Upper Nile Region.

So, their contribution to South Sudanese history should be denied by
all costs to make sure that they disappear in history. As a matter of
fact, most of the children who served in the Red army were from Bahr
El Ghazal area and this seems to be one of the motivation that pushed
Madam Nyandeng into making political blunder.

In summary, denying the facts or distorting them just because we want
to destroy someone we dislike in politics shows political immaturity
of Madam Nyandeng. She is politically immature and also a political
pathetic liar.

Nyandeng Garang must apologize to the Red Army because attacking their
history shows her intention that she wants to destroy their history.
It is injustice to deny the facts and the truth on which those facts
are founded upon.

NB//: the author is South Sudanese Lawyer residing in Kampala Uganda
and can be reached through: juold...@yahoo.com/+256783579256
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4 Comments

Gatdarwich
March 3, 2017 at 10:41 pm

Juol,

Let the truth be told. The only reason you’re mad as hell with
madam Nyandeng is because she boldly and truthfully told the obvious
fact__that killer nyankiir is “using soldiers from Dinka tribe”, and
armed mercenaries to commit atrocities on other tribes. The Red Army
bulshit comments attributed to Madam nyandeng is purely a counter-
political punch on nyandeng evidently concocted by killer nyankiir’s
cohorts. Juol, you simply deny or affirm the fact that killer nyankiir
is using soldiers from the Dinka tribe and hired mercenaries to commit
atrocities on non_Dinka tribe in south sudan instead of concentrating
on politically diversion story__the Red Army bulshit comments.
Reply
False Millionnaire
March 3, 2017 at 11:08 pm

A village girl married to an intellectual without a background of
solid education can never be an equal counterpart in wisdom to her
husband.
The history of South Sudanese struggle for independence is one
that consumed masses of all ages from anyone under general Lagu to the
SPLM /A under Garang.
Just before the signing of the Adis Ababa Agreement ending the
Anya Anya’s war, under age children were among the recruits for
training camps in Equatoria from the greater Bahar el Ghazal. Garang
himself could have been a child soldier among the ranks of Anya Any’s
forces.
At such desperate times where the value of a country surpasses
that of a human being, the only best choice is to sacrifice one’s self
and one’s Kins to be able to cherish any hope of success. As the child
soldiers constituted the roots and the backbone of the Anya Anya
movement, they didn’t move away by an inch from the structural
framework of the SPLM/A.
Things have gone too wrong in RSS and the conducts of the likes of
Nyandeng proves that the state of their mind set is such that they see
RSS as a valueless object that fell from the Sky without any human
sacrifices.
Jieng have become the subject of hate in the country but which way
is she angel among the ranks of the elites who have badly managed
national affairs ending up setting the masses against each other?
Times are hard with the sky threatening to come down over the
country and the masses. If the red army soldiers were toilet papers
for the dirty work during desperate times, if they weren’t the makers
of the happiest history of an independent RSS and if the likes of
Nyandeng are selling out in the media smearing filth on the image of
the red army soldiers with false calculations to ascend to power by
doing so, that’s very fine. But time will still prove to her that she
will never go too far by the merit of such rampage.
There are many surviving red army soldiers within and beyond RSS.
To be Lucky in life is one thing. But to be determined to beat the
odds in the face of death is more a decisive factor than luck itself.
Many countrymen have become so blind and consumed by sterile hunger
for power and illustrations gotten wealth that they never think one
minute that Garang will come back one day in the person a surviving
red army soldier to complete the work Garang hasn’t finished. That of
course will be a God’s choice. But see how so ridiculous she is in
daring to run faster than God!!!
Reply
Deng Monymor
March 4, 2017 at 11:12 pm

She and her son, Mabior Nyandeng Chol Atem, are done politically.
Anyone who smears a dirt on Red Army as a way to gain political
ascension to the heave of power in South Sudan will never go anywhere.
If she doesn’t understand this, her own life will attest to it. She
should go back to where Dr. John found her (we don’t want her to
damage the image of Dr. John); she belongs there after all the mess
she been causing around since 2013.
Reply
Philip Duot Manyok
March 5, 2017 at 11:55 pm

Mr Nhomngek,
You rightly criticized the mother of the South Sudan madam Rebecca
Nyandeng on playing down the historic role of Jesh Al amer,or red army
or Child soldiers. how ever I do not agree with this assertion and I
Quote your statement ”In addition, when we analyze her statement
carefully, we can also conclude that Madam Nyandeng wanted to deny the
rights of Red Army members to history of South Sudan because they were
not her children or children coming from where she comes from, Bor,
Jonglei State in Upper Nile Region.

So, their contribution to South Sudanese history should be denied
by all costs to make sure that they disappear in history. As a matter
of fact, most of the children who served in the Red army were from
Bahr El Ghazal area and this seems to be one of the motivation that
pushed Madam Nyandeng into making political blunder.” I was a member
of the Red Army and if we go by the statatistics as per the population
there is no any community or section that has contributed than the
Dinka Bor. For example in Palotaka there were 90 percent Dinka Bor
child solders than all the other dinkas and other tribes put together
and I was one of them. The greater Upper Nile contribution to the the
Jesh AL amer is undisputable. Stop your tribal avocation by trying to
discredit others.