By Kuach Tutkuay
August 12, 2015 (SSNA) — In the last two weeks, defection of some of the generals from the SPLM/A-IO has dominated the media and perplexed the minds of concerned citizens who are probing the motive of the whole fiasco whether it holds any benefits for South Sudan. The move I categorically termed as an “ego showcase” sufficed at the sideline of the seemingly progressive IGAD+ peace process that aims to bring to an end the conflict in South Sudan. It hurts the Moment so much that the generals who gave their alls in pursuit of a just and peaceful South Sudan would fall short of maintaining the goodwill of their supporters.
In the words of Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi, “for any patient to be worth anything, it must endure to the end.” The generals could not hold any longer despite having smelt the breeze of peace brought about by the north-east monsoon of the East Africa region aided by the superpowers of the Occident. The generals wants a visionless and endless war, they forgot that we were never mean for Bushmen or Bushmen’s way of life; we went to the bush to search for lost rights, to fight for justice for the Juba massacre, to fight for dignity and equal representation of all tribes in South Sudan whether big or small. To fight for good governance based on the principles of federalism, to end South Sudan’s subjugation by the Uganda and to end a brooding dictatorship. If the IGAD is giving us that, we are willing to grab it and will not mind dropping behind any disgruntled general so long as we achieve South Sudan of our dream. When a snake dropped it slough, it shine even much better, so shall we by dropping these career combatants.
When war becomes a hobby, taking life, too, become a duty. These generals have forgotten the price they paid in terms of human lives; they thought these are people who just have to die because, in principles, they don’t know the cause of their death. It seems they fought because they want to, not because they have to. The motive is an absolute doom for the Naath society as well as for the South Sudan. I want the youth to blatantly disown these bush Mongols; their grey hair symbolizes their nearness to the end. Why would we, the young generation, throw all our might and main to people who will take it to grape tomorrow? We have done a great deal of the fight—physically in the frontline as well as politically on the media—we are capable and willing to fight much longer but not under disguise and vague objectives.
In everything a man does, there are always two reasons: a good reason and a real reason. Among the manifold of reasons provided by the generals, I could only pick three: (1) that Dr. Riek can’t supply more ammunition, (2) that they don’t want peace that retains Kiir and Machar, and (3) that Dr. Machar has been bribed by Chinese government not to capture Paloich. In my book, these are their good reasons, but their real reason, perhaps, is that their ring leader, Mr. Changson Chang, being a war profiteer, got interested in the international community’s habitual bashing of the two sides to the conflict and thought that this is a political niche he should capitalize upon. Now the illiterate generals and old mafias of retired politicians sit with their mouth agape and arms akimbo waiting for Mr. Changson to name their movement and draft their manifesto. I just hope it pass muster—phew!
It amuse me to think of where these generals will get arms supplies from, just out of cocoons in the forest of South Sudan and they think it would be a walk in a park to win international community’s admiration—poor me! A very bad gesture has already been shown them by Kenyan government who is currently tracking them down. They had to escape for Khartoum and some who cannot make it that fast had to run to Naivasha. It is so shameful that these elders, with their less number of years left, could not even think of what they will leave behind for their children. If elders are like this, it would have been better to have no elder at all. Whatever they are doing currently is painting dirt on the image of the young generation of Naath community and this is something we cannot easily allow.
It is an utter confusion they are creating by claiming that they are forming their own movement. This is the same way comrade Lul Ruai disguised himself, he claimed he is forming a separate resistance and later fall under overall command of Paul Malong. Our generals will soon take directives from Malong and his rotten Juba regime. This should ring at the back of our minds. Except for the confused Monytuil brothers, we rejected any move that turn Nuer against Nuer and surely this will not happen. Most of the defectors, like Changson Chang and Michael Mario among others, are survivors of the massacre. They were firsthand witness of the whole brutality and they should not forget that if fate gave them a first chance to survive, it won’t give them a second chance if they decided to join the Juba government. Some of them, according to the Juba government, are moving corps who deserves nothing else but a wooden coffin.
In lieu of conclusion, I want to assure the Movement and the general public that this is a good subtraction. They have actually been occupying positions that would have been occupied by the educated, young and energetic South Sudanese. I urge the leadership of the Movement to replace them with immediate effects from within the rank and file of the party. Just because one woman turned back and got changed to a mountain would not destruct the whole journey—aluta continua!!! And let’s sing this together. We are matching in pursuit of justice and peace; when a hero fall, another hero steps in; when a coward run away, a hero replaces until we achieve the course.
The author is a South Sudanese youth activist and independent blogger, you can reach him on [email protected], follow him on twitter @kuach444. For more articles from this author, please visit his blog at http://tutkuay.blogspot.co.ke/