The Christmas Letter on the Quest for Peace in South Sudan
By Deng Lual DeNuun
The great blessing of mankind are within us and within our reach and the real blessings often appear to us in the shapes of pains, losses and disappointments, but let have patience and give peace a chance. While it is an unfortunate fact that people must secure peace after preparing for war, it’s now high time to stick to love, hate is too great burden to bear. Just like Martin Luther King said, “Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him or her to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and confuse the true with the false and the false with the true”. The quest for peace doesn’t need petrodollar to purchase neither it nor believing in the strength that peace is achievable when a tribe expanded their ribs to fight the nation but through understanding. Not just peace but the one with justice for all.
The land with great abundance natural resources, land of the blacks, rich and blessed in diversity realized its dream and finally saluted their martyrs’ whose their expensive bloods cemented the foundation as coated in the pride of our national anthem of the Republic of South Sudan. Sadly, something that started like a political rift within the party turned out to victimized innocent children, women and all the villagers in their huts, cattle camps and farms and most entrepreneurs in big towns butchering numbers and forcing many to flee again to seek refuge either internal or external without their knowledge… what they were expecting to pay back in huge debts from their leaders ironically cleansed or deprived them of their hard earned living while the fruits is being harvested in big foreign cities by these very leaders causing havoc.
We are not the makers of history, we are made by history because this world came first, after hard gained struggle for liberty we returned to war within ourselves, the Killing of Nuers in Juba triggered the war and led to the subsequent genocidal atrocities committed in Bor twice in history and elsewhere, December 15th will ever remain another D-Day in history of South Sudanese people. Just three days after Juba blast, December 18th , That night I had forty wink completely innocent to think of big heart throbbing sounds of heavy artillery will befall me again after decades since the last one I had in Kapoeta back 1991, suddenly I was wrong, my friend Ojulu Ochalla whom I was working with and had that night together just at the west of the riverbank woke me up vigorously Deng, Deng wake up, fighting in Bor, then I woke up figuring what could my next hope be, then I said, God have mercy on your people.
This 2nd rebellion in history (of the SPLM) spearheaded by the former Vice President, Dr. Riak Machar Teny Dhuorgon will ever go down, the man who is determine to robe Peter to pay Paul in the name of democracy….. Riek Machar who believes that he is more democratic than any other South Sudanese simply because he is the giant of blood of the South Sudanese people. You must know that nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity, while I understand that wars, revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth; and the reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves to its service and I must stand tall and say “RIEK MACHAR IS TOO EXPENSIVE TO MAINTAIN”, South Sudanese must know this. You simply failed a simple test set to you by God, when it was almost to forgive and forget the memories and the scares of 1991 that were still vivid and the cleansing you did in Juba, no doubt that you have NO difference with the pig and the coconut tree, one of the trees that gives NO shading at all hence people don’t rest under it. Just after Juba 15th, you went straight to Nasir and exhumed the archives of the 1991, same people murdered again, same towns set on fire, capturing or recapturing and the tactical withdrawal filled the air.
Dr. Riek Machar reinstatement to the SPLM on the ground to allow CPA be signed in unity of the Southern People became a privileged to the SPLM top leadership that they became too drunk like a cock when is drunk, he forgets about the hawk and I reiterate the quoting by the VP Wani that, when the big dogs are fighting over the bones, another intruding dog snatch the very bones they are fighting for. In real sense, why would these politicians/leaders claim for reforms in pretext to positions?,… too why would they demand reforms just after their reshuffled and last not the least, why would they claimed that someone has failed when they were the very ones serving in their capacities or hypocrisy in disguise?, these questions and many others makes the very civil population at the grassroots lingering and questioning their rebellion. It is vivid that Kiir government underperformed and continue to do so in maintenance to these greedy bullies, most of them if not all were involved embezzling the public money, some were Ministers and failed to link feeder roads to our remote villages, poor health system surrendered to Donor money and carried out by the government in the name of (NGOs), the ministry of Water and Electricity were nicknamed by the citizens as ministries of water tanks and generators respectively and eventually wants to believe them that they are good and their complain are just? No, the witness of a rat is another rat.
Eventually, Mr. President, the civil population is watching you, they know your government has completely failed to deliver but they remain firm in support for your legitimacy, all the politicians accepted that they have all failed, you been favoring them to loot the public fund now its high time to pay back to us, a decade is gone and nothing much has been realized, long-term frameworks have occupied the ministries, you have the rights to listen to us, a cobbler always wears the worst shoes. Both of you must accept peace as tool to prosperity. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
The Author, Deng Lual DeNuun can be reached by mail denglual86@gmail.com