The Closing Statement: Letter to Vice President Hon. James Wani Igga
9 min readTHE CLOSING STATEMENT: Letter to the Vice President
From Opoka Christopher Arop
July 20, 2015 (SSB) —- Dear Mr. Vice President, please accept my warm greetings. I have just returned from an eight day trip across China. I have visited the Chinese capital Beijing, but sadly failed to make a meet with your ambassador. He was either too busy or didn’t have any idea that your journalists were visiting.
Without mincing words, Your Excellency, I must make my point this early, so that when my pen and ink go into the politics of your government and the drama that your citizens have associated with your cabinet, at the very least I would have given a fair chance for the readers and you my Vice President to understand that which has provoked me to write to you.
I must also say this early that I don’t expect any reply, and my intention has nothing to do with favors in return. My conscience is clear and my heart is sober. I simply want to share my experience on this trip, which unlike the many you have no doubt had in different parts of the world including China; has been characterized by the beautiful scenery of China’s hidden treasures, but also by synchronized by the decisive decisions and policy positions and concrete actions taken by the Chinese Communist Party.
These combined bold decisions and actions have transformed the many parts of rural China that I have visited. This my Vice President is lacking in your leadership and cabinet. This, my person of the Vice President is what is failing your leadership and management. And this my Vice President is what you will be remembered for. A Legacy of failures and indecision. A legacy of failed politics and incompetence. A legacy of rhetoric and inaction. I have harshly accepted to judge your reign as I have with many others who are less near to your stature; all because I can’t like many others who have rested their hopes in your abilities; come to terms with the idea that you have failed and is continuing to fail this noble nation.
My Vice President, it is my belief, hope and faith in your abilities and the powers of your office [and not that of your supervisor and superior] to change my part of the country as a start. It is my strong position that with you, we can all change how things are done in our country and that we can be an example, the example, the light that we as a people should be and have been ordained in spirit to be a force for change, a light that will lead this great nation to imaginations, many of its people are afraid of, even when they know they shouldn’t be.
Mr. vice President, my requests are threefold. First I want [‘want’ because any other word would be of less authority and demonstrate fallible intensions and weakness, and want because, I am more than convinced that this is no request] you to give back this country to the right people that should in the first place have taken this nation away from the hands of the evil designs of the so called “liberators” and the so called “government” and the so called “parliaments”.
Dear President, please assure all the so called “liberators, government, legislators; old and young, all that have contributed to the suffering the failed delivery of services, the failed housing, the failed development, the failed health, the failed education, the failed governance, the failed road network, the failed electricity, the death and suffering your citizens.
Giving back the country to the people can only mean a number of concrete actions. Revive the Youth Parliament and start this by disbanding the current chaos that is preempted on ideas of a National Youth Association. Form the right Youth Union, be they regional or otherwise; take this bold action. It will not a decision that many will accept on the onset, but they eventually will. It is the right decision. Don’t be numbed by questions of where to find the new Youth who should be the next and rightful custodians of your failures and the failures of your government and kinsfolk, cronies and fellow “liberators”.
We are here and we are ready. We are neither SPLM, nor are we or must we be the “Red Army” or former “Child Soldiers”. We are neither from Khartoum, or Cairo, nor Kampala, Nairobi, Jo’burg or London, Washington DC or Sydney. We are here and we are everywhere. We are not an elitist sect as some of your “Outsider” government technocrats have become. We are not “Insiders” as some of your current youth would want to boast. We are what we are because of what unites us and not what divides us.
I will give an example of how a nation has been handed over, over time to its rightful owners. China has just done that. China may have come a little late to the concept of handing over a nation to the young, but it has taken the right steps, and may be overtaking the likes of its compatriots including the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Russia [with some reservations, and these reservations are because this writer has not gathered enough information to warrant an informed decision, and thus this uninformed and biased verdict will suffice in place of a more objective analysis].
The Chinese have many young people fully immersed and interested in national issues, and many of them are active participants in the decisions that largely contribute to where their country is going, and how their country will get there. Young people are both involved in the political decisions of the ruling party, at all levels of government, youth are involved in the policy decision making processes of their government at all levels, and they are part of the other spheres of life in their country; from business and finance, to economic decisions by the private sector, to decisions affecting the education system, to decisions affecting the security, to choices between a number of alternative paths, with al youth groups from their respective regions, cities, provinces, counties given equal opportunities to have their voices heard, their concerns listened to, and their suggestions acted upon, and their decisions’ impact assessed by legislators of their peers, and the elders of their societies acting as mere advisors, councilors and providing guidance to the best possible path to realizing development magnitudes never before imagined by previous generations. This is the true definition of a “Culture of Red” that has been an emblem for all young people of China.
Mr. President, I know the task I lay before you will be rejected by those around you. You have surrounded yourself with people who have no stake in the future of this beautiful land and people. You are surrounded by blood thirsty hounds, greedy dogs, soul-thieving sycophants; many of whom have never said any shred of truth to your ears. They will even call you weak and claim that the young are unwise. Some of them will claim that the young are part to blame for the current underdevelopment, the current suffering, the current abuses of human rights, the current hatred across the nation, the current looting of national coughers, the current blatant emptying of what is left of a national treasury, the current ideological bankruptcy that has become your government and country.
Give back the country to the people, because it is still not too late. The young people of this country too have a right to destroy this country, if our and your liberation only means destruction, corruption, thirst for blood, genocide, tribalism, poverty, underdevelopment, unemployment, inflation; and aid dependency and disease.
My second request is for you my Vice President to initiate, supervise and deliver 1 million kilometers of road across the country. These roads must be multilane [four lanes at least] and must be tarmac. They must be done by competent foreign companies using local labor, a proportionately acceptable number of local engineers, architects, and designers, urban planners to ensure that this national road project is in line with the environment and long term development needs of the people of South Sudan. I have every confidence in your abilities to find the financial resources toward such national project. However, needless to point you in the direction of China’s ExIm Bank as a possible financier of such project.
My third and final request is for you, my Vice President to look into and implement the idea of a Special Economic Zone, that can be called New Sudan Economic Zone, and it will cover an area large enough to accommodate the enormous road infrastructure development hat you will want done. This Special Economic Zone will be the epitome of accelerated research and development encircling all aspects of South Sudanese life. In this economic zone, only the most suitable and qualified South Sudanese will be admitted.
The zone will operate on a system of special entrance system, where for example, there will be issued special permits for entering. Local labor in the area destined as Special Economic Zone will enjoy more benefits in terms of lower taxes, employment privileges, cheaper and improved housing.
The Special Economic Zone will be an experimental platform for a New Opening Up and Reform Policy that will see improvement in education policy; by attracting education service providers from East Africa and beyond, it will also bring better and cheaper public health services closer and within the special economic zone by attracting health service providers that will enjoy better benefits from new policies that will serve the best interests of such service providers and of the residents of the special economic zones.
The special economic zones will also act as an experimental and research ground for a new community police and security policy and practice. The special economic zone will act as a new way of life and a new way of uniting the young people of South Sudan.
Aliko Dangote, a Nigerian billionaire businessman who owns the Dangote Group, Named Forbes Africa Person of the Tear 2014 reminds us that: “Africa’s wealth and its future is in its youth. Let us end poverty through initiatives that promote youth empowerment and economic growth”.
Reminder: I have made three requests. 1. Give back the country to the youth of South Sudan. 2. Implement a national tarmac road network covering one million kilometers. 3. Create a Special Economic Zone.
Opoka Christopher Arop is the Managing Editor at Juba Monitor Newspaper and an Associate Communications Director/Founder of Tangible Results LLC. Comments to this Open-Editorial can be sent to krismakes@gmail.com or krismakesrain@yahoo.com
–
The opinion expressed here is solely the view of the writer. The veracity of any claim made are the responsibility of the author, not PaanLuel Wël: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB) website. If you want to submit an opinion article or news analysis, please email it to paanluel2011@gmail.com. SSB do reserve the right to edit material before publication. Please include your full name, email address and the country you are writing from.
About Post Author
