PaanLuel Wël Media Ltd – South Sudan

"We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing" By Konstantin Josef Jireček, a Czech historian, diplomat and slavist.

South Sudan should appreciate the bird in hand rather than the bird in the bush

4 min read

By Peter Costa Marial Manyiel, Tasmania, Australia

in the company of Dr. John Garang: once upon a time, we were united.

August 29, 2015 (SSB) — Why the Southern Sudanese elite always wants to be known as an obstacle creator? Rather than obstacles removal?

There is this illusion of fake heroism bravery that those elite had been lured to believe they too could be like that if they listen blindly to neighbours countries of the north and south of South Sudan.

Similar fake bravery is in the message of SPLA/M in opposition propaganda on online medium about their victories after they signed the Peace Agreement document on Eastern Equatoria State, county of Magwi and other areas in the past few days.

Instead it should prepare itself to sell the modified negotiated peace deal to its defected generals in Khartoum as the new deals has bigger cake in other seven states not previously included in the power sharing.

The heroism is created by hard work on nation building through national projects such as vital infrastructure schemes like roads, electricity, fibre optic for communication and human development etc… Not as in…

The angry walkouts of Sudan and Uganda Presidents from the last talk on the 17/08/2015 in Addis Ababa send wrong signals to Juba elite about the well being of their relation with those mentioned individuals thus that affect their judgements on the negotiated peace document without reading between the lines of what they had achieved so far.

Juba waited for while until the leaders of the above countries gave a green light for Juba to sign the peace if they want but not as they happy for South Sudan to have that Peace.

Khartoum went far by mentioned the example of how they implemented the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) partially with South Sudan and so the President Kiir should do the same with the SPLA/M in Opposition.

Let’s now dive into the aim of this article as the above questions prompt myself to understand what’s should have been done rather than creation of new paths that we are not certain where it’s heading.

The genesis of current South Sudan problems as articulated here by the Institute of Sudd by in their policy brief titled “The SPLM Leadership Contest:“.

And the solution are been addressed through the recent two agreements of Arusha and Addis Ababa 17/08/2015 final proposal compromise documents Arusha Reunification and “Agreement on the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan “.

This one bird should be kept and take care of: This peace agreement should be viewed as an opportunity for South Sudan to rebirth itself rather then hindrance.
The team of the main stakeholders of this agreement should all establish its risk metrics and create possible mitigation solution to reduce the risk of the agreement Implementation failure using the channel of the communication provided in the agreement.

In form of a national project its aim is not just to bring peace and protect the new status quo but also to see these six pillars of statehood stand:

Establish and build permanent national constitution, form cohesive independent national army, reform national judiciary systems, encourage free and fair independent media and finally establish a political platform for multi parties systems and independent national election commission.

Lets the current government if has doubt to recruit its best experts to see the implementation of this peace agreement to the letter as the government would like to see the six pillars of government established as mentioned above.

Let’s the South Sudan armed opposition support the reform agenda of this agreement to fruition and prepare itself to lead a political party same as SPLM former Detainees, all other interest group and other political parties and assist in safeguard this agreement by see it through its participation in the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU).

I would not like to see the sabotage and delay tactics that had been used by then Sudan government who undermined the CPA implementation to be repeated in this recent 17/08/2015 in Addis Ababa Peace Deal.

As this is South Sudan is building its own nation unlike the former CPA was meant to create South Sudan, here yet again the South Sudanese leaders (all government and armed and other political oppositions) have to read between the lines not to follow other countries blindly because of their political interest support they received.

South Sudan do not have enough time to keep searching for another durable solution than this acknowledging the suffering of our people and the effort of regional, international leaders to bring the current peace talk to this acceptable outcome and Let the warring parties forage a political will to implement this peace agreement.

Peter Costa Marial Manyiel, the writer, is an ICT professional has Bachelor and Master Degrees in information System, main major in Information System and a minor major in Business and Management from University of Tasmania. Peter can be contacted through this email address pakoc2050@gmail.com.

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