South Sudan Parliament Passes Austerity Budget

South Sudan Parliament Passes Austerity Budget

Voice of America – ‎

South Sudan’s Parliament passed a budget of 6.6 billion South Sudanese pounds for 2012-2013 on Thursday. The budget is less than last year’s budget, which was 10 billion pounds. The biggest cuts came in foreign travel, salary bonuses, overtime, …

 Sudan: ‘Arab Spring’ protests wane, but activists remain optimistic

Christian Science Monitor –

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been a ‘genius’ at cracking down on opposition, activists say. But the government’s control may work to its disadvantage, as economic woe continues. By Scott Peterson, Staff writer / July 20, 2012 A man sells a toy …

 The Marathoner Without a Country

New York Times (blog) – ‎

By MARY PILON Or at least that’s the way it looks so far. Despite hitting the Olympic “A” standard at the Twin Cities Marathon in October last year, Marial, a refugee from South Sudan, said he still had no idea whether he would compete in the London …

 Sudanese refugee wants to run Olympic marathon as an independent

The Guardian – ‎

In Olympic terms, Guor Marial is a man without a nation, team or flag. The refugee from Sudan’s civil war, in which he lost 28 family members, is hoping to run in the marathon in London as an independent. Marial refuses to wear the colours of Sudan …

 S.Sudan runner bids for independent place

Al-Arabiya – ‎

The International Olympic Committee has suggested that Marial runs for Sudan, which has invited him to join their team. (Reuters) By Reuters A refugee from Sudan’s civil war who became a top distance runner after moving to the United States is fighting …

 Sudan’s currency hits low before Ramadan, stokes dissent

Ahram Online – ‎

Sudan’s currency fell close to its historical low against the dollar as demand for imported food surged before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, driving up prices and fueling anger over a severe economic crisis. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, …

 Prices soar in Sudan, protests continue

The News International – ‎

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s millions of poor have yet to surge into the streets to back scattered Arab Spring-style protests as government austerity measures try to stem soaring prices and a falling currency. Inflation reached 37 percent year-on-year in June and …

 South Sudan’s sadness as Olympic hopes fade fast

AFP – ‎Jul 19, 2012‎

By Hannah McNeish (AFP) – 6 hours ago JUBA — Leaders of the world’s youngest nation South Sudan have branded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as “conservative and insensitive” as hopes are fading fast of participating in the London Games.

 Misery on the march

The Economist – ‎Jul 19, 2012‎

AID workers have started calling the waterlogged outskirts of the Jamam refugee camp in South Sudan the “lake district” after a picturesque, often wet part of north-west England. The arrival of the rainy season in Upper Nile state has turned the camp …

 Sudan Refugee Crisis Worsens

Getty Images – ‎Jul 19, 2012‎

By Paula Bronstein (GETTY) – 1 minute ago JAMAM, SOUTH SUDAN – JULY 19: The wife of a man who died grieves as her husband is buried in a field July 19, 2012 in Jamam refugee camp, South Sudan. Up to 16000 refugees are in the process of being moved due …

 Sudan poor yet to join protests

News24 – ‎Jul 19, 2012‎

Sudan’s millions of poor have yet to surge into the streets to back scattered Arab Spring style protests as government austerity measures try to stem soaring prices and a falling currency. Khartoum – Sudan’s millions of poor have yet to surge into the …

 South Sudan Urged to Improve Health Care

Voice of America – ‎Jul 18, 2012‎

As South Sudan begins its second year of independence, it still faces many difficult challenges. One of the biggest tasks facing the new government is building a health care system where one barely exists. The country has very few modern medical …

 Independence Day in South Sudan

National Geographic – ‎Jul 18, 2012‎

By Paul Elkan As Americans celebrate the Fourth of July each year with cookouts, concerts, and fireworks, it is almost easy to forget the holiday’s connection with the nation’s independence and the struggles to achieve it. Surely that was not the case …

 Sudanese protesters fight to maintain momentum of a violent spring

CBC.ca – ‎Jul 18, 2012‎

by Community Team Posted: July 18, 2012 1:05 PM Last Updated: July 18, 2012 1:41 PM “This is not the Arab Spring, but this may be the Sudanese Summer.” (Submitted by our contact in Sudan) Momentum is building behind a youth-led movement in Sudan that …

 Birth of a Nation

AllAfrica.com –

Nairobi — Decades of conflict and marginalization have left South Sudan the most dangerous country on earth in which to give birth. For every 100000 births in South Sudan, more than 2000 mothers die. Ninety percent of women give birth away from formal …

 The Biggest Threat to a Woman’s Life

AllAfrica.com – ‎

“More women die in child birth, per capita, in South Sudan, than in any country in the world,” says Caroline Delany, a health specialist with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in South Sudan which is funding a raft of maternal health …

 Arab Spring Countries Reportedly Intervening to Reunite Sudan’s Islamists

AllAfrica.com – ‎

Khartoum — Each of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya are conducting an initiative to reconcile Sudan’s bitterly divided Islamists, a spokesman for the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) said on Thursday. According to the NCP’s political secretary in Khartoum …

 What interests lie behind the Sudan-South Sudan conflict?

In Defense of Marxism (blog) – ‎

Following the declaration of independence by South Sudan – which is dependent on financial and military aid from American imperialism – tensions between Khartoum and Juba have been steadily ramped up over the past year and have brought death and …

 Olympic dreams diminish for South Sudan

Radio Netherlands – ‎

Hoping their young nation could participate in the London Games, South Sudan leaders have called the International Olympic Committee (IOC) “conservative and insensitive”. Sports Minister Cireno Hiteng Ofuho said that athletes from the new nation, …

 Sudan’s Cabinet Endorses Recommendations On Accepting Loans Involving Interest

AllAfrica.com – ‎

Khartoum — The Sudanese council of ministers chaired by president Omer Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday approved recommendations put forward by forum on financing state project which included discussions on the controversial measure of accepting external …

 ‘We Have Made Good Strides in the Digitization Journey’, Information Minister

AllAfrica.com – ‎

By Matata Safi, 20 July 2012 Juba — South Sudan is hopeful of achieving full migration to the new digital system of broadcast from the traditional analogue system by 2014 before the June 2015 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) deadline.

 South Sudan One Year Later: A Stalled Peace Process

Namibian ‎

MAHATMA Gandhi once said there were two kinds of peace: the one that silences the guns and the other that makes the guns irrelevant. This month marks the separation of the region of southern Sudan from mainland Sudan to form the world’s newest state of …

 S. Sudan official backs food production projects financing

Sudan Tribune –

July 19, 2012 (JUBA) – The chair of the parliamentary committee responsible for member affairs at the National Legislative Assembly, Mark Nyipuoc strongly extends support to appeals by the executive organ of the Government of South Sudan, …

 Gold last hope for Sudan to avert economic collapse

Free Malaysia Today – ‎

KHARTOUM: In his office in Khartoum’s gold market, central bank sales agent Mohamed Adam sips tea and watches while his staff load bundles of cash worth tens of thousands of dollars from the safe into four boxes. The government will use these piles of …

 Former Colonial Must Find Way to Bring Peace to Two Sudan

AllAfrica.com – ‎

By Mama Jany Gorey, 20 July 2012 My name Mama Jany Gorey a former MP during 1977; I have understand leadership in South Sudan failing to care their citizen status but care only about their beneficiary, I was one time a member of Parliament in Juba …

 Sudan Holds Largest Gold Reserves in Africa

Dallas Blog (blog) – ‎

by Tom McGregor The Sudanese government is purchasing a large stockpile of gold, which it intends to sell for US dollars needed to purchase imports such as food and other essentials. According to Reuters, “Sudan is looking to expand gold mines and …

The Garang I Knew: African icon of visionary leadership

By Luka Biong Deng

The people of South Sudan and the marginalised people of Sudan will remember their great leader, Dr. John Garang de Mabior, on July 30, the day he died in a plane crash seven years ago. Garang, a thinker, a freedom fighter, a military officer and an intellectual, will be remembered for generations to come as a leader who laid the foundation for the new nation of South Sudan and set the agenda for transforming Sudan. Certainly during his entire life of struggle, Garang has left unforgettable and positive marks and memories with many people of South, Sudan, the continent and the world at large. During the last seven years, I came to value the profound impact and legacy our great leader left behind. His name has become almost synonymous with the struggle of the marginalised people of Sudan.

Dr. Luka Biong Deng

Although there are people who knew Dr. Garang better than others, I strongly believe that every South Sudanese has come to know our great leader in different ways. Based on my personal recollection, I would describe Garang as the African icon of visionary leadership. Yasir Arman described Dr. Garang as a gift to humanity and the most influential Sudanese leader in the twentieth century. We, the people of the South, should be exceptionally proud that we produced such a charismatic leader during the final stage of our liberation struggle that resulted in the birth of our new nation. The seventh anniversary of the commemoration of his death is special as it came at the time when we celebrated the first anniversary of our independence. As we struggle to build an effective and successful new nation, we need to reflect on the virtues and thinking of the founding father, which can inspire and enrich our efforts for building a prosperous and peaceful South Sudan.

I came to know Dr. Garang as a strategic thinker and politician when I was at the final year in the University of Khartoum in the early 1980s. We organised ourselves as students into secret cells to disseminate and popularise the political agenda of the SPLM. I was struck by his diagnosis of the problem of Sudan as a problem of the centre and not the problem of the peripheries. Garang remarkably shifted the dominant thinking about the Southern problem to the Sudan problem. He did not only diagnose the problem well but he also skillfully prescribed a solution in the context of the New Sudan vision. By doing so, he managed to mobilise all Sudanese behind the goal of the New Sudan, regardless of region, religion or race.

Garang looked at the bigger picture rather than being bogged down by the Southern problem which he saw as a symptom. Without this strategic thinking, the South would not have gained its independence. In fact, the political agenda of the New Sudan is also useful for building our new nation. Building a cohesive and tolerant nation, as well as meeting the aspirations of rural communities and move the towns to the people, are valid points for building our new nation. My nephew, Daniel Francis Deng, always reminds me whenever we discuss any issue of “The Eagle Wisdom”. The eagle lifts itself high in the sky to see better and then swiftly comes to the ground

with clear targets and it avoids muddling itself on the ground where it cannot see well. Garang used this wisdom well. It is even relevant to our daily life and in building our new nation. Sometimes we waste our energies with past and trivial issues without looking at the bigger picture. It is that bigger picture and vision we need to see for a better future of our new nation.

I came to know Garang also as a people-centred developmentalist when he designated me to be in charge of the SPLM National Economic Commission for Western Equatoria in 1991, after it was liberated by the SPLM. It was the first time he shared with me face-to-face his vision of how the SPLM can develop Western Equatoria during the war. He asked me to make the Nzara agro-industrial complex work and engage farmers in supplying cotton for the Nzara textile industry. He was passionate about rural agro-industry and saw it as the most effective way to economically empower rural communities and take services to the people. Garang articulated his vision of development around his popular statements of “taking the town to the people” and “using oil to fuel agriculture”. This agenda will continue to be the economic path through which we can build a prosperous and peaceful South Sudan. We are still a long way from realising these commitments as our people are paradoxically attracted to towns where there are services and agriculture is being neglected.

I came to know Garang also as a skillful and shrewd negotiator in 2003 during the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) negotiations in Kenya. Garang excelled in showing leadership and knowledge, and managed to incorporate most aspects of his vision of a New Sudan in the CPA. Without his leadership, the CPA would not have been signed. I remember the time when he was receiving a lot of pressure from the international community and even some SPLM leaders to abandon the issue of Abyei and the two areas since the South got the right of self-determination. But Garang stood firmly behind the cause of the people of Abyei, the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile. Garang was also very humorous. He used different stories and jokes with his counterpart, Ustaz Ali Osman, to create a conducive environment for negotiations. Sometimes we could be waiting impatiently outside the room where they were meeting and were surprised to hear only laughter. Although the South got its independence, we should not abandon our solidarity with the marginalised people of Sudan. It would be ethically and morally a crime and a betrayal if we turned our back to our people and comrades in the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, eastern Sudan and Darfur.

I also came to know Garang as a religious and meticulous leader when he gave me his own Bible, printed in his name, for his swearing-in as the First Vice President on July 9, 2005. I was shocked going over the Holy Book to realise how deeply he read it. When I informed the Minister of Presidential Affairs that Dr. Garang would use this Bible for his swearing in, he tried to argue that the Palace had its own bibles. I argued how some Southerners were made to falsely swear in using the Quran instead of the Bible. This simple act showed how Garang was meticulous. He paid attention to details, which is necessary in leadership. I observed this also during the peace talks. He followed in detail the drafting of all protocols of the CPA and read carefully the entire CPA before it was finally signed.

Dr Garang traced the history of the people of Sudan in the Holy Bible and started with ancient Kush. He often referenced the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 18, where the prophet addresses “an aggressive nation” of “people tall and smooth skinned” in a “land divided by rivers.” Ominously, Isaiah foresaw events that the whole world would “hear” and “see,” when the people of Kush would die in droves, their corpses consumed by birds of prey and wild beasts. However, Isaiah goes on to call this period “the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape,” and the gardener must “cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches.” Garang situated the greatest tragedy of South Sudan’s war in a bigger picture of renewal and birth. Like the Phoenix, the destiny of the people of the South is to prosper in a time of peace after having been born again from the ashes of war.

These are few examples of my interaction with Dr Garang as a leader whom I admired and I looked up to as a model for visionary leadership. When he suddenly died in a plane crush on July 30, 2005, I was in Rumbek with a committee that was drafting the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan, whom Dr. Garang met three days earlier. I have never seen a nation mourn the way it did for Dr. Garang. It showed how he touched the heart of every citizen in Sudan, particularly in the South. When his body was brought to Rumbek, I was at the airport, where I came across a 10-year-old boy crying. I sat down with him and asked why he was crying. He said: “As he has died, I don’t know who will look after our education”. During these difficult times, I was exceptionally moved by the courage of his wife, Rebecca de Mabior. She emerged as a true mother to the nation and her words greatly consoled the people. One would have wished Comrade Rebecca to continue to play the role of mother for all the people of the South while paying due attention to the issues of Twic, Bor and Jongeli.

There were, however, people who paradoxically enjoyed the death of Dr Garang. One of my colleagues of the Constitutional Drafting Committee and who holds now a key position in our government told me in Rumbek and without remorse immediately after the sad news of the death of our Great Leader that “Luka you are now orphaned and your time is gone with the death of Dr Garang”. As we will remember our great leader, the only way we can mark such event is by working to realise his unfinished business. President Salva did a lot, not only in attaining independence and protecting the territorial integrity but also in building the mausoleum and honouring him by having his feature on our new currency.

However, the biggest challenge is how to realise the dreams of Dr. Garang of “taking the town to the people” and “using oil to fuel our agriculture”. The other challenge is to look after the families of our martyrs. We should honour their selfless sacrifices that made us what we are today. The birth of South Sudan marks our increasing responsibilities for economic governance and accountability, human rights and the rule of law, and socio-economic development. Without these and visionary leadership, the fruit in Isaiah’s vision, which Dr. Garang saw early on, will be bitter and elusive. With them, however, the sweet fruit of the people of Kush will be enjoyed not only in our lifetimes, but also for many generations to come.

 

By Luka Biong Deng

lukabiong@kushworld.org

Published by New Nation Newspaper

Beijing, China, July 2012