By: Cde. Sirir Gabriel Yiei Rut
October 24, 2015 (SSNA) — I was moved and inspired by an article published by Nyamilepedia on 22, October. The Author was one of the finest writer and also my childhood friend. Its title “The Day SPLM Dies is the ‘Day our Country will be Peaceful”.
Well, Millions of south Sudanese knows how bitterly the SPLM/A fought and struggle for our freedom, prosperity and identity. While many too knows how extravagances the SPLM became after achieving the credit for self-determination. They really worked had to destroyed and distorted the hard work they has suffered for.
Without beating through the bushes, the fundamental problem situation we face in South Sudan’s SPLM ruling party is the lack of the moral authority and political will of the President to profoundly change a system that has worked so well to achieve his singular objective of being a President for life, and to be able to bestow patronage on those whose support he must endear to stay in power. Everything about South Sudan; its institutions, its policies, its values, it management practices and its dialogue have been manipulated or engineered to achieve just that. Small wonder, that these habits are now deeply engrained.
In this context, the freedom that was gained as a result of escaping from under Slavery rule from Brother Hassan al Bashir has again been lost to “South Sudan Beny dits”. This seems to have been achieved as unintended consequences rather than by design.
President Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit was once a true freedom fighter and liberator! But look what we have now!
We have an inherent limited potential built within our national psyche that continues to arrest our development into a modern State. The logical and apparent solutions to our problems as a nation remain unspoken about, they remain sacrosanct, hidden and yet obvious. Whenever a specific dynamics becomes “undiscussable” this collusion of undiscussable enables that dynamic to quietly seep into the fabric of society. These undiscussables can also be described as “learning disabilities”. Out political parties naturally promote these “learning disabilities” as their leaders seek to hold on to power and purge dissenters.
Leadership development as moral renewal and transformation is the only way out, but I continue to wonder whether we understand what renewal is. It is the metamorphosis of our society both at personal and institutional level. It is not the cosmetic change of titles, names or positions that we will no doubt see in our public institutions and political parties, but the complete and irreversible transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly at a moral and ethical level.
Effective sustainable change requires looking with new eyes at complexity as well as developing and using new assumptions. Rapid disruptive change is now a permanent feature of the leadership landscape and is not an irregular event to be discussed and resolved at one day conferences. We now need leaders who embrace change and not fight.
In my opinion, there is absolutely no way we can even begin to talk about economic recovery as long as we have this culture of non-accountability, non-delivery, entitlement and toxic patronage. Borrowing more money to pour into a system that is not working is sheer madness. Unless we have a drastic change of direction soon, our country is likely to remain highly indebted and we shall be slaves for ages to some.
I am sure that when a competent, ambitious, strong and God fearing nationals from SPLM take over this government in 2018, we shall be shocked at the extent of the graft which has permeated every sector of our economy. The only way we can stop the rot is by creating a totally new system in South Sudan –a new paradigm of leadership and institutional accountability. I am afraid, however, that this is not going to happen in the short term as long as SPLM’s deadly Wolves are still alive and remains in charge of government.
I have heard horrendous stories of how directors in our State enterprises are milking the system where some have as much as five children whose fees are being paid for by the company while they change luxury cars (V8) like it’s nobody’s business. All this while they are not adding any value at all and are laying off workers. This act from the beast of SPLM has to stop.
You see (Dhuor Reath) the problem is with our political system and leadership which has truly lost the plot. That is why there is so much resistance to any political change because this would not only expose the graft within this government, but would also wrest control of the gravy train from this regime. To move from a predatory state to a developmental and federal state in South Sudan is always going to be difficult.
The sad reality is that this graft does not only exist at State level, but even within the private sector where we have CEOs who have been doing the same job for 11 years and continue to have ridiculous perks even when their companies are not doing well.
We need to reinvent our country and also create a totally new culture of work ethic.
I want to suggest that we focus on the key success factors which I think will unleash our rebirth as a nation.
These include the obvious need for continuous leadership renewal and accountability both in the public and private sector; the rule of law and the protection of private property to allow us to get long-term equity investors into South Sudan; and institutional renewal to get rid of the rot and toxic patronage systems called SPLM. We must see focus on the work ethic and delivery.
Also critical is the promotion of economic freedom and inclusivity so that we can all live up to our full potential. Rapid agriculture revival and industrialization is essential in order to reposition our economy in Eastern Africa while we need to promote human capital preservation and development so that we may fully utilize and employ our human resource assets which remain our competitive advantage.
In addition to the above, the effective and efficient management of our natural resources in order to maximize and spread the benefits is crucial for us to achieve equity. Added to this must be rapid infrastructure rehabilitation and development to improve the quality of life of South Sudanese and attract investors. Above all, we need to see sincere citizen empowerment, food security and poverty alleviation.
If we do not do the above, we shall continue to operate under the bondage of a SPLM looting machine which knows no bounds and our country will never unchain itself from this predatory cabal. The deadly party called SPLM.
Decay, poverty and chaos along with their accoutrements — high criminality, rife prostitution and open racketeering — are there as the clear signs and symptoms of SPLM for all to see.
For sure the wolves in SPLM Party are the one destroying, devastating, tarnishing and smearing bad image on the face of SPLM AS A PARTY and not SPLM as party causing the country to bleed so severely.
The author can be reached at [email protected].