Response to Mr. Joul Nhomngek and other SPLM-I.O. members over lame accusations against the Rt. Hon. Speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly.
I am obliged to respond to the baseless, misguided and unfounded accusations leveled against Rt. Hon. Speaker of the Transitional National Assembly by Mr. Nhomngek and his group.
First and foremost, it should be noted that the current National Assembly is constituted of many different parties who are signatories to the Revitalized Peace Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan, any attack on one Member of a particular party, is a direct attack on the party where the attacked member represents,
For that matter, the continuous accusations against the Rt. Hon. Speaker by some members of SPLM-IO and their allies, amount to direct attack on SPLM because Rt. Hon. Speaker doesn’t represent herself in the position, she is holding but she is there on the ticket of SPLM.
On this note therefore as an SPLM member of National Assembly, I should not fold my hands and allow my party to be cheaply abused always, never. The public should also know that all these attacks against Rt. Hon. Speaker were not provoked by any SPLM member, therefore must be responded to.to this end, I want to bring to the attention of the members of the public the following accusations against the Rt. Hon. Speaker.
1. On 10th and 11th June 2022, Mr. Nhomngek and his group had flooded the social media and other media outlets with misinformation and lame accusations against the Rt. Hon. Speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly that;
A. “The Speaker has been spending most of her time on unproductive and expensive trips abroad”.
B. That “there is leadership disintegration caused by the unilateral decision-making ego by the speaker”,
C. That “parliament is almost collapsing as the leadership has almost completely disintegrated “,
D. That “elderly members in the Assembly are suffering from treatable illnesses because the money which was supposed to be given to them for treatment has been spent by the speaker”,
E. That “the speaker is spending millions of dollars on foreign trips”,
F. That “workers of the Assembly are not being paid for months”,
G. That “MPs are not allowed to speak against the speaker’s policies”,
H. That “Rt. Hon. Speaker in her recent trip to Uganda to attend the opening session of the Parliament of Uganda, held a secret meeting with Equatorians in Kampala and with the Speaker of Uganda Parliament to show them a new map where part of Equatoria is annexed to Uganda and that it should remain a secret to Equatorians”,
I. That “they (I.O) will ask SPLM to bring another speaker to replace the current speaker “.
Now my take on the first accusation that “the Rt. Hon. Speaker has been spending most of her time on unproductive and expensive trips abroad”.
This is a blatant misguided word, first of all Mr. Nhomngek and the group should know that South Sudan is an independent state that has membership in the United Nations and other regional organizations, we are not an island, we are part of the globalized world so our participation as Parliament in the international arena is enshrined in our constitution. You must also know that Rt. Hon. Speaker is constitutionally duty bound to represent our Parliament in the international and regional forums not you, so where does the notion of unproductive and expensive trips coming from?
Not only that, Mr. Nhomngek and his group knows very well that Rt. Hon. speaker only travels occasionally when invited to represent our Parliament abroad and sometimes she delegates her deputies and other members. So, your accusation against the Rt. Hon. Speaker here is utterly rubbish and immature.
2. On the second accusation that “there is leadership disintegration caused by the unilateral decision making ego by the speaker “. Nhomngek and his group are not in Assembly Business Committee nor is anyone of them spokesperson of the ABC, if there is at all any disintegration in the Assembly leadership, such declaration can only be made by members of ABC not Nhomngek and his cohorts. How did you arrive to your accusation? This is another hopeless and empty accusation aimed at directing the attention of the public to conceive lies.
3. On the third accusation, that “parliament is almost collapsing as the leadership has almost completely disintegrated”. This another cheap and unfounded accusation, all of us including Nhomngek and the public know very well that the Assembly Business Committee is functioning very well like a fine-tuned machine evidenced by the regular sitting of the Assembly and many other activities. where is the collapsing and disintegration of the leadership, yet Nhomngek is not even in the ABC? this is just attention seeking and therefore should be disregarded.
4. On, the fourth accusation, that “the elderly members of parliament are suffering from treatable illnesses because the money which was supposed to be given to them for treatment has been spent by the speaker”. First of all there is no connection between sickness of the elderly members of parliament and the travels of the Rt.Hon. Speaker abroad to represent our Parliament. In the budget allocation, all the items are budgeted for separately including foreign trips, medical expenses and other, this is how governments function globally, so the poor accusation that members of Parliament are suffering from treatable illnesses because the money has been used by the speaker is nothing but usual envy and hatred towards SPLM members.
5. On the fifth accusation that “Rt. Hon. Speaker is spending millions of dollars on foreign trips”. Is not only a manufactured cheap propaganda by the opposition against the Rt. Hon. Speaker but the intention is to feed the public with misinformation aimed at tarnishing the image of the Assembly leadership to suit their interests.
6. On the sixth accusation, that “workers of the Assembly are not being paid for months because their money has been squandered”. Our little friends must know that it’s not only the workers of the Assembly who have not been paid for months as alleged but other government institutions have not also been paid and the National ministry of finance has already given explanation to that, you know very well that all the institutions including the Parliament get their money from the ministry of finance, so blaming that on the Rt. Hon. Speaker is just out of ignorance and incitement of the Assembly workers to go on strike as they have done facilitated by Mr. Nhomngek and his group. that day of the strike, Nhomngek threatened to call BBC and other media outlets to come and cover the strike of the workers in the Assembly.
7. On the seventh accusation, that “MPs are not allowed to speak against the speaker’s policies”, which policies of the speaker are our little I.O members talking about, everyone knows that Rt. Hon. Speaker doesn’t have her own policies in the Parliament. They have been talking against the Rt. Hon. Speaker and other SPLM members all along because it appears to be the only job, they are there to perform in the Parliament.no one has ever stop talking in the Parliament the problem is that some members have no clear agenda for the people of South Sudan but only concentrate on tinting the image of SPLM, our partners must be realistic to themselves.
8. The eighth allegation that, “Rt.Hon. Speaker in her recent trip to Uganda to attend the opening session of the Parliament of Uganda, held a secret meeting with Equatorians in Kampala and with the Speaker of Ugandan parliament to show them the new map where part of Equatoria is annexed to Uganda and that Rt.Hon. Speaker cautioned that the meeting should remain a secret to Equatorians only”. This is not only a wild rumor but the mother of all the cheapest propaganda intended to only tint the good reputation of Rt. Hon. Speaker, therefore the honorable members of public should brand this malicious allegation baseless.
9. On the 9th statement that, “they (I.O members) will ask SPLM to bring another speaker to replace the current speaker”, this is just a day dreaming from the I.O and their allies, this statement is just as cheap as the source therefore needless to waste time on it.
In conclusion, the unprovoked, irresponsible continuous accusations and attacks by the above SPLM I.O members of parliament is just attention seeking and usual envy and hatred towards SPLM members,
It is also a clear indication that some opposition groups have no agenda for the people of South Sudan, that’s why they only concentrate their energies on aimless attacks on SPLM with the sole intention of depicting negative image of our party to the public as a weapon of winning their attention.
Hon. Daniel Abocha Ali
A member of Parliament at the Transitional National Legislative Assembly on SPLM ticket.