Assassination Politics Should not be Entertained, let alone practiced in South Sudan

"When a war breaks out in a county, it is not the earth that gets destroyed but people's morals." In the South Sudan's war against the North, they did.

In 1984, Benjamin Bol Akok, a South Sudanese veteran politician was invited by SPLM leadership for a briefing in Ethiopia. After he was bidden farewell by a number of colleagues at Adis airport, he was disembarked and later presented to his colleagues in a box as a coffin. He was murdered by Ethiopian security personnel on the behest of SPLM leadership. Why? No convincing answer was provided. Many concluded that it was a political assasination of a potential leader.

Later, many SPLM politicians were arrested on trumped up charges and many of them were murdered in cold blood. These included Martin Majeer Gai, Joseph Malaath, and pilot Thomas Krow Tong. In 1993, veteran Southern politician Jopseph Oduoh was captured after attending a SIM political conference in Kongor then executed. His killers are well known. Ever since life became cheap.

And as if that was not enough, the phenomenon of "sudden death" appeared and took many more lives amongst our political figures in early 2000s. People became increasingly suspecious of possible use of poison as a new tool for political assassination. This practice was completely alien to South Sudanese communities, but known to be prevalent in some neigbourly East African countries.

Now, how far would you expect our morals to sink. All that because of our lust for power and feeling of extreme insecurity once in power. And a manner akin to King David of old, many of our leaders commit the sin and then murder to cover it up. Assassination is a virus once it infects, it spread like a wild fire and. Once started, it is hard to be stopped. And nowhere is the practice of assassination devastating like that of tribal and sectarian communities like ours and those of Lebanan, Iraq, and Somalia.