By Gatwech Deng Wal Melbourne, Australia
Across the world, governments are created to serve their people, defend their rights, and build fair share systems where every citizen can thrive.
However, South Sudan’s government under Salva Kiir Mayardit is bad, tribal, a path to division and decline. It cannot even be compared to wild monkeys’ governments, let alone other world governments that serve their people with basic needs and equally treat them with respect and dignity.
Tribalism, rampant corruption, neglect and abuse of power take a toll and make the government of South Sudan the worst government ever on earth in the eyes of the international communities and to the very people it is supposed to serve and protect. One of the most damaging forms of Salva Kiir Mayardit’s government is that it is a tribal government, where he and his tribal cohorts prioritise loyalty to their own tribe over the well-being of the nation as a whole.
His government lacks checks and balances because it loses the purpose to unite South Sudanese under one fair share system and identity other than clans, ethnic and tribal lines.
The dream of a united and prosperous South Sudan faded away under the chaotic leadership of Salva Kiir Mayardit and his tribal mobs, with a reckless vision to rule the country forever through killings and displacement of the very citizens they were supposed to serve and care for day and night.
Even an average South Sudanese knows that the way the country is going under the leadership of Salva Kiir Mayardit and his tribal associates will never bring stability, but will allow ethnic division, immense suffering to all South Sudanese, and tear our country apart.
Ultimately, no South Sudanese need to be a common-sense scientist to know that Salva Kiir Mayardit’s tribal government transforms South Sudan into a battlefield of competing identities rather than a shared home for all.
Common sense tells every South Sudanese that the government under Salva Kiir Mayardit is not simply one that makes mistakes, but one that consistently fails to act in the public interest.
Key signs that make Salava Kiir Mayardit’s government consistently fail to act in the South Sudanese public interest range from corruption, lack of accountability, suppression of citizens’ voices and inequality in services.
These mammoth criminal acts in South Sudan’s government eroded public trust and created a cycle where every South Sudanese loses faith in the system, leading to unrest, instability and conflict across the country.
Tribalism in politics is particularly harmful because it replaces national unity with narrow loyalty. Instead of being judged on merit or fairness, leaders under Salva Kiir Mayardit’s administration are judged by how much they favour their own tribal men and women.
Across South Sudan, this creates dangerous divisions:
- Exclusion of non-Dinka tribes–under Salava Kiir Mayardit’s leadership, all non-Dinka tribes are often denied opportunities, jobs, or political representation. Salava Kiir Mayardit and his tribal mobs are doing this on purpose to get non-Dinka tribes out of the way so that they can employ the Dinka’s ethnocracy system, where nobody would ever dare to question them. With no surprise, the Dinka’s ethnocracy has now started with Dr Riek Machar under Salva Kiir Mayardit’s leadership; little does he know that using false charges to remove his political opponent is a serious abuse of state power. There is no evidence to suggest that Dr Riek Machar was involved in Nasir’s incident or any other incidents that happened across South Sudan. HE was falsely accused because Salva Kiir Mayardit and tribal mobs want to elbow him out of politics and damage his reputation, nothing else.
- Deepening conflict: Salva Kiir Mayardit’s tribal favouritism ignited tension and sparked violence between groups since 2013 up to now. Salava Mayardit deliberately sets tribes and ethnic groups against each other since 2013. He did and is still doing this for his political survival and control of resources. It was the intention for Salva Kiir Mayardit to employ this simpleton tactic to distract the South Sudanese from issues like corruption and economic decline.
- Weak institutions: as Salva Kiir Mayardit favours his tribe before the nation, public institutions are undermined, as they serve only the Dinka tribe instead of citizens.
This allows him and his tribal mobs to exploit public resources for personal and political gain. Weak institutions do not simply fail the country or government function -they actively create and fuel corruption, inequality, instability and division.
For Salva Kiir Mayardit and his tribal mobs to overcome bad and tribal government, they need to establish strong institutions that rise above personal or tribal loyalties.
This means:
- Strengthening laws that hold leaders and ordinary citizens accountable.
- Building systems based on fairness and inclusion regardless of your tribe and/or ethnicity.
- Promoting national identity and unity over narrow tribal interests, etc. Salva Kiir Mayardit and his tribal associates must not forget that South Sudan’s independence was not won by a single tribe. We all fought and voted during the referendum for it to become independent.
Our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, suffered, shed blood, sweat and tears to have a country called South Sudan today, where freedom could be enjoyed by every citizen, and not a single tribe.
As South Sudan’s independence belongs to all South Sudan’s Sixty-Four Tribes, neither one tribe can take it away, nor a leader, political party, or group has the right to claim it as their own property.
Gatwech Deng Wal resides in Melbourne, Australia. He is a contributor of the Gambella Vision,
