My second letter to President of the Republic of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit and Chairman of the opposition leader Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin.
By: Hearty Ritti Jada
Dear fellow Patriot president Salva Kiir Mayardit and Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin,
Good morning, please allow me to present to your esteem offices my humble second personal letter after having read through your congratulatory messages to the U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election on November 6, 2012. I have read your congratulatory messages with great importance and thought that I should write to you personally to reinforce your enthusiasm, courage and appetite for the mother and father of all democracies’ of the world, “the U.S. democratic system“.
Both of your messages communicate volumes and indicate your commitments to the democratic values and graciously enjoyed cherished and emotional connection to the gesture of president Obama’s victory over Mitt Romney. When I watched the results of the U.S. November 6, 2012 elections pouring in, I could feel my blood pressure rising and as a Republican, I was disappointed having campaigned for Romney only to see President Obama declaring victory.
When that happened, I promised myself I’d keep my mouth zipped for a few days due to the pressure from my fellow Democrats who continue to bully at me and as I write you now, I have no option but to accept Obama as the president elected and work hard to overturn democrat victory in the upcoming 2016 presidential election with hope republican will win.
Mr. President Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol, I wouldn’t waste your time that much and would like to go direct to the point. The purpose of writing to you is to bring to your attention, the South Sudanese, the international community, and more specifically to the U.S. Embassy in South Sudan to ask the most important question to both of you, which is “when will president Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol stand side by side on Symposium featured by (SSTV) in Juba to articulate and debate core path of democratic transformation in the young Republic of South Sudan?” Hence avoid the errors other African countries made after gaining independence, stay away from politics of personal destruction and focus debate on issues and concerns that matters most to the South Sudan people.
In addition, what government restructuring reforms and innovative governance both of you envision to eliminate the outdated duplicates of mismanagement and ineffective programs that oil and non-oil revenues wouldn’t be wasted on but commit and dedicated the limited resources to the fundamental needs of our citizen’s basic services including manageable and effective small government functions? Thereafter, encouraging inclusive and participatory contribution of our diverse citizens regardless where they came from, their political color, race, religion etc in reforms necessary to reflect decentralized federal system in South Sudan?
Both of you have demonstrated good leadership when you met in Nairobi, Kenya last year, which pave path for the return of Dr. Lam Akol to South Sudan; however President Kiir’s Open-up and good gesture for multiparty system drift away when few inner circle interest group ruling party woos insist that the President should not open doors but rather shut doors and expel opposition leader, an action which sends bad image and ruins reputation of the whole new country worldwide. I would like to encourage both of you to manage the political relationship and co-existence in a similar manner that Obama and Romney has handled neck to neck race for the White House.
Mr.President Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol, I trust that Obama’s victory have ignited a new spirit, soul search and sense of unity and that both of you need to forge a coalition of purpose for the future of our young nation the Republic of South Sudan. By that I mean now is the perfect time for your resolve to mediate, negotiate and compromise the essential antidote with open news conference and exhaust leverages and bargaining fence that exist between ourselves and set a good and a healthy example for our nation to follow.
Mr. President Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol, I am proposing and suggesting that “both of you to pledge a theme “South Sudan national unity conference ” that can allow you sit and stand side by side likePresident Obama and Romney did in the front of the South Sudanese people and International community to articulate your vision for the country, take questions from the media, individuals, groups and set the record straight. If you can just do that for the South Sudanese generation to see as an example, I promise you that for the rest of your lives you will be recorded as second Nelson Mandela of south Africa in South Sudan and remembered in the history of South Sudan as icon foundation for democracy which can be embraced by the U.S., and all democratic nations.
Mr. President Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol, as you already know South Sudan Communities face daunting powerful challenges that require strong leadership solutions from both of you. Remember, there is growing need for establishment of new united collaborative approach that aspires to significant community-wide progress by enlisting multiple sectors to work together toward a common goal which offers real promise for bringing about broader and more lasting change across the nation. Do not wait too long until south Sudanese lose their patience and trust in the government system of the South Sudan.
Although South Sudan is an era of limited resources due to the absence of non-oil revenue, our government must help communities to achieve more with less. Mr. President Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol, the engagement of our citizen to work together and look beyond their differences and similarities to show success is crucial, solving problems and identify effective collaborative methods involving stakeholders, sharing data, visions and agenda in which government, nongovernment, business, philanthropy are involved and alignment of resources for south Sudan new generation toward what works and what doesn’t is key.
Remember People of South Sudan and the international community are counting on Opposition leader Dr. Lam Akol’s team to break the ice burger, silence and open all doors to let in South Sudanese from all works of life to contribute in national building. Repealing corruption hikes is among top priorities but you should not be surprised since massive numbers of our nationals are apparently involved in miss- appropriation and failed to fight corruption. Experts stress and concluded the fact that the opposition leader Dr. Lam needs both south Sudanese and the international community on his side to push harder enough to eliminate corruption which resisted and survived president Kiir’s Zero tolerance decrees effort for years meant for rebooting anti-corruption institution to produce results.
Mr. President Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol, you see, from the beginning of the 2005, I was worried and predicted this would happen. But from the beginning, the government establishment was telling us that the only thing that mattered most was to get south Sudan independent and not “who can fix our country’s problems which exist now”. The government establishment has always asked the wrong question and got wrong answers to the South Sudanese people, as such our country lacks a sense of direction. I have no doubt in my mind that both of you together can reform and return the Republican of South Sudan to its constitutional principles, rule of law, prosperity and democracy if you want. But I’m afraid, for that to happen, you and I are going to have to force out colleagues to recognize that you will not tolerate any form of corruption in the Republic of South Sudan.
Mr. President Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol, I am more interested in top developmental priorities of south Sudan based on consultative, transparent, collaborative and accountable to the South Sudanese citizens with much focus on providing security, justices, jobs, and investing in non-oil natural resources abandoned to meet the needs and wants of the majority left behind South Sudanese. I would like to re-iterate that involving citizen’s early on developmental strategies, bottom- up and inclusive model with clear and shared vision is essential. I am pro-poor effective investment programs that resonate with sustainable development, fixing agriculture production and ending importing food commodities.
Mr. President Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol, now that both of you admired traits of the U.S. Presidential election system, I would like to let you know that what is unique about U.S. Presidents’ is that they reply to letters written to them by their citizen’s, where as I saw Dr. Lam is responding to public forums to questions posed to him by Diaspora and South Sudanese however, I have/did not see president Kiir or his aides responding to letters addressed to the president. I therefore, asking the president/his office to respond to my letter and I would appreciate that.
In conclusion, I would like to see Mr. President Salva Kiir and Dr. Lam Akol side by side hence (Obama vs. Romeny) styles, setting right institution and policies, socioeconomic transformation, knowledge economy, open government data for public access to enable citizens to hold their government accountable and accurate information available to help policy formulation for relevant decision making.
PaanLuel Wël Media Ltd - South Sudan 