Edward Lino: There was no Coup in Juba: Part-3
LOOKING AT OURSELVES, THE WAY WE KNOW NOT!
Let us be sober (THREE)
FM: Edward Abyei Lino
To: The People Of South Sudan
To: The Leaders About To Meet In Ethiopia
So far, two tablets shared at this time of our greatest distress. A fist-full individuals were provoked and took the message with unqualified bitterness. Those who dread to be painted as failures hating those who point at them as failures! So intentionally, the moment they ceased to be rational and truthful, they decided not to understand all the issues raised; because they cannot accept to endorse what shall reduce the quantity of “bread and butter” they earn through previous associations, to the side from which they receive their luck and place their pillows. And as such, divulged an opportunistic killing greed at the expense of our flowing blood and death! On the other side of events, are those who follow whatever happens on the ground through one-narrow-sky window and thus, miss-understood the issues presented; revealing an inherent depth of unfathomable ignorance. Please, let them stay where they are until they grasp our intentions. We only insist to say: “LET TRUTH BE SAID, AS WE FOCUS OUR ATTENTION ON THE FUTURE”! As said earlier, let us not be bothered by what “negatives” think about us, because of the presence of that colour-less monster so-called “fear”, from which they should be liberated! This is the time for our people to stand like they faced oppression for decades and succeeded in a remarkable way. Come, let us unite and act!
NOT UGANDA! BUT YUWERI AND OUR PEOPLE:
Absolutely, that relative quietness in Juba does not indicate stability, when Ugandan troops, as stated by our Minister of Defense are there, being paid for protecting the government of the day while devastating the country. Now a hostage in the swamps hands-full of Dollars, Yuweri stands in anticipation of the international community to intervene militarily to extract Uganda from South Sudan; according to a Ugandan reader. But it seems that awaited intervention, if organized, would come from the countries of IGAD in which Uganda has a leading role. And that would mean “Uganda rescuing Uganda”! The reader did not touch on what Museveni did when he diverted over 350 Million Dollars, which were deposited under cover in a “Block-Account” in Kampala by the Bank of South Sudan! Kaguta admitted that he paid himself and his army unilaterally, by being to the Bank before messengers from Juba arrive! Tell us, how can a President of a Republic like Uganda interfere in person with the accounts of South Sudan! Unless he installed himself to be the President and C-in-C of South Sudan with Salva Kiir as his Governor-General with limited powers! What happened is a case of “raping a nation under age” at noon in the presence of a dump father and uncles and obviously, a case tarnishing the image of a sovereign state. Of course, our people know Uganda as a country to which they are bound in many, many positive ways. To every South Sudanese, Uganda, land and people, have always been dear!
THE BRILLIANT ALSO PRAY:
Being brilliant, Museveni must be held accountable for what he did in his Bank and restore South Sudanese people money! But, why did the Bank of South Sudan (BOSS) have a Block-Account in Uganda! There were beneficiaries who crisscrossed behind that account, who should to be held accountable for that mismanagement! Tightly, let them be squeezed by the collar! That act is unjustifiable and should not be left unaccounted. Tell people, how can we trust any Ugandan Bank! How many schools, dispensaries and water facilities could we have constructed with those abandoned public funds! There are a people at large, once they jump on a donkey’s back, they would hit it properly, forgetting that a donkey could also fall hungry, because of an ill-assumed complex about “legitimacy”! Habitually those restless people once stuck in the mud like Yuweri could be expected to behave in that irrational way. Squeezed into such a situation they would pray God to pull them out of the pit into which they plunged. Starting from 23rd December 2013 to Valentine Day 2014 Uganda lost over 635 soldiers killed, 1300 wounded and over 500 surrendered to UN in South Sudan! Let us ask logic: Into which class in hell does Museveni intend to burry the Ugandan army after he was extracted from the DR Congo, pita-patting in Somalia, lingering in Central African Republic and currently extending his feet into the swamps of South Sudan? Hei! Let people be careful. It seems South Sudan has been discovered to be a delicious “T-bone”, which attracts multi-coloured hounds. So, let us be careful!
AND HERE WE ARE:
In earlier presentations, one attempted to focus on what went wrong in our beloved country. Pointing and at times stressing on that “swallowing-crater” into which we recklessly capsized our national drive at this sensitive stage of our long journey. Up! Our South Sudan is failing to exist as a state only that it has not been declared. When a catastrophic accident occurs to a person, is the moment a survivor shouts full blast and cries loudest for rescue and assistance. Precisely, at this stage of our reality we need to be urgently assisted by the people of goodwill. Rescue cannot come that long after milk is spilled. Today we are being sadly presented to the world to emerge as the second worse humanitarian situation after Syria in the making! Confirmed by whatsoever local, regional and international indicators available. Yet and yet, here we are senselessly adamant, moaning-humming over a “failed coup”, when we have “real death” about to unfold; in an apathetic situation where we lost many friends, if not all, as well as sympathizers! Indeed, our tears shall not stop flowing until people are relieved of fear, trauma and distress in addition to famine to which we are being subjected. How can they crucify us naked on a catastrophic war and cast us barren into the mouth of that on-coming calamitous famine! Yet, still and still, people insist to witness the aluminous beams of a sustainable peace, as it emerges in a new down of hope. Let us be frank and act as one united people!
LET US START:
Unlike Che’ Guvara, I am no Communist or economist, but a member of SPLM. Just a couple of days before signing the CPA, one happen to ask a World Bank Expert about the availability of a viable example from which we could borrow what might help us to set a sound economic basis for Southern Sudan given the fact that we, SPLM, were expected to start planning from below any stage known to our economic experts. By then SPLM had a cluster of highly qualified Comrades who were prepared to handle all the challenges of building the nation! Unfortunately, within three weeks we lost our COACH, Dr. John Garang de Mabior, who was to guide our experts through that bumpy road of our national building as an economist and the Leader, to provide the missing linkages between lofty dreams and simple realities. In those crucial matters relevant political guidelines matter, and that is precisely the importance of having a seasoned Leader. That World Bank Expert said, there were no relevant examples from which Southern Sudan could take, because: Southern Sudan by then had barely a few qualified personnel to manage that new emerging economy. [By then we were being rated by the world as an emerging economy, land of untapped opportunities for humankind!] Our World Bank Expert went ahead to tell me that, Southern Sudan was richer than its neighbours and was not in a situation where things like “debits” should occur. Then reflected, adding other important political considerations to see what could be needed. Not an economist, I was able to grasp only a little, but saw the direction.
FORGET NO VETERAN:
One began to visualize and reflect on how Sheikh Zayid al-Nahyan turned the desert into what it is today! Now, how can we adopt some of those great achievements, in our situation where we have land, water and a recognized fighting spirit, emerging so from a legendry war that could have taken our people of South Sudan to produce greens from rocks! By then our people had patience untarnished by petty rivalries and squabbles. By September 2005, barely a month after the formation of our first transitional government, I dispatched a memo to the President, Minister of Finance and copied the Chief-of-General-Staff, suggesting dispatching an SPLA delegation to visit, know and understand how people there were involved in planning to develop the desert in the Gulf Sheikhdoms. Because our SPLA freedom fighters, many as they were, needed to be assisted through viable plans, which could have rendered them respectable retirement benefits as deserving freedom-fighting veterans. But sorry, that MEMO went somewhere and into dustbin. Our President never listened to his Chief-of-General-Staff!
BUILDING TOGETHERNESS:
At that stage of what happened and to address our future needs let us examine some fundamental aspects for having a “together-ness” that can rally all our people in an equitable society to move forward. Let us fathom our socio-economic reality right from 2005 upto now. Our economic reality and social performance, more than any other aspect of our existence as a nation is fundamentally basic to our progress, as a united people. We cannot progress without realizing some tangible achievements to have enough food, power, water, roads, health and schools. These very aspects are basic to our unity, our stability and peace. Economic viability means stability, unity, social freedoms and thus political independence. It is the essence of nation building. Unless we embrace equity and equality, to share in building whatever we need and enjoy, we shall never be able to maintain our country. We shall simply disintegrate and wither. From where we stand, we observe some blank faces committed to staff their stomachs, serving “absentee-masters”, forgetting where to throw the wastage. What an awful treason! Did we look into how and why we succeeded and what were our weaknesses and how would we avoid the pitfalls and redeem them in order to march forward! Did we ever return to our people with a clear message of hope and progress? Which socio-economic plans and policies did we put in place since 2005? Nothing! Nothing! But rather, our Leaders disregarded us and militantly refused to attend to what should have kept us together as a united people!
CHAOS, CHAOS:
Since the time our transitional government for Southern Sudan was set up in 2005, in the first place, we avoided and refused to organize ourselves as to how we spent the moneys we received like flowing from Heaven in a manner we never expected, or even perceived before the implementation of the CPA! Some literate-illiterate economists and shortsighted individuals with no imagination, plans or vision, saw moneys simmering, as if the Nile was turned to flow from north to south! No sound economic advices rendered, but endorse whatever an inadequate Minister decided. And like poverty stricken skinny-kids in a lavish birthday party, our people were so excited! That was when we missed the road and took the opposite direction. Huge funds were mismanaged, misdirected and misused in an apathetic situation where mismanagement and unaccountability almost turned to be the best ways to account and manage our affairs! There were some big people who emerged necked from the bathroom the moment they herd the sad news of the death of an officer who was the “agent” who pocketed his dues! People saw many bad things happen and no way to deceive them again. The hesitant are those who render services to the dominating few, but the vigilant would not under the sun especially, when relations are founded on uneven grounds.
MISMANAGEMENT:
In South Sudan funds were swindled in many dubious ways, which attracted looters and swindlers of multiple colours especially, those Khartoum based contractors and suppliers, who were flown in privately by “uncle-beneficiaries” to handle the first logistics to our emerging transitional government. Soon that ‘dubious-ity’ extended to East African region right to Gulf Sheikhdoms. Some queer faces started to appear, disappear and reappear on permanent-prominent basis around our Ministers and Under-Secretaries who were sneaked into new positions and disappeared with their ghost-investors to wherever windfalls were to be planted. They flew all around the glob across oceans from east to west. And that was how corruption started at high gear in South Sudan from TOP to bottom! Now, most if not all, of those who planted that devastating social hunger are well known. They only buried their heads in the quick sand of corruption forgetting their bodies in the verandas of shame! That was how and why whistles were blown to rob the country. The first thing looters, thieves and swindlers did in the open, was to pierce the eyes, blow the ears and cripple the hands of transparency, accountability, good governance and justice. One never saw transparency could also mean to do undesired-things in the open!
MORE AND MORE STORIES:
Indeed, in our storage there are many hair-lifting narrations of mismanagement and corruption, which add up to the misfortunes that prevent light and water from Juba! Can one imagine in the capital city of South Sudan, the majority of kids below eight do not know what a water tape looks like and how to operate it! In over 85% of Juba no taps! No water, but supplied by Ethiopian vendors who own the means to deliver water in small tankers! Juba water supply was the first project, which our Engineer, Dr. Riek Machar undertook to implement in 2005, when he was Vice President and Minster of public utilities! The same sad story may also go to Juba Bridge. A friendly country, Japan, of all the countries, donated a bridge for Juba, but our technocrats who were to receive the bridge on our behalf seem not to like the idea of been given a “free gift”. Our engineers either did not like the design of the bridge; the big idea of delivering it or the bridge was too huge to be pocketed as a gift. Perhaps! Today that hectic Juba Bridge stands like kneeling before a supplicating Saint, while we expect our bridge to reach us in Juba. Amazing! South Sudan might be the only spot on the planet where constructing a road of about 10 kilometers double carriage could cost the same amount like that of 200 kilometers! Corruption spread uncontrollable like flew from Juba to the States. Many people were emboldened to embrace corruption with vigour. Whatever one dose in corrupt ways almost becomes the right way to do what you want to do! Go to an office with a letter. Leave it there for minutes. Return to be told: “Where did that letter go? It, it was here”! So letters move and disappear. I tell you, corruption moves documents from place to place and wither into dustbins and loose whatever you need. Pay, your documents rapidly appear.
WHAT DO WE DO:
One major source of our problems is how to handle our economic reality. The days the ignorant lead the knowledgeable should be over. Let us be brave to confront our most fundamental issues with clarity. Let us not deceive ourselves. Our people need to be encouraged “scientifically” to invest even in flying planes, but should not be haphazardly allowed to lead some basic socio-economic undertakings, the way we vendor tomatoes and goats. Economics is an interwoven intricate science and hence, we must adhere to its principles. Let us start to build our economy! That needs to come clearly in any package of reform to undertake. Our people need to understand, review, revise and control how to disperse whatever fund we receive by introducing sound measures to the manner contracts are awarded; for example. Transparently, people are required to avoid and account for any fraudulent way to use for handling whatever project. Look at our roads and see who are the implementers!
LET US INTERVENE:
South Sudan cannot be left a lawless barren space in which multi-national quacks and criminals experiment whatever they wish, swindle and disappear with funds as happened in that Mafiosi way of implementing Juba International Airport and other projects. Incomplete roads everywhere and no one to account for them! When one attempts to ask, she or he would be told: “Heh, better keep quite”! Inter-states roads are “calling” for an urgent intervention, at lest to make it possible for humanitarian assistance to be delivered, before rains come in. Let us undertake whatever possible to do at this stage by dwelling on the worse parts of the roads first then expand. Let us find out who were the contractors: to do what, are they qualified, for how much, will they account, how would they account, who will approve the money, what steps to be taken, so on and so on. People cannot pretend to fight corruption when they do not exert any effort and take all necessary steps required to control and direct the process of accountability.
SOCIAL JUSTICE:
One of the most important aspects of equitable financial justice is the issue of post service benefits to employees; “social security” and “social insurance”. All governing regulations have to be put in place as we settle. There are international yardsticks to regulate and control this fundamental matter. That is basic to social justice in any country or state, which attributes to itself the ward “modern”, be that a dictatorship, republic, kingdom or empire. Under ant circumstances, it is a basic human right to have beneficiaries served. Today there are citizens who died living orphans without getting post service benefits. Shame on us! All arrears have to be handed over to the beneficiaries as a fundamental right. Relevant institutions and adequate funds have to be put in place, when things are stable. Whoever delayed, swindled, diverted or overlooked the disbursement of social security funds or delayed to implement the issuing of social insurance, should be taken forthwith before justice to account for any misuse or diversion. That issue is vital for building the country on modern basis guided by social justice to equalize and stabilize it; to balance the imbalances that tend to neglect and mistreat civil servants and other citizens of limited income, in the most unjust ways. We need justice to be done!
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT:
The Ministry of Labour and Administrative Reform has become the home of all the injustices, which the employees are now facing country-wide, given the fact that it has not been seen or taken to be of any strategic importance although responsible, nominally, for recruiting and training our civil servants, overlooked and by-passed by our most leading seniors. And those who ran the Ministry ran away from it when the President refused to consider and handle the issues involved and the Minister resigned and left the Ministry under a quack Deputy Minister without appointing a learned Minister for almost a year. And that Deputy Minister has never been a civil servant throughout his life! In such a highly confused situation in which “Ministers are the Ministries” and not the other way round the dismemberment of state comes in like fake clouds, promising rain but none! Orders and directives are issued from the top, but would fade away downwards and wither in unaccountable ways. Like fish, our civil service is rotten from the head, moving to the rest of the body! That is what is happening to our civil service and therefore, the whole state is affected by a serious disease, which one may term “administrative chaos”, that shall lead to the collapse of state institutions. People are required to move as soon as possible to rescue that unfortunate situation.
OUR HUMAN POTENTIALS:
Development of our human resources is highly required to emphasize our human-ness, because that is the essence of our existence. People as people, are the greatest asset of to nation. Peoples are nations and nations the people. To neglect or mistreat them by disregarding the functions of such a strategic Ministry, fully charged with human development would be a shameful thing to think or do. That needs to be attended to urgently, because public reform is containable the moment we attend to it. Yes indeed, there are many: “How can this”! “How can that”! “How can he”! “How can they”!; going on seriously. People are so hypnotized and sadden by the instances and recurrences of abominable mistakes, which occur on daily basis and wonder as to when shall we have them contained and corrected. Yes, reform, reform, reform in every aspect of our existence is needed! Starting from within us, to reconcile with our souls and surrounding in a positive way and that should help in friendly ways to deal with neighbours. Reform in our scattered families to know how to relate to one another harmoniously as a family! Reform our institutions of learning to learn with modesty. Reform our working institutions to perfect in doing what we need. Reform our people to reconcile in order to reform and move forward together. Yes, reform, reform, reform; please, let us reform South Sudan!
RESPECT CIVIL SERVICE:
In the on-going crisis our government has even started to dig much deeper holes by striking off many government employees from Pay-Roles like a people moving in a tilted dark slippery hole. Where does the money go! Who receives those slices and on which basis! Let us be told; are the Ugandans being paid out of the salaries of the absentees! We all do know it was because of that chaotic situation which randomly exploded, starting from Juba, employees got dispersed to safety. Most of our people were left with only one choice, to flee to safety. Officially people are told to return to their homes and places of work without work, but privately they get threatened or even lynched once they return! In such a situation, where on earth can an unarmed civilian or citizen be convinced to wait for a salary that delays, when those in arms who were suppose to protect him or her resort to torture, looting or even killing! That needs to be reversed to restore the dignity of our civil servants. A civil servant is a dedicated creature who respects and adores that invisible employer, the state, when the state equally reciprocates by caring for them. Tirelessly serving, keeping classified secrets and even sacrifice for the state. Why mistreat a civil servant? Yes, it is social justice, which is a basic cornerstone for building a nation, people demand. Let that be granted!
UNDERTAKINGS:
Living in a remote village, dependent on a subsistence provided by a community, one would feel the taxing process of how things are forged to meet. In a backward situation one would live how water is fetched from a distance, grain is pounded in a mortar, firewood collected from a nearby forest, food is fixed in a pot! That very ritual takes place in all our original homes daily in South Sudan from which we all inhale without any distinction. Now those basics are childishly disappearing and every one of us need to modernize in our villages through the introduction of new useful things: utensil, implements, appliances, bicycles, plows, motorbikes, water pumps, solar panels, medicine even mobile telephones. People need to change and they have to change. Between towns and villages, we tend to loose track whenever we attempt to follow that mutation, which takes place like the simmering of a pot or kettle, as we move. Yes, it is rewarding to follow how changes occur in our neglected villages. Jubilant people converge whenever new things appear like in a celebration process, which brings people together. And precisely, it is togetherness we pray for to take place in our villages!
THE HUBB:
All the plans needed to transform our-selves and be ready for a leading economic, social and modern takeoff on our African Continent has been perceived for long. Some experts saw the need to “transform South Sudan to be a leading “HUBB FOR AFRICA” from local, regional and international prospective. Which some seasoned experts of today can do with distinction. The success of that plan brings the world, brains-and-pockets together. Today, the basic developmental components needed are available in South Sudan, except TWO requirements missing. ONE, our planners know from where to find money and how much. TWO, this plan requires peace. Yes, peace, peace, peace and we make it to link Africa by road, rail and air and have it developed. But foremost, we have to change the lives of our people to develop their human and material potentials. Stability is becoming fundamental to development in South Sudan. The days our country was taken to be one of the most stable spots in the world, not only Africa, are over. We have to struggle hard to clear our tarnished image and work to attract investors and technocrats who can help us. As mentioned before, we have to restart planning our socio-economic destiny. This present war shall not continue for long. It shall stop in a day not far and people shall go back to do better things to start a new peaceful life. We shall have to start almost everything anew. Peace is the key peaceful progress!
LAND AND PRODUCTION:
All these steps should move us collectively to strategize on the issue of agriculture and how important it is, as the backbone of our economy. Large extending virgin lands in Upper Nile, Abyei, West Equatoria, East Equatoria, Jonglei, Warap, Lakes, Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal, Unity, Central Equatoria, Western Bahr-el-Ghazal; every where a person may wish to go in South Sudan, remain untouched extensions that can produce more than what we need in a matter of one year. We can produce food and improve and introduce cash crops to improve our subsistence produce, which can make a real difference. Let us move beyond subsistence to hit export markets to improve our lot. We must tirelessly work to meet the basic requirements of modern living. When we emphasize “take towns to villages”, we mean to revolutionize our agriculture and modernize. Almost the arrows of “supply and demand” indicate that towns are basically maintained by villages and not otherwise. Towns are magnetic holes where social and economic streams converge, interchange and crisscross in ways that tend to burse many people with little contribution. Towns consume the social fabric of a person and push him or her to swim aimlessly on the margin of events, unable to change or contribute with ease.
REALITY AND FORWARD:
We are calling and crying for reform as an administrative reality to restore dignity to our civil service. People are calling for reform to bring back trust and respect to our civil institutions. People are yearning for reform to be fixed an umbrella for all be it sun, rain or gale! The story of our present South Sudan is so shamefully painful, when one sees it as a country with only one source of revenue, oil! People ask about other available sources, but inquirers are always shocked to know that over 95% of whatever revenue collected are grossly embezzled and mismanaged and disappear into private pockets. Lord! On which part of the planet are we! The little received to augment the coffers disappears untraceable! Radically, that shocking habit has to be dealt with and reversed in ways that shall ensure progress. Transparently, there is an urgent need to overhaul all the mechanisms of revenue collection and toughen surveillance around those institutions, to get rid of the elements of corruption. Let people learn how to prioritize their plans and slum their doors before lawlessness and corruption. Planning, planning, planning is the one our people need!
GET ORGANIZED:
In a young country in which the Leadership lost direction, factionalized the citizen, shredded people into warring gangs, destroying and moving towards disintegration, let people organize and move to correct the barring, steam-line the march, save our lives and redeem the country! “Ignorance” is a contagious ailment, which adversely affects the thickheaded like Taliban with adamancy that keeps them trotting on the heights of Afghanistan, killing whoever for what they are! Our Leaders forgot how they reached the present places in which they now are and pretended to be the sole makers of our independence! They seem to consider whoever was with them in the bush to be a disposable attachment. They believe to have neutralized every freedom fighter with whatever handy gift they offered to be the pay-off for the days spent in the bush! They seem to have forgotten whatever we did hand in hand, united as we were. They know not, by nakedly spear heading a tribally oriented onslaught on a single tribe or ethnicity, they would have erected a huge fortress of isolation around themselves! Look at the social isolation one would be locking himself or herself in! Look at the geography a person would adopt to divide the nation into un-peaceful and peaceful zones! Look into one’s social interaction with neighbours! Look at how children inter-relate to one another in the schools! Look carefully at your God given neighbour in your mosques and churches!
OUR RESOURCES:
Oil! The only semi-reliable revenue that brought us almost whatever we have, as South Sudan, which we misused to the maximum. Two rivers of oil run northward north of Khartoum North to Gerri, and off to Port Sudan, Bashair, export terminal. One from Unity State brings crude from western parts of the Nile from Tharjath to Pan-Thou and on. And from eastern parts of the Nile comes another pipe from the areas of Adar, Paloch and others to the north then to Bashair. The process of our export has been very unstable with that greedy al-Bashier squatting at that end of the pipes counting every drop with an open mouth. A “Jallaba”! There are many shocking tails much longer than the pipes, with regards to how we deal with our oil. Some are well known and others are still where secrets sleep. Some chicken started to look around the glob for save-heavens where to hide their eggs! A lot need to be done with regard to companies, which are engaged in all aspects of oil exploration: production and disposition. Let no Minister be allowed to fly to Khartoum whenever he or she wishes to conclude foggy co-operation pacts. There is a window opened by our current Minister for Khartoum to bring in experts to “assist us” in oil production in the contested area of Pan-Thou. Could that not be the “Trojan Horse” or “hyena in a sheep skin”!
REBUILDING COMING:
Looking into our situation now, a lot of destruction has been made: displacement, looting, burning and so on. Three State Capitals beside townships disappeared and none of the two poles expressed sorrow or even regrets! These are mistakes, which we inflicted on ourselves. We must rectify them. No one can help us unless we start to rebuild what we destroyed. Almost all South Sudanese as a people; do not have a culture of renewing or rebuilding what has been destroyed. I think that might have something to do with the way their dwellings used to be burned or destroyed by the enemy as they withdraw to other places. One is almost seeing that habit about to dominate in our present situation. Head far to opposite directions to where one was displaced from, is the very thing, which sent our people to the Diaspora! Rare do our people return to original home to reconstruct or rebuild the homestead. Renovation and reconstruction are the essence of continuity. The helping world would prefer to see us clearing our mass before they could extend their hands.
OUR REVIVAL:
From where and how shall we get means to erect new Malakal, new Bor, new Bentiu and wherever devastated? First, oil! Second, oil! Third, oil! We have to relay on our resources. The percentages awarded to oil producing States stand far below normal. Not like given in other similar places. Oil producing States need to be awarded much higher percentages, which should increase gradually according to production like 20%. That would be logical. We should not let them beg when they produce what is keeping South Sudan walking now. Life must to be fully revived in those devastated States on modern basis. Let us understand, in any sound community, one would be expected to rush to the aggressed, before returning to his brother-aggressor. Thus, experts should review our current monetary system to set it right, where our civil populations have been badly affected and pains are acute. State accounts have to be audited, especially in our three devastated States to start reconstruction. As said, a lot of funds find ways to private pockets. There is need to be fare when collecting revenue, but tough when dispersing it. By shouting reform, reform, reform we mean nothing, but reform!
LOOK AT OURSELVES:
Politically and militarily, our country is running fast into much greater confusion. Today Malakal has become like a football kicked by the two antagonistic polarizing parties. People are terribly disappointed, when Salva Kiir and Riek Machar believe adamantly that, each of them will win the war, without naming it civil war! Both are “militaristic” minded and see nothing beyond “militarism”! Militarists are a people who consider civilians as second-class citizens, who count not in national matters. Civilians can play supportive roles and not to lead or oppose the military. In spite of the fact that both Salva and Riek shall emerge hectic and overspent, awaiting that victory of one of them over the other. Actually, both of them can forget the people whom they do not care for or respect. The current civil war ignited by the President himself, orchestrated by that self-defending Dr Riek, has started to pinch and pierce every home. Like plague the war has started to deplete our resources, human and otherwise. But who shall underfoot the present running bill? The people! Looking at us. I see us stuck in the mud of apathy unable to lift a finger, which is bad for our country. We must face all the injustices we see!
NO JOKE:
No doubt people have been terribly misled to the extent of falling into this on-going bloody mess, which is threatening their very existence. Our Leadership massed up a great deal and humiliated themselves beyond repair forgetting that by so doing they write off themselves from the leadership. There are no instances in history where individuals survived a country within two to three years. Perpetrators shall have to go for sure. They shall not rob and kill people then enjoy! Those tribes who believe to dominate other tribes, ethnicities or nationalities by exploiting their ethnicities must understand by so doing, they expose that dominating tribe to greater dangers leading to the loss of that fictitious ego and pride. To execute murderous atrocities in the name of a tribal hegemony using public means and ways, which do not belong to the very tribe that wants to dominate, should not be permitted to happen at the expense of any tribe, ethnicity or nationality in South Sudan. Sure, that amounts to treason! It is genocide to randomly exterminate others or one’s own people, pushed by greed! In multi-tribal settings, ethnicities or nationalities, once confronted, over-powered and subdued, those types of people could only be spared with heads bent down in extending lakes of poverty, disgrace and shame! Yet, people are patiently watching and gazing at what is running on, by-passing them in an apathetic way. Let people be organized and prepared. No joke when at war!
YES, PEOPLE…
These are the broad points people should rally around at this time. So, let us unite, in spite of our political organizational differences. There is need to create a broad based body that shall co-ordinate whatever people do. And that can be done. Some little thinking may be needed! Appropriate slogans need to be raised in our streets. Let people come out in the open: No, against tribalism! No, against war! No, against looting! No, against killing! No, against factionalism! No, against fragmentation! No, against instability! No, against hatred! No against setting people against each other! Let us act like orphans! We have to assert ourselves over fundamental issues, which no militarist can oppose or stop! That shall be the will of the people. In history there are living examples. Let us rise and say: Yes, to peace! Yes, to unity! Yes, to stability! Yes, to togetherness! Yes, to progress! Yes, to solidarity! Some of these slogans were presented in the Second Letter. Here we are repeating them because of the magnetic nature of the legitimate demands we aspire for. Up, let us swarm our homes, streets, schools, markets, churches, and every walk of life. For life or death, let us speak up! People are required to come out openly to express whatever legitimate they stand for. People need to live in love and peace. O’ Lord, thank you so much for offering us breath and bread. Bless our beloved country…
Thank you for your fabulous perseverance
Thank you my dear, wherever you are!!!
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