MULTIPLE STATES SOLUTION FOR JONGLEI MULTIPLE PROBLEMS
WHAT NEED TO BE DONE: A FRANTIC SEARCH FOR A DURABLE PEACE IN JONGLEI STATE
Dr. Bior Kwer Bior
Call it appeasement, call it a reward for bad behaviors, or call it any unpalatable name in the book, if you will, but the long awaited peace between the government of South Sudan and Yau Yau’s SSDF-cobra faction has been inked this past week. Last week, in one of my random political opinion notes, I said something that was frowned upon by many people. I said that Yau Yau might have stumbled upon a solution to the Jonglei State’s problem, which has been eluding our politicians.
This statement was in reference to Yau Yau’s multiple states solution to the chronic problem in Jonglei State, which our government has been unable to solve since it flared into a full blown civil ward. It got many people uneasy, and some really angry. Those who respect me enough approached me privately and nicely asked me to retract my statement, lest it would be used against me in the future. My ardent detractors went as far as calling me a hypocrite.
The latest are probably mad at me because I have been vocal on my vehement rejection of any peace with Riek Machar. To these people, my sudden turn around to welcome someone who might have probably pained me more than Riek Machar amounts to unacceptable dose of hypocrisy.
By these criticisms, I am unmoved. I have my reasons for not wavering, but before we delve into that, let’s soberly look at the terms of Yau Yau’s peace agreement, or appeasement agreement as the detractors of this novel development would like to call it. If we don’t like them, then we can go on our normal crazy-man’s spree, calling each other vicious and mean names.
1. In the Greater Pibor Area, an entity whose borders are yet to be legally demarcated, there will be established an area administration called the Greater Pibor Area Administration (GPAA).
2. This political entity will be governed by someone whose functions will be equivalent to those of a state governor.
3. The area will be divided into six counties, which are going to be administered by commissioners, whose powers will be equivalent to those of state counties commissioners.
4. The Presidency in the central government will establish a development fund for the Greater Pibor Area (GPA), and this fund will jointly be managed by someone to be appointed by the President of the republic of South Sudan.
5. The other provisions have something to do with how Yau Yau’s men will be appointed ministers in both the national and the state governments.
I think the last provision is where the appeasement part creeps in, but if calling them honorable will stop them from raiding children and wrestling cattle, then let it be. It is either that, or they will have Yau Yau’s head on a stick in Likuangule before he reaches Juba to receive his V8s, titles, shitload of money and concubines.
The provisions of this agreement obviously set up a pseudo-state within the state of Jonglei for Murle ethnic group. This has to be admitted from the get-go because it makes no logical sense to continue to pretend that something is not happening when it actually is happening.
I am not unmindful that this is South Sudan and anything bizarre can happen, but I am still struggling to understand how this area governor will take orders from someone sitting on the bank of the River Nile in Bor, someone whose powers are equivalent to his/her. I don’t think anybody thought about how redundant this is going to be, but again, we’re political mavericks here; we don’t have to adhere to the already established political operation mechanics. We like to devise our own.
In my previous piece, I rejected any attempt to establish a state in Pibor area solely for Murle people for the fear that others in Jonglei State may use the precedent to split the state into many warring tribal states. Jonglei state is already giddy with excitement, ready to blow itself asunder, and this agreement has just made it very easy for this eventually to be realized. It is now inevitable that this cumbersome state will finally be sliced into many manageable states that may be single-tribal or multi-tribal in nature.
However, the fear of this eventuality is probably unfounded. The state of Jonglei is unfathomably vast. It is cumbersomely huge, which makes it an administrative and a logistic nightmare. What is the point of having a state whose government has difficulty accessing the areas in which it writs run? In the eyes of our people in the far-plunge villages of Jie at the Ethiopian border, there always existed no government. Not only that, the influence of the government sitting feebly in Bor, precariously unaware of the things going on at the periphery, only stops at Pakwau area, leave alone those far-fetched villages, say in Anuak, Jie, Murle, and Akobo areas.
Therefore, this peace agreement could be read differently. It was probably signed after realizing the difficulties inherent in the management of Jonglei state, and that the state ought to be dismantled, dismembered and transformed into smaller administratively manageable states that are multi-tribal in nature. This agreement ought to be welcomed in that context and should be rapidly replicated for the other greater areas throughout the state of Jonglei. In this context, I propose the following scenarios:
1. The similar set-ups should be instituted for the Greater Bor area, which will be comprised of Bor County, Twi East County, and Duk County. This should be referred to the Greater Bor Area Authority (GBAA). The counties making up this area are large, and should be further divided into smaller counties. Bor County may give birth to three counties, Twi East to Two, and Duk County should probably remain the same.
2. Greater Fangak area should have similar administration; Greater Akobo area should be administered similarly.
These area administrations in conjunction with their counties commissioners will spearhead the development of their own areas. They should be given enough autonomy so that they don’t have to rely on the corrupt bureaucracy in the state government that is out of touch with the little guy at the periphery and the reality.
All these area administrations should have their funds established by the presidency, and the management of these funds should not be managed at the state level. After all, the state government in Jonglei is heading for extinction, thanks to this peace agreement.
These political arrangements will drastically weaken the central state government since they reduces the areas in which its unwelcomed writs run. This weak state government should now be relocated out of Bor Town to some place very insignificant where it will quietly await its slow painful demise. Eventually, the state of Jonglei will give rise to the following states:
1. Greater Bor State
2. Greater Pibor State
3. Greater Fangak State.
4. Greater Akobo State.
Or better yet, to avoid having states that are uni-tribal in nature, the greater areas of Akobo and Fangak may be lumped together to form one state north of Jonglei, while the greater areas of Pibor, and Bor may be pieced together to form another state south of Jonglei. These states will be small enough and manageable.
The resources from the central government will be equitably shared, compared to the present arrangement in which the meager resources coming from the central government are sponged up the gluttonous state government, which is feebly sitting at the River bank in Bor doing nothing really tangible for the citizens in the villages.
The citizens of the Southern Jonglei state may choose during a conference to either keep their state capital in Bor, or relocate it to another ideal place such as Boma. The citizens of the northern Jonglei will pick a place of their choosing for their capital. The citizens of the northern Jonglei (Akobo, and Fangak) should greet this proposal with eagerness since this will solve the recurrent problem of money/materials/food destined for their areas disappearing in Bor as they have always been made to believe. They can choose to airlift anything intended for their areas from Juba so that nothing of theirs should ever pass through Bor. These arrangements need to be speedily done to give Lt. Gen. Kong Nyuon enough time to put in place necessary arrangements geared at the efforts to relocate his capital either to Akobo or somewhere else before the rainy season commences.
As far as the names go, the inhabitants of these states may later choose different names as they deem fit instead of north or South Jonglei, but for the purpose of the present nomenclature, let them remain like that. As the citizens of Jonglei state, we ought to jump on this opportunity earnestly and push for these political dispensations.
These political arrangements will solve our chronic problems, which have been mistrust, resources scarcity, insecurity, lack of appreciable level of development, and unfathomable hatred of each. These vices have been crippling the development in our state. The solution has been sitting there, ready to be stumbled upon. Multiple states solution is what will deliver us from these chronic evils.
Dr. Bior Kwer Bior is a citizen of Jonglei state. He currently resides in Bor Town, Jonglei State, and works with the State government as the Medical Director of Bor State Hospital. He also teaches at Dr. John G. Memorial University of Science and Technology in the department of Life Sciences and Technology. Dr. Bior holds B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees from the University of Vermont, USA. He can be reached at: biordengchek@gmail.com
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Bior Kuer Bior, you are playing with sharp knife my friend. Greater Bor people is not including Dinka Twic East and Dinka Duk please. You have been advised and you seem to be ignoring the fact. Ooo!!! I know you from Dinka Bor or County people were people don’t believe in Truth Telling.