Gen. Paul Malong said MPs took $ 3.5M Bribe to Pass Oppressive Security Law

The Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the rebel South Sudan United Front/Army, Gen. Paul Malong Awan, on Monday, alleged that the Government of South Sudan, through the National Security Service’s (NSS) Internal Security Bureau (ISB), dished out USD 3.5 million to bribe legislators to pass the draconian amendments to the 2015 National Security Service Act last week.

Last Wednesday, the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) in Juba passed amendments to the 2015 National Security Service Act after a four-hour debate by a vote of 274-114 that will allow the agency to continue arresting or detaining people without a warrant. Legislators who voted for the Bill were seen chanting and dancing after it was announced that they had carried the day.

Gen. Malong made the allegations while fielding questions from journalists at a press conference in Nairobi on Monday called by the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) and Other Opposition Groups participating in peace talks with the government in Nairobi dubbed the Tumaini Initiative, at which they declared that they will not sign any agreement with the government until the National Security Service Act is repealed as agreed.

“We discussed the NSS for a long time, including when we were in Naivasha, but when the government went to Juba, they table it before the Council of Ministers and it was passed and taken to the parliament,” he said. “When it reached there, things got messed and the information we have from inside is that the Director General of the NSS’ ISB was sitting in parliament to intimidate the voters [legislators] who were denied voting by secret ballot but instead told to line up according to whether they supported or opposed the Bill and this is more than dangerous.”

“They say there is no money in South Sudan, so, where did they get the USD 3,500,000 to buy [bribe] the Members of Parliament to pass and vote for the Bill?” Gen. Malong charged.

Asked if he has concrete evidence to back his claims, he said he was part of the NSS and still has many people loyal to him in the service.

“I have many sources in that government and I was part of the National Security and Intelligence Services and until today I still have people from inside who provide me with information on what is going on,” he asserted. “I recruited many of them including the current Director General. So, it is not difficult for me to get information, but if you ask for documents, they cannot give any for such work.”

During the interim period of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended the 21-year-long war in the then Sudan, Gen. Malong served as the head of the Southern Sector of the then National Intelligence Security and Intelligence Services (NSIS) before becoming the governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State and ascending to the SPLA Chief of Defense Forces in 2014 after the outbreak of war in December 2013.

He later bitterly fell out with his erstwhile close ally, President Salva Kiir, and formed a rebel group that has seldom taken on the SSPDF in the theater of war.