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Kiir's Disregard for Institutionalism in the South: What's the Judiciary doing about it? July 6, 2008; Governments are usually divided into three branches: the executive, legislative and the judiciary. In normal situations each branch operates independently of each other through the principles of the separation of powers and checks and balances. President Kiir has defied all these norms of good governance and usurped the powers of the three branches into his own hands thereby becoming an authoritarian leader. No body for sure can explain why president Kiir is doing this. One can only speculate. One speculation may be that this is the behaviour of an innocent inexperienced and incompetent leader muddling and meddling through issues until he could find the correct formula. The second and worst speculation is that he has been “sent” to undermine the up coming referendum for self determination. And to do this Kiir has to make the South ungovernable prompting the North to either delay or cancel completely the referendum in 2011. Kiir has been in government for over three years now and should have learnt the basics of the art of government. In addition, Kiir has a dozen advisors whom he can consult on different issues. Unless Kiir is too wise to be advised he has no excuse for the mess he's currently committing in the South. Psychologists give explanation to human behaviour and in many cases they have been found to be correct. Many reasons could be given for Kiir’s behaviour and actions. First, Kiir is a humble person with meagre education and experience in governance. Second, Kiir is a career security operative who is used to executing orders only. His long association with Dr John Garang has completely deprived him of independent thinking and knowledge of the norms of good governance. The worry is that Kiir’s weakness and incompetence will cost the South and its people a lot of dangers. Let me explain how? Presently human security is at risk in the whole of Southern Sudan. Their properties are at risk too. While this is the happening President Kiir commands over twenty battalions of SPLA army apart from police and other organised forces. In almost every state in the South including Kiir’s own State of Warrap innocent lives are being lost and their properties looted. In greater Equatoria IDPS are grabbing land which belongs to the locals. This is causing widespread resentment and chaos and Kiir is doing nothing about it. If this insecurity persists for a long time the South will be plunged into a civil war as groups battle it out against each other for survival. The second threat to stability in the South will come from the lack of development. The CPA is going into its fourth year and southerners have not yet reaped any peace dividends. It has been common for Kiir to explain away the reasons for the failure of GOSS to realise this. In public rallies Kiir tells Southerners that GOSS has no money to effect development. Where do the millions of dollars received from oil every month go to? Yet we understand most GOSS ministers have bought luxurious mansions and posh cars in foreign lands. This means corruption is still thriving despite Kiir’s policy gimmick of “zero tolerance on corruption”. While Kiir remains in power and the situation deteriorates everyday in the South, Southerners must watch out and be prepared for the worst. Unless they can rise and tell Kiir enough is enough, no improvement of the situation will be in sight sooner. The most amazing thing in this scenario is that the judiciary which is supposed to protect the constitution and also protect citizens’ rights, is dead silent. By: Atem Mabior SPLM Veterans for Truth in Diaspora London UK
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