Let’s transform democracy from divisive popularity contest to a participatory civic engagement
3 min readTRY MEDIATION TO RESOLVE POLITICAL ROWS IN SOUTH SUDAN
By Makwei Kuir Biar, Nairobi, Kenya
March 11, 2015 (SSB) — Politicians in Africa, and specifically in South Sudan, believe that going adversarial is the only way to resolve their conflicts.
Going adversarial is an attitude to conflict that presupposes victory at the expense of your opponent.
Dominate or be dominated. Show no weakness. Kill or be killed. It is the mistaken belief that survival of the fittest’ mean ‘survival of the most aggressive’ and the extinction of the weak.
But experience has shown that those who co-operate best are the ones who survive. All over the world, more and more people are turning to collaborative methods to resolve their conflicts and South Sudan should be no exemption.
Many people have started to recognise that adversarial is rarely conducive to efficient, effective and satisfying outcomes.
I was disgusted after watching our country fighting themselves rather than our enemy. I could not understand how representative of our society, who should be intelligent and honourable people, could bicker and squabble like children.
I cannot understand how a country can function when it is practically divided into two opposing camps whose main purpose undermines the other.
I think it’s logical that we now try mediation the political deadlock that are plaguing our states and nation.
We need to transform democracy from divisive popularity contest that it has become to the participatory civic engagement that so many have fought for.
We need to remind our politicians that co-operation, rather than domination, is the more successful survival strategy, if we are thinking long-term about the survival of us all.
God bless South Sudanese all over the world.
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