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.

Excuse Mechanisms that Cause Some Governance Drawbacks in South Sudan

By Dr. James Okuk,

In my PhD research between 2006 to 2009, the below are identified excuse mechanisms that have caused some drawbacks in many actions and omissions of our government leaders in Southern Sudan by then. The same is still happening these days, yet our leaders do not care to benefit from academic researches some of us have done with patriotic spirit, aiming at helping our dear Motherland to get built on a firmed foundation of “justice as fairness”.

As our government leaders grapple these days in crisis management ranging from war provocation, oil business politics and other pending critical issues signaled by the Sudanese government leaders, I thought it could be of interest to some of you to find the connections and relevance of this research findings.
Perhaps, one day the voice of reason and wisdom will come to reign in South Sudan where the  academic endeavors of young people like me, Augustino Ting,  and many others will get acknowledged and used rather than hated for the good of the new nation.
Instead of locking us behind colonial bars in Juba under pretext of being criminal because of criticizing the President and his government,  the best and right place to imprison intellectuals and journalists of South Sudan would have been a closed think-tank research confines for finding objective  and recommendable solutions to the mountainous challenges facing the new country from different angles (internally as well as externally).
If you happened to pass through the main library of University of Nairobi, please you may check the table and explanatory analyses of these mechanism in Chapter Seven of my thesis. The title of the thesis is ” Rawlsian Justice and Poverty Reduction in Southern Sudan”, which I defended rigorously in July 2009 with success and admiration from examiners’ panel.

Do not trouble the trouble until it troubles you.

Let’s wait and see; it will work itself out alone.

Time heals; so do not get bothered.

What is the hurry for anyway? There is no hurry in Africa.

We seem to have been okay the way we are, why change?

My people are different; they are sure to resist.

We have always done it our way and it worked.

Do you think you can do more than what we have done?

Our region and priorities are different from yours.

Our culture and regulations cannot accommodate these changes.

We are too small and young; that is not for us anyway.

We only have a skeleton staff; they are not enough for that work.

We are not licensed to do so; it doesn’t have the mandate.

Do we have the go ahead from authorities above?

Does our constitution allow this?

That’s too bold a decision. Do we have the authority?

We do not have the quorum.

It’s not within our plans and priorities.

It is not in the budget; wait until we budget for it.

Is this in line with the National Development Plan?

Wait until we are of age; that is beyond our capacity now.

We do not have skills; nobody here can handle it.

We do not have the experience to implement this.

That’s outside our organizational boundaries.

It is too early for that; that is being over ambitious.

You are living beyond your time.

We are approaching this emotionally, let’s be a little more rational.

We have to tread on this very, very carefully, and consider all the implications.

Have you verified the facts? Don’t take it at face value.

We do not have the full information.

Let’s form a committee to look into that matter.

That is too expensive. Does the benefit justify the cost?

We tried that before; it never worked.

Where has this worked before?

The season is not right for it now; may be when it will be a bit better.

We are too busy around here; may be next year.

Do we really have the time?

It is not an emergency; let’s give ourselves more time to think over it.

Let’s pray about it and wait for God’s right time for intervention.

That is outdated; we use to do that long ago.

There is no use talking about it; remember the donor fatigue.

We are already overloaded; we can’t take more.

Stakeholders are not genuine in this; they have hidden agenda.

It sounds too theoretical; perhaps only good for academic argument.

It is the economy to blame.

It is the Arabs and Khartoum to blame.

That sounds too simplistic; it is not worth paying attention to.

Dr. James Okuk
Juba, Cell Phone: 0998270837

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