By: Justin Ambago Ramba
October 11, 2011 (SSNA) — There is an urgent need for the Republic of South Sudan to make its position on issues of regional interest e.g. its membership in the East African Community [EAC], its position from the race driven Arab League of Nations, the power showing Nile Basin Initiative [NBI] etc…… clearer and louder for the writings on the wall, do not favour any further indecisiveness.
Especially on its northern neighbour, the republic of Sudan, sincerely speaking one would have liked to conclude that the RSS has already taken its position, if not from the day the South Sudanese overwhelmingly voted for independence in January 2011, it could at least have done so in reaction to the policy of ‘arrogance’ adopted by this troublesome neighbour since then.
However, things were bound to develop into what they are today for in its first post independence trip to Khartoum, the political leadership of South Sudan is about to make its gravest mistake, a mistake of historic proportions that history will refuse to forgive them for. These so-called specialised committees recently formed between Juba and Khartoum to tackle the post split issues might look impressive at the first glance, nonetheless, it is in the national interest that some parts of this development be highlighted to be condemned for the obvious risks they represent.
This brings us to the main concern that this humble article intends to address, and it is about how much should we allow of the Sudan [especially under the NCP] to continue shaping our institutions and, of course, our lives as well . No doubt whatsoever, for since our people chose independence over servitude under the Arab Muslims, Khartoum have said all kinds of bad things about us, but it has also instigated a widespread mistreatment of our nationals who are still to be repatriated.
I am hereby quoting the Sudan tribune, Sunday October the 9th, 2011:
“Citing South Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Nhial Deng Nhial, SUNA reported that the external relations committee had agreed to dispatch northern diplomatic cadres to train southerners and help in constructing government institution”.
This is just mind-boggling from the fact that over the six years of the CPA period, the Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs was actually under the SPLM per the power sharing protocol with its NCP partner. And to the best knowledge of everyone it was in this Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the SPLM was first confronted by the realities of the people they were dealing with [NIF/NCP], but also understood how ideological it was set to be impossible for the partners to function as a harmonious unit in that Ministry and beyond.
It was still in [over] this Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the SPLM disowned Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, the first ever South Sudanese to lead the Ministry in the CPA era. Nevertheless, the truth of the matter is that
this is a Ministry like all the rest of the other institutions in the republic of the Sudan where civil service is politicised. So what is it that has changed in this ‘Jallaba’ institution to qualify it to extend a benign hand to build a robust foreign policy institution in a country that it sees as an agent to the Jewish state of Israel?
With Ali Karti, Sudan’s top diplomat who himself not too long was the commander of the infamous jihadist popular defence force, and all the so-called diplomatic cadres currently assigned to design and dispense Khartoum’s foreign policies being none but those highly indoctrinated Islamist militants, in a country where no boundary exists between state and the so-called official Islamic religion – openly confessed by the leadership itself, how do they [NIF/NCP] qualify to help construct a secular institution in a secular independent foreign country ?
My take is that, should the citation attributed by Sudan tribune to Cdr. Nhial Deng Nhial be true, which is likely to be the case, then the minister has a lot of answering on the issue. This minister will have to publically justify why he approved of this dubious proposal to have the RSS diplomats undergo training by people who more than not, are ‘wanted international terrorists’, per the history of the system they represent? The whole saga as suspiciously as it sounds, it is more to serve the interest of those who still want to bring back unity with Khartoum through the ‘window’, while underrating its true repercussions which are both far reaching and hugely detrimental to the national security of the nascent state.
This is the gist of the matter. But of course, in practice trainings planned and executed by Khartoum are for certain heavily adulterated with Islamism, Arabism and localism which would only work to undermine our hard won independence. The least to say is that, after we have come this far, one can’t see any justification as to why and how the training of RSS’s Diplomats should be entrusted to the “Jallaba”. After all, what do they [the “Jallaba”] have that sets them to be the right people to train our diplomats or even any of our auxiliary staff for that matter?
Conscious of how malicious our northern neighbours can be, it won’t be an over rebuking if one says that, as a former Minister of SPLM & Veterans Affairs, the least expected of how Cdr. Nhial runs the RSS Foreign Ministry should have reflected his national security acumen. For Nhial who declined to serve with the Jallaba in the government of national unity [GoNU] during the CPA era should NOT have been the one to accept “Jallaba’s” ruthless stratagems through training. Oh God! What is it? Not another SPLM’s “New Sudan” business again, and another era of disappointments and national disgrace!
Dr. Justin Ambago Ramba. Secretary General – united south Sudan party [USSP]. He can be reached at: [email protected] or [email protected].