By: Kuach Y. Tutkuay
November 5, 25013 (SSNA) — In rhythmic with the international politics, south Sudan has adopted a partial democracy which is always pronounced on papers and never exist in practical reality or if it does, it must have been eventually diminished to zero or to negative. The constitution which many regarded as the contract between the people and the government has been stepped-on by the President and his mafias—the incompetent generals who voluntarily join politics with a reason known to them—and leaves the citizens only to wonder whether the supreme authority is the president or the constitution.
According to John Maxwell, a leader is person who knows the way, who goes the way and shows the way. But then taking into consideration the current situation in south Sudan, do the citizens feel like they have someone they can trust, who knows the way and can shows them the way? Does the death of Dr. John and the rest means that we have lost all the quality leaders and we remained with consumers? The golden plate of freedom and justice brought to us by Dr. John seems to be rusting so fast that it nearly becomes a metallic plate of slavery and injustices. The media bill got lost several times so that freedom of expression is blurry to all citizens, and those who proceeds would be subjected to assassination by “unknown”—but by writing this article, I choose to either be given freedom or death because it makes no different to be a slave or a dead body.
The war-weary generals, lured by what seems to be the “best coin” were compelled to shift in their career as combatants into a “statesmanship”. They tried to dance to the melody of international politics, but it speaks foreign language which none of them has ever heard of, these could not rhythm together because they are two extreme positions a way too far from each other—amateur politicians at the wrong entry point to the political world. To make sure they are up to the standard, they had to come clean of all their once camouflaged clothes onto a formal attire to qualify them to sit in the “house of the common”. Human, as long as they live, will always find a reason to defend their choice. If you asked these “self-accredited” politicians why did they join politic, they would tell you they want to deliver services to their people—simple as that—and if you dig down into what have they done so far, believe me, it will surely come down to naught. One of the plain truth the author thinks might be the reason for this shift in career is for them to prolong their miserably necked names with titles like “honorable” “Excellency” and to have unlimited access to as many resources as possible to allow them a chop in absentia of proper accountability.
To prove that these fellas don’t know where they are neither where they head to, some of them uses their former titles amidst the new title, for instant Hon. Gen. Kuach, using Honorable, a political title together with General, a military title. When it comes to the house session, they are “honorable” but when it comes to community resources, they are “horrible”. No doubt, to these individuals, politics has become a “cash-cow”.
The emerging of these war-weary generals into the political arena has brought along with it some carry-forwards from the previous lifestyle. For instant, during those years of struggle, a person with his small group of army may come and take your properties by force and if you ask a “why?” he would say “we are in the bush” but then he went to the bush to protect your rights and properties and not to get more power to come and take them away from you. That slogan in our modern Republic of south Sudan has been replaced by another slogan, “we are still a young nation”. In fact a young nation like ours needs some plans to make it grow, for how long shall we remain young?
However, we can remain young for decades but the time will not wait for us to grow. The absent of a national strategic think-tank is a perfect signal that we will always be young unless a miracle happen which, as per the author, seem to be out of probability.
“I am always in suit and a tie, and have a big belly, so, I could be a politician too” I think this may be one of the biggest mistake people makes and the biggest drive into politics, politic calls for your inner quality not your external appearance. You cannot join politic just because you have a “hat” that covers nothing, a suite that covers nothing but a belly; and you cannot join politic just to accumulate wealth, unless politic has become a science of “bread and butter” which may be the case for south Sudan. Jesus’ teaching that, “give to Caesar what belong to Caesar, and to God what belong to God” is very true. If only politic could be leave to the professional politicians not just the “self-accredited” ones who join politic with the prime objective of accumulating wealth, but professional politicians, who have some aspect of political philosophy and are governed by political ethics; those who can compare and contrast different kind of situation and learn from them, I am sure south Sudan would avoid the pitfalls committed by other African countries in the past. This would at least save as some coins from the verge of corruption and would avoid the Midas style of “touch them with gold and they turn to what you please” which is the source of the divisive politics and a root cause of conflict all over south Sudan.
The saying in the Bible, “man, eats and drinks, for tomorrow you will die” has been taken the other way round literary to mean that you eat because tomorrow you will be removed from the position. This has grant them a chance to become so epicure and care less of the dying streets children and widows and orphans of their former comrades—the true martyrs whose blood has really liberated us—who they have forgotten.
In an “old boy network” style, they are tolerating their misconducts in the hope of trying to protect the corporate image of the SPLM which many of them misunderstood for an enterprise other than a party. The “Indian file” of the SPLM has been one of the root causes of national malfunction because it requires leaders to come to the top base on the length of time they spent in the party and not on their competency. This imply that competence was very obscure to the SPLM, but then in absentia of this important factor, how could we ensure a perfect earnest of national development agenda when we hardly know what it takes to achieve that. Instead the internal politic become tense because something need to be done and no one is doing it.
Leadership to African is like an alcohol; the more you stayed on power the more you are addicted to always stay there whether you are active or inactive. Therefore, you will get rid of anyone who tried to maneuver his way to the top to make sure you secure your job.
Fellow citizens, let’s hope that all these stumbling blocks will be passed with no difficulties. The issue of Abyei is one of the things south Sudan needs to leave behind their pretense of neutrality. How can you pretend to “sit on the fence” when the very issue in question is the delicate part of you? This is unreal; as a citizen of south Sudan, I reprimanded the comments made by the minister of information. When I heard it, I was blue-eyed with rage but only to myself since I am in no capacity to hold a press to condemn that—Abyei plebiscite must be recognize otherwise our leaders are not pursuing national interest, instead they are pursuing their own. Another stumbling block is the national liberation council and the SPLM convention, let’s hope Mr. President will finally give in, otherwise, I am afraid, it is threatening our fragile peace. Many leaders who are power-loving individuals are always fond of dividing the national social setup. Instead of saying “they don’t want my leadership”, they says “they don’t want us to lead” so that they have some supporter and the issue will be “us against them” which is very divisive. Nobody doesn’t want anyone to rule, every citizen of south Sudan has a right to rule regardless of ethnic background or religion, but on the quality of leadership he possessed. Sophist believe that “the powerful rules and the weak obeys” if this is what we wants, why did we complain of oppression from the Khartoum government? We would have obeys them.
If you could remember the courage it took to liberate ourselves from Khartoum, remember too that it may not be too far for someone to liberate himself from you.
The author could be reach at [email protected]