The High Life of Juba’s Hai Amarat Politicians
By Malith Alier, Juba
Hai Amarat or “suburb of skyscrapers” is where the life of the government officials is modelled. Since time of great Abel Alier, which no one acknowledges, the important suburb of Juba has spacious compounds with lush vegetation. It adorns paved roads for the smooth running of the SUVs and V8s which are symbols of power and opulence. In South Sudan the few other people who drive V8s besides government officials are admired for hard work or other techniques in acquiring for themselves are their families this machines of comfort.
I have visited Hai Amarat on a number of occasions however; many can be forgiven for not living there. Even some women of politicians who stay there have been heard denouncing other parts of Juba City as mere villages inhabited by the less educated and less civilised. To them, an ideal life starts and ends in Amarat!
Hai Amarat has everything that makes life comfortable in the modern sense of living. It has running water, electricity and of cause permanent houses surrounded by block fencing with razor wire to keep away intruders or fence jumpers. Great but was this privileged area made what it is by whom and on whose expense?
It is rumoured that the High executive Council (HEC) under Abel Alier had no budget like Government of Southern Sudan instituted after CPA. In those days there were no petrodollars in the Sudan. The discovery of oil around 1978 by an American company called Chevron changed that forever. The current multimillion super rich politicians are the true beneficiaries of that god’s gift.
That aside, the HEC managed to build so much with so little and the current Amarat is that so much constructed with so little. At that time corruption is was simply unheard of or missing in the lexicon of the primitive South.
Hai Amarat has become an area of choice for everyone who happened to be accommodated there. Those accommodated guys have forgotten the free houses there are meant for the serving government officials and whoever happens to have been accommodate should vacate once removed from the position he/she held. Perhaps it is the same government who does not instruct those would be residents of Amarat that they leave once the term of service in the government is over. As we speak, those in the bush fighting the government still have their accommodation intact on their names except the rebel leader whose residence is purported to have been destroyed during the wee hours of the rebellion.
One very important observation about Amarat is that those politicians who are there seem to adorn young faces. However, a stark contrast emerged on the behest of the crisis. Within few days after running away from Juba, the rebel leader Riek Machar looked a ghost of his former young self. He looked grey and wrinkled and so was Pagan Amuom and the list is long. Many people agreed with this observation. This also observation speaks more about others remaining there who are well-groomed but are past the age of black hair and baby face.
The secret to all this is what is called impression management. People go to greater lengths to over apply make ups like hair dye and wrinkle reducers like botox. The sad fact is that it is all on the public expense since nobody accounts for anything in South Sudan. Corruption has so many faces. One of those faces is as small as using little government assets for personal good. Corruption further has so many colours and one of those colours is painting your hair black which is otherwise too grey to deceive people so that one continues to receive favours like youth. Example is to continue in the art of seducing young girls otherwise your great grand children.
In short Hai Amarat is a treasure trove for South Sudan politicians. It has everything that makes life worth living in a country where everything is scarce. Water, food, spacious houses and paved roads are the features of the suburb for the all powerful. Symbols of opulence like V8s and SUVs are everywhere in Hai Amarat.
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