Saturday, January 24, 2015

South Sudanese Diaspora vs Suzanne Jambo

Paul Tambura (I'm glad you signed your email based in the UK),

Landi and the good reverend Andrew Henry, Nyatom et el,

You guys are so tired of washing dishes and doing dirty manual work in Europe & USA etc you think your best bet is an 11th hour wake up call to 'keyboard unguided missiles throwing serve' your nation after 15th Dec 2013.

If you google some of us, you will see our remarkable career history - some of us are here purely to serve our Nation. So please don't slither and salivate over nothing. More is yet to come brethren!

I am still young and you've a long way to put up with my face & services. So chill and do something useful.

As for Landi, what's wrong: you gave me a 'challenge' of meeting you: and I replied you, so what's your issues again? You're one of those characters who are ever going round and more rounds saying nothing really!

Suzanne Jambo
National Secretary for External Relations
The SPLM----------------------------------------------


Hi all,


I have always kept a distance from any discussion that has no substance and full of personal attacks. However, after I read Suzanne Jambo’s unsubstantiated attacks on the South Sudanese diaspora ethical earnings in the west, I decided to respond to attack with evidence and some facts about South Sudanese diaspora contributions to South Sudan’s development, liberation and independence.

I’d like to address Jambo’s claim about “washing dishes and doing dirty manual work in Europe & the U.S.A.,” from: lobby and advocacy; investment; foreign aid and donor contribution; the UNMISS funding; the CPA process, and the current peace talks funding.

Yes, it is true that few members of South Sudan diaspora are doing lower pay jobs. However, jumbo’s generalization of her claim to include the majority of South Sudanese diaspora who don’t fit into such classification is not doing history justice. Today, there are professional South Sudanese diaspora members who are employed in the west, the U.N., and INGOs on the basis of their strong educational backgrounds, competencies, competition, job merits of the western public services rules and regulations as opposite to South Sudan government appointments, and promotions based on loyalty to leader who controls government positions, and has upper hands in promotions, and appointments of relatives. The immense issue of loyalty has led to the current dysfunctional public services across South Sudan. In addition, the leadership of South Sudan government uses patronage to benefit loyalists, and makes family members and friends rich at the expense of the majority of the South Sudanese. This means that country’s’ economy would be control by one group.

South Sudanese diaspora earn their money ethically from whatever jobs they do 24/7, pay taxes to federal, state, and county governments, and in return they receive services from the three levels of government. For instance, the evacuation of South Sudanese diaspora from Juba, Bor, and Malakal in December 2013 & 2016 is a classic example of western governments’ responsibility for their citizens.

The 192 Kilometer tarmacked road from Juba to Nimule was funded by the USAID. What this means is that, South Sudanese diaspora, who are in your own words, “dish wishers and dirty manual workers in Europe Canada & the U.S.A.,” pay for this road that brings food and development materials to Juba for you and your family members to survive. Without the diaspora contributions for construction of this road, I don’t know how goods would enter Juba, and how government of the South Sudan would survive without goods and services tax revenues from Juba-Nimule Road.

Another example is the water project for Juba One Basic Schools opposite to All Saint’s Cathedral, funded by the USAID. The U.S.A. Embassy in Juba has all figures available.
A Mother and Child Health Care (MCHC) Program in South Sudan is funded by Local Initiative Project Funds for South Sudan through Canadian Embassy in Juba. There are humanitarian projects under the MSF and an agriculture project under Carl Bomby, all funded by government of Canada. Please, feel free to consult Ambassador Nick in Juba for further details. Below are other examples of diaspora contribution to South Sudan’s development.

The 2010 Study Tour of the SPLM and the NCP members to Ottawa, Quebec, Calgary, and Toronto to learn from Canadian experiences in Quebec’s referendum was funded by Government of Canada. Please, consult Hon. Ann Itto, and H.E. Lawrence Korbandy, if Juba Govt pays for the cost of the Study Tour trip.

The following western countries are the most generous donors to South Sudan since the CPA was signed. Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the U.K., and they formed the Joint Donor Team, which contributed $400 million in the interim period to address development issues.

During the referendum the European Union contributed $200 million Euros for development fund. In April 2013, the U.S.A, organized a donor forum to save the South Sudan economy form complete collapse. Donors added up to $300 million to the $1.3 billion already pledged to South Sudan for 2013.

Every time there is flood, humanitarian crisis or hunger problem, Juba government officials call on INGOs for help, and they usually respond quickly and positively. The operations and fix cost of INGOs in South Sudan are payed for by the South Sudanese diaspora taxes. Suzanne you cannot bite the hands, and cut the throats of South Sudanese diaspora who are feeding you, family, and your government on a daily basis.

Overall, the point here is to let you and your government officials who are hostile to diaspora know that each time government of South Sudan received funding from the western countries for development, health, education, peace talks, humanitarian assistances and study tour to Canada, the U.S., and Europe, South Sudanese diaspora contributed directly towards the funding. For example, the success of the SPLM and the NCP members study tour to Canada was due to diaspora proposal to government of Canada through their elected representatives in the House of Commons. Some South Sudanese diaspora helped the host governments with policy advice, logistics, and operations of the study tours, as well as lobby on behalf of the SPLM/A, and raised advocacy on humanitarian crisis in South Sudan. Therefore, South Sudanese diaspora through the Multi Donor Teams and other western countries foot the bills of the CPA Peace Talks; thus, paying for SPLM/A negotiators’ hotels, travel, transportation, pocket money, and other expenses. Please, tell us if SPLM/A pay a penny for the Peace Talks and the peace that you are enjoying now in Juba. Of course, South Sudanese in the diaspora did.

Who educated the western governments about Sudan’s civil war?

The dynamic of civil war in the Sudan could not have been understood well in the western countries without the tireless advocacy and lobby of South Sudanese diaspora are “dish washers and dirty manual workers” in the west. The Diaspora stories and their participations in the day-to-day politics of the governing party helped the SPLM/A to get support from the west. Yes, some of those “dish wishers and dirty manual workers in Europe, Canada, Australia  & the U.S.A,” at time left their jobs in order to appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committees of the western Parliaments, Senates, and House of Representatives to defend the SPLM/A.

The South Sudanese diaspora engaged the ten Emperors (known as the Council) to speak, defend, lobby White House, Congress and Senate and Canadian Parliament and EU Parliament for solution to Sudan’s long civil war in Africa. Through the South Sudanese diaspora persistent efforts, the following people became committed to working for an end to the Sudan’s civil war: Jendayi Frazer, Jonnie Carson, Hon. Bronx Cox, Deputy House of Lords, Roger Winter, John Prendergast, Prof. Eric Reeves of Smith College, Hon. David Kilgour, Hon. Maurice Vellacott, M.P, Hon. Prof. Irwin Colter, former Canadian Justice Minister, Hon. Jason Kenney, Rabbi Bulka, Eng. Roger Stone, St. Thomas Anglican church, Prof. John Weiss of Cornell, and many others. The South Sudanese diaspora put continuous and consistent pressure on the western governments to fund the CPA Peace; the current peace talks in Addis, the relief to IDPs and refugees in Malakal. Without diaspora efforts through rallies and demonstrations even in negative 39ºC to create awareness in the west the SPLA/M would have not gotten the exposure to attract the west to its side during the Sudan civil war. It was through the efforts of the South Sudanese diaspora that peace activists such as Roger Winter came to advise the SPLM to play the correct card in the national and international discussions and during the referendum period.

Further, the diaspora voting power during the western countries elections has play bigger role in bringing Sudan’s war closer to politicians’ eyes in the western countries, as well taking it to schools, universities, churches, and general public.

Now, let me bring South Sudanese diaspora contributions to South Sudan’s economic development closer to your fingertips, so that you can understand better, think, and see bigger picture.

In 2008, and 2009, a group of South Sudanese diaspora shipped 10 medical containers (full of medical supplies, 750 wheeler chairs, X-ray machine, Ultra Sounds, medical beds, medical mattresses, blankets, bed sheets, operating room equipment, operating room beds, delivery room beds, and others) to Juba, and equipped Juba Hospital, CES Children Hospital and Kator Clinic. The medical project equipped 13 medical clinics in CES. Please, talk to Mr. Felix Lado, Medical Assistant & the current CES Minister of Health, Dr. Kuran, Dr. Jamal, Dr. Mirghani, Dr. Louis, and Dr. Isaac to educate you on what the diaspora did to rescue and improve the poor South Sudan health care system. What have you done Suzanne besides writing disparagingly about South Sudanese diaspora?


https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=269399906438579&id=100001057148645&sfnsn=wa


The 2008 diapora medical project has benefited medical clinic in the county of the Hon. Wani Igga, Loka West Hospital in the area of the Hon. Yatta Lugar, former GoSS Deputy Minister of Health, and Yei County Hospital in the area of Hon. Aligo LoLado, former CES Minister of Finance. Please, feel free to ask these Honorable men who equipped clinics with medical equipment in their areas, and let us know?


https://www.facebook.com/nyangwaradiaspora.nyangwaradiaspor/videos/634918906553342/?sfnsn=wa


In 2008, there was a flood due to rain in Aweil, and the same diaspora medical project donated 3000 blankets to the victims of Aweil’s floods. Please, consult Hon. Kom Kom, M.P., in the National Assembly for further details. How many blankets have you and your SPLM Secretariat donated for any humanitarian crisis in South Sudan? Show us your records not writings?
Furthermore, in field of education, the same group of diaspora (in 2008-to date) that you call “dish washers and dirty manual workers” equipped the University of Juba & South Sudan Catholic University libraries with 11000 medical and health Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, and Biology textbooks, Juba Health Institute library with health and medical textbooks as well as teaching aid. Please, visit U of J & SSCU libraries and ask Mr. David Lado about the diaspora medical textbooks donations. How many textbooks have you donated to University of Juba library to help South Sudan’s education system develop?

The visit of former VC of U of J, Prof. Aggrey Abate to Canada in 2010 to address the needs of U of J, was because of a diaspora proposal to Canadian government. Please, consult Prof. Abate.

With regard to investments, diaspora held investment forum discussions, and gave talks to western companies’ CEOs and encourage them to invest in South Sudan. It is these diaspora that you call “dish washers and dirty manual workers” who helped some investors to invest in South Sudan.

Every day, members of diaspora communities receive calls from the South Sudan regarding financial assistance. The South Sudanese diaspora has sent and will keep on sending $$$$$$$ of dollars to help pay for medical bills, school tuitions, Funeral expense, and buy foods for their relatives and friends. You know very well that employees in South Sudan at times work up to six month without salaries, and without diaspora financial contributions, South Sudan economy would have collapsed long time ago.

Suzanne you can write, but South Sudanese don’t eat what you write in the internet. my humble advice to you is, before you attack South Sudanese diaspora do research on them, before insulting them, see the big picture, thinks before you write, walk your talks, and think big to understand the role South Sudanese diaspora played in South Sudan’s, liberation and independence, as well now playing in its development, and the current Peace Talks in Addis.

Suzanne, think for a minute about the diaspora contributions to South Sudan’s development, liberation and independence, Why do you, other Sudan government officials, and the SPLM executive members have the audacity to disparagingly call the diaspora “dish washers and lower pay workers and not entitled to dual citizenship as stated by some South Sudanese government Officials, MPs who are mad and envious of South Sudanese foreign passport holders evacuations from Juba in December 2014. Instead of complaining about diaspora evacuation, the SPLM and South Sudan government need to learn from western countries responsibilities towards their citizens.”
There is one thing all will agree with me that South Sudan diaspora earnings are ethical, not stolen public money. Diaspora members have work ethics, and hired by the western countries the U.N., and INGOs on the basis of strong educational background, competencies, competitions, and job merits. In the west you never hear semi-illiterate cook helpers or and salesmen appointed ambassadors.

As much as the SPLA/M freedom fighters fought for South Sudan independence, and liberation, South Sudan diaspora also fought with their energies, education, pens, ideas, money, and contributed equally in South Sudan liberation and independence.

Now, the guns fighting for liberation of South Sudan is finished; however, the real big fight against tribalism, ethnicity, nepotism, favoritism, and loyalism remind the bigger challenge faces South Sudanese who believe in real democracy based on federalism, equal opportunities, and justice for all.

South Sudan’s economic developments, core value of believe, equality and justice for all require diaspora experiences, skills, competencies, and leadership. State of Israel was established by the power of Jewish diaspora in the west, and unlike, Israel, South Sudan government cannot undermine the power of South Sudanese diaspora for South Sudan’s economic development, and brighter future.


Thanks for your interest in South Sudanese diaspora, © Laku, Sr.

8 comments:

  1. Dear Laku, Sr.

     

    I can't thank you enough for this essay on the roles of the Diaspora in our struggle for independence. Time someone tells it as it is, and yours has done us all proud. I have been tempted a number of times to tell the story of those in the Diaspora, but never got around to doing so. Yours is eloquent, lucid and timely, and should shut up those who either deliberately or otherwise put down and speak disparagingly of the Diaspora. They simply have no idea of the great potential and asset South Sudan has in its Diaspora population. There is  a lot  more that they can do if only those back home did not create unnecessary barriers. During the first Equatoria Conference which you and I both attended, we had requested for the institutionalization of the relationship between the Diaspora and the three states of Equatoria, but until now, nothing has come out of it. In spite of this, the Diaspora has made significant contributions as enumerated in your above piece. How much more will we have done had we the support on the ground in Juba, Torit or Yambio? On top of what you have enumerated there have been some efforts which have not born fruit simply due to lack of proper communication channels between the Diaspora and those back home, to the embarrassment of those who initiated them. Fortunately, the Diaspora has persisted in doing its bit, in spite of all the negativity some elements display towards those in the Diaspora. One can only paraphrase what Jesus said when he was dying on the cross:  "Forgive them, for they know not what they are doing".  Once more thank you, Justin. I hope that some of them will read this piece and have a change of heart. South Sudan is for all of us to develop and cherish. No-one should claim more of it than others.

     

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  2. This is well argued, Laku Snr. Thank you for taking your valuable time to argue with facts and data.

    I am just wondering! Would it not be the right time to ask Suzanne Jambo to publicly apologize for he ill-informed slur?!!

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  3. Dear Khawaja and All,

    I am joining in to congratulate you for evidently repudiating the insults dumped at our South Sudanese diaspora community by our "alienated" own sister. Bravo!

    I concur with your point LB for her to apologise in public to all the flora she had disseminated her infamous words. But I doubt whether her SPLM-IG pride and/ or her bosses would allow her do it....

    Or we'll just succumb to our elder brother Charles Jesus' last words of unconditional forgiveness.

    Regards,

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  4. Laku Snr,
     
    I join LB, Prof Bakheit & Lokuowe in thanking you for the reminding Ms Suzanne Jambo & us all about the critical role and importance of the Diaspora. Put simply, the entire South Sudan as country would never have become what it is today, had it not been the active role played by the Diaspora, then known as The 7th Front.
     
    However, on a larger scheme of things, people should not be surprised to hear the likes of Ms Suzanne Jumbo express such disdainful and demeaning comments on the Diaspora populace. What she has demonstrated here is nothing but her frailties - extreme traits of ignorance, ungratefulness and hypocrisy of the highest degree possible. It is this sort of the narrow-minded definition of the role the Diaspora plays that is synonymous only with those who themselves severely lack even the basic intellect required for “washing dishes and doing dirty manual work in Europe & the U.S.A.” or anywhere else in the world.
     
    Once cannot ignore the level of duplicity this lady exudes. Scrapping the surface a little, you would find that Ms Jambo herself once lived in the Diaspora, and digging that same surface a little further, you might even find that she wasn’t, after all, making a living doing a professional job, whatever her profession really is/was prior that often aggrandized life-changing phone call (invitation) from the late Chairman of the SPLM, Dr John Garang to save the SPLM from the fall!
     
    Going forward, the strategy that the current government in Juba tries to force on us by politicizing its relations with the Diaspora, through its divisive SPLM politics played by Ms Jambo & Co, must be confronted head on and depoliticized. I fully concur that there must be an institutional framework where all South Sudanese from all walks of life can relate to their government and country without discrimination or hindrance. These SPLM-centred policies aren’t helping our collective national causes, other than the personal interests of those of Ms Suzanne Jambo and their political stooges and superiors! 

    All the political parties in South Sudan must have an equal platform to engage with respective members in the country and abroad, without compromising the resources of the state, including the social contract with its people!
     
    Regards,

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  5. Dear Laku Sr, 


    Thank you very much for your in depth details on how we the dish washers and other manual plus other uncomfortable works we do/did in Diaspora that seriously helped in securing that country in the first place and how our individual works we do to raise fund in form of tax paying that is then gather and channeled through multi-national institutions or countries that helped to keep that country up to today.


    I have leaved in UK for may years and I truly concur with your well Oratorical writing because I have seen how we in diaspora raised the standard of our case to reach international community, through our dish washing, we  individually also contributed financially especially when we have to find transport to hire a coach to take us for demonstration to 10 Downing Street, House Commons and some other institution or finding a venue to hold our meeting when the number can not fit one of our houses. If Suzanne lived in the West, I would have expected her to know the meaning of paying tax or else she may have been leaving in a different world or life altogether.


    We also want to know what was her contribution in Diaspora and consequently being called by Garang in her prime age whatever that means to go and salvage the movement by then and from CPA to date. And if her contribution supersedes the diaspora, I will personally give a credit if not then her place in contributing to the movement and in the government will be put to question, I would like to omit the word disgracefulness here if that would be alright or not it is up to Suzanne to convince the readers and the contributors that she usually tarnished with her gales ignorance.


    Anyway, if we go by the suggestion that it could have been a slip of Suzanne's tongue which my reading can only put this at 0.01%, then it is only her to retract if she is truly a professional person.


    With all what you said and the contribution of others in an attempt to salvage Suzanne's on several instances, she still stands a better chance to reform and begin to see the people that she thinks are her enemies as her true friends and not sugar coated compliance or cheering t thugs who only wants to destroy her. 


    My appreciation for your in-put.

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  6. Hi Zak,

    I don't think it is a slip of the tongue. It is premeditated. Slip of the tongue applies or occurs in situations of speech, not in writing, mind you. In the latter case the writer has time to review his/her notes before sending the message. And as usual if one comes to notice an error, s/he usually takes liberty in retracting the information. Suzanne (copied) just needs to swallow her pride and issue an apology to the South Sudanese Diaspora, whom she has reduced to people 'tired of washing dishes and doing dirty manual jobs', thus they take pleasure in using their keyboards to randomly muddy her government after December 15. I can argue before an educated Law professor that that statement full of scorn is premeditated, especially with the text that follows it. Suzanne by her own confession is a senior public servant, given that the SPLM is a party that handles public affairs by its status as ruling party. What she has poured out is no less than the mark of insults. Although some of us are confident that her insults fall hundreds of kilometers outside the circumference of where we live, and that not a figment of shrapnel of that insult will touch us, a statement of this nature is to be treated with the contempt it deserves.

     

    I am not saying she is compelled to issue an official statement of apology. She is at liberty whether she wants to enjoy seeing hundreds of frowned faces or not. It is possible that she is a recalcitrant never-caring (kama mbaya, mbaya) person. So it is all in her court. As far as my experience in life is concerned oul mouthing your own will bite back one day. You may insult a person and get away with it, but to insult an entire community and you are a political leader, dramatically boggles the mind!

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  7. LB and all,


    Suzanne Jambo is beyond redemption; her apology means nothing to some of us realy. The people  she should apologize to are the members of the USA-based SPLM-IG Secretariat who are part and parcel of the folks “washing dishes and doing dirty manual work in Europe & the U.S.A.,”. I understand that she is coming all the way  from Juba to the USA for the inauguration of the SPLM-IG Secretariat leadership which is predominantly made up of those whom she dismisses as "dish washers and menial laborers" or worse. The sheer contradiction is overwhelming! This is the constituency she should apologize to if she has any common sense left in her. Even political sycophancy has limits. This one borders on lunacy!


    What Suzanne does not know is that the people she loves to insult are the same people who played a critical role in shaping the policies of global giants towards the Bashir regime. Some of us stood on the same platforms with the likes of Baronnes Cox, Bishop Macram Max, senators, and US government officials to advance the cause of our people. We were part of the divestment campaign that saw the U.S Congress threaten Talisman with expulsion from the New York Stock Exchange, and the company's subsequent retreat from the then Sudan; we sat at House Committee hearings to push for policies intended to bring pressure on the Bashir regime. Sudan Peace Act did not fall from the sky! Liberals as some of us may be, we built strategic alliance with the evangelicals and the far right Christian organizations for the sake of our cause. Not only that, but when the late Eliaba James Surur made an appeal from Uganda for funds to support our gallant forces, we responded by contributing money from our "dish-washing jobs" to support our brothers in the struggle. We did not do all these for positions in government, but for our people and country. Not that Suzanne Jambo, the Secretary for External Affairs of the SPLM-IG understands any of these, but it is worth making our readers know.


    If Suzzane Jambo and her government can insult and abuse the soldiers who brought them to power, how much more can they insult the Diaspora?

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  8. I would say it is a slip of tongue from Suzanne. Suzanne usually goes vigorously after those she thinks sin against here. This usually makes her charged like African elephants or Lioness when responding to some individuals.

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