By Daniel Abushery Daniel
”When a soldier takes a oath, is for life, you don’t needs a uniform to fight for your country, and never leave a fallen warrior behind, ever." Said by; Unknown author.
April 26, 2011 (SSNA) — During my younger age, when we were in elementary school, joining the military was not desirable to many in my generation. The assumption was that those who choose the military for a career were looked down upon, and in most cases, were also considered as failures in life.
However, when our just struggle for liberation began in 1983, the whole concept has totally changed because very many students from all walks of life have joined the movement in big numbers. That happened despite the fact that there were such economic differences. In fact, some of those students were already successful in their own rights to join the most prestige’s universities and colleges around the globe, other than join the liberation movement.
That’s what patriotism and nationalism is all about.
At this juncture, I would like to mention some of the names of my former fellow students in honoring them for their braveness to leave everything behind – including their future, in order to free our people from oppression and bigotry. They are: comrade Nashigak, comrade Lewis Laredo, Bobby Lolot, just to name a few. Their precious lives will never die in vain; we will always remember that they were heroes.
In early eighties, we have heard about the quo de’ta in Liberia head by a military sergeant, Samuel Do. I wondered as to how a man with primary school education and only a modest military experience could become president of the oldest republic in Africa. Of course, Sergeant Samuel Do became the joke of 19th century, even though he managed to rule the country with Iron fist.
It’s worth-mentioning that during the recruitment of Anya – nya one into SAF in 1972, I was a young boy at that time, and because the recruitment centre wasn’t far from my school, I had the chance to witness the process from day one to the end. The first steps were the disarmament of all units without any problem. I also remember that there were two lines; when your name is call after physical check, the recruiters will tell you either left or right hand on the line.
Thus, and to the best of my knowledge, I don’t recall any accidents that occurred during the process. Actually, it seemed as though everyone accepted the outcome. The officers were very few and only had the basic educational skills in writing in Arabic or English.
Back to the liberation struggle, unlike the Anya – nya one, many educated joined the movement, that when I tell some Americans friends about the education level of our leaders, they looked at me in denial and often sarcastically ask me, with all this knowledge they spent more than twenty years in the jungles with lions and elephants?
The point I am trying to stress here is that, after our people have been liberated from the oppressors in the government of Khartoum elites, it’s really sad that there are some illiterates and run away generals, who always have the notion to betray our causes and break away since the beginning of the liberation struggle of SPLA/M. It’s particularly disturbing that while the days are numbered to celebrate the birth of our nation, the defectors generals George Athor, Gatluak Gach, Abdul – baggy Aye and Peter Gatdeet are now collectively waging a war against SPLA soldiers, killing innocent civilians in the greater Upper Nile States and Bahar El gazal region with the help of our traditional enemy NCP/NIF regime in Khartoum.
But the question that is opposing itself here is; can we let those notorious, and outlaws general spoil the smiles and the happiness from the faces of our kids to celebrate the July 09th celebration which is our independence day? No, not in our watch.
Shalom.
The author is a concern citizen and can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]