“Better Devil you know than the Angel you don’t know”: Is it the case of South Sudan and Sudan?
By Abednego Kur Majok
I have been wondering since the inception of South Sudan (2011) of what is to be the true relationship/future between south Sudan and Sudan (the former mother, oppressor, boss, enemy and list continues as you wish) and this have keep me asking whether we are enacting the saying of “better the evil you know than the angel you don’t know” but do we really know this devil? (The Khartoum/Jalaba) let me support my argument.
We all have ears and eyes and we have all heard or have seen how the relationship between Sudan and South Sudan have been since the signing of CPA and years behind since the Anya Anya rebellion as detail in “Too many agreement dishonored” by Uncle Abel Alier. Now what beats my understanding is how we assume that Mundukur/Jalaba will ever change from its old tactics?
If I may ask you, have snake ever gave birth to pigeon/dove? Okay, since when did enemies enjoy the peace of their foes? Are we sure that Jalaba is really happy with our departure? Are we sure Jalaba see us as equal to them after we separate or they still have that mentality of slave-master relation? Or since when did two bridegrooms competing for the same bride sit on the same table and chat freely without enmity?
If we look back at the chronological records of incursions and aggressions done by Sudan against South Sudan then I think we may need more than a 100 pages book to record them, take for instant regular bombardment of Northern Bahr El Ghazal and Upper Nile, violation of our air space (of which I don’t blame them here since there is nothing to detect their presents in our air space apart from our naked eyes and ears), their backing-up of our rebels as confessed by their former sponsored commanders, occupation of Abyei, claiming of south Sudan lands like Panthou, Kafurnes and Kafekengi not forgetting mile 14, killing of Chief Kuol Adol, the recent unilateral shut down of the oil just to mention a few. But the question remains; have south Sudan ever retaliated? We all know the answer and take for instant the 10 day return to the ancestral land of Panthou by our gallant forces what happen to our president (he couldn’t catch a little sleep because of phone calls all over the world) whereas the turn blind eye to the horrors done by Khartoum and this make somebody asks; is there justice in the world really? Or just only the strongest survive? God must answer that question!
Seeing all those things folding in front of us and we still passionately regard Khartoum as peace partner and a friend, keeps my retard brain confused. Now can somebody suggest a good reason to why we should confine in Khartoum as a true friend or is it that we cannot manage to get plan B, C and even up to Q or Z if need be. I know we have blessed brains in south Sudan whether within or outside who can think and come up with genius decision to relief us once and for all from these monsters (and that remain me of getting something like think-tank just only for counter-Mundukur if need be and in general other think-tank for country developmental agendas).
If I am to make my humble suggestions then I would rather suggest, speeding up the final stage of our refineries, awarding the contract of pipe construction to three or four companies instate of one, I know you will tell me why? My argument lies in the time frame that it will take to construct the pipe line. Take for instant if the pipe line is awarded to one company it might take 2 – 3 years to finish but if allocated to three or four companies which can start at the same time ( where we have divided the pipe line into different zones or sections and each zone is allocated to each company) then imagine each company may take 5 – 6 months to finish the section allocated to it, and this will lead to an overall completion of pipe line within 6 months instate of 2-3 years (Chinese method of project allocation) and somebody who did Production management will support my idea. Secondly, I would suggestion incentive to the farmers/cooperative societies who have manage to plant for a season, also government should either buy their surplus or find a way of getting these goods into world market, moreover government should build silos for better storages, all these will motivate people in at least secure areas to cultivate and avoid over dependency on import and oil revenue.
Coming to the import side (not for every country but in particular our so call friend Sudan), since Sudan have shown her teeth to us do we really still want to import from them, I know some of my brothers and sisters who came from northern Sudan (Junubin who were in Northern) will response with a big YES (maybe say capital YES) but logically is it worth risking the lives of million innocent south Sudanese ( saying goes that cheap things are always dangerous) combining that saying with the true colour of Jalaba we know we would definitely stop importing from that side, have anybody ever imagine if the Jalaba decide to poison junubin using their goods with the special coordination from NISS through the traders, go back to history and you will know what I am talking about because trust is not something you can grant to Khartoum (don’t tell me it will be detected by our National bureau of Standards because they still use traditional or manual methods of testing the products coming into South Sudan – six senses) look at what happened in Europe during the horse meat issue surpassing all the super technology then don’t be surprise why people decide to sell dog meat in Juba.
All in all what I am suggesting is that we need to look for different ways of survival and leave a lone the Khartoum thugs and their Arabazition mentality. I do belief that we are very strong nation and it will only be realize if we use our reasoning capacity in a constructive rather than destructive ways.