By Bida Elly David
The Revitalized Transitional National Legislative Assembly (RTNLA) has sharpened minds to question the executive, concerning silence on continuous insecurity and starvation in the Country.
This development transpired during the presentation of the scrutinized report by the specialized committee on President Kiir’s speech delivered during the resumption of legislative sittings, after recess.
The lawmakers stressed that despite president Kiir’s call for security and economic reforms; the country faces insecurity in the hands of “unknown gun men and women” who keep attacking civilians.
Members of the August House blame the cabinet and concerned service clusters for failing to generate amicable solutions to the on-going economic recession in the country.
They said commodity prices keep hiking while foreign currencies dominate the exchange rate market.
Athian Madut, a lawmaker hailing from the SPLM party, slammed the cabinet over its failure to restore peace, saying that the executive lacked cooperation among themselves particularly the presidency.
Athian said the government has taken Pope Francis’s message of peace and togetherness for granted and observed that no positive transformation has been experienced since the visit of the top Catholic leader.
“When Pope came recently, he said in his message that the leadership should work in harmony in order to bring peace in South Sudan, but we have done nothing to bring peace,” Athian said.
The parliament has resolved to summon concerned ministers to explain before the Assembly, why they have failed to execute the tasks allocated to them as per the bills.
Lawmakers however passed the speech of president Kiir and tasked the specialized committee to finalize the document to be translated into policy document.
On his part, Aldo Ajou Deng, another lawmaker from the SPLM party said the implementation of the peace arrangement in only exists in Juba the capital while the outskirts of capital face severe bloodshed and turmoil.
Ajou criticized the tendency of government pouring blames of keeping arms against civilians leaving politicians, retired military veterans and unknown gun men and women keeping guns to cause chaos to meet their benefit.
On food security, Aldo said that the situation is very acute noting that it is more serious on civil servants and soldiers adding that government is mute over import of goods and control of the Dollar.
“We have never seen government officials or members of the army and security who are employed dying of hunger. The government does not talk about subsidies in the markets, imports,” he said.
He suggested that for security reforms to take place, serious disarmament exercise should start with the politicians who wage the war, the military veterans, “unknown gunmen”, and then the civil communities.
“On security, we feel like we are implementing peace as part of our security in Juba but when you go out there, no one is secure”.
Mr. Aldo stressed that government should first embark on dealing with soldiers, retired war veterans and politicians whom he said were the first suspects selling out and keeping guns to cause insecurity.
“If we want to collect guns from people all over South Sudan by disarming civilians what about the veterans of this war among us, in the villages and those who have been in war and retired,” he noted.
The MP further noted that everybody in Juba and the entire Country is suspicious of the security situation as they fight hard to reach home early to avoid meeting crooks.
“I don’t (know) what the security of this Country is doing. We are actually in a place of insecurity as guns are in our houses, streets and everywhere. Everybody is suspicious in Juba” Hon. Aldo stressed.
He said insecurity in Juba city compels to retreat home by 7 Pm in fear of “unknown gun men and women” who remain roaming outside,” he said.