Hello all,

Thanks to Kuot Kuot for raising this sensitive issue for southerners and Sudan as a whole.  We are not at the top of the news either, but its real that this guy is holding two positions, instead of giving up one position to his comrades in the movement.  Actually its greed for power.  It would have been better, if he had balance the equation like what Omar did.  To be sincere, he is too intelligent by getting one of his colleagues to take one position as vice president.  It is a fact that two thinking minds are better than one.

Remember when struggling for something be careful, not to loose what is in hand because a bird at hand is worth two in the bush.

Ahok and Awel.

Mr. Kuot Kuot,

Thanks for the topic. We, those who were living in the western world knew very well that doing two jobs is a hard task. The thing is somehow complicated because Garang will have his office of Sudan's vice president at the capital city, Khartoum whereas his office of Southern Sudan's president in the south.

The two jobs will give him hard and restless time to run both offices. The great problem is how he should address the need of the south where he is the president when he is at Khartoum. The governing council of SPLM/A should note this if they haven't decide anything already to solve this issue.

I think, having one office in north and one office in the south is not a dilemma.

Sincerely,

Thanks fellows for your perspectives on the topic in question. You have identified almost all areas of concern as far as assuming two offices at ago is regarded. It is at this point becoming apparent that John Garang is intending to hold two positions during the interim period as can be deduced from your replies. There is therefore no reason at this juncture not to conclude that the man will indeed hold the two positions however, the question as Deng Santo pointed out will continue to be how he will  possibly do it. Again the question will not longer have a lot to do with his competent, but will very much have to do with time factor; where in the world will he find all the time he needs to be in his office of vice president and that of president in Khartoum and Rumbek respectively?

I think John Garang's intention to hold two positions is not wise an idea, it actually has a lot of other underlying problems in addition to lack of time. As a vice president of Sudan, he will be expected by all Sudanese people and international community to promote national unity, paradoxically, as president of the South, southern Sudanese will expect him to prepare them for succession comes referendum, and this expectation is a complete opposite of his vice presidential duties. How else would he solve this dilemma besides giving up one position? The best he can do is to just take his role as vice president and allow a different person, say Kiir Mayardit to assume the presidency of southern Sudan. That will give him freedom to preach his ideas of national unity expected of him while our president in the south continues preparing us for ultimate succeession.

His intention to take up two positions also imply that, he thinks of himself as the only one capable of ruling. Otherwise there is no point why he would even think of holding two positions at one time when there are many other capably southerners who can do the job. That in itself would equate to nothing less than a complete betrayal of his comrades who fought a brutal war with him through thick and thin. I might be speculating here, I will leave it here till I get a clear picture of what exactly is going to happen as far as the said issue is concerned. Take care folks.

Kuot Kuot.

Lwal Dau!

Having read your article thoroughly, I found it full with arrogance, belittlement and denigration of other people capability, ethnocentricism, support of eccentricity from the conventional track, and exaggeration of John Garang superior capacity against all Southerners. I wonder if South Sudan would prosper without a fair and equal distribution of power and responsibilities. It is indeed a greediness and power hunger. What guaranttees John Garang would do the job of these two positions effetively while he has failed to unite Southerners given his ability of one position under Spla/m leadership?  

Sometimes I wonder too if South would make a scientific research if they could to find medicine or scientific means to rejuvenate John Garang every times he ages. I don't know if they have plan for making such development to keep their God given son young and energetic. This is the part I would advise this man and his supporters to think about.

Aquoll piezometric

Dear Lual Dau,

Thanks for your input. While I respect your viewpoints, I must beg to disagree with your take on this issue. My reading of your argument, if I am not wrong, is that anyone whether be it John Garang or Kiir Mayar, who takes up the position of VP of the republic of Sudan must automatically assume the presidency of southern Sudan as laid down in the CPA. I don’t get this quite well. First of all, CPA, as per what I know, has not spelt out the nature of the GOSS; it never made any real effort to define the southern Sudanese political destiny. It dealt almost entirely with south-north relation during the interim period covering such vital areas as power sharing, wealth sharing etcetera. Yes it made a slight mention of the president of the south being the VP of the republic. But here one can’t help but to point fingers at negotiators from the SPLA side led by John Garang for failing to properly address this tricky issue during the talk.

I am however yet to find an area in the CPA where southerners are obliged to have only one person assuming these two positions. How I look at it is that, decision by southerners to have two people occupying these two positions doesn’t necessarily equate to abrogation of the terms of CPA. John Garang in his right as leader of SPLA/M can simply take up his VP position but southerners should have a completely different person in the office of president. Southerners would expect succession to be the top priority of their president something which John Garang (or whoever will be VP) can not do as his hands at tied by his position.

Farther, I would like us to disregard CPA for a bid and put this debate into the perspective of the nature of these jobs themselves. Do you believe it is possible for John Garang to carry out the duties of VP and president at the same time? These jobs are equally demanding to begin with, how do you expect one person to effectively carry them out at the same time? What is it that south lacks which must force it to overburden one person? How will this one person address the contradictory nature of these two jobs (that is VP must strive toward achieving the unity of the republic, whereas southern president ought to prepare his people for the forthcoming referendum)?

Well I don’t have time now Lual Dau, I have got to go but my message is that, the idea of having one person taking these two positions is simply impractical, it won’t work given the nature of the two jobs let alone their being too demanding in terms of time…Talk to you later.

KK

Dear all,

Nothing will change the mentality of 80s and 90s given this confusion at the top unless we stand up and make our voices heard nationwide. John Garang has an opportunity to be either a President in South or Vice-president in North; but he doen't have an opportunity to hold two challenging and demanding positions while there are people who can the job. I thought Southerners would prepare themselves this time and make a less dangerous decision to succeed and also be recognized worldwide as a people who can perform better without Arabs's help. And if indeed it is correct John Garang holds two positions, what message would it send to the rest of the world? I believe it delievers a message of Southerners being unable to do the job. The question is, when will the rest of Southerners learn to take the challenges and responsibilities of the top positions? I believe the time is now and hence Southerners must figure out correctly how they can make it become tradition of their lives. We have to do things in a more straightforward and candid manner. Friendly dialogue and formation of the entire system being military, social, economic, and political must always be debated and discussed thoroughly to avoid the tragedies that might arise in the future. Though the body called CPA has precisely wrongly made a final decision, I am a little afraid of potential dangers this arrangement must pose to the future of South Sudan. The twenty two years life-span of Spla/m has many problems because of the previous assumption of an ultimate omnipotence on Garang side. This man had attempted several times to evade democracy and consideration of his colleagues ideas as far as the governance and operation of Spla/m was concerned. He had made it too difficult for most leaders to participate in the leadership decisions and plans because he had been the only man who could decide which course to take today and the next day. This had been happening but nobody dare confronting this confusion and monopolization because the reason for the mess was grounded in guerilla war or rebel as a scapegoat for that unbelieveable mess. My point here is that giving these two positions to him (John Garang) would jeopardize South Sudan more than in the past. Besides him being overworked, South Sudan leadership would be a lot worse than dictatorships in other places in Africa and Middle East. I believe he is a human like others and thus the probability of creating other harsh situations for the rest of his counter-parts and opponents alike would be truely high.

Lack of fairness and sharing of powers and responsibilities won't take us anywhere as far as the development, democratization, and stabilization are concerned. Freedom has been obtained but it doesn't mean the mission has been accomplished. Freedom is a broader term that has been superficially understood by most ordinary people. It involves a lot of things and things must surface and flourish. Those who sacrificed their dear lives didn't do because they were tired of life nor because they had nothing to do on Earth. But they did it for their loved ones to have a political, economic, and social freedom anywhere in South Sudan. However, assuming that some people are less talented in leadership or less gifted with leadership qualities or abilities and thus those who are blessed with these qualities can take two or more positions would be wrong. I think it is precisely wrong to conclude to make such a hasty and inappropriate decision. Taking South Sudan out of this destruction requires an inclusion of everybody at every level of re-construction and the only way to make it happen is to encourage fairness in the leadership positions. There are a lot of people who (besides John Garang) are able to hold the position of South Sudan President efficaciously. These individuals have qualifications they have acquired all these years of struggle. They have done the most arduous part of securing independence and I believe they can do a better job if one of them is permitted to take the position. We have to adapt a different style of handling and managing the whole system, which comprises of proper military arrangement for the security, fair political distribution to include all tribes in an equal management and participation of the government in South, and fair distribution of resources. This system if adapted could also help to unite Southerners and coalesce relations and give them a sense of being a community of shared of commonalties. And therefore the crisis and animosities among these tribes would be difused. John Garang and other leaders should show us a better way of doing things rather than creating more confusion in addition to what had occurred in the past. It is a responsibility of the leadership to confront problems to avoid passing them on to next generations. And I wish the South Sudan leadership must adapt better strategies and leadership styles to elevate and show the sense of humanity and freedom.

Take or reject what I say but don't bother to know who I am. You can't know him/her unless you met him/her before.

Lual Dau,

Thanks for ignoring me. I believe it is a better strategy if your philosophy or policy doesn't permit you to respond to the person speaking in the position of "anonymity." I can't be humiliated nor do you because of "anonymity."

Have a good time folks.

Thanks,

Aquoll

Kuot kuot,

I see where your arguement is but we also have to see the kind of abnormality that is found within the CPA itself and I will have to repeat myself here. what does it really looks like given the fact that south and north will be under a single president and the president himself will not have control over the southern army (SPLA)? Does this really sounds to be a normal form of gov't?

what if somebody else becomes the president of south sudan? who will be the commander in chief of the SPLA army, Garang or the president of south sudan? To me, the president of south sudan will command the southern army. If it works this way, shall Garang not remain a puppet to "khartoum" like the other southerners who had previously served the post of vice president? This may not be Garang alone but any other southerners who may get that position.

One think is clear and that is south and north will never get separated by negotiations. Why do I have to say this? The very true thing that led to the negotiating and the mediating team came up with this ambigous CPA is the complexity of the issue of defining the North-Sorth borders plus the oil.Even if the SPLA had rejected the offer of 50% oil and Goss, they would have only fall out with khartoum with no better results than the CPA we now have. Southerners will never accept seeing Abyiei going to North and Arabs will not also accept seeing Abyiei going to south. We will not want to see oil shared 50%-50% with north given that it's ours and on the other hand, northerners will offer to die instead of losing the oil to south.where will the end be? It will be an endless struggle!

My vision of the current CPA is that; it is not an assurance of peace.It is not also a possibility of seccession for south sudan! it is just but a way southerners will get another opportunity to fight for their independence.It is very true that if we vote for seccession after six years, the disputed areas like Abyiei will still remain an obstacle.southerners will only be cowards to accept giving 50% of their own oil to the Arabs.All these problems have no solutions and the end result will be another war.

Kuot kuot, It is really unheard of to see one man becoming the vice president of one country and the president of another "country".South sudan is just another country in a special status! Everybody see all these ambiguities but we just have to give the trial and error method a chance. The problem of sudan is jus like a divion of 1/3 which has no end.The IGAD, Un and other bodies that had a hand in this CPA where only making a trial and error method in their attempt to solve the problem of sudan.There has been no other peace agreement in the world with such provisions as that of the Gos and the SPLA. Let's just give Dr.Garang a chance to see if he is going to end the SPLA struggle with shame and disgrace to himself and southerners like the ANYA WARS!

Ateny wek,

I share your view with you.CPA needs some more interpretations and a closer look at some issues which had been over-looked.Most of those questions you asked are not answered in the CPA and one can only ends up making assumptions and common sense to answer them which is never good for a constitution.

Aquol,

Your words to me were bitter and quiet touching especially when I feel innocent about your accussations and I did not find it appropriete to respond to them in the same fashion here at madingaweil.This was the simple fact why I turned a deaft hear to you although I don't want to deny the contribution your anonymous identity had made to my contribution. 

lualdau

Hi all,

For those who talk of greed, power hunger and some other names of the same calibre should give the CPA scenario a second thought. In my own perspective, it is not yet ripe to hold Garang or anyone prisoner of my discontentment. I do see that the gains, to all southerners, of letting Garang or any of his successors take the two positions during the interim period outweigh the gains of handing him only one post. It is even my suspicion that such move was opposed by NIF and was enforced by the SPLA. Take it this way, first, neither Garang nor any freedom fighter was fighting for a post in the GoS government. Second, Khartoum government are fond of giving southerners very important posts but such people are redundant. How many vice presidents have we had in Khartoum government and what impact did they do. What respect was accorded to them and why was there such differential treatment? The simple answer is POWER. If you have no power to rebel when things are not done in your power, everyone, including those subordinate to you would spit in your face. Ask Kongor Arop and Moses Machar who have held the position of vice president and they will actually tell you in your face that it was bad for them being national figures without any political/military voice. So for Garang to be audible to the North, for our interest of course, he needs to have some POWER. So that when he speaks on our behalf, it would be like telling Beshir indirectly that "I want this done my way and if not, my forces are on stand by." If he is not the commander in chief of SPLA, he would definitely be like George Kongor and Moses Machar. So for me, I prefer the chairman of the SPLA armed forces to be the [an independent and powerful] vice president of the Sudan during the interim period. It appears that SPLA is interested in showing the North that they are different from the previous forces that were integrated into Sudan armed forces after 1972 agreement. According to them, the war is not over until the results of the referendum are out!

If he maintains the two positions after the interim period (and I personally do not want Garang to lead the south after the interim period) then he would obviously be a person who should be dealt with by hook and crook. 

Those who base their argument on secession should wait. The CPA was reached with a lot of compromises and concessions. Both the south and the North gave up some of their positions in order to halt the war. The North would have not conceded anything if they were not shown the hope that there is a possibility of unity after six years. Of course the circumstance surrounding this CPA is what has awarded Garang the two positions. So let's wait until the day when we will nail this CPA in its final grave and then choose the leaders of our choice.

Lual Dau and Mabbul,

First and foremost, stop scaring the public with a possibility of war. Let it come. 

If war is imminent then that would be okay. This war won't be fought by John Garang nor Salva Kiir nor Pual Malong Awan nor Riek Machar. But it will be fought by you and I. Thus I would advise you to keep silent if you don't like war. The legitimate war must be fought by successive generations. More importantly, Aweil won't be disadvantaged in the secoud phase of this war. Those who misled our committed young men have to recognize that the next military officers will take the security of the most vulnerable people as their priority. I am neither a war lover nor a war allergic; however, I will fight the war circumstances justify. My point is that I don't want you to use the vague propaganda of the possibility of war to silence the public from their legitimate argument. Also those who had fought two-decade war have nothing to worry about. War has the same nature. Thus the one is potentially likely to come won't be different from what happened in the past.

Secondly, it is a serious plan to give John Garang two positions which deal with distinctively different responsibilities. It is indeed dangerous impractical given the nature of this modern political world. There is no single advantage this serious move would give to the public except for the man who would take these two positions and his friends or siblings.

Lual Dau,

Could you please demonstrate how your "trial and error" method would appropirately work in this situation? I just want you to use computational analysis if possible or whatever way that can help those who might not have understood  the "trial and error" method.

Thanks,

Aquoll

Dear Lual Dau and the rest,

I think we are moving forward smoothly. This is the kind of debate I like though you are stressing my academic relation with you. I might be your former class-mate but that won't change the equation or my philosophy. We are moving to the toughest phase of the economic, social, and political debates and betterment and thus we have to be careful to alleviate the potential tragedies this plan would bring to South Sudan. The competent and well distribute leadership has a capacity to get South Sudan out of disunity and tribal hatred. South Sudan has a second choice to choose precisely a wrong idea or precisely a correct idea.

I just want you to demonstrate "trial and error" to your audience. The "trial and error" works perfectly for some situations but after only it has been tested and demonstrated with credible and logical paradigms. Though I know what you are talking about, still it would not make sense to throw in the term without proper and reasonable explanation to the rest of audience given the complex nature of this issue. This issue need not to be confused with others that had happened in the past. We must try to give unambiguous and understandable argument for us to be able to get the better solutions for this intracies involved. This is the time where we can explain things and provide more details on how any strategy or potential undertaking would work in any particular situation. You used the word "ambiguity" in your sentence. The "ambiguity" occurs when somebody uses his/her intellectual capacity to vaguely manipulate or persuade those who have no idea of the meaning of the word or term. Throwing in "trial and error" without further backup has indeed created murky ambiguity, because not all of us have the same capacity to understand you actuall meant. Though I know you have ability to explain things, the important of the communication is to take into account the ability or demographies of your audience and thus you should much better than this.

With respect to these two positions, I would affirm that the power distribution and sharing of responsbilities to our people in South Sudan, remains largely important. By giving these two positions to two different people would create and nurture the decision making autonomy, which has never occurred in the past in Spla/M. Any party must fairly incorporate different people from different communities to increase autonomy in the leadership. Thus I urge everybody including yourself to think critically about how we can create autonomy in our leadership. I use the word "autonomy" in this to refer to the situation where the plans and decisions for the nation would be debated and determined by overall vast majority consensus or compromise in South Sudan. We had learnt so many bad things in the autocratic leadership style, where the decisions and plans were expected to come from one man, one homogenous group, and one direction without consultations to heterogeneous groups in South. I am only about this serious attempt to create other phase of "window dressing" democracy or autonomy-I mean the fact that some leaders pretend to be practising democracy or autonomy when in really sense they are not. Democracy and autonomy and sovereignty of the people are more practical in the way I see them applied in developed countries. They must appear like the way they are practiced in other countries. These highly developed democratic countries are good paradigms for us. Let's follow them because they have been involved in many helpful ways to help us find a solution for almost a chronic problem.

Last but not least, though I have no power to change the slavish mentality of the masses. I won't give up writing to them. I am their voice and vision. They all deserve my word as I deserve their sacrifices for my freedom. We are all for the benefit of one another.

Hello, Mr. Kout,

Your question is very reasonable and appropriate question to be ask and not you alone, there are so many people who are actually asking the same question as you do. According to my little knowledge and what I had acquired from the neogatiators of the SPLM/A, is that Dr. John Garang will be running these two positions during this interim periods arrangement until the referundum take place. When I asked the man I had talk to, why is John Garang going to run two positions at a time? He told me that, according to this agreement signed between the SPLM/A and GOS, the position of Vice-President will be senior than the position of the interim president of the South. So in this case, the man will be running these two positions during this interim arrangement until the southerners decided fully, after he will give a chance to others.

Anyway, this is what I learned about the running of two positions by one man at a time.

Best wishes

William Deng Bol.