South Sudan child prostitution on the rise

Juba, South Sudan – Child prostitution in Juba continues to rise as an increasing number of unaccompanied minors and street children risk getting trafficked or abused , due to the country ‘ s most recent conflict. Mary*, a 14-year-old girl, said: “I have nobody in Juba, so I ended up here at the lodge [brothel] to make a little bit of money.” A Dinka from Bor, whose father died a few years ago, she lost contact with her mother, and was taken to Juba by distant relatives. Like many other girls, she was introduced to prostitution by friends. Susan*, another 14-year-old orphan who works in Serikat market, says she cannot live off prostitution yet because of her young age. “I cannot take more than 3 men per day … even then I must sometimes rest for a few days.” Up to 500 girls out of Juba’s estimated 3,000 street children could be engaged in child prostitution. A survey conducted in September 2013 by Confident Children out of Conflict (CCC) and the French embassy found that 31 percent of 159 street girls surveyed were victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Last week, a report issued by the US State Department claimed that child prostitution in South Sudan is on the rise .   “The level of displacement has really increased the risk of how many children are exposed to potential trafficking. Lots of children have lost family support and are at greater risk of being exploited,” a US embassy official told Al Jazeera. Although 2013 data suggests that over 90 percent  of Juba’s sex workers are foreign women from neighbouring countries such as Uganda, Kenya or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, many returned to their home countries when fighting broke out at the end of last year. Young South Sudanese girls started to fill the void in a growing market, partly fuelled by the increased presence of soldiers around Juba, aid agencies say.

Peaceful coexistence: How the Equatorians got it right!

By Dr Peter Kopling,  South Sudan

The formulas to peaceful coexistence among all tribes in South Sudan already exist. The formulas for bloodshed and destructive coexistence between the tribes in South Sudan do also exist, it comes down to understanding these two paths and deciding what is it that our country needs most and which choice will get us there. The responses to these two choices are already in plain view and we only need to look no farther than within our communities and we shall discover it has been there all along! The bitter truth must be told, South Sudan has two regions, one that is stable and stabilizing and the other unstable and destructive. All we need to do is decide what we want, do we want peace, if this be the case then all we need to study are the stable and peaceful regions to see how they do it, how they live with each other, how they treat each other’s lands, neighboring tribes and their belongings to include lands.

If we want a conflicting South Sudan then all we need to do is study the way of life, perception of life and mindset of the unstable region of our nation. How they treat each other, and how they treat all that is important to them and their neighboring tribes. There can never be peace if we do not take time to understand what is important for others and instead impose our cultural ways on others in their respective ancestral lands. Colonialism tried this and failed! We are many nations under one, the fact that must not be ignored and the more reason it must be understood and approached delicately not with arrogance.

Without any doubt the Equatorian region emerged as the stable and peaceful part of South Sudan, while the Jiengs land, the destructive part of the Country.

Predating December 2013, the Jiengs land had numerous insurgencies already against the infant government. So we need to study the prevailing mentalities in the Jiengs land and avoid this if we are to survive as a nation and we must prevent them from exporting these raw materials of death to other parts of South Sudan.

The honest truth is even if the Jiengs region were to announce today their desire to split and form a different country or join the Jalabas, believe you me, the rest of South Sudan will breath a shay and will not beg them to remain as part of the united South Sudan and the Jiengs nation will only end up tearing each other down as long as they maintain their current predatory mentality of glorifying bloodshed and vilifying peacefulness. It must be pointed out the Equatorian region has numerous tribes of totally different cultures and mentalities although the Jiengs mischievously and derogatorily tend to refer to the Equatorians as if they are a single tribe!

But what they do not realize is they are acknowledging the fact that Equatorians have achieved brotherhood among the different tribes despite of their diversity, which must serve as a role model for South Sudan, if there is still any hope for us to exist as a nation! What is commonly shared by majority of these Equatorian tribes however is that Godliness and goodness which is praised rather than savagery of bloodshed, disregards to the sacredness of human life misnomer by the Jiengs as bravery.

Equatorian tribes know their ancestral boundaries and they respect these boundaries while the Jiengs have nomadic mindsets! It seems they can go away from their ancestral land and never even miss them, and even bury their national hero away from home with cynical implications! The Equatorian tribes respect the cultures of one another but more so each tribe loves their ancestral land as they love themselves! One’s very existence for Equatorian tribes are indistinguishable with one’s ancestral lands!

The land is where your father and forefathers are buried, time immemorial! It is what gives meaning to your existence and to life, it is what gives you food, it is also what gives you fishing and hunting’s rights, thus the land is sacred in Equatorian tribes, wars were fought in the past to protect and preserve them not cows, it is on this basis Equatorian initiated the war of independence to preserve this ownership and rights. Just as the Jiengs protect their cows at all costs, they compose songs to their cows because this is their lifeline, their attachment to their lands does not carry the same significance as to Equatorian just as Equatorian attachments to cows is not the same as among the Jiengs who look at the land as a place for their cows to graze.

Equatorians look at their land as a place that gives them life but also that holds the meaning of their very existence and the ancestral souls and their bones are laid at rest in these lands. Thus it is very customary in most Equatorian tribes; they will go at great costs and heavy expenses to return the remains of their sons and daughters to be buried in their ancestral land among their ancestors for their souls to rest in peace otherwise will keep wandering around until rituals are performed to bring them to their ancestral home and into the family! This return of the dead sons and daughters of the land is from as far as the Americas!

Thus the significance of land for Equatorian has no equivalent in the Jiengs culture. Our Lands are more than the cows to Jiengs! To ignore and belittle the protectiveness of Equatorian with their ancestral land is to belittle their very existence in South Sudan thus to breed disunity! Unity is indeed the natural result of respect of these things; supreme of them is land, for which we fought the Jalaba for 50 years! This is why we fell off with the Jalabas, how different if not worst are the Jiengs compare to the Jalabas in disregarding ancestral and tribal rights to lands, thus falling off will be a natural consequence unless we are saved by mutual respect AKA Federalism?

Now with these thousands of years of practice of land protections how do the Equatorian relate to each other’s tribe, and land without much of the violence found in the Dinka lands? You will not find a group of Muru’s or Kuku going to Acholi land and lay claim of an area in Acholi heartland as their own land in disregard to the Acholis, for in the first place why will the Murus do this since they love their ancestral land and are tied spiritually to their lands and people? You will not see any group of Equatorian moving to other territory, forming their own chiefdom and tribal system in other people’s tribal land!

So is there or there is no Kokora between Equatorian tribes although they are many tribes not the same ones? The answer is NO! Migration happens freely and often but on an individual or family basis! Never a whole village uprooting themselves to go occupy the tribal lands of others in the name of whatever is promised to them by whoever! In the first place they will oppose such propositions, which they know outright breeds fights, deaths, and disrupts peace!

When an individual or Muru family decides to move to Acholi land, once they get there, they are always welcomed warmly as guests; they then live by the local norms and customs, as do the owners of the land! They respect the locals and do not insult them as cowards or call them names such as Nyamnyam or we fought the Jalabas here so now we earned the right to be here. For you cannot visit your brother’s house, while he is hosting you, and start to insult his wife, abuse his children and expect to not be kicked out of your brother’s house simply because he is your brother!

Having fought for independence can not be used to dislodge others from their ancestral land otherwise it was not a war of independence but rather a war of Dinka expansionism and colonization, Otherwise it was not a war against the Jalaba but rather against the Equatorian for their lands. Being in a relative’s house comes with first recognizing it is not your house but that of your brother, and you also have yours and you are a visitor which comes with responsibility of being beneficial to your host and not being a parasite or affecting your host negatively neither altering his way of life!

Indeed once an Equatorian moves to on other’s tribal territory, he learns the local language, he eats the local food, he practice the local tradition and become essentially one of the local tribe in another words becomes assimilated not disruptive and boastful! If he does not have appreciations of the new tribe he moves to, he simply stays back in his ancestral land and among his people not impose himself on the other tribe, making others miserable just as he is. This is how peace is maintained among the tribes in Equatoria! No one tribe forcefully settle or grab someone else ancestral land equivalent of cattle rustling in the Jiengs land. This Jiengs government engineers the recent land strife we witnessed between the sisterly tribes of the Acholis and the Ma’dis!

The irony is, those who have no culture of peace try to preach peace to those who are peaceful! Those who have no notion, leave alone, the experience of peaceful intertribal coexistence try to forge what they called building a national identity, which is a red herring for ethnic cleansing given they have neither respect nor appreciation for other tribes thus leading to the Dinkanization project now ongoing to uproot other tribes from their ancestral land! Their war against the Nuer is part and partial of this.

They have no understanding other than that of nomadic life style leading them to preach if we are one nation then all ancestral boundaries are to be erased to allow them to practice their nomadic lifestyle at the expenses of others, from North to South and from east to west that are none Nomadic! This nomadic mindset and the revenge on Equatorian for Kokora are what drives then,even embedded in the Jieng written transitional constitutions. It is thus only the Jiengs that trespasses all over South Sudan in disregards to other peoples backyard and they have no understanding why this is causing aches for their fellow countrymen, the Equatorian in particular, for this trespassing is in Keeping with Nomadic lifestyle which is never to be nationalized unless to our own perils for all we need to see is what it has done to the Dinkaland from which they are fleeing!!!

In the Jiengs lands, the cow reign supreme, and whoever can, will steal what he does not have in the process, shedding human blood! Thus it is a culture of thieves and bloodshed utterly incompatible with the prevailing Equatorian cultures! Indeed if there is any hope for the Jiengs, they must become like Equatorian, Hold human lives above cows life and the love for ancestral lands supreme above the love for cows. How can you love others if you do not love yourselves more than your love for animals? In essence the federalism we are debating about is already practiced in Equatoria, each individual loving his family, tribes, their ancestral land, protecting it and building it, but also very much respecting that which belongs to other tribes, for if you caused them to lose theirs, someone else will cause you to lose yours.

Each individual, not an entire clan, tribe or bulk of people, is free to move to any part of eqautorian region and remain what sh/e is or take the identity and culture of the tribe that hosts him/her, no one forces, insights, neither prevents him/her to make this choice and sh/e in turn do not try to change the ways of, annihilate or obliterate other tribes. The hope and formulae for South Sudanese unity is already being practice in Equatoria! It has been here all this time and no one seems to recognize it. This is the model for South Sudan and federalism thus makes sense to Equatorian because it is already what they practice and what has given them peaceful coexistence, how they relate to each other on the basis of recognizing each other’s tribes and tribal lands, what is important to them and respecting each other in all aspects!

Federalism gives power to the individuals, people and regions! The government respects the people rather than the other way round; Master- slave relations.

Those who are opposed to this are those who want the people to worship the government and those who want to use the power of the government to impose on others and have no respects for other peoples’ cultures, way of life, aspirations and their lands.

The true brotherhood we all want is based on the model found in Equatoria and the intertribal relationships that exists in Equatoria for centuries. This is the case then no one has to fear Kokora happening due to federalism, there is no Kokora among Equatorian tribes, what makes it so? If loving your ancestral land and letting others do the same is Kokora then, so be it! If dislodging others from their ancestral land is what it takes to form a nation to the benefit of one tribe then is it any wonders that such is now heading straight to hell in our very eyes?

For in mutual respect is peace, not in master slave relation and others relinquishing their natural possessions and rights. Mutual respect has worked in Equatoria and they coexist peacefully! One fact is clear, if there is federalism or not, the respect for land must reign supreme and the schemes for land thieving and dominance must come to an end, as long as this does not happen there shall be no peace in South Sudan, There shall only be oppressors and the oppressed!

If we truly want a land of the free, prosperity and justice for all then the tool to achieve this is federalism and encouraging the life styles of the Equatorian tribes. Think of this as the relationship between you and your brother who is married and has his own house and cows, just as you! You respect his wife, children and property and he in turn respect yours. When he takes care of his house, it is not in opposition to you! Simply, you need to do the same for yours, for brotherhood does not negate your responsibility to your personal house. Just because you are brothers does not mean you need to merge houses and not having individual homes in pretense of fear of Kokora.

Mutual respect is how you keep brotherhood not by taking his wives forcefully or milking his cows forcefully in the name of brotherhood! Federalism thus gives all South Sudanese, not just some, that power to protect one’s own house and decide what is for breakfast rather being dictated by the self proclaimed big brother, in the current system, regardless of who, will always be the oppressor! South Sudan is ready for peace, which equals federalism; to say south Sudan is not ready for federalism is to say those who are having the lion share of the goodies are not ready to let it go and grant South Sudanese; Equality, justice, Liberty, prosperity for all and thus peace!

Without federalism in South Sudan, there shall only be oppressors and the oppressed!

Dr. Peter Kopling, MD

A CALLED FOR TOUGHER LAW AND ORDERS TO PROTECT FEMALE CHILD AND TO DENOUNCE CHILD PROSTITUTION IN JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN.

DEAR REGINA LULLO: DIRECTOR OF GENDER AND CHILD WELFARE AT THE MINISTRY OF GENDER, CHILD AND SOCIAL WELFARE, SOUTH SUDAN.

BY AMER MAYEN DHIEU, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA.

DEAR MADAM REGINA

I strongly believed you have your very own biological children. If not now you will have them in your near future. Madam Regina, there is a novel called “A family with no daughter is like a river without source”. I heard it and read it in the news, that a 14 years old female child who have not yet had her first menstruation period, according to science is serving more than five men, I mean having a sexual contacts with men three times her age in Juba’s brothels, the capital city of my motherland, South Sudan.

Dear Madam,

Many natural disasters like flood and drought, extreme scarcity of food  and man-made disasters like civil wars and massacres had happened long before South Sudan become an Independent state. Before our families were introduce to money, at a time when our sixty four tribes of South Sudan exchange goods for goods, at a time when none of us know how to uses electricity, when firewoods were source of our energy, when cattle were everything we have. Madam Regina, Child prostitution has never been operating business, even when our country was under Arab. The few prostitutes I heard were mature enough to decide whether to be one or not.

Dear Madam

A fourteen years old female child, who is serving those rich men three times her age, is the one who will be in that position you are in now when she become adult. Apparently she have no education, she have no official address, she is not being well-cared for, she is not being protected, she sleeps in the street with no guidance to tell her the history of our country’s long struggle, what our martyrs have sacrifices their lives for. Madam Regina, by they time you will grow old, with no more energy to serve the country, you will have no one to carry your legacy. Not because there are no females to do so, but because they were not well prepare to take oath on your behave.

Dear Madam Regina

I can assure you, and I need to be specific. I am from Dinka Tribe. In Dinka’s culture, female child is adore and cherish by many people for many reasons. No family in Dinka’s culture can abandon an orphan female child because the family cannot look after her no more. One can sacrifices his or her own sweat to look after her, knowing that what he or she invest to bring this little girl up is what he or she will be rewarded in the near future when the girl become a grown up women. The reward can be inform of dowries or from the girl herself. Many families do it to keep their families in shape believing that a deceased person can be survived by his kids when they are well look after by their remain relatives.

Dear Madam Regina.

If it is true that “A family without daughter is like a river without source” then what is the source of our Country? “Why are you robbing us with generation” why are you allowing our female leaders to live and die in shame. Did anyone of you politicians ever ask why these girls become orphans at the first place? wouldn’t you think their parents might have died as soldiers or victim of civilians’s wars cause by you politician? If government did not provide you with funding, under your position can you not be able to find a group of volunteers that can enforces laws and orders to protect these kids? why is police targeting them instead of the business owners? Do you know how shameful is that for our government and our brand new country?

Dear Madam Regina

I did not mean to bombarded you with questions but I thought throwing up my burning questions into the air will saved my heart from breaking into pieces. Today I realised I have no reason to continue believing in rekindling my root, because I know I will have no one to build the remaining part of the country with. I have no younger sisters to lead and inspire.

Dear Madam Regina

From today I know my country is indeed a fail state. Fail state is a state that have failed to protect a fourteen years old female child from being sexual abused by mature age men and forcefully expose to the most shameful business in the history of our beloved nation. Fail state is a state that has failed to provide food and shelter to  the orphan kids. Dear Madam, I thought South Sudan was developing. When I see those tall building in the heart of Juba city, politicians’ kids in a million dollar mansions and in privates schools and millionaires business men and women in soon to be three years old state, I thought everyone was well off and only that the differences were in salaries. I never knew small kids were starving to the point of becoming prostitutes.

Dear Madam Regina.

It is true that “wonders will never end” If it is not true that wonders will never end then please! Please! Please!, For the sake of humanity, the sake of orphan kids, the sake of our country, we need laws to protect these innocent kids. I urge and called upon all South Sudan civil society organisations to join hands and fight Child prostitutions. It is better to die a civilian than a prostitute. The generation we fought for are living us behind. They are dying before us. Madam Regina, please save our children.

@ Amer Mayen Dhieu, Brisbane, Australia.

she can be reach through her Facebook page; Amer Mayen Dhieu.

How Dr. Riek’s two atrocious massacres of 1991 and 2013 help shaped the past, present and future of the Republic of South Sudan.

By Mama Junub, Juba South Sudan

In the year 1991, an estimated number of one million people were killed. The three counties of Duk, Twic East and Bor were severely affected. Reportedly, women, elderly and children were brutally and systematically killed by Nuer armed men loyal to Dr. Riek Machar. The massacre of Civilians in the above mentioned three counties is said to have been politically motivated by Riek’s divergences with Dr. John Garang; a man from Twic East County and at a time a leader of the Sudan People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). With limited information documented, the 1991 Massacre of Duk, Twic East and Bor counties is seen, contended and referred to by, intellectuals, elders and members of the three counties as the worse killings of civilians in the history of the Republic of South Sudan. Yet the mass displacement of civilians from rural to urban areas that had happened at a time exposes not only the dark side of the massacre but also significant and positive scar, that have helped in shaping the current and possibly the future of South Sudan.

Despite thousands of written human rights documentations and media reports, international and national observers tried to scrutinise the cause of the two massacres and non-stoppable divergent views within the previous Bush-SPLM and the current one.  However none of the warring group should it be on rebel side or government has decent answers to most basic question such as why did tens of thousands of citizens join hand with Dr Riek Machar; the rebel leader to kill their fellow citizens, in 1991 and why did Gel-Weng cautiously name as Tiger joined hands with government troops to kill their fellow Citizens, the Nuers. Though such questions will forever and for a while remained unanswered, the memories of the atrocities committed by both sides will not only enlighten the difficulties, suffering and losses faced by both sides, but also ‘natural and unnatural significance changes’ that have occurred in the state’s social, economic, and political institution just after 1991 massacre. 

South Sudan Social Reform in Post 1991 Era

The 1991 massacre has helped socio-culturally reform South Sudan especially among Dinkas and Nuers. Given the fact that the two communities were more culturally devoted to their traditional way of lives such as cattle rearing for men and young boys and women with housework and gardening for both men and women, major cultural developments are seen improving.

First, children are being able to go to school,.

Secondly, women are making “history with their newly vital role in politics and civil society and are no longer confined to positions of influence at home”

These cultural improvements come following the 1991 Massacre when Dinkas and Nuers were force from rural areas to the secured places such as camps and towns which enhanced their chances of going to school and be educated. 

One may disagree that before the 1991 massacre there were intellectuals among South Sudanese communities especially Nuers and Dinkas. However, education at a time was not taken as basic needs for social, cultural and economic development especially in villages where the massacre took place. Families who managed to send their children to school were either from town or those who have their relatives in town. Education was not expanded to rural area so was the development. It was post 1991 era when Nuers and Dinkas scattered to all over the places in neighbourhood countries looking for affordable live when they begin to grasp education as necessary for their children and a primary basic needs for child development. 

Understanding “how and why such a transformation occurred offers not just an opportunity to celebrate” social transformation following 1991 Massacre among Dinkas and Nuers but an insight of how our traditional way of lives has downplayed development in rural areas. If the current white army and Gelweng were educated at early age and taught how to individually live in harmony with each other with acceptance of differences and diversity, South Sudan would have been a better place a decade ago.

Looking back beforehand, majority of South Sudan tribes had “traditionally drawn distinctions among themselves based on socioeconomic status and occupation”, but the 1991 Massacre forces both communities to “treat, their differences as immutable ethnic characteristics and issued national identification accordingly”. A death-defying intention between Nuers and Dinkas was polish by their search of common interest: food and security which join them in one place called refugee Camp with one food Distribution centre, same primary and secondary schools for their kids and one food supplier, the United Nation. While desperately searching ‘for a more secure place in their adopted home’ men and women from Dinka and Nuer tribes found one common identity and spirit of brother- and sisterhood. Many young people who previously find their way from Refugees camp to places like Australia and America join hand in exile and participate in the development of one South Sudan nation either by returning home and work for government or help send their children, brothers, sisters and nieces to better schools. 

Political Reform

Unlike 1991 killings, December 15 incident was a ‘process carried out by special units in the government between two tribes namely; Nuer and Dinka. However the conflict has shifted gears again on Riek’s side as leader of the rebellion. The question is: will this rebellion have significant effect on the republic of South Sudan just like the 1991 massacre? Socially, it can be argued that the 1991 massacre have already taught Nuer and Dinka tribes from rural areas  how to live in culturally-diverse environment, the important of education and most importantly it has interrupt the negative sequence of traditional and cultural beliefs against women. Conceivably, South Sudan population is modernised; learning new ways of life that helps them stay updated in the contemporary modern society. Boys and girls are educated and well-informed to the level that one can help the whole nation. 

Nevertheless, radical transformation of the political system is needed. Just like the 1991 massacre, it can be argued that the 2013-2014 Riek’s rebellion will have a slight positive effect on South Sudan political system. Priority to the 2010 election, South Sudan has been  hit with allegation of corruption, nepotism and oppression of minority group. Some minority groups such as Equatorians are underrepresented in national government. This has instigated political turmoil and tension between minority and majority groups which give rises to the launch of David Yau Yau rebellion in Jonglei state. In addition, the Nuer tribe as the second largest group is situated by the same perception in a position in which some of them perceives national government as “Dinka Government” while other Dinkas are also grouching about the same glitches. For these reasons, December 15 incident that give rise to the birth of Riek’s 2013-2014 rebellion is forecasts to shape South Sudan’s political system either by good or bad cause. 

The good cause is that the upcoming and future presidents of the state will cautiously use these past and present experiences to create strong inclusive government that will improve political diversity between the two and other tribes should it be on state or national level through federal system which give state powers and the central government with legislations as they previously discuss in the recent Addis Ababa peace talk and social media or by creating interim government that will give chance to other minority groups to be part of the government. In summary just like 1991 massacre, December 15 is predicted to engineer some significant political reform within the SPLM party that were repeatedly resist by Kiir’s Government and has been the centre of all political chaos in the history of South Sudan.

 

AMBASSADOR EZEKIEL LOL GATKUOTH IS JOINING DR. RIEK MACHAR

PRESS RELEASE

AMBASSADOR EZEKIEL LOL GATKUOTH IS JOINING SPLM/A IN OPPOSITION

The SPLM Leaders (Former Political Detainees) met in Ambassador Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Friday, 27th June, 2014, to discuss the request of Amb. Ezekiel Lol Gatkouth, a member of the SPLM Leaders (FD) to join the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement/Army in-Opposition (SPLM/A-IO). He expressed his genuine desire to go and assist the SPLM/A (IO) politically.

The meeting endorsed the request of Amb. Ezekiel Lol Gatkouth to join SPLM/A In-Opposition since this is his individual wish at this critical juncture in which the people of South Sudan are yearning for peace and democratic change.
We trust that Amb. Ezekiel will pursue the struggle for just peace, democracy and justice in South Sudan and add political value to SPLM/A In–Opposition. Having shared in the common experience of the struggle for independence of South Sudan and the fight against despotism, we can only wish him well in his new political endeavors.

The SPLM Leaders remain solidly united and fully committed to the agenda of achieving peace, stability and democracy in South Sudan by peaceful means together with the other South Sudan stakeholders in the IGAD mediated Peace process.

Cde. John Luk Jok
Spokesman, SPLM Leaders
Addis Ababa, 28th June, 2014

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Ambassador Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth’s Statement for Joining SPLM-in Opposition

PRESS RELEASE

Addis Ababa — Ladies and Gentlemen,

South Sudan became Independent on the 9th of July 2011. Millions of the people of the Republic of South Sudan and well-wishers celebrated the birth of the new nation. I was blessed to have witnessed both the hoisting of the flag in South Sudan (July 9th 2011) and in the United Nations Head Quarters in New York (July 14th 2011). This well earned sacrosanct Independence of the South Sudan was through millions of heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives for a just cause in 1955 to 1972, the war of the Anya Nya One, 1975 to 1983, the war of Anya Nya Two and 1983 to 2005, the war of SPLM/A.

December 15th 2013 will always be in the history of the new nation as the darkest spot. The President of the Republic, Salva Kiir Mayardit dragged the new nation into a war by recruiting, arming, and directing the Presidential Unit (Tiger Battalion), mainly from his home area, to disarm the Nuer component of the unit. I am innocent. I have never, or any of my colleagues in anyway ever plotted a coup to overthrow Salva Kiir government. The war broke out and Kiir directed his part of the unit to slaughter the Nuer in the unit and around Juba. This move triggered the current war imposed on all of us starting with his former Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, whom Kiir wanted to assassinate. Former VP Dr. Riek Machar Teny ran for his life and all the G11 were detained using a false accusation such as an attempted coup d’etat. This false alleged coup triggered the massacre in Juba, and subsequently many innocent lives lost in Bor, Malakal, Bentiu and many places. My dear people the Nuer, Dinka, Shilluk, and many other innocent lives from other communities were lost because of this senseless war. My condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.

To set the record straight, we the December 6th 2013 Political Leaders (G11), namely Pagan Amum Okiech, Deng Alor Kuol, John Luk Jok, Kosti Manibe Ngai, Gen. Oyay Deng Ajak, Gen. Dr. Majak D’Agoot, Gen. Madut Biar Yel, Gen. Gier Chang Aluong, Governor Chol Tong Mayay, Dr. Cirino Hiteng Ofuho, and Amb. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth together with Dr. Riek Machar Teny, Madame Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior, Taban Deng Gai, Dr. Peter Adwok Nyaba and Alfred Lado Gore – who had a press conference in Juba were and are united on the issues of “critical reforms” in the SPLM and the Government of the Republic of South Sudan using peaceful means. It was President Kiir who introduced violence into this in -house SPLM Political struggle. The war, which was imposed on all of us by Kiir, separated the group on the fateful night of December 15th 2013. The G11 (former detainees) were detained, and Dr. Riek Machar Teny and others escaped and ran for their dear lives. Because of the imposed war by Kiir, Dr. Riek and his group waged a war of resistance for survival. All of the mentioned leaders above the “reformists group” will continue to work together to end this imposed war peacefully.

Press Release from South Sudan Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya

South Sudan’s coat of arms, in which the eagle symbolizes vision, strength, resilience and majesty, and the shield and spear the people’s resolve to protect the sovereignty of their republic and work hard to feed it.

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Press Release from South Sudan Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya

An Open Letter to President Salva Kiir

How the rampant embezzlement can be wrestle: an open letter to President Salva Kiir.

By Agok Takpiny

April Fool? The 6 millions is not stolen; rather it has been successfully recovered from the real thief.

Mr President, as you and the rebel leader Dr. Riek Machar recommitted yourselves to unfasten the current unfortunate carnage in our young nation by agreeing to form a transitional government in due course, South Sudanese are tightly holding their fingers crossed. Majority of South Sudanese are living under unimaginable conditions in their own country. Hunger or famine as has been widely speculated is looming large. Thousands of lives have been unnecessarily lost and three major towns in ruin. In short, the pain which South Sudanese are undergoing is arguably more severe than what we have experienced in our previous wars.

Notwithstanding the relieved that would come with the final peace deal (if you our leaders keep your commitment), I have a feeling that South Sudanese’s dignity will not be restored anytime soon. Our image has been tainted in the global arena Mr president, we are a laughing species of Africa. In fact The Fragile States Index 2014 released this June by FFP placed South Sudan on top of the list before Somalia. Who would have thought that we would be worse than Somalia after just two years of independence?

Mr. President, as much as I believe the history of the attempted coup by Riek Machar in December 2013 which brought the current mayhem, we are not the only country at war with ourselves. Syria has been at war for the last three years, Libya too had been at war with itself, and nevertheless, they are not even on the top ten of the Fragile States Index 2014. In the eyes of outsiders Mr President, no single institution in your government is or has been functioning accordingly. The world see your government as a joke Mr President, all the ministries have wasted and embezzled staggering sum of money in the last nine years of your tenure.

Corruption is a weapon that undermines the credibility of public institutions. It attacks the morality of justice and damages society. This is where the unwanted ranking come from Mr President. We need to get our act together to clean our dirty image. Some of the readers of this letter may argue that poor management of national resources is synonym to Africa (i.e. not just South Sudanese problem). It is true that corruption throughout Africa and indeed in other parts of the world is widespread, however, the grand scale of corruption in our country is in my opinion second to none.

In fact it is a slow pace robbery of national resources by those entrusted to manage them. There are many forms of corruption, however, the focus here is on embezzlement.

In fairness nevertheless, our politicians are not the only one with meandering of uprightness. It is a known fact that corrupt politicians all over the world are opponent of the truth; their virtues and ethics are scarce. However, Mr President, what is setting apart the degree of corruption in South Sudan from the rest of the world is the extreme lack of control and monitoring mechanisms. It is this dire deficiency of controlling measures that made every sub-tribe want to have one of their son/daughter to be a minister.

In other countries, a minister is someone who the president see fit to make departmental decisions and implement them on behalf of the president; in other word, a minister does too little to represent his/her constituency in the parliament where legislations are made, instead a minister become a national leader who must represent the whole country.

Mr President, the reason why every sub-tribe outrageously goes ballistic when one of their beloved son/daughter miss out in the appointment for the ministerial position during reshuffling, or when their son/daughter is removed from the ministerial position is because they see ministerial position as a house for money laundering and embezzlement that everyone should have a slice of.

Mr President, you would agree with me that the reason why we only have tarmac roads inside some parts of Juba and not a single modern freeway built in the country is not because South Sudan from 2005 to present doesn’t have enough money;

Mr president, the reason we don’t have clean running water in the whole of Juba let alone all other major towns across the country is not because South Sudan doesn’t have enough money;

Mr President, the reason why no single modern hospital is built in Juba or any other major town across the country is not because South Sudan cannot afford to build a modern hospital;

Mr President, the reason why the outdated Russian made bomber (Antonov) in the hands of SAF is still a threat and continue to fly at will in the skies of South Sudan is not because South Sudan cannot afford to buy basic and old defence system that can easily take Antonov down and assured the citizens that they are safe from the sky;

Mr President, the reason why the deafening portable generators are still polluting the air with noise in Juba is not because South Sudan cannot afford to build temporary power station or buy four or three large generators which can be stationed outside the town and can still provide the city with limited power (electricity in mornings and evenings till midnight);

Mr President, the reason why thousands of children are still learning under trees is not because South Sudan cannot afford to provide ninety percent children with classrooms.

The list is long Mr President but you get the idea, the idea is that your government need to put in place some measures to reduce the rampant embezzlement of public money which has been continuing undeterred for many years.

Mr President, your anti-corruption body is toothless and ineffective. It is true that without effective law enforcement which is essential to corroborate anti-corruption efforts, the anti-corruption body can be a mere veil. What your government should have done Mr President is to give more powers and autonomy to law enforcement agencies which should be part of anti-corruption teams to detect and punish any public or government official, along with any public servant who violates corruption laws.

Mr President, everyone in South Sudan knows and appreciate your outstanding contribution to the liberation of the South Sudanese people from the rogue Islamic regimes in Khartoum. Many of us who grew up during the war have unquestionable loyalty to you because of your unwavering services to the people of South Sudan. However, as is often the case with human beings Mr President, people tend to remember a person’s shortcomings more than his/her outstanding achievements. Mr President, the inability of your government to yet hold a single public servant accountable for the despicable and shameful continuous embezzlements of public monies is potentially destroying your revered legacy.

Mr President, any ordinary person on the street today would tell you that in the court of laws, one party must be guilty and the other acquitted. However, the missing $30millions: scandal between Arthur Akuin Chol and Pagan Amum defies that logic of ordinary concept Mr President. If the two gentlemen are innocent, I guess we can conclude that an alien has made a surprise appearance in South Sudan and took the money with it, there is no any other way Mr President to explain where that huge sum of money has gone. Anyhow, let us not dwell on this extensively.

Mr President, to preclude similar scenarios like the infamous Dura saga where 6 billion South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) was embezzled, it is imperative that your government enact procurement law.

Mr President, your government need to establish an independent PROCUREMENT agency to deal with all purchases.  Mr President, I know that building 21th century roads, providing citizens with adequate electricity, building modern hospitals and equip them with well-trained doctors, providing citizens with clean water, and building grain stores across the country to fight hunger, are some of your priorities.

Mr President, your ability to deliver services to help achieve these outcomes depends, to varying degrees, on the effective procurement of goods and services. Effective procurement not only means getting the best value out of the money that the public has entrusted to your government, but also behaving ethically at all times and being accountable for processes and outcomes.

Procurement simply means: establishing what the project needs, locate the suppliers, obtain the quotes and compare them, evaluate the suppliers, enter negotiations with few selected suppliers, award the contract to a supplier that meet the desired price and the desired time frame for the completion of the project  or delivery of goods, and finally pay the supplier. I previously made a comment in the editorial article on southsudannation.com that “South Sudan is the only country on earth where a minister can award the contract to the supplier without first verifying whether or not the supplier actually do have a business which the contract is based upon”.

The alleged mischievous transfer of $7,959,400 to Daffy Investment Group (ST) by Deng Alor Kuol in 2013 perfectly depicted that. As things stand, after probing by the investigative committee that your government set up, it turned out that Daffy Investment Group is fictional, it never existed Mr. President. Additionally, as stated by Abraham Awolich from The Sudd Institute, in the Dura saga probe “The World Bank found that 290 companies were paid without signing any contracts with the government and 151 companies were overpaid”.

If we critically evaluate all these so called companies Mr President, we would surely find out that the majority of them don’t exist. They are ghost entities. Astonishingly still, no single individual has been held accountable

To impede such behaviours from surfacing in the future, your government need to act speedily to enact procurement law and establish the procurement board. Mr President, nothing come cheap in this age of ours, if you intend to get competent person who can do the job on your behalf, they need to be fully compensated. Mr President, an independent procurement board need a CEO with expertise in the area of procurement, he/she doesn’t have to be South Sudanese.

We need help Mr President, thus it is advisable to recruit the CEO for the procurement agency from anywhere in the world. We need a knowledgeable individual who will be able to help create certain rules and responsibilities, and make sure that all ministers understand them.

In conclusion, it would be naïve to think that better procurement processes alone will reduce corruption. Mr President, It takes prosecution of corrupt officials for reforming to take root, I know finding judges who are willing to convict these criminals is ridiculously onerous. This is because lawyers are themselves corrupt or fear retributions. However, without trying and convicting corruptors, the embezzlement of public money will continue.
End.

Disclaimer: views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author. Agok Takpiny is a concerned South Sudanese in Melbourne Australia. He can be reached on agoktakpiny@ymail.com

Determining the Reformed Government of South Sudan

By Stephen Kuol Owet

In a country like the Republic of South Sudan, constitution, local or municipal laws do not have to be brought from outside South Sudanese cultural-traditional laws and orders – neither reformed government which could dictate – or change South Sudanese cultures and traditions nor any of the foreign-made constitutional systems work in South Sudan.

For the sake of South Sudan and South Sudanese union and identity, preserving South Sudan just as it is, is the best choice, with only the reformed system that can join South Sudanese community laws and orders together and form one official document which could be named as a constitution – which South Sudan can abide by – or laws which are written in South Sudanese languages first, then interpreted into the language which foreigners could easily understand. In the meantime, interim-government or transitional-government had not worked – since, neither interim- nor trans- works for South Sudan – because both trans- and interim- are alienated-government frontal view types which are adopted from the outside South Sudanese cultures and traditions, so is capitalism and conventional government; they (capitalism- and conventional-) will not work for South Sudan because those two governmental type-systems are too new to South Sudaneses.

Force or army force does not work to change South Sudanese civilizations, and only South Sudanese can make something from their well known social laws and orders from Jieng, Naath, Chollo, Equatorians, Burun, Maban, etc. – doubt not, because God has not mistaken for creating human races in different colours with different languages – for any religious geek and those who think that people should be the same – well if you, people had not written your own laws or constitution in your own mother tongues, it could not had work for you even if you devote your lifetime on it, foreign constitutions. Constitution and/or laws and orders must always be written, read, understood and approved by the people from their own basic customary laws and orders in their languages first before the President or parliament can approve.

First, looking into the past and present, Sudaneses and mostly Southerners have always been fighting themselves, not because they are ignorant but it has been because they (South Sudaneses) are being deceived and forced to do things out of their wills by some of their sophisticatedly assumed leaders who know nothing but to conduct bloody business (oil business) with foreigners against South Sudanese interests. Among them, Dr. Lam Akol and Dr. Riek Machar are the major leaders who always want South Sudan to be at war all the time.

They (Lam and Riek) have always been the only South Sudanese figured leaders who always have been running in and out of the SPLM leadership, betraying South Sudan to foreigners and forced privatized companies which always assist both Riek and Lam with military logistics to illegally operate in South Sudan through the use of army. No blame here, but Dr. Lam and Dr. Riek have caused division to SPLA/M in the past, calling themselves “SPLAM-Nasir” faction. Therefore, neither Dr. Lam Akol nor Dr. Riek Machar fits to be a President of South Sudan despite what type of government is formed and equally work for South Sudan’s people.

Lam has his own constitution, SPLM-DC’s and Riek has his known-kept old SSIM’s paper and he, Riek has recycled it to be known as SPLM-In-Opposition’s. If South Sudaneses forget Lam and Riek’s ideologists, South Sudan will be South Sudan, but if South Sudaneses consider Riek or Lam to be a President of South Sudan, South Sudan will never be South Sudan ever again – you know who has been running in and out – fighting SPLA today, then tomorrow fighting former Sudanese army and leaving civilians behind to be slaughtered by whoever has conflict with him (Lam Akol). It was not that difficult to spot Lam‘s ex-SPLA-United fighting Riek’s SSIM/A in the past, then next Riek’s former SSIM fighting SPLA/M-United of Lam.

Tomorrow Lam is seen in Khartoum, the next day, Riek follow Lam’s footsteps, and when leadership pressure tasks seemed to increase on the side of the government, Lam ran out to join with his SPLA-United, then Riek followed Lam out too to share with late Dr. John Garang de Mabior and SPLA/M peace talk in Kenya, etc while Garang was still alive- then Lam accept Garang’s leadership and Riek too. After Garang rest and Salva Kiir became the leader of SPLM in 2007, Lam became mad and argued that he does not need to be led by Salva Kiir because he (Lam) thought in his madly nightmares that Salva Kiir is just a military officer and he (Salva) cannot lead him (Lam Akol) – Lam Akol thought that Salva Kiir was illiterate. While the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ responsibility has been hard for Lam Akol, Lam Akol ran out from SPLM and left to join NCP, National Congress Party of President Omar el Bashir.

When leadership and accountabilities became not Lam’s favorite job in the Minister of Foreign Affair’s office, Lam was removed from his foreign affair ministerial job and was given another ministerial (Minister of Cabinets) office, but Lam reputed and joined SPLM-DC in Khartoum – 2009 and became SPLM-DC leader. After Lam learnt that his dreadful moves are being monitored and thoroughly studied, his (Lam Akol) decisions produced an underground rebellion and started another military campaign by recruiting private armies (South Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and South Sudan Defense Force), rebel fighters as an attempt to overthrow SPLM leadership in South Sudan in 2008/9 to 2011. Lam Akol failed with his armies to forcefully overthrow the Government of South Sudan using soldiers and unarmed civilians as his shield.

After learning from his mistakes, he (Lam Akol) denied the army position which he had recruited to fight for him. Year 2010 came and gone-by and after failing to take over South Sudanese President seat by force and failed to control South Sudanese government by the means of usage of military offensives, for an attempt to control Salva Kiir and the entire SPLM leadership – and despite all trials to be a leader of South Sudan through bloody war, Salva Kiir gave Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin and his fighters an amnesty. After a long negotiation, Lam Akol convinced, was welcome and went to South Sudan and became friend with Salva Kiir behind a closed door.

Lam Akol left Salva Kiir’s friendship after he (Lam) met Dr. Riek Machar and started to became friend with Riek Machar again in 2013 right after the celebration of the third South Sudan independent day; Lam Akol has used Riek Machar to provoked Salva Kiir and the same Lam Akol used Salva Kiir to aggravate Pagan Amum and ex-detained SPLM-top politicians – so he (Lam Akol) could find a way to rejoin SPLM and be positioned as Vice President in place of Dr. Riek Machar or Secretary General in place of Pagan Amum, but Salva Kiir did not play that fool game either – instead he (Salva Kiir) lured Riek out and pre-jailed Pagan Amum and his crews as a mean of protection and to avoid farther and internal conflict within the government, but [misunderstanding was confirmed via technologies such as phone calls, text messages, and cellular phones usages, then armies commanded themselves, Riek ran out of Juba, and war took place, Uganda Army and everybody else got involved into South Sudanese’s more seven months war which was started in late December 2013] – according the South Sudanese Commander-in-Chief Peter Hoth April, 2014.

Before the mid of war, Riek Machar claimed the opposition fighters’ side as a leader but he had no command over whoever had been fighting who in South Sudan – instead of attempting to stop the hostilities and unite South Sudan. On Lam Akol’s side, his magic had worked and it looked like he was turned a favorite and his trick and traitorous habit work while two leaders (Salva Kiir and Riek Machar) are fighting one another, and the some most powerful SPLM leaders are assumed to be in a bad luck jail.

Lam Akol stood quietly and waited to see if his ideology, the forceful-transitional government works for both Riek and Salva, but all sudden, Pagan Amum and his fellows SPLM politicians were released – Pagan Amum and his ex-prisoners decided to still be and like the Government of South Sudan and work for the people of South Sudan to keep SPLM vision on track, and Salva Kiir have agreed to reform the government and work with the 12 ex-detained SPLM politicians including former South Sudanese Secretary General Pagan Amum. Lam Akol was left with his assumed and intensified dilution because Salva Kiir has not really been aiming to hurt his fellow SPLM officers but hide them in a cell so they would not be harmed by the separatists who are against SPLM leadership.

The former detained SPLM politicians are out from hide and SPLM and Salva Kiir are back in business with the hope of looking at former SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum Okiech as a future leader of the SPLM and to lead South Sudan out of the mystery with or without a major transformation in the government systems. Salva Kiir preferred Pagan Amum to lead the SPLM with or without the reform because he (Pagan Amum) has the late Dr. John Garang de Mabior’s wisdom – but the hesitation is the return of both Riek Machar and Lam Akol to try to claim the top official seat of SPLM leadership or the President of South Sudan’s position through the use of army.

Should Pagan Amum Okiech be the President of South Sudan and either Riek Machar or Lam Akol tries to harass Pagan as they (Lam and Riek) had done to the late Dr. Garang de Mabior and President Salva Kiir Miyardit. The reform is not yet approved and upon approval by the current South Sudanese President Salva Kiir that lawmaker/judge Pagan Amum Okiech has to be the president of South Sudan, neither Dr. Riek Machar nor Dr. Lam Akol should be needed to interfere with South Sudanese government affairs while President Pagan Amum Okiech is in the office – because Salva Kiir is definitely confident to weigh war for another term-two or three terms to keep both Riek and Lam out of presidential office in South Sudan. And since late Dr. John Garang de Mabior has managed to keep separatists from hurting SPLM vision, Salva Kiir can also do what father can do to his family in the name of united Republic of South Sudan. Riek and Lam are the reason why South Sudan is not prospering like any rich country.

Looking into the past, Anglo-Egyptian-Sudanese came and past in 1955, but Southern Sudaneses with their identity still look at their cultures and tradition as their base of laws and orders. Meanwhile Sudan became independent in 1956, and Southern Sudan was granted a temporary self-governing and independent state (Southern Sudan) in 1972 until 1982/83 under the leadership of people like Jaden, Mourtat, Oduho, Lagu, Abel, Gai, D.K. (Koat), and many other Anya-nya leaders were known as the representative of Southern Sudanese government in the former Sudanese parliament then – and after the peace deal that was signed in Addis Abab – 1972.

After Anya-nya leadership dissolved and the old Southern Sudan independent abolished, another Anya-nya was born in 1982 and it was named “Anya-nya Two and among them, Anya-nya IIs did come leaders like late Dr. John Garang de Mabior, William Nyuon Bany, Karbino Kuanynyin Bol, David Yau Yau, Peter Gatdet, etc, then born SPLA in 1983, and Commander Salva Kiir with his heroic effort popped up as a young leader with sharp mind in the SPLA movement – top officer in SPLA/M army security, then Oyai Deng Ajak (the most powerful SPLA/M young Commander-in-Chief in ‘80s and ‘90s) and Pagan Amum Okiech, the most trusted and most powerful politician SPLA/M Secretary General ever known, then Peter Hoth, Paulino Matip, Kuol Mangang Juuk, Nyachigak, etc – no farther discussion on these topic here – go fig. Despite whatever or who was the leader, SPLA was still properly organized and have a functionality and ability to conquer its political and fire-armed opponents until Lam Akol and Riek Machar with their inexperienced policy pulled-out from the SPLA for SPLA-Nasir in 1991. Less to be discussed in detail here!

Now, let’s define the word reform which this talk is mainly about, then phrase a little about constitution, local or municipal laws afterward. According to dictionaries, “Reform” means to improve or correct what is defected or corrupted; to change or form again what is already changed; to make better or change by removing fault(s); reclaim or rehabilitate; to change or improve one’s character(s); to bring major changes to laws, constitution and organizations; to change people’s cultures and traditions and/or to make major changes in religion or belief.   From the definitions above, only one reform which is the “change in constitution and organizations” need to be done, but not through any mean of army force or military coup in South Sudan – because South Sudaneses need not to fall on the same swindle which Anya-nya had once felt into.

To be touchy too, the conventional government which some politicians have been bossing about-in South Sudan is already defined and known, but it sounds very contradicted foreign views of conservativeness which cannot unite South Sudan; it is a bargaining and ways of finding another a systematic means of looting South Sudanese states and South Sudanese resources through privatized foreign mercenaries just as Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin and Dr. Riek Machar have been doing to ruin South Sudan, South Sudanese union and South Sudanese identity. And, capitalism is another meant opportunists’ would-be wish for South Sudan, but it is another deceptive policy which come from disturbed individuals and their foreign and greedy-stakeholders who have been looking to strike a rich in South Sudan. It is possible to write capitalism off in South Sudan because it was not born in South Sudan and keep South Sudanese and South Sudan’s image pure as South Sudan.

There is nothing wrong with South Sudanese being South Sudanese. Rehabilitation as defined above does not fit for Government of South Sudan because Government of South Sudan is neither weak nor corrupted yet because it is SPLA/M. The only improvement and modification which need to be done is in the justice systems and legality areas. Any judicial areas and legalisms in South Sudan are the ones which need to be made “identical” with the customary laws and basic, cultural-traditional laws of South Sudaneses in South Sudan.

Pause! Constitution could be defined as “a document contains basic laws which unify and equally govern people in a country.” And, in dictionaries, constitution is stated to be a “’basic laws,’ ‘an established laws or traditions,’ ‘a structural of physically makeup of things or individuals or basic laws in a politically organized body or a document contains a basic laws [for a state or country].’” In term of South Sudan, individuals or people mentioned here are South Sudaneses and basic laws which would have been made up signify South Sudanese customs or traditional laws.

But not some sort of junks from some foreign nationalists’ ideologies who thought of putting barriers between South Sudaneses or forcefully make South Sudan and South Sudaneses look as if a garbage field is located in South Sudan. Prophetically, “misleading is always from leaders and it is where foreign trained lawmakers or lawyers [who do not know anything about South Sudanese cultures or traditions] come and dump their foreign made laws or drafted papers and dump them onto South Sudanese minds through the use of army or militia.

Sometime it does happen that some –unnamed but well known wealthy foreign diplomats who have studied laws in their own foreign countries but have ran out of rooms to apply such laws [which they studied and wrote in their foreign nations], thought they could work out their foreign laws in South Sudan. As a result, they usually pay [sum of money] to people like Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, and Dr. Riek Machar as an attempt to establish army and apply those foreign made up constitution to work on South Sudaneses militarily through the use of armies. And those have been the reasons why Riek Machar and Lam Akol have been provoking SPLM leadership through the usage of fire-armed army or militia (rebel) against South Sudaneses’ freedom.

To disregard foreign-made-laws in South Sudan, South Sudaneses have customs and those customary laws work for South Sudaneses before and after the independent of the old Republic of Sudan in 1956. Because those customs work for them [South Sudaneses], old Sudanese regimes had had been attempting to hassle and forcefully nullify South Sudanese customary laws, and those have been another essential motives of life and freedom why Southern Sudaneses picked up army against the old Sudanese governments of Khartoum – Anya-nya and the SPLA. You may recall them (Anya-nya and SPLA, Sudan People’s Liberation Army).

Locally, local laws could be particular laws and orders which influence people in certain area (city or community) and/or county wide. And those local laws could be united together to form a county or municipal (regional) laws and municipal laws in counties in state could be combined to form state laws and all states’ laws could be merged and study thoroughly to form South Sudanese constitution for South Sudan. But crying out loud and doing nothing with something that you [South Sudaneses] know best while South Sudaneses are suffering in some traitors’ hands, can always lure an open-eyes-greedy businessmen/women to steal from any South Sudanese and kill as many people [South Sudaneses] before the rest of foreigners copy the same tricks and strike South Sudaneses’ wealth.

Believing is not a magic but after they [foreigners] get used to steal from South Sudaneses, they always leave South Sudan insufficient, broke, in poverty and at war as they [foreigners] have deliberated. In the meantime, South Sudaneses know from the beginning that going from locality to another locality, laws change a little bit, and going from county to county, laws do vary somewhat too and going from state to another state , laws do change too. South Sudan is one of the countries that do not need to be told what to do when it comes to laws and orders, and even if there are weaknesses in justice systems in South Sudan and among South Sudaneses’ basic laws, those weaknesses do not come from South Sudaneses’ cultures and traditions. They came from the outside South Sudanese cultural-traditional and customary laws.

To add, the reform in the governmental systems in South Sudan do not have to be created to weaken South Sudanese traditions and cultures but boost [only through documenting] South Sudanese cultures and traditional laws and make them the essential laws that can govern South Sudaneses in South Sudan. The current South Sudanese draft constitution is not originally developed from any of South Sudanese cultures and traditions; it is a foreign-made-philosophical paper which actually dictates South Sudaneses’ life, right, culture, tradition, and definitely against South Sudanese custom and South Sudaneses’ basic laws in South Sudan.

And, South Sudan can produce something better – which implies that Naath know how to rule, judge themselves and resolve their problems; Jieng know how to rule, judge and solve their issues; Chollo know how to rule, judge, and resolve their cases, equatorians know how they judge, rule, and tackle their own issues too and etc.   And if it happens that a county or state is inhabited by both Jieng and Naath, that county or state must be governed by both Naath and Jieng’s customary laws; if a state or county is lived by Chollo, Naath, Jieng, Maban and Burun, that state or county must be government according to Chollo, Naath, Jieng, Maban, and Burun’s basic laws; if a payam/town/city or village is inhabited by only Naath, that town/city/payam or village must be governed according to Naath’s basic laws and etc.

That is how people and a country endure in peace and in an orderly manner. These could be of course policies which can be the only guidelines which need to be documented and learnt by any lawmaker, judge, law enforcers, army officers/soldiers/national army, citizens, businesses and businessmen/women, leaders and visitors including foreign workers (if any) in each and every states in South Sudan. This could have been easy for everyone if the known South Sudanese community or localized social laws and orders are written in South Sudanese languages first and merged them (South Sudanese laws and orders) to bring the reform which South Sudaneses really need – then interpret them into other international languages that can be easily understood by other nationalists. For these reasons, South Sudaneses are looking at Pagan Amum to lead such a reformed Government of South Sudan, and believing could be somehow a shock too – because it does not need to be a year long, it could be at lease a minimum of one (1) week to maximum of three (3) weeks in order to draft a fully draft copy of South Sudan-made constitution and a policy that can govern both organizations and people (including those who work for the Government of South Sudan).

If that is not the reform, then the future is too rebellious for South Sudaneses because foreigners will always have a chance to deeply nose in and bring what, who and guns which South Sudaneses do not need to rule in South Sudan. In the meantime, South Sudan does not abide by foreign prophecies, laws, orders and constitution in South Sudan – learnt – though these foreign-made laws or orders are written and understood, they do not work for the people in South Sudan because these are political instabilities which accompany foreign diplomatic and political affairs and metropolitan games which do not benefit South Sudan and South Sudaneses.

Foreign businessmen/women are not reluctant to use people like Dr. Lam Akol and Dr. Riek Machar to alarm life in South Sudan. Should South Sudan make a reformed Government of South Sudan possible under the leadership of Pagan Amum while Lam Akol and Riek Machar have South Sudanese Presidential image painted in their bloody imaginations and hateful hearts? And on what cause, if President Salva Kiir is already aware that either Riek or Lam could return and spoil SPLM leadership if the reformed Government of South Sudan is handed over to Pagan Amum as a President of South Sudan under the SPLM leadership? To determine the reformed Government of South Sudan, dialogue, and getting to learn, know and documenting what South Sudaneses really need in the jurisdiction and legality point of views traditionally and culturally – as the late Dr. John Garang de Maboir have wanted, but not military confrontation as Dr. Riek Machar and Dr. Lam Akol have been practicing by pulling South Sudanese progresses apart and backwardly for the last 24 (twenty-four) years – since 1991.

If South Sudaneses need to do something really good and work for them, they [South Sudaneses] have to study themselves [South Sudaneses] and document what they have learnt from themselves [South Sudaneses] of laws and orders traditionally and culturally. Foreigners are not good to study South Sudaneses traditions and cultures because they [foreign philosophers] are business people and some of them are foreign intelligent or army and security officers from nations which hate South Sudanese cultures and traditions; they can question – just as they have been questioning South Sudanese customary laws and orders, and they [foreigners] can change things around for the benefits of their foreign nations.

Again, the reformed government of South Sudan could mean, not a change to South Sudanese cultures and traditions, but it can be a bit restructuring in the governmental systems by substituting what have been confusing South Sudaneses in governmental systems and organizations, and leave what does not confuse South Sudaneses in South Sudan in place – in term of laws among individual citizens and at the very fabric justice systems in South Sudanese states – and avoid anything call “Amnesty” in South Sudan at all causes because if any government official or officer does wrong to public or citizens in South Sudan, he/she (that government official) does not deserve pardon due to his/her role as a government official, and she/he should have been thoroughly familiar with any conduct, condition, and term before he/she takes the public official duty office for South Sudanese.

Possibly, upon violating government policies, such a person should not be given amnesty and not work in the public office ever again for South Sudaneses – until he or she comes clean enough. Look, because Dr. Lam Akol and his former rebel fighters were given amnesties, Dr. Riek Machar with his gorilla fighters is looking for the same opportunity too; both Riek and Lam have been killing people and used innocent civilians of South Sudan as their shields.

When the reformed government of South Sudan is in place and Pagan Amum becomes President of South Sudan, amnesty is going to be terminated and corruption will be slaughtered because Mrs./Mr. Corruption and Mr./Mrs. Amnesty are married couple in South Sudan. Though millions of South Sudaneses are hurt by the corrupted individuals, Salva Kiir with his current vibes and elderly open-heart has been giving amnesty to the same corrupted officers more than twice, and the same officers have let South Sudan to have both military and political opponents against South Sudanese interests.

If Dr. John Garang de Mabior was still alive, he would never allow these activities to happen, but South Sudan still has Pagan Amum to lead the reformed government of South Sudan via SPLM leadership with Salva Kiir as witness – just in case Lam and Riek negate to strike government’s bases again – and Pagan Amum cannot allow amnesty to be granted to a corrupted officer. In order to make a reformed government of South Sudan work, Salva Kiir has to approve the reformed government, and South Sudan societies have to be informed to contribute in making the reformed South Sudanese governmental systems based on “what” and “how” questionnaires only.

Stephen O. Kuol Owet (Stephen Owet)

“Citation voided!”

Public Lecture at Juba University: “Federalism in the History of South Sudanese Political Thought”

University of Juba

Centre for Peace and Development Studies

Public Lecture

“Federalism in the History of South Sudanese Political Thought”

By

Douglas Johnson, PhD

Fellow, Rift Valley Institute

Moderator

Luka B. Deng Kuol, PhD

Associate Professor, University of Juba

Discussants:

1. Hon. Daniel Zingifuaboro, Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement, Western Equatoria State
2. Mr Augustino Ting, The Sudd Institute
3. Dr. Jaafar Mori, PhD, Dean of College of Social and Economic Studies, University of Juba
4. Justice Deng Biong, Chairperson of South Sudan Public Grievances Chamber
   

Venue: New Hall 1, University of Juba

Date: 5^th July 2014,

Time: 05:00-07:00 pm

The Programme

1. Welcoming Remarks:

• Vice Chancellor or his representative (5 minutes)
• Director of Centre for Peace and Development Studies (5 minutes).
  

2. Keynote Speaker: Dr Douglas Johnson (45 minutes)

• Lecture will focus on putting the idea of federalism in historical perspective within South Sudanese historical thought.
  

3. First Discussant: Hon. Daniel Zingifuaboro (10 minutes)

• This intervention will discuss the relevancy of the idea of federalism to the current situation in South Sudan.
  

4. Second Discussant: Mr Augustino Ting (10 minutes)

• This intervention will discuss how federalism will contribute to nation-building and management of diversity.
  

5. Third Discussant: Dr Jaafar Mori (10 minutes)

• This intervention will provide the general public opinion about federalism based on the statistical data gathered from students at University of Juba.
  

6. Fourth Discussant: Justice Deng Biong (10 minutes)

• This intervention will conclude with the legal and constitutional process necessary for building and effecting the national consensus around federalism
  

7. Comments, Questions and Answers:

No community is the enemy to other community, a wrong choice of words by enemies of peace.

John Adoor Deng, Australia

The choices of words continue to add insults into the already worsen situation in South Sudan. All we hear daily are people saying that, dinka is a bad community, Nuer community is bad, murle community is worse and even generalise that Equatorians (combination of multiple groups) communities are obnoxious just to name a few. However, not only did these culprits stop from there, they mouthed that Dinka community is the enemy to Nuer community, murle community is the enemy to dinka, and so are Equatorian and Shilluk communities enemies to both dinka, Nuer and murle and ver -versa and the list is endless.

Thus, a foreigner who is fed with this vague information could realistically see no sense of cohesion and hope of a united country. Some of the bad fed foreigners go to their countries to project bad image of our country. Off course, this piece is here to demystify such fallacious. Day and night I argue that no community is the enemy to other community, and there is no such thing as absolute community collective enmity towards other groups.

Indeed, I do not disbelieve that there are conflicts that in some cases partially involve the above communities, either in the forms of cattle raiding, child abduction or recently politically motivated conflicts. However, the correct definitions of such conflicts are intrinsic motivation of individuals wanting to achieve certain ambitions or goals. Arguably, these communities to some extend are collided by few elements that waged assaults to achieve not community collective goals but their individual interests. For example, the cattle raiding initiatives are concocted by young people outside their communities’ conventions, in other words, community opinion leaders do not play a part in such acts. The chief in murle, for example, deal with cases of his chiefdoms, priests in murle deal with his evangelistic ministries and both have nothing to do with cattle raiding if the case of cattle raiding was launched by elements of murle youths.

In politics, some actors used the communities as their shields and cover to achieve their goals. In recent conflicts, there was no need to massacre innocent civilians in juba who has nothing to do Riek Machar or the detainees. Also, the massacre in Bortown was baseless as those civilian killed in Bor had nothing to do with Kiir Mayardit and his inner circles in specific terms. These elements who killed civilian on both sides of the conflicts has this fallacy in minds that, “they are Nuer, and we are dinka we must kill them, they are dinka, and we are Nuer we must kill them.” All these acts were done outside of communities’ conventions. Apparently, the Dinka community and Nuer community continue to work together socially; they intermarry each month despite these conflicts. In Juba and Australia and elsewhere marriages between Dinka, Nuer, Murle and Equatorian are taking place. No community is the enemy to any community, and the choice of words must change in order to delimit the context of the conflict.

We cannot afford to be referred to as enemies to one another. We are naturally placed on one piece of land religiously, conditioned to work together as brothers and sisters inhibiting this proudest land of Cush, South Sudan. The word choice of words and the demonic generalisation of conflict must be rid away from those brothers and sisters who only, unfortunately, found comfort in talking, inciting conflicts between our blessed communities.

The Author is John Adoor Deng, BA, BTH, MPRL, MPPP(current) and director of South Sudan Support Foundation. He is reachable by emailing: johnadoordeng@yahoo.com.au

Congratulations: South Sudan Surpasses Somalia as the most Failed State in the World

South Sudan’s coat of arms, in which the eagle symbolizes vision, strength, resilience and majesty, and the shield and spear the people’s resolve to protect the sovereignty of their republic and work hard to feed it.

Every year for the past 10 years, The Fund for Peace, in partnership with the Foreign Policy Magazine, has released an index of the world’s most fragile states, based on the analysis of mountains of data.

And if there is a headline to this year’s index, it is that South Sudan is now the world’s most fragile nation, displacing Somalia, which has held the top spot for the last six years.

The two organizations have tracked South Sudan since 2012, not long after it became the African continent’s newest country. 

But in the short time since its birth, it has suffered from chronic instability, said J.J. Messner, co-director of the yearly index and Director of Sustainable Development & Security at the Fund.

“The reason for South Sudan’s position has much to do with its increasingly fractious politics among the leadership,” Messner said. “And, perhaps even more importantly, the growing ethnic element to the violence [there].”

Somalia, which Messner said has made some progress toward creating a functioning government, is no longer number one, but only dropped one spot.

In fact, six of the index’s top 10 most fragile states are African countries, joined by Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti and Pakistan

How Equatorians are Rocking Kiir’s Boat from Within

By Mapuor Malual Manguen

Dr. Riek Machar Teny, the leader of Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-O) could be giggling now. The federalism which he demanded in the ongoing peace talks in Addis Ababa between his movement and the government has excitedly reverberated so much in three southern states of the republic of South Sudan prompting the presidency to urge proponents and opponents of federalism to stop debating it.

Riek failed to win to his side people of Equatoria region in battle fields. Having realized this, he wisely crafted another idea to win over their opinions; he demanded that future South Sudan government must be restructured base on federalism. And this quickly aroused nod from Equatoria intellectuals, writers, and three Governors of Central, Western and Eastern Equatoria states more than Machar’s own home turf.

Ideally speaking, it created what I may call “proponents and opponents frenzy” on social and main media where some individuals have already picked up ethnic or regional cards to propagate hate speech and discontent among the people.

While addressing the country’s national parliament on 1^st June, the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit criticized the demand for a federal system by the rebel leader Riek Machar as a ploy to divide the “internal front” and that citizens be allowed to decide on the matter. The President was alluding to conduct of referendum where all South Sudanese electorates can decide themselves on whether or not the country should go for federalism.

When Vice President James Wani Igga, who too hails from Equatoria region urged politicians from his backyard to toe government agenda and stop demanding federalism ( which according to him Riek stole from Equatorians), he immediately came under fire from the youth who criticized his stance while praising somewhat louder Governor of Central Equatoria state, Clement Wani Konga. The youth also pushed other two Governors who were a bit reluctant to come out openly and champion this idea.

I called Governor Clement Wani Konga “louder” because he is the most vocal Equatorian politician demanding federalism to be established in South Sudan. He was the first most senior official in the government to defy his own government on this matter. On 5 June, barely four days after the President cautioned people of South Sudan against buying Machar’s demand, he ignored it and declared that “Equatoria stands for federalism and no one can sit on it”.

Governor Konga went ahead and organized general meeting with all civil servants and politicians from his state at Nyakouron Cultural Centre where he briefed them about state government’s position in support of a federal system of governance during which thousands of civil servants attended.

This move put his colleagues from Western and Eastern Equatoria states in awkward position in their backyards. It was against this backdrop that youth from Equatoria region urged them (two Governors) to equally educate their populace about federalism just like what Governor Konga did. Vowing to pressure, Governor Joseph Bakosoro and Louise Lojore had no option but joined chorus calling for federalism in South Sudan.

Casualty

The number one casualty in my view is the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit. The defiance direction taken by three Governors of Equatoria region depicts negatively on the strength and unity within government corridors from central to state government level against strong oppositions from SPLM former detainees and SPLM in Opposition.

Further, Equatoria’s defiance has localized federalism debates to regional basis as proponents see their opposing group as oppressors who want to maintain dominance through centralized system of governance. In effect, Government attention has been divided between the known enemy in the bush and new internal agitation within its rank. This is how Machar’s time bomb is dividing “internal front” which President Kiir warned in his parliament address early this month.

Secondly, another casualty is the vice President James Wani Igga who became in this debate a lone ranger in his home turf. It paints Igga as someone who could not bring anything on the table. His advice against federalism was a test of his popularity in Equatoria. No doubt VP Wani was rebuffed by politicians and people he assumed to be his supporters.

It should be note that Riek Machar would have not taken up arms had he not been sacked and replaced with Wani Igga. Machar sacking put him far distance behind the ladder of succession in ruling SPLM party and presidency. Ideally, Wani is currently well positioned in line of succession if President Kiir were to leave office today. But, if he could not defend his position or bank foothold at his home, it is unlikely that his future ambition would be significant.

As Equatorian position is rocking Kiir’s boat from within, the safer approach government should adopt to tackle this tide is not to silence debate on federalism per se. The government must come out clearly and tell South Sudanese why federalism is inappropriate at the moment. The citizens should be educated about its advantages and shortcomings and why the government is not or willing to adopt it.

Moreover, South Sudanese should know why they want to move away from decentralized federalism the country has currently to complete federal governance system. This will let citizens make appropriate choice once and for all. Any new gamble may backfire in the near future and story will repeat itself again.

The author is journalist, blogger and political commentator based in Juba. He can be reached at mapuormalual@yahoo.com or mapuormalual.wordpress.com

South Sudan-China Relations: A reversed courtship

By Dr. Luka Biong Deng Kuol

The International Crisis Group (ICG) came with a comprehensive report in April 2012 about a new China’s courtship in South Sudan in the wake of the independence of South Sudan in 2011. However, since the eruption of conflict in South Sudan in December 2013, the situation has changed drastically and that puts South Sudan in rather awkward diplomatic challenges that change the direction of diplomatic courtship.

Within the four months of the crisis, more than one million of citizens of South Sudan got displaced, a quarter of million took refuge in the neighbouring countries, 32 percent of the population are in “emergency” category of food insecurity with 37 percent population whose survival is in question, 60,000 children may perish because of lack of food and thousands of innocent people have been killed in brutal way that is so alien to values and customs of people of South Sudan. Above all, mistrust between and among various communities deepened, social fabric weakened, pride and dignity of our great people as well as the image of the new nation have been tarnished.

This devastating development shocked the world and international community that unanimously welcomed the newest country to the UN family with optimism and high hopes of contributing to global peace and stability. Within a very short period of time, South Sudan lost its good relations with international community, particularly United Nations and its closest friends such as USA. US President Obama, whose origin is traceable to Nilotic ethnic group in South Sudan, issued an executive order to impose sanctions on individuals involved in obstructing the peace process or gross human rights abuses. UN Security Council threatens to impose similar sanctions. One Sudanese diplomat was jokingly telling me that you (South) have outperformed, in a very short period of time, the NCP in antagonizing international community and getting sanctions from USA.

With the deteriorating humanitarian situation, the initial mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to support peace-building, state-building and capacity development has been changed to refocus on protection of civilians, aiding the delivery of humanitarian assistance, monitoring human rights and preventing renewed violence. In other words, the UN assistance for strengthening the capacities of government is no longer part of the new mandate. Hilde Johnson, the head of UNMISS and a friend to the people of South Sudan who came to contribute towards building the new nations, decided not to continue heading UNMISS with its new mandate.

The recent donors conference in Oslo on South Sudan clearly indicated the shift of international community’s focus from state-building support to humanitarian assistance. Many long-standing friends of South Sudan are disappointed to seeing such a nation that they attached high hopes has degenerated again to humanitarian situation rather than building a new nation to fulfill the aspirations and selfless sacrifices of its people.

In the light of such deteriorating relations with international community, South Sudan started to look for new friends such as China and Russia. The Minister of Foreign Affairs paid special visit to Moscow to forge new relations with Russia and to convince it to support the government of South Sudan in the UN Security Council over issues related to South Sudan. The invitation extended to President Putin to visit South Sudan shows the diplomatic desperation of Juba to get support from Russia. Although Russia does not have a vested interest in the affairs of the South, it has huge investment potentials, particularly in the oil sector and infrastructure development.

On the other hand, China has huge economic and diplomatic leverage and potentials to assist Juba during this difficult period. Given the enormous challenges facing Juba, South Sudan has to forge a new courtship in China. As part of its new diplomatic outreach, the Vice President will visit China towards the end of this month. As this visit has been cautiously arranged by Chinese Communist Party rather than by the Government of China, Juba will have an uphill task to be successful with its new courtship in China.

This visit will come by the time South Sudan faces a serious conflict that is threatening not only lives and livelihoods of people but also investment opportunities, particularly in the oil sector. Also the IGAD peace talks on South Sudan have been adjourned indefinitely because of lack of political will by the warring parties. Also IGAD is currently making serious consultations with African Union Peace and Security Council and UN Security Council of possibility of imposing punitive measures and sanctions against the warring parties. Even in the upcoming 23rd Ordinary Session of the African Union summit in Equatorial Guinea, where the status of peace and security in Africa will be discussed, South Sudan conflict will be on the agenda and possible punitive measures and sanctions as may be recommended by IGAD may be considered.

In fact this visit will come at rather awkward time when China will be discussing with other members of the UN Security Council the possibility of imposing sanctions on the warring parties in the light of stalled peace talks in Addis, Ethiopia. As such we may not expect the visit to achieve much. It is likely that the Vice President may not meet with his counterpart in the government but probably his counterpart in the Chinese Communist Party.

Despite the challenges facing this visit, the Vice President may need to exert considerable efforts to convince Beijing to listen to him. On the top of the issues that Beijing will be interested in is a credible commitment by Juba to peace process as well as implementation of the cessation of hostilities agreement. China as member of UN Security has detailed and full report of the violations committed by the two parties of the cessation of hostilities agreement. Also China will be interested to know whether South Sudan has a credible investment strategy with a clear set of priority projects thoroughly assessed and duly approved by the relevant institutions. Importantly, China may like to know the thinking of Juba of how to protect the oil installations and other foreign investments and the role it can play.

If Juba could provide credible assurances to the concerns of Beijing, it is likely that a loan package from Chinese Export-Import (Exim) Bank may be concluded during this visit. With the conclusion of such loan, the Vice President may have opportunity to request Beijing to ensure the Chinese companies operating in South Sudan to adhere and abide by good business practices such as transparency and cost-efficiency through competitive bidding process, corporate responsibility, social, environmental and quality standards, partnership with local companies, training and employment of South Sudanese nationals and quality delivery.

As mentioned by Francis Deng that foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy with its success and effectiveness depending on a positive domestic “commodity to sell” in promoting international cooperation. It is apparent that the Vice President during his visit to Beijing is in shortage of positive domestic commodity to sell to China to make his diplomatic courtship effective. Rather than looking for new partners, South Sudan should put first its house in order with a positive domestic policy on which to base its foreign policy outreach. When our house is in order, South Sudan will not only consolidate and strengthen its relations with traditional partners and friends but it can create new partnership with new partners such as China and Russia.

The author is Associate Professor at University of Juba, Global Fellow at Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), and Associate Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.

Why the ‘Stupid’ Comment will Stick

By Malith Alier, Juba

This is not the first time for somebody in the region to publicly abuse or say unkind words toward South Sudan. It is at least the second time as far as I know for somebody to insult the intelligence of South Sudanese people entirely or through their leaders.

Maboub Maalim is therefore, a second person after Beshir of Sudan who referred to South Sudanese as “asharat” or insects in Arabic! The Beshir outburst came as a result of a successful capture of Panthou/Higlig in April 2012. So, both comments came as a result of wars. We will come back to that point later.

South Sudanese by nature are proud people. They based their pride on dignity and respect. Therefore, they always react to anything that demeans or unfairly challenge their intelligence no matter how slight it may be. Therefore, it sufficed to say that these insults taken on individual level would have been reacted to ferociously. Fist fight or insult for insult would have occurred immediately!

Unexpectedly, the government of the day which represents us all opted to ignore the Beshir outburst but instead reacted to the Maalim one, years later. There may be two reasons for this selective reaction. One reason is that, the first insult was directed to all South Sudanese but the latter was directed at the leaders on top of which, is the president. Second reason is that, dealing with Sudan is a tricky business because of oil and other things. That is why the government ignored Mr. Beshir and his insect reference.

Third reason is that the government respects big people or heads of states in the calibre of Mr. Beshir. Lower people like Maalim can easily get crucified as we have witnessed though for the same crime of attacking sovereignty of the country.

South Sudanese themselves have not yet regarded their leaders as stupid out of respect for them and the dignity of this nation unlike Zambians during the time of Levy Mwanwasa. The late Zambian president was referred by some quarters, as “cabbage” meaning that he was in a vegetative state of mind. However, this cabbage tag did not arise out of nothing. Mwanwasa was involved in an accident prior to his ascendency to the president. None of the current South Sudanese leaders on both sides was involved in an accident causing brain damage. They are in their natural mind state.

The selective reaction to a foreign interference in south Sudan means that the South Sudanese house is divided in to two, the leaders who deserve protection and the rest. Abraham Lincoln once upon a time declared that a house divided against it-self cannot stand. This is one reason why the stupid comment will stick. Many foreigners reason that any insult on the country would be ignored just like the Beshir one.

So, the same government selectively opted to fight insults against its leaders but ignored those directed at the citizenry as a whole. The minister of Interior has taken it upon himself and went all the way to parliament, lecturing it on how to protect the president from such comments or abuses according to Sudantribune website. This is a clownish attempt. This very minister was in parliament at the time Beshir abused the whole nation but failed to react as one of the representatives of the people of South Sudan. What necessitates his reaction this time is any one’s guess.

Another reason why the stupid tag will stick is based on social theory. During childhood, if a child is teased but he strongly reacts against it even to the fight, then that tease sticks because those who tease the child get maximum satisfaction from it. This is also true even with adults. There exist so many deviations and gratifications within human beings. There are those who derived gratification from inflicting pain on others.

You know terms like masochism and the likes. Also note that, South Sudan is always referred to as a child of just two years or soon three by leaders to cover for their failures in the state. Therefore, it is teased by anyone who is older in the region and beyond. It is upon South to react appropriately to such teases and insults.

Ignoring the insult like the one by Al Beshir would have been the best option; because it would have avoided gratification derived by those who at all cost try to inflict pain on others in such a way. Further, there was that tease by Museveni of Uganda about security which was also ignored.

Coming back to the point in paragraph three, it is not only South Sudan which fighting a war in the region but many others including Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, CAR among others. If fighting wars make a country stupid then these mentioned countries which are fighting meaningless wars are also stupid.
Those who live in glass houses must not throw stones

The Equatoria Declaration: A Call to Action for an “Equatorian State”

The Federalism debate has picked up pace in recent weeks and every South Sudanese seems to have something to say. According to the former Jonglei State governor and the current defense Minister Gen. Kuol Manyang Juuk, the widely discussed possible options are: (1) Reintroduction of Bahr El Gazal, Equatoria and Upper Nile as federal regions, (2) Reintroduction and upgrade of former Districts as States and, (3) Creation of Ethnic based Federal States as in Ethiopia. Which one would you opt for?—Thon Kuany Arok d’Agoot

—–

By an Equatorian Nationalist

—-

making sense of federalism in South Sudan?

There comes a time in the history of a people, a time when their very existence is in danger, on the verge of extinction, a threshold, a critical juncture in which they have to assert themselves, a moment when they are left with no other choice but to act, to wake up and organize, to be aggressive and impose themselves or be condemned to a life of low class status and servitude, cast into the depths of chronic marginalization, into humiliation, neutralized and silenced, damned into oblivion and declared surplus to requirements, a nonentity and nonfactor, a harmless play-thing to be ridiculed and dictated to. We Equatorians are facing such a grave time in our history.

We Equatorians are currently in a space where we cannot exercise our rights fully. Where we cannot demand our basic human dignities. We are in a space in which we are denied participation. Where we are denied access. You could say we are well on our way to enslavement. We Equatorians are in a space where slowly but surely we do not own ourselves. Where we do not own our land, institutions, or enterprise. We are devoid of economic, political, social, intellectual, cultural, and military power. We are in a space in which we are blatantly denied a chance to indulge in our commercial, civilian, communal, cerebral, indigenous, and expressive capacities. We are in a space in which we have dropped our shoulders, where our heads are hanging low, where we are scared to walk tall, to assert ourselves and be forceful.

We have become passive. We have become benign. You could say we have resigned. You could say we have relinquished our fate. And the most unforgivable part of all these detrimental transformations taking place in us is that they are taking place in our God-given space, a space where we should be behaving in the complete opposite. A space where we should be behaving with great pride and ownership, with our heads held up high and chests pushed out, a space where we should be the ones dictating and enforcing things.

We Equatorians must act. We must act quickly. Our soul and survival depend on it. We need to grasp the magnitude of the moment and the size of what is at stake, of the importance of this particular time in our history, of the repercussions and ghosts of future generations that will haunt us if we continue to slumber as the clamps of oppression tighten around us. We need to feel our current predicament fully. We need to meditate on it. We need to look at ourselves in the past, in the present, and project ourselves into the future. What do we see of ourselves in the future? What do we see of ourselves in the past? What do we see of ourselves in the present? Do we approve? We need to realize that this is not the time to be in the sidelines.

This is not the time to be mistresses and sidekicks in the plans of others. This is not the time to be a decorative ornament on the designs of others. It is not the time to just go along for the greater good. It is not the time to be the buffer, the go between, the balancer or safety zone. It is not the time to be the peaceful one. This is the time to take our destiny into our own hands. It is the time to realize that if we do not look out for ourselves, if we do not take the initiative, if we do not put Equatoria first, we are doomed forever.

We Equatorians are teetering precariously in that zone of action and inaction, in that zone of liberation and subjugation, of freedom and submission. You can hear it in our objections and lamentations. You can hear it in how unsure we are of how to feel about our current situation. We are not quite sure how to go about rectifying it or even where to start. We are teetering in that critical zone that ends up determining oppressive power structures and social stratifications that could harden and last for decades and even centuries if not corrected right away. We are like a tree in a stage of its growth where it can still be bent to grow in a desired direction; a small window for change that can have irreversible consequences in the future if missed. What will we do? Are we going to act decisively and stake our claim? Are we going to change the direction of how we are currently growing as a people before it is too late? Or will we give into our enslavement?

We could tip either way. It is up to us. We could do nothing and end up colonized and wallow for years in misery and oppression or we will take matters into our own hands right now and start taking steps to enforce the life we want and envision for ourselves and for Equatoria. The magnificence and exaltation of Equatoria is in jeopardy. If we do not answer her call and come to her aid we will be responsible for her tears and sorrows for generations.

We Equatorians need a paradigm shift. We need a complete realization and reorganization of what we are about, a radical rethinking of our present dilemma and of what is happening to us. Somehow, we have come to accept that we have to be invited to the party, and not the ones throwing the party. That we have to be called upon, and not the ones doing the calling. That we have to run where the action is, instead of creating our own. We are always in the background. The subordinate. The second or third or fourth star in the film of South Sudan. Never the top one. Never the top leader, the top culture, the top business, the top general, the top personality. Never the top anything. And we have come to accept this position.

We have come to accept the position of houseboys and housegirls and not that of housemaster. We have come to accept that we are not fit enough to be the ones calling the shots. That we should not be the ones setting the agenda and partaking in the halls and arenas where the fates of our people are decided. We Equatorians have come to accept that we should not be the ones in charge of our commerce and our culture. Of our military and police. Of our local, regional, and global face. Of our art, media, science, government, history, and destiny. It is so subtle how this has materialized, this current defeatist psychology we have adopted. We were never like this. But such is the case with how power and manipulative social devices can alter the human condition, at times with irrevocable results. But I believe we have not reached a point of no return yet. I believe we Equatorians can still be rehabilitated. I believe we can still be woken up and called into action, into a fight for our lives.

The first thing that we Equatorians need to realize, and we need to realize this with immediate effect, is that South Sudan is our death sentence. South Sudan is not our friend. South Sudan is the pretense under which we are being enslaved. South Sudan is the cover story, the misdirection under which Equatoria is being subjugated and exploited. South Sudan is a distraction to keep Equatorians busy and to keep them from thinking clearly in their self-interest. While we are busy caught up in being “South Sudanese”, we are quietly being taken advantage of. We need to realize that South Sudan is the casket in which we will be buried in. This will certainly happen and is already happening unless we wake up and figure out a way to have leverage over South Sudan, unless we come to our senses and realize that everything is about who has the dominant position. Power is about who is on top. Power is about who gets to dictate and enforce their will. Unless we wise up and figure out how to play the game, figure out how to be in the position to dictate what is next, it is over for us as a people.

We Equatorians need to realize that South Sudan is a lie. It is a fantasy that we should not buy into because for us it is not a reality. South Sudan is a reality for a select few. It is a luxury that we cannot afford. South Sudan is a romanticism that we cannot and should not indulge in. South Sudan is VIP only and we are not on the list. Anyone who tells you otherwise is conning you. The people who advocate for South Sudan are the people who are benefitting from South Sudan. The people who cry for South Sudan are the people who are in the driving seat of South Sudan. They are the ones with access and they need the continued existence of South Sudan so they can have continued access. Anyone who tells you as an Equatorian that we all need to work together for a South Sudan knows exactly where they stand in that South Sudan: on top of your Equatorian head. They need you in South Sudan because your position under their feet is very important.

Without you and Equatoria below them, without you and Equatoria there to be stepped on, without you and Equatoria there to be taken advantage of, without you and Equatoria there to carry their weight, to be benefitted from, to be used and abused, to have their culture and language forced onto, without you and Equatoria in that subordinate position, without you and the land and resources of Equatoria to be exploited, South Sudan ceases to exist for them. So with this kind of understanding, we Equatorians will begin to see that South Sudan is nothing but an insidious, diabolical, and exploitive project that is currently going on at our expense, all under the cover of nationhood. It is becoming clear that South Sudan was just the first layer to be peeled off in our Equatorian liberation. The separation from Sudan was never the final step in the path to our Equatorian freedom. It was only the start. It was only the first domino to fall.

We Equatorians need to understand that South Sudan was never something set in stone. It was never handed down by God. We need to understand that we are not beholden to South Sudan. We need to start thinking from our perspective, from the perspective of Equatoria. We need to start thinking about imposing ourselves on South Sudan politically, socially, culturally, intellectually, economically, and militarily. We need to do this openly, aggressively, and forcefully. We need to understand that South Sudan cannot hold a gun to our head. It is we who should hold a gun to South Sudan’s head. It is we who South Sudan should bow down to. We should understand that South Sudan was an idea based on a covenant, an idea based on a mutual agreement. It was a two way street. The agreement was that South Sudan would deliver for us, that South Sudan would make itself attractive to us, that South Sudan would work with us, and not against us. The agreement was that it would cater to us and that we would mutually participate in it based on a give and take relationship. But who is giving and who is taking right now? What is the balance of the relationship between Equatoria and South Sudan? Who is gaining and who is losing?

The myth of South Sudan, this myth that we have all bought into, is unraveling right before our eyes. It was a beautiful myth. And we all hoped that we could materialize it into being. We all hoped that we could will it into existence. But the barbarism in Juba and the subsequent back and forth barbarisms in Bor and Bentiu show us that there is no coming back from South Sudan. I believe it is only a matter of time before the country breaks up. The breakup of South Sudan from Sudan was just the beginning of the balkanization of this region. Unless an honest dialogue of the many differences and volatile forces that exist between the peoples and dynamics of this region is opened, a genuine and inclusive effort embarked upon to make a nation out of them, a forum to find out what are the wishes of each region, up to the option of an organized and deliberate repatriations of peoples to their ancestral lands complete with compensations for properties and investments that they cannot repatriate with and have to leave behind, an organized and peaceful breaking up of the country into smaller ones if in fact that is the wish of the people, unless we tackle South Sudan with this kind of honesty and options, there might never be a solution to the antagonisms that will always explode to the surface even after being suppressed and controlled for a long time by one group or another.

We cannot just force South Sudan into existence. We would be setting ourselves for a new Yugoslavia to play out. We could preempt the inevitable by having this honest dialogue and a separation and repatriation of the groups in South Sudan back to their lands of birth where they can indulge in themselves and build organic societies and nations that are in line with their nature and environment. With this ownership and pride of being in one’s ancestral lands, people would be hesitant to destroy it with impunity. Besides, the levels of wealth amassed by those who have had access in the first decade of South Sudan’s existence might even be enough for them to jumpstart the economies of their ancestral lands. With the emotional attachment of being on their own land I’m sure they would be more inspired to invest that money in it instead of wiring it all out into foreign accounts or hoarding it under mattresses and vaults, as is the case in Equatoria. What is going on in Equatoria right now is the equivalence of what goes on in a mineral boomtown. People are showing up from all corners of the world to the boom of this new country based in Equatoria but with one eye and a foot always on the way out. There is no permanence. It is a hit and run operation on all levels. That is why you see everyone siphoning all the money out. Everyone is living in Equatoria temporarily. They do not identify with the land. They only identify with it in so far as it is an opportunity for plunder.

They cannot invest in it and take care of Equatoria because they do not have a genuine connection and love for the land. And if they do invest, it is informed purely by an exploitive impulse. There is no sentiment tied to the land. It is to be abused and exploited for a quick gain. And just like a boomtown, when the wells start drying up or disorder breaks out, everyone scatters and it is the natives who are left, often with traumatic aftereffects both on them and their land. And it is at this juncture that we Equatorians need to start thinking for Equatoria because it is only us who can give it permanence. It is only us who can nurture it for the long term. Only when we start thinking like that, in terms of our Equatoria, of ourselves and our land as a distinct and unique part of the world, of our responsibility to it, and do so explicitly, openly, proudly, and with force, only then will we start to think clearly and start making strategic judgments on how to proceed and act in our best self-interest. We are the ones who are in Equatoria permanently and stand to lose the most in its mismanagement.

The amount of filth being spewed on the internet and in private gatherings, the divisions one sees in the groups sitting in the cafes, the bias in the interactions of the different groups in South Sudan, the explosive atmosphere created by this concoction of different groups and the inevitable insecurities and anxieties it fosters, insecurities and anxieties that inevitably rouse the human impulse to dominate and subdue, these are the hindrances to South Sudan. The selective outrages that we have witnessed after what happened in Juba, Bor and beyond. These are the hindrances to South Sudan. How people who present themselves as peace-loving choose to condemn only Juba and go silent about what happened in Bentiu or choose to condemn Bentiu in the strongest terms and stay lukewarm and defensive about what happened in Juba. How the same people talking up accountability and fair distribution of the national cake in South Sudan are betraying themselves by exposing their thinly veiled reservations and bias against federalism. These are the hindrances to South Sudan. People’s marked regionalism and particular biases that we cannot just ignore and pretend do not exist.

The blatant prejudicial policies and attitudes of those who have had the reigns to the institutions of the nation. The lack of a genuine and robust national sentiment. These are the hindrances to a South Sudan. The “Southern Sudan” front put up against Khartoum for all those decades should not give people rose tinted glasses and make them glaze over the complexities of the South itself. In fact, if one digs a little deeper into the history of the conflict, one will find that there was probably more intra South-South action than there was inter North-South. That is why I said that a realistic look into the South, the possible separation and relocation of populations and realignments of similar groups resulting in a further breakup of the country should be an option that needs to be discussed openly. Such honesty might even humble all the groups involved after they hear each other out and it might have the opposite effect and lead to more cooperation and integration instead of the suspicious and arrogant attitudes that are prevailing at the moment. The problem is that people do not want to get to such root matters, only to be shocked when the antagonisms that these biases elicit end up resulting in unspeakable horrors.

It is naïve to think that there is a nation called South Sudan at the moment. That nation exists only on paper. It exists only in the pockets of those who have access to its coffers. The fundamental hindrances to South Sudan that I alluded to need to be addressed honestly and efforts taken to work on them. Otherwise we are just going to experience costly start-stop start-stop hiccups in the South Sudan project until further breakups happen, maybe at an even greater cost than what has already been paid. For South Sudan to materialize into being requires a Herculean effort on all parties involved. Frankly, I do not think all the parties involved in South Sudan are up to the task or are in fact willing to start work on these hard steps. Everyone is doing the complete opposite. That is why I think it is only fair for us Equatorians to start retreating into our identity and to start thinking for ourselves because South Sudan is proving toxic and marginalizing.

Under the guise of South Sudan, everyone is feverishly pursuing their personal and regional self-interests while we Equatorians are told to sacrifice ours, to keep our regional and personal aspirations under wraps, to keep quiet, for the “unity” of the country we are told. Under the guise of South Sudan, we are being blackmailed and curtailed. Our resources are up for grabs. Our lands are being occupied and even given new names. This is all being done under the banner of “South Sudan”. The line being used is “…since we are all South Sudanese, we are entitled to move and settle anywhere”. With force and insensitivity? Without respect for natives or legal procedures? If we speak up we are told we are trying to bring disunity. We are like the woman in an abusive relationship who is told to just endure. “For the children”, she is told. To keep taking the beatings. To not fight back. “For the children”. Under the guise of South Sudan, we Equatorians are commended for our humbleness, peacefulness, sophistication, intellect, and hospitality.

Little do we know that we are being commended for our foolishness. Most of the time when people elevate the humbleness of others it is because the humble person is not a threat and therefore can be intimidated and exploited. It is a backhanded compliment. No one elevates the virtues of the person they deem a threat. We are being celebrated while in the meantime people are getting ahead with precisely the opposite attitudes. People are getting ahead with arrogance, aggressiveness, rowdiness, loudness, crudeness, forcefulness, bias, opportunism, and unsophistication. Instead of learning from them, we laugh and say these are ahaleen. We snicker and think of ourselves as culturally and intellectually superior. But ahaleen masheen. Umon masheen mondun fadia wele kuwaf. Umon masheen be bunia o solut. And with this attitude people are gaining wealth and power. The skills they do not have, they learn from you. As soon as they learn them, you won’t be needed anymore. Soon their power and wealth will buy them prestige, it will buy them sophistication, and it will buy them culture. How about you Equatoria? What do you have? Whoever has wealth and power gets to dictate and to control.

This is already manifesting itself as people have even acquired the audacity to tell you that they were born to rule over you. Imagine that. You and your sophistication and your cultivated nature will mean nothing when you are under colonization. It is time for a new Equatoria. It is time for an Equatoria that wants to get ahead and will get ahead. It is time for a proud, arrogant, imposing, demanding, aggressive, threatening, loud, confrontational, unhospitable, rowdy, biased, unsophisticated, and no nonsense Equatoria. A people you do not mess with. It is time for us Equatorians to unleash the hostile attitude that made us take the initiative to fight for our freedom in 1955.

Whenever South Sudan manifests itself, whenever it shows its face, both in South Sudan and the outside world, you will not see us Equatorians. Our names do not appear anywhere. Our voices are nowhere to be heard. You would not be mistaken to think that we do not exist. We are not the face of South Sudan. We have no chance to be representative of South Sudan. We are blocked. And this has serious consequences. Images are important. Examples are important. Seeing a reflection of one’s self in prominent spaces both locally and globally are of critical importance to the psychology of a people. With us Equatorians practically absent in the representations of South Sudan, we start to forget that we belong in those representations and in those spaces. We start to not aspire to such representations. And with such resignation and lack of initiative, we unconsciously help South Sudan wipe us out and nudge us into obscurity.

There is nothing permanent or certain about South Sudan right now, except the continued oppression, ridicule, intimidation, and silencing of Equatoria. All the pieces in South Sudan are moving. There is a question mark over everything. The fate of the country is still very much up in the air. Anything and everything is still possible. Everyone is taking action and looking out for themselves. Everyone is busy. Everyone is active. EVERYONE IS PLAYING DIRTY. EVERYONE MEANS BUSINESS. Except Equatoria. Equatoria is just sitting there. Inactive. Without initiative. Obeying. Accepting the intimidations and silencing. You can always count on the Equatorians to not do anything right? You can always expect them to let you get away with anything right? They love that good life too much to do anything uncomfortable or daring right? Scare them just a little and they will get on their knees right? Well, these are the impressions we are giving people.

And they are taking advantage of them to the fullest. It absolutely baffles me how passive we are. Our continued enabling and acceptance of our oppression is unforgivable. We are the ones giving the space and safety in which we are being oppressed. We are literally responsible for our suffering. Imagine someone coming to your house, sitting on your favorite chair and stretching their legs out, claiming ownership of your house, and then bossing you and your family and everything in your home. Just take a second and imagine that and think if it makes any sense. This is exactly what is happening to us. How in the world can we allow it?

We Equatorians need to watch South Sudan carefully. We need to be skeptical of South Sudan and start planning. We need to start making contingency plans, to start planning our exit from South Sudan. It is time for an Equatorian nationalism. It is time for an Equatorian country. And this needs to be expressed and fought for openly. It is time for Equatorians to develop a distinct identity. A proud Equatoria. An Equatoria that will not be silenced or intimidated into submission. An Equatoria that will fight itself into existence if South Sudan does not make room for it. And South Sudan is not making room for us right now. In fact, it never has. South Sudan has existed for the sole purpose of squeezing us out.

Up until a few days ago, just like you, I was still a South Sudanese. I was still under the spell that there was something called South Sudan. Then something happened. It was an epiphany. A moment of clarity that I will forever be grateful for. It was a moment in which I realized that we Equatorians have to put South Sudan on hold and urgently start thinking of Equatoria. I realized that we are in a momentous time in our Equatorian history. I realized that it is going to take a fight for us to get our way. The epiphany, the moment of clarity that I reached was after the recent declaration by the governors of Equatoria for the implementation of a federal system of governance in South Sudan. It seemed like a no brainer, like an idea that everyone needs to start working on right away and not even put up for debate. But it was after going through the reactions and the rejections of the idea proposed by our Equatorian governors, after reading between the lines of what is being said and what is not being said, after studying the suspicion, derision, and outright dismissal of the idea of federalism that I realized that we are in a perilous position.

I realized that no one out there means well for Equatoria. I realized that for us to think we are part of an identity of South Sudan with others is foolish. No one out there in the South Sudan space means us well. Why are people so opposed to the idea of federalism? Why is it eliciting such suspicions? Why is the call for federalism not rightly acknowledged as an important demand by us Equatorians and a demand that needs to be taken seriously? Why all of a sudden is it attributed to the rebels and dismissed as a rebel ploy to destabilize the country? Last time I checked, the country is already destabilized. The country has been destabilized since its inception. It is only the Equatorians, the very Equatorians whose demands for federalism and fairness all of you are dismissing, it is them with their “humbleness” and their “common sense” who are still keeping the peace, it is them still providing everyone space, and it is still them who are hosting a South Sudan hanging by a thread. It is these Equatorians whose bushes and towns are still safe. It is these Equatorians giving you refuge on their soil whose demands you are dismissing and brushing off. It is these Equatorians who can all of a sudden decide to sneeze just a little and that would spell the end of South Sudan as we know it and the suspension of all your privileges and the access you have had all this time and the emergence of a completely new paradigm in the South Sudan space.

It is these Equatorians. It is these Equatorians you are dismissing and not taking seriously when they demand something as straightforward as federalism, which is in fact nothing more than a demand for accountability. And you are doing all that dismissal and not taking them seriously while being a guest in their house, while being hosted by them. Kind of foolish of you don’t you think? Kind of pushing your luck don’t you think? These are the questions and feelings that rose in me and I realized that we Equatorians need get moving, we need to get our blood boiling, our heart rates beating faster, our brain cells firing, we need to get moving an achieved a position in which we cannot just be ignored, dismissed, or intimidated, especially in our Equatoria. We need to achieve a position in which we are a threat and a formidable force to be reckoned with. We cannot keep letting people get away with arrogantly stepping on us, with dictating and dominating us. Otherwise, like the growing tree I mentioned earlier, we might not be able to do anything in the future.

It will be a hundred years and we will still be waiting for this federalism and accountability to arrive. We need to act, to organize and gain a dominant position, to start making moves so that we become a big player and a mover and shaker in the affairs of this territory called South Sudan and the wider region as well. Doing nothing because we want to keep the “unity” and the “peace” of the country will be fatal. We are providing sanctuary right now for our economic, cultural, and political subjugation. And we will be repaid handsomely with more oppression when things resettled and our oppressors resume business as usual. The biggest mistake that all the marginalized regions in South Sudan right now will ever make will be to let the present political regime and oppressive social and economic structures that have taken root in South Sudan nurse themselves back to health, to give them time to recuperate. We will regret it. This is a chance to put the present monstrosities out of order. To eradicate them completely and reset things to zero. It would be a mistake for those with the opportunity and the momentum at the moment to hold back. It would be giving them much needed time to regroup. These structures and nasty establishments are going to come back stronger, filthier, greedier, and deadlier.

The SPLM is a looting operation, nothing more nothing less. And its private military wing of the SPLA and its cold-blooded security organs are the strong arms keeping watch to make sure the looting runs smoothly. To think of the SPLM as something more is naïve, generous, or downright delusional. This is not the SPLM/A of the movement. That SPLM/A is dead. More and more each day, the SPLM is losing the poetry and romanticism South Sudanese associate it with as being the final reincarnation of their rebellion and the one to finally deliver them freedom. Today, it is more emblematic of the barbaric and the unimaginable, the main culprit in the historic levels of corruption and despotism of the post liberated South. I do not know if the SPLM can be redeemed. A complete dismantling and send off into the history books would probably be the only way to salvage any dignity it still has left. The continued existence of the SPLM will be the cause of unceasing political and ethnic conflicts in the region for years to come. There is no way to reform the present levels of stale structural entrenchment it has attained. Only a complete tear down would suffice.

And that is impossible because, well, that would mean letting go of power. Power is intoxicating as we all know and no one wants to let go of it when they get their chance at it. And right now the SPLM is where power resides. Its continued existence means more wrangling and maneuvers as everyone still view it as the only channel through which they can realize their dreams and ambitions of ascension to power in South Sudan. This just means more of the old ways and no room for fresh thinking and out of the box solutions. The SPLM is an old relic that has outlived its mandate. But go and tell that to the people who still cling to it. You can observe this adherence people hold for the SPLM in the somewhat comical way parties in the opposition and even rebels in South Sudan all the way to Sudan still call themselves the SPLM, with slight additions or rebranding. The lack of originality in the names of those offering alternatives to the SPLM is quite telling too. What all these manifestations of the SPLM do not understand is that the climate has changed. The priorities have changed. The problems are different. And the solutions need to be different too. We are trying to make a nation work. The boys and girls of the SPLM are still abiding by chains of command and succession scenarios drawn out in the bush.

What is missed is that the way of dealing with the problems and objectives of a movement might not necessarily translate to those of governing a nation. The SPLM has graduated into that notorious club of liberation movements that have made the transition to political governance. Their track records leave a lot to be desired. And so does that of the SPLM. But the SPLM still wants to be viewed with affection for being the movement that ultimately delivered South Sudan. That is why we Equatorians need to make the distinction between the SPLM that won South Sudan and the current 21^st century burning and looting robber barons version. This is something we Equatorians need to grasp so that the sentimental value of the movement and by extension that of South Sudan cannot be exploited and used against us. This is an emotional capital that liberation movements turn political parties use to their advantage while in power. It blinds people and people do not analyze their governance critically and pragmatically because of this intense emotional investment they have accrued for bringing liberation.

We Equatorians should not fall for that. For any Equatorian to scream “SPLA OYEE!” or “SOUTH SUDAN OYEE!” is to scream for the tools of our oppression. The SPLM is morphing more and more into the NCP: South Sudan Chapter. I am starting to think that the decision to send the post liberated South Sudan SPLM government to Khartoum during the interim period to co-govern the nation with the NCP before the referendum was probably the one big error in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. And bringing them back to Juba wholesale was an even bigger blunder. Khartoum is not exactly the place you send people to learn governance. These guys have come back with the playbook of the NCP. They became so entrenched in Khartoum that the majority of them still refer to South Sudan as “Southern Sudan”. And the same ills of the NCP in the old Sudan, the same mechanisms of the NCP that made Sudan impossible, have been transplanted by the SPLM to Juba. And the SPLM has also learnt wholeheartedly the many tricks of the trade that the NCP has employed over the years for its survival.

The main goal of the NCP is survival. And so too is the SPLM’s. There will be maneuvers for years and years to come by the SPLM. Whatever it will take to stay in power. There will be flirtations with reform when things get tight. There will be talks of “national dialogue”. Talks of “national reconciliation”. There will be times when the SPLM will be arrogant and confident enough to employ heavy-handedness and brutality. Whatever it will take to stay in power. There will be more postponements of this and that. More transitional this and that. More reshuffles of this and that. More arrests and detentions. More murders. All the same. Whatever it will take to stay in power. There will be continued co-option of rebels and opposing parties when ruthless means fail. Whatever it will take to stay in power. And because of this, of the inevitability of what will play out, I believe we the Equatorian people cannot afford to be waiting around for the SPLM or South Sudan. We cannot wait for the SPLM to have vision. We cannot wait for the SPLM to humble itself. We cannot wait for the SPLM to let everyone participate in the nation. We Equatorians cannot be sitting around waiting for South Sudan. We cannot wait for South Sudan to eventually include us. We need to wake up to the reality of our continued oppression in the immediate and long term future of South Sudan if we still continue to tie our fate to it.

We need to reach the conclusion that Equatoria is not South Sudan. Equatoria is Equatoria. Like I said, there is nothing permanent about South Sudan right now, except those who are gaining and those who are losing. We are on the losing end and will continue to be unless we move. We need to start thinking of ourselves consciously as Equatorians first and bring our Equatorian identity to the front and have it dominate everything in our psyche. Everyone screams out their love for and identification with South Sudan but their actions betray something else. The marginalization of Equatoria is clear. South Sudan is just a vehicle for stepping on and for dominating Equatoria. This is something we Equatorians have to understand deeply. SOUTH SUDAN IS NOTHING BUT A VEHICLE FOR STEPPING ON AND FOR DOMINATING EQUATORIA. Reread that again and again and ingrain it in your brain. Only then, only after understanding this deeply, only after divorcing ourselves from South Sudan can we start to rethink our position.

It is time we start to wean ourselves from the romanticism of the struggle and how we fought together and how we are one people as South Sudanese. It would be foolish for us Equatorians to buy into that. How can there be a South Sudan for us Equatorians when we are not on South Sudan’s scholarship lists? How can there be a South Sudan for us when we are not in the decision making lists? How can there be a South Sudan for us Equatorians when we are missing from the leadership lists, the opportunity lists, the business tycoon lists, payroll lists, and the employment lists? How can there be a South Sudan for us when we are on the outside looking in? No, there is no South Sudan for us. There is only Equatoria for us. And we are losing it as it gets swallowed and devoured under this idea of South Sudan, under the pretense that we are one people and should accommodate each other. We need to divorce ourselves from South Sudan.

What should we Equatorians do then to gain leverage and the dominant position I am talking about? What should we do to start creating an autonomous region with its distinct cultural, social, constitutional, commercial, political, and military landscape? What should we do to reclaim ownership of our land, our space, and of our place where we can exercise our rights and representations of ourselves fully? First, we need to start identifying with Equatoria in everything. Everything about us needs to become Equatoria. The sooner we get away from South Sudan psychologically, the sooner we will be on our way to liberation. Our identity needs to change from “South Sudanese” to “Equatorian”. This is a deliberate and conscious change that we need to make in our minds. Our location of identification needs to change from South Sudan to Equatoria. If someone asks you “Where are you from?” You tell them, “Equatoria”. Equatoria needs to be the singular idea and philosophy that informs everything about us. Equatoria Equatoria Equatoria. Our talks, dreams, spirituality, intellectuality, politics, business, expression, and all others need to become Equatoria. Our affection, longing, romanticism, soul, hopes, and thoughts need to change from South Sudan to Equatoria Equatoria Equatoria. We need to eat, drink, sleep, think, write, sing, and express Equatoria. Our whole mental landscape needs to change from South Sudan to Equatoria. This is the paradigm shift and reorganization I am talking about.

Only then will we overcome the smoke and mirrors called South Sudan that is currently covering our eyes and hearts and suppressing the Equatoria that exists in us. Only then will we start being proactive and aggressive in taking our rightful place in the world. After that mental realignment, we need to mobilize. At all levels. Starting with our influential Equatorian leaders who need to make an immediate and complete withdrawal from all political, military, and security organs of the state and form a formidable, forceful, and unified Equatorian bloc, political party, front, movement, call it what you will. They need to be united and singular in their objectives, which should all be geared towards the realization of an Equatorian nation. The youth also need to break away from identifying with South Sudan and develop an active and loud Equatorian consciousness. Also, the formation of Equatorian civil societies and vibrant media and press with Equatorian self-interests at heart. These and others will be our vehicles, the platforms through which we will achieve our aims. And finally, the formation of a military capacity in Equatoria that is exclusively Equatorian and should be well equipped and capable of enforcing the interests of Equatoria if all other means are exhausted.

Everyone in South Sudan has their generals and their private armies to do their bidding. Why not us? It is our survival and soul at stake as I said earlier. To think that this federalism or autonomy we are asking for will just be granted to us is silly. Nothing comes easy or gets handed out in the Sudan. That should be clear to everyone in this region. Only when we position ourselves in strength and in numbers will we have the political, cultural, and military clout to pursue our interests. You are only taken seriously when you are a threat. Again, as I said earlier, there are no certainties in South Sudan right now, except the oppression of those who are slumbering and not thinking for their interests. With such a radical realignment of the landscape of South Sudan by the creation of a unified and influential political, military, and civilian structures of Equatorians by Equatorians and for Equatorians, coupled with the existence of a distinct, proud, visible, and brash Equatorian identity not associated with South Sudan, we will be in a position of advantage. We will be a threat. We will be feared and respected and so will be able to extract political, economic, and cultural concessions that are in line with our aspirations, including the aforementioned federalism up to complete autonomous status and nationhood. We will be able to pursue our interests. We will be able to strike strategic alliances that are beneficial to us. We will be able to pull Equatoria out of obscurity and into existence. Everything we do from now on should be geared towards Equatorian independence.

These are the things we need to be thinking about right now but I am completely lost for words by what our supposed leaders are doing. Our leaders are fragmented and all over the place. There is no unified and tough front for Equatoria. They are letting themselves be played at the expense of Equatoria. They are being bought like the old chiefs who betrayed their people. “Divide and rule”. Still behaving like sharamit al gi fowuru fowuru sambala sambala bes. Used, abused, and discarded. We know them. And when it comes the time for us to write the history of Equatoria, we will condemn them to the appendix of traitors in the back pages. Their names will be tainted forever as having colluded in our oppression and their children and descendants will walk in shame in Equatoria forever. Even our military minds have gone soft. Like our political leaders, they’ve been turned into houseboys. Always ready to be called upon to do some menial task. Always present to be harassed and intimidated at will. Yes, there are a few leaders who are worthy of our respect.

But even those are underperforming for Equatoria. Most of the time, I feel like they are hesitant in enforcing themselves. At the root of this, at the root of this cautious attitude I believe is the fact that they still buy into the idea of South Sudan. They still buy into the idea of the SPLM. If our leaders start thinking from the perspective of the long-term survival of Equatoria, if they start thinking from the perspective of an Equatorian nation as an option if South Sudan keeps marginalizing us, they will be freed from the idealization of South Sudan and the SPLM. They will start thinking and start acting proactively and audaciously in the interest of Equatoria. We must create a unified Equatorian bloc that is not allied to any region or the country of South Sudan but only to Equatoria.

Other fronts in the region will have to come and approach us and we will be in a position to negotiate and get what we want in such tradeoffs. If there is to be a South Sudan it has to be on our terms. Otherwise we need to start fighting our way out of South Sudan. We need to mobilize for Equatoria and we need to do it quick. If not so, we are doomed and will live to regret it forever.

The time to act is now.

The time to rise up and fight for ourselves is now.

The time to rise up and fight for Equatoria is now.

You can reach the author here: Emmanuel Emanuel <equatoria1955@gmail.com>

OJS campaign

By David Aoloch Bion

–

OJS ,The SPLA stormers offensive code

The stormers fed and drunk well

They jokingly comment:

“Let’s test our blood in drinking

Let’s test our flesh in eating

Let’s feed and drink well

To be fatty meat of vultures and wild ones”

The stormers moved into the jungle

With the maxim: “In life we lose, in death we win”

In jungle, their mattress – the grasses

Their pillows – the stones

To confront the MM wine drunken enemy

Whose mattress was fine wool

Pillow was fine cotton

And pocket full of money

And Lorries full of food

The stormers lit over desert cocaine

Intoxicated bearded men like the sun shines over trees

Set ablaze the beard of men as thunderstorm

Set ablaze the hut until the enemy disappeared in smoke

—

Note OJS means Operation Jungle Storm

South Sudan: Why Federalism

making sense of federalism in South Sudan?

Why Federalism in South Sudan, by Alier Ateny

Why Federalism

————————

Prospects for Decentralization and Federation, by David de Daau

South Sudan’s prospects on Decentralization and Federation

 

South Sudan: Uhuru na Kazi

By Biar D’Chol

RSS Ministers: They come in as commons and get out as royals

– For the last thirteen years, I’ve worked the most craziest jobs in America; from tutoring, cooking, healthcare, engineering, and cemetery—Yes, cemetery where dead bodies are buried, working as ground-keeper in 2002, but not burying bodies.

Can anyone imagine, where else on earth a dead people’s place is well groomed like a presidential palace, but only in America! And maybe working at cemetery will encourage me to own a cemetery in south Sudan in the near future since death is part of our lives.

Though I always work for money, my main goal, however, is to gain more insight of different jobs experiences. I’m a person who doesn’t like sitting my butts, playing dominoes; whining of not having a job, because a job can’t come to you while sitting idly, drinking beer, watching TV, babysitting Facebook and gossiping nonstop of an ill- intended South Sudanese politics on the phone. All of these are nothing other than destroying our lives and planted hatred amongst ourselves.

But quite frankly, I was impressed from what I’ve learned this week at my part time job. While at work, I had a chat with the owner/CEO’s son unknowingly. Honestly, I did not know the owner of the company was his dad. But first, he introduced himself to me as: Andrew. Jesus Christ! I’m sick of America introducing themselves with ONLY first name. Nonetheless, the good part was that, I didn’t say anything about his father.

If I had done that, my ass would’ve been fired if I had the America “syndrome” of talking about someone when they don’t like what he/she does. Thanks God I’m still having African’s “syndrome” of shutting your mouth, and always listen, and do the job!

Andrew, a red-haired, tall and skinny guy comes to me everyday, after he punches in like the rest of us (employees). We then, clicked like glue. We chat frequently when he comes to my desk. He asked me many questions from what I’m missing on my desk, the work instructions, and much more. Besides, I then learned that him and his family were interested in going to South Africa for a vacation this summer. And I was stunned to learn that a license to hunt a rhino in South Africa is $150,000! Can you imagine such an immense amount of money just to kill a rhino? A few days later, I was stunned to learned that he’s a son of CEO/owner.

I, then, asked him, why’re you bothering to come to work everyday instead of spending time somewhere else; bagging the cuties girls in America? But he said, “I’m working to pay for my vacation, and to save some money for my college. My dad and mom work hard, and I’ve to work hard as well,” he said. Folks, did you hear that? He said, “he’s working to save money for vacation, and college when his parents are millionaires or soon to be millionaires!”

Can such a thing happens in South Sudan or Africa in general, for a rich person’s son/daughter to bother getting up in morning, and go to work? I never heard a child from a rich family going to work instead of bagging cute girls in the cities, inebriated with his buddies, and throw bottles of beer at each other.

Folks, If this is South Sudanese kid, he would’ve been extravagantly spending his parents monies as he wants in Europe vacationing with his girl friends. Take for example of the ministers’ sons and daughters. They go anywhere they want in the world, spending their parents embezzling monies they don’t even know where they came from. If the richest people in Africa had built the companies, employed average citizens like Andrew’s father, the poverty would’ve been eradicated in Africa.

But the rich people stored monies offshore in the Swiss banks, buying Manson houses abroad instead of investing money within the country to run businesses to employe the poor citizens like what the American rich peoples do. The Africans then rely on aid monies that don’t even reach the intended people. When are we going to learn such a hard work to develop our continent instead of leaving it starving to death when all the resources we need are available?

I’m yearning for our people step up, and do more investments instead of storing money at the bank, Pillows in bed and/or drawers in the houses.

Mabioor de Garang: Press Statement from SPLM-in-O from Addis Ababa

Stop the war, embrace peaceful settlement to the crisis!!!!!!

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From SPLM-in-Opposition

SPLM_SPLA_Press Release June_23_2014

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From Church Leaders

SSCC Press Release

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