Freeloaders: A Formidable Force
10 min readBy Alier Ateny
Freeloaders: A formidable force. (2nd edition)
Many people have talked and written about South Sudan, the youngest nation in the world, just 2 years into independence but already qualified as a failed state, and sooner or later might as well qualify as a rogue state. This article will highlight the reasons why those in the system right now would not accept a change but will fight tooth and nails to maintain the status quo. This discussion will be based on the following topics (i) The ghost names on the pay lists (ii) Unqualified army of public servants (iii) family members getting salaries for free (VI) and of course the corrupt ministers and generals. Are these people interested in a change? The essay will argue the contrary. This is called cracking the code; some thorny topics will be brought up in this essay. Please read it.
South Sudan’s Political, social and economic system was set up to fail
Many analysts have argued that, South Sudan was doom to fail due to lack of a pre-plan or a blueprint on how the country could be run comes self-determination or independence; if South Sudanese had considered this in advance, they would have started by nominating a credible Joshua with true leadership attribute and a clear roadmap of where he or she is heading the nation to. People of South Sudan did not go to war in 1983 just to change their masters, they wanted to live in a country where government would think and care about their wellbeing; they wanted to live under a government different from that oppressive government of Khartoum, that is, government of the people by the people for the people, however, not much has changed, South Sudan government imported the very system that took the people of South Sudan to civil war. Corruption is still prevalence in its worst case, government critics are still being arbitrary arrested, forced to exile, or killed, media still under government control and use as a propaganda tool instead of promoting peace, love and unity, opposition parties still being menaced, and so on. Another despotic system being practise by South Sudan government is what I would refer to here as ‘’jungle politics,’’ they adapted it and used it during the entire period of the North-South civil war, for example, the culture of ‘’Musadats and Muhimats’’. Musadats means material assistance of any kind used to be given to generals and their families only, those assistances could be food, clothing, money as well as other vital services. It was an obligation for those generals to have certain number of people assigned to their houses as domestic workers and managed by their wives and children. Muhimats were sort of nutritious foods like liver, kidney, heart, pancreas, intestines and other special foods being prepared for the generals at the frontline. Such privileges were not opened to everybody, you have to be a general, or a family member, or a close relative in order to benefit from Musadats or Muhimats. If you take a look at our current system right now, you would realize that, it is just but a prototype of that culture described above. Most if not all ministers in the former and current GOSS government are the very generals who know none other than war and that culture of Musadats and Muhimats. They have put their family members or close relatives as the civil servants in public sectors, majority of whom are not even qualified staffs, because merits is a thing of the future not in their world. Those relatives who are not given any positions can still earn salaries every single pay day through the ghost lists, some Diasporas are beneficiaries of this kind of corrupt system either directly or indirectly, it is not a surprise to others including myself why some diasporas behave like Hitler’s Youth here in the west.
Is change possible in South Sudan?
Yes, change is possible but not without sacrifice, either from within or from without, whether now or in the future. All we need in South Sudan right now is another revolution, both in thinking and in the way we do things as well. But people should not forget that these bourgeoisies’ class and their cronies are not sleeping at all, they will do all they could to make sure that corrupt system goes nowhere, they call it do or die situation, they are there to stay as they often sing, ‘’SPLM is here to stay’’ they chant. Those who attempt to change that status quo are vilified and branded as enemies of the nation, because these looters know very well that any change to the status quo will certainly come with a serious nation building, and this will definitely affect them in one way or another. For example, national resources will be channelled into important national projects, ghost names will be screen out of the national pay lists, corrupt individuals will be held accountable and unskilled staff will be replaced with skilled ones. Put it simply, the whole system of corruption will be scraped and replaced with system of accountability, transparency, economic and social justice; and rule of law, in nutshell; an effective and efficient system.
Spy in the sky;
As mentioned above, beneficiaries of this corrupt system are doing all they could to make sure that any mindset different from their own is curbed and stemmed out through undercover spies who are tasked to look for underground reformists and those who might be saying things against their corrupt deals or government. This is how some citizens end up in exile, they have been forced to flee their country for their own safety, good example are gentlemen like Jon Pen Ngong, Deng Mading Chaui and ****others, these gentlemen are a few example of the victims of force exile, not to mention those who have already lost their lives like Isaiah Abraham and many more. The following was a speech by Isaiah’s daughter in his funeral.
The heartbreaking speech from the 14-year-old Aluel Isaiah Abraham: I believe my father was killed because he wanted a better South Sudan and I am not afraid to say that…my father’s passion for South Sudan has left me without a father, left my siblings without a father, left my mother without a spouse.
Isaiah Diing Abraham Chan Awuol, the first martyr for the Freedom of Expression in the Republic of South Sudan.
Open hostility towards civil societies and nongovernment controlled media is promoted; freelances and columnists are censored and/or arrested. There is also issue of brain washing and indoctrination, vast majority of these elite’s class spend most of their times with destitute trying to brain wash the population and save face the corrupt ministers, such that people don’t get to question the system and what they do. When people are starving to death, they use their government controlled SSTV and preach the opposite that people’s lives have now improved under the government of His Excellency. When there is inter-communal conflict, they would be like; our people are more united now than ever, and so forth. Those undercover spies can also be found in many different roles wearing different hats, for instance, in ostensible peace and reconciliation forums, and the so call public awareness about the cause of the conflict, as well as other glittery jobs like state’s human right group, they are just moles in those roles; their actual role is spying for the government. Church is another institution which has built a fishy nexus with this corrupt elites, as oppressive governments always do, our government cleverly use religion to numb people’s minds not to question any wrong doing, they are taught by the religious leaders not only to fear God, but also their authorities, a purer political-religious indoctrination, I like to call it ‘’poli-reli’’ indoctrination or politics and religion indoctrination.
This is a 21st century
You might have heard this before or yet to hear this common excuses from South Sudan regime, oh America wants our oil, oh they wish us fail, oh international community this, international community that, yet they failed to understand that this contemporary world is interconnected, hornbill’s problem is not hornbill’s alone this days, it is world’s problem politically, economically, and humanitarian wise. And when the world begins to focus on the details, Juba regime begins to startle and start attacking the world because they know the devil is in the details, their blame game attack has extended even to the ghosts of the dead people. For instance, their stooges have started blaming none living soul of the then ebel leader Dr. John Garang, that John Garang’s spirit is haunting mighty Kiir instead of cockroach Riek, another name in their black list. All these scare campaign and propaganda is nothing other than acting out of guilt, many authoritarian regimes have used it before but to no avail, legends of this act like Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin did not benefit from it, Gaddafi and Saddam tried it too but look at their demises, Assad is using it but will not appreciate the end of the game either. In addition, Kiir regime must know that this is a 21st century, time of fascism and dictatorship is long gone; this world is a different world all together, international community cannot sit on their hands and allow this very young nation to descent into lethal path right in their watch, there would be no reasons of establishing UN and/or International community after all. South Sudan’s problem is a world’s problem in many aspects, humanitarian wise, global economy and global politics, South Sudan is expected to contribute positively in improving lives of it people and not engage in a thuggish behaviour to the detriment of masses. Who is now feeding, sheltering or catering for the general wellbeing of those South Sudanese displaced by the conflict? Not South Sudan government, nor the South Sudan rebels, it is the same international community which our government is trying to sell short to the very population they came to rescue. The message these corrupt elites should pay attention to is this; many dictators have tried before and could not succeed, why do you want to learn from your own experience and not from other person’s else’s? This country is supposed to be a very lucky country because of the era of her birth; South Sudan came at a time when globalisation has eliminated the miseries of isolation. We don’t have to go back and start from the rudimentary, we have mature democracies who are more than ready to coach us on laying foundations of a true democracy, strong economy, harmonies social and/or cultural co-existent, and use their advance technology to improve our economy, yet our government got us the very opposite. Once again, I remind our leaders that, there is hardly any room for dictatorship in this century, play your cards responsibly or somebody else will do the job.
About the Current conflict
The author of this article was in the middle of it all, when the conflict started last year especially in Bortown and all the way to the rural areas I saw it how it happened, which means I have witness the nature of this conflict first hand. When we came back from the hiding, we found the whole town literally littered with human bodies, there is no justification for the death of these innocent people whatsoever, whether in Juba, Bor, Malakal, or Bentiu. I join the whole world in urging and challenging both Kiir and Riek to do the extraordinary thing, to stop the blame game, ring up each other and agree to put down weapons for the sake of the people. You are just as good as the other if you keep on engaging in point scoring while people you claim to love continue to die, please do it for your people. If you don’t do that, then you two are fighting for your individual interests and not that of the people of South Sudan, I know both of you are peace loving people, none of you had intended this large scale war to take place, I personally blame it on your naivety, so please come back to your senses, your people can still forgive you regardless of the thousands who have already lost their lives. There is still a room for forgiveness, it is not too late to stop this conflict now because the more this conflict continues, the more damage to the country, and therefore, the more love lost. I expect the government to take a lead in bringing this war to an end, because you should not start something you don’t know how to stop, stop denying anything and to think responsibly if you want to be called government of the people.
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