SPLM is Bigger than Dr. Lam Akol!

“ The cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politics? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But, conscience asks the question, is it right ?”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Last Wednesday, April, 29th, 2009, I took sometimes off my busy work schedule to watch the live coverage of the press conference by the US Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, in which he shocked the party he represented for nearly three decades, that he was switching to their traditional adversary, the Democrat Party.

“ I did not leave the party, he said. The party left me” “ The Republican Party, he went on to say, is drifting more and more to the right, and its no longer represents my beliefs and principles.”

Indeed, there comes a time when one must take a painful social or political decision that is neither safe nor popular, but it’s a decision you make because it’s right, to the best of their ability and knowledge.

Definitively, switching from one party to another is quite acceptable, given the fact that, parties are joined because they advocate certain principles that are consistence with the individual member’s beliefs. Consequently, when that party deviates from such beliefs and moral principles, that party is no longer one’s party, thereby, making switching from it  all the more justified.

Similarly, who would have ever thought that, the architect of America’s modern conservative movement, former President Ronal Reagan, or former US Senator, Storm Thurman, a segregationist from South Carolina, could have ever been  progressive and liberal democrats?

But, while I was glued listening to Senator Specter’s historical press conference, my mind never stopped racing, as to why Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, the former Sudan’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs (who as we know, all of us know, that has been estranged from the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement [SPLM/A, for far too long, and who has been heavily involved with the extremist Islamic National Front [INF].) doesn’t he have the courage to call it quits, and officially switch to the so-called National Congress Party [NCP] where he would fit beautifully with  his racist pals, Nafia Ali Nafia, Mundoor al-Mahedi and Dentist Mustafa Osman Ishmael?

Hence, let’s make no mistake about it. Dr. Lam Akol’s résumé certainly demands respect. But, as a South Sudan’s citizen, I’m astounded  by the positions he has taken , and I can now  fully understand why the Southern people are vehemently outraged by his preposterous behavior, especially on matters that represent the real threat to the South’s well-being!

For example, why has he never ever spoken up about the [NCP’s] tangible  violations of the Comprehensive Agreement [CPA], and has only been consumed, instead, with getting rich by selling the Southern course or tearing the [SPLM/ A apart?

Furthermore, by now - I assume, that everybody has heard about James Okuk! The most publicized PhD hopeful from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and the self-proclaimed defense lawyer for the disgraced Dr. Lam Akol, has now reached a new low. It’s hard to fathom how an educated person would much rather resort to name-calling. It remains to be seen, however, how a PhD student – off all students, could have such an enormous amount of time dedicated to nonsensical rubbish articles against anyone who dares points a finger at his mentor, Dr. Lam Akol!

 Now, the legitimate question that must be asked form Mr. Okuk is: whatever happened to individuals being held responsible for their actions? And when did it become a crime to criticized public personalities?

Well, for Mr. Okuk’s best information, criticizing public figures ( the like of his pal. Dr. Lam Akol), comes with the territory. And if he were just another ordinary man in South Sudan, my article would have never been born.

In his latest outbursts, Mr. Okuk alleged that “ Johnnie Walker” was roaming in my head, while I was writing my articles in critic of Dr. Lam Akol!

Well, while I may not an expertise in Shuluk’s culture, but in mine, the Nuer culture, an adult individual is certainly free to make his or her own decisions, including, of course, the alcohol consumption. In addition, unlike you, Mr. Okuk, who is on the [INF’s] payroll, whatever money I might spend on “Johnnie Walker” is a hard earned money, that comes directly out of my pocket.

Sure, if I have ever been a crook – like you, I could have never been in the United States, in the first place. As a former press secretary to four governors of Upper Nile, namely: Daniel Koat Mathews, Col. John Koang Choul, Col. Simon Manyang Kech and Manasseh Magok Rundial, respectively, and as a correspondent of a wide range of national newspapers- including the then al Ayaam and al- Sahafa, and as an anchorman at Radio Juba, I was too closed to decision makers, that I could have gotten just about  anything and everything that I ever wanted. Yet, I challenge you, Mr. Okuk, to find out if I have any bank accounts or properties, anywhere in the whole of Sudan, but particularly in Malakal or Juba.?

On the contrary, your much bragged- about PhD, will forever be tainted with the blood money.

History is a different animal, sir.

The author is former a former Radio Juba anchorman/ reporter. He can be reach at: