By Col (Rtd) Wani Tombe Lako
April 10, 2014 (SSNA) — Subjugation and oppression have no colour, race, or religion. If a government has turned into a fatal bully, the people must refuse to be governed by such a government. When a president; or a monarch; no more respects his people, and kills them in order to remain in power, then; the people have got all the right in the world, to refuse to be bullied to a degrading submission.
President Salva Kiir has quickly reached the culpable levels of gross abuse of power and wealth which was reached by the late Sadam Hussein and Muaamar Gadhafffi of Iraq and Libya respectively. The former offended the consciences of the international community and humanity in general; and the later the consciences and dignity of the Libyan peoples; and both of them ended up dying miserable and shameful undignified deaths.
There is this naïve believe in South Sudan; among the supporters of President Salva Kiir that, the peoples of South Sudan; have serves’ and salves’ obedience and subservient attitude towards President Salva Kiir and his hegemonic henchmen; and other political hangers on; in the States, and elsewhere, in the government of South Sudan. These people shall be the cause for total destruction of the SRSS.
We the people of South Sudan have allowed ourselves to be bullied by the government of President Salva Kiir from 2005 to date, via tribal hegemony for no good reasons whatsoever. The agonizing peoples of the SRSS are the majority. Just why on earth; should the majority allow themselves; to be bullied, humiliated, rendered homeless; and jobless; and hopeless; by a tiny minority, who cannot in fact withstand the political and other furies of all the other 63, or so tribes in South Sudan?
But for the Ugandan army, the government of Salva Kiir would have been history by now, and the peoples of the SRSS could have been planning different kinds of governance and such like. What does this mean? This means that, this government in Juba can easily be sent packing by all the peoples of South Sudan. We the 63 plus ethnicities of South Sudan must not allow ourselves to become serves and slaves by our own volition; in our own mother and fatherland.
The government of President Salva Kiir has turned into a de-facto and de jure bully, and there is no more reason why we the people of the SRSS must continue to pay allegiance to this government in Juba. The government of President Salva Kiir has equated itself with the abstract State of the SRSS and this is a very dangerous situation, and it has been mercilessly demonstrated through the Juba genocide against the Nure peoples of the SRSS.
The people in government of President Salva Kiir, who directly and indirectly, by intention, conduct, and constitutional misfeasance, supervised the December 2013 genocide in Juba must not carry on representing us as government. The people of South Sudan did not elect them to kill part of the same people. The people of South Sudan did not elect them so that they can privatise the SRSS, and then, turn on us the people, just because, we asked them questions concerning their gross abuse of the fiduciary duties we delegated to them.
Who said that, these peoples in Juba are the only capable human persons in South Sudan, who can visualize good govrncne of the SRSS? In fact the reverse is true. The evidence on the governance ground shows that, these people are the most corrupt, the most inefficient; the most heartless; and the most selfish group of rulers the peoples of South Sudan have ever seen since 1956.
When rulers begin to compete in building motels, brothels, and bars, and pubs, in residential areas and elsewhere; including in innocent villages, then, society must begin to reckon that, the country has gone to political hooligans as it were. How on earth can a ruler develop the citizens by building bars and institutionalising prostitution by importing in prostitutes and such like as partners in business?
Why should the majority of us in South Sudan, standby, with folded political arms, while, this minority of political hooligans are destroying our country? Why should we the majority allow a tiny minority to render our country unlivable and a pariah State? The majority of us must pick up the political mantel that has been thrown into the political dustbin by this minority lot.
The majority of us must not allow the country to be ruined by some quasi military officers whose perception of a military officer is that of a looter and heartless murderer. Military officers are supposed to be gentlemen others. They are selfless others who ought to be the beckon of positive morality, especially when they spice up their careers with the notion of liberation and such like.
The notion that; South Sudan has positively developed since 2005 is grossly misplaced. We must not measure development by the number of tall buildings financed by looted and laundered public money, and built on grabbed lands, or culpably privatized public lands; such in Central Equatoria; whereby, some constitutional post holders have become estate agents, selling public land to others, and allocating more public land to their sons, daughters, and such like. We the majority of South Sudanese must not standby and allow this tiny minority to destroy the futures of our posterities.
This tiny minority in South Sudan has laundered billions of our money in order to empower themselves and their children at our expense. This tiny minority is succeeding in building a permanent ruling class, whereby, in less than another twenty years, if they are allowed to continue at the rate they are going in, no other single tribe or ethnic group from the other 63 ethnicities shall be able to survive decently in South Sudan.
Their children are getting the best education with the best qualifications at the expense of our children we the majority. Their children are getting the best medical treatment at the expense of our dead and buried children we the majority. They are closing all life chances doors in our faces, and in our children’s faces; and in our grandchildren’s and great grandchildren’s faces; we the majority of the other 63 tribes and ethnicities in South Sudan; and we are standing by unconcerned. We must not allow ourselves to be bullied to extinction by a tiny minority whom we can stop and prevent from ruining the rest of us in South Sudan.
We the majority must not buy this political bullshit about rocking the boat of unity of the peoples of South Sudan. How can the Madi tribe in Eastern Equatoria feel that they belong in South Sudan when they are systemically being rendered homeless and hopeless by this tiny minority of other South Sudanese using public wealth and violence? Just how can these people in Nimule and Mugali and elsewhere in the Madi ancestral land; feel that they are united harmoniously with these occupying and settlers others; in their own ancestral land?
How can the Fertit and other tribes and ethnicities of Western Bahr el Ghazal feel that they belong in South Sudan; if they are being systemically lynched and their lands turned into pasture lands for the livestock of this tiny minority, and which livestock is protected by mounted machine guns on fast Toyotas pickups, whereby, both guns and cars are bought by our public funds. Just how can these Fertit tribes feel that they belong to the wider community of South Sudan if they are being hunted down like wild game?
How can one feel that he or she belongs to South Sudan, as a member of a harmoniously united peoples, when, if she or he goes to a police station in Juba for example, to report an assault on himself or herself, only to find himself or herself being the suspect in this episode even if it is his or her body that is bleeding?
How can this person feel that he or she is obliged to defend and die for the unity of the peoples of South Sudan when he or she is being treated like this in the police station of the supposedly free country of the SRSS? What unity can you lecture to such an aggrieved person in South Sudan? This is in fact the feeling of the majority of the peoples who emanate from the majority of the peoples of South Sudan.
On the other hand; is it not true that, the crescent shape territory of South Sudan; from Raga in Western Bahr el Ghazal; through Western Equatoria, through Central Equatoria up to Eastern Equatoria, is it not true that there is no single tribe and ethnic group; that has not been violated and hurt by the same minority in South Sudan, using public violence and money since 2005 to date?
We the majority of South Sudanese must save our country from total destruction. We the majority of South Sudanese must write the template for various socio-cultural definition of variables of behaviour in public arenas. We the majority of South Sudan must be in charge of the army of the SRSS. We the majority of South Sudanese must take charge of all intelligence, and national security and other security institutions in the SRSS; if we want peace, love, tranquility, and development to prevail and to be sustained in South Sudan.
We the majority in South Sudan must not allow ourselves to be bullied. The year 2013 must be earmarked as the last year of bullying of us by this tiny minority in South Sudan. This tiny minority in South Sudan must be allowed to share in the governance of South Sudan in our terms; we the majority. We the majority cannot be told how to participate in the administration of South Sudan by this tiny minority. We have to act together now for the survival of South Sudan as peoples and land.
The author is Chairman of Greater Equatoria Council of Rights (GRECOR).