Bor Community in the United States Press Release on Chairman’s Meeting with Twi and Duk Chairmen

Following the last week’s public pronouncements and attestations by both Twi and Duk chairmen that all three leaders have met and reached a number of resolutions as alluded to by the two leaders, we, as Bor Community leadership, hereby confirm the occurrence of the meeting as such and too go on record with our version of what transpired during the three leaders’ meeting:

1. All three leaders deliberated and resolved that debating the name change issue and GBC-USA state of the affairs on the Facebook veering closely to personal attacks and character assassinations was not helpful to our community and agreed to call on our members to cease debating this issue on the Facebook and urge them to wait for an opportune moment when this can be discussed and debated privately on the forum that only concerns us and no outsiders.
   We now confirm that such a resolution was reached by the three leaders. We as a Bor Community leadership now reinforce that message by advising our people to cease debating the name change because that debate actually does not concern us as we are satisfied with the name “Bor” and that the burden rests squarely on those proposing “Jonglei” name as a replacement or proposing our union to be negotiated on a “NEW BASIS” to debate that and come back to us when they all agree on what the unifying name that ought to replace “Bor” is and it is during that moment that we will respond accordingly.
2. All three leaders resolved to call upon those organizing the so-called GBC-USA elections to postpone such elections and instead bring us on board (Akol’s view) or disband and allow this issue to be handled by three leaders and be allowed to participate if they wish to (Bul’s and Hoth’s view) in what will be called a new basis. Whatever the nature of the forum that is to follow after the postponement of the so-called elections has deviations that conform with the variances mentioned above as per three leaders’ individual viewpoints backed by their community positions but the central agreement is this event needs to be postponed and all us (three leaders and concerned citizens) will work on the process to address the underlying issues that led to Michigan’s debacle and then the elections and hopefully the new leadership to be enthroned after that process will have the opportunity to lead a community that is united and ready to tackle the pressing challenges that our people face back home in South Sudan.
3. All three leaders resolved to continue talking moving forward in a process hunkered down on their respective positions of (1) Duk’s “NEW BASIS”, (2) Twi’s “Jonglei” new name, and (3) Bor’s maintenance of status quo with historic name of “Bor” as the unifying name that has always been. We now add the name change agenda belongs back home as we stated in our community resolution and we will continue to urge whoever raises it to treat it as such moving forward. But we as a leadership also believe talk does not harm anything because it is through talk that new avenues as long as nothing touches the name question never seen by individual players are explored and brought to the fore. It is through talk and time that real world experiences can bring forth the opportunities that can be brought to bear on the positions taken by the players at all sides of the negotiating table. It is through time and soliciting of views from all the players does the optimal resolution that address the needs of all players get reached. That is why we believe talking to both Duk and Twi leaders as we explore the way out of this drama get deliberated is the right course of action.

Ultimately, we believe in the end, our people across three communities will call us out if we are being unreasonable with our respective positions or if our respective positions do not represent what they aspire to as members of this community and will drive us toward working for what is that they want in order to bring this union a more cohesive manner. That said, we believe there is nothing being unreasonable about keeping the historic name “Bor” that we have been known for across South Sudan. And we believe our position represent those we lead and they will continue to stand with us during the course of our service. The burden is on those who want to change the name to bring the most unifying name that will make everyone happy. And on the same token, the burden is on those who want to negotiate our union on the “NEW BASIS” to define what it means and we who believe the status quo ought to be maintained can just sit back and wait our colleagues to keep proposing whatever name they think is better and we will respond as those proposals get presented on the table. In the meantime, the status quo holds until that proposed change is endorsed by all players within this community.

Kind regards,

Manyok Maluil Joh, Secretary of Information
Majur Deng Nhial, Press Secretary and Bor Spokesman
For Bor Community in the United States