South Sudan’s new Parliament Speaker: “We are watchdogs”

What makes you think you are the man for the job?

I did not write any application for the job but my Party, the SPLM, has chosen me and is convinced that I am the right man for the job.

So you were not among a list of candidates?

Yes, I was. There was a meeting in which people of Upper Nile State nominated five of us for the contest: My name was among the five.

Everyone is asking: Who is Manas Magok?

Manas Magok is a simple personality. I am an MP in Bentiu, I was elected in 1982 in Bentiu town and I came to parliament. When the South was divided we were taken to Malakal and there I was appointed Deputy Speaker, then Minister of Agriculture and later Governor of Upper Nile. In 2000 I was appointed as Governor of Unity State. I studied political science.

What qualities do you think your party saw in you to carry out this job?

Maybe it was my contribution to the liberation struggle, or maybe my experience in the position I held in the previous period.

In most parliaments MPs seem at logger head with executives. How are you going to ensure that this relationship remains smooth?

MPs will be on bad terms with anybody who mishandles public affairs, they will try to remove that person […], but that does not mean that they are at logger heads with the executives. We are watchdogs for the executives; we see them positive until they go wrong. So if they start messing things up, then the assembly may intervene.

So are MPs or the parliament accusing executives of corruption when they oversee their work?

You do not accuse for the sake of accusing, you must have material evidence that Minister X has some irregularities. You will not just brand somebody without enough evidence -- if the case is raised against you, you will be in hot soup. So we depend on concrete evidence and material evidence.

Do you expect parliament business will be too tough or an easy task for you?

I am quite experienced in the work of parliament so it won’t be a challenge.

What message would you like to send to the public as a new speaker?

I have availed myself to this challenge and therefore the public must stand with me. The work I am about to handle is for their benefit. The people who selected me are in Unity State and therefore I stand to help them, giving anything they want. We will have to provide water and other things. We will not be promising that we will do this and that. It will depend on the availability of the money in the country.

I spent almost five hours waiting in your office for this interview. I was impressed by huge queues of people competing to see you. What are these people telling you?

They are congratulating me, some are saying words of encouragement and some are friends who are happy seeing me being appointed.

Could you say something briefly about the budget?

We are awaiting the budget, but it will come very soon. The austerity budget was withdrawn because of what has taken place recently with the government: There were 29 ministries and they were reduced now to a lean government by putting some ministries together and (as a result) they are reworking the budget.