Salva Kiir and Riek Machar: Accept Sanctions or Bring Peace to South Sudan
By Ariik Atekdit, South Sudan
May 15, 2015 (SSB) — Where are we going as a country? Both the rebel and government leaderships seem to have no future plans for this nation. Or is it that our righteous leaders are not yet baptized or graduated into political platform of South Sudan?
I had hoped that making South Sudan a country of our dreams was a process that must arrive. But it has in the recent time proofs itself that the issue is ungainly. No leader is involved in the better process-making to develop the nation or rescue its citizens from all kinds of threats. And indeed the people of South Sudan are facing a number of crises that are not found elsewhere in the world. But how do we go about it?
Nobody should still remember to talk to us about the 21 years of the liberation struggle. Some people did not fight but they were behind the liberation. An old woman in the poor remote village did not fight of course physically but she had been making food for the soldiers that used to fight against the Jalaba soldiers. But nobody is paying her now.
That means, the version of 21 years in the bush is an old and we would not continue to tell it. Dr. John Garang would continue to tell us that: “The struggle continues, comrades.” This simple quote seems to have forgotten many of the former Commanders who had fought during those days. Now they have ended up living in very luxurious foreign-owned hotels in our capital paying dollars are always exported to foreign lands. And while our common streets in Juba are being captured by the US dollars issue and the economic drain. The dollar rate is rising in the market against our pounds and the so-called leaders continue to rob the nation paying dollars in the hotels.
We were waiting to see a nation we promised and hoped for. Where is it? A nation of our own ideas not of wars, tribalism and coups; we wanted to see a nation of no western influence. It is not any perfect to say that somebody somewhere is robbing us our sovereignty; if this is happening; where are our leaders who are by now politicians in their own independent South Sudan?
Something is becoming a burden on our necks as common citizens in this country. We had not known that we would be just left alone to die with our calls not being answered. The country is suffering from many things being hunger, political conflicts and tribal wars.
Our government must make sure that if legitimacy can keep them in power then the same legitimacy can make them answerable to the continuous suffering of the nation and its people. The current crises in South Sudan is not the business as usual, things are turning anti-clockwise for common citizens and they are not able to afford their daily life because the market is high; while everybody is watching at.
The government cannot be vulnerable. We are not an autonomous government anymore. We are not even a young nation because South Sudan and its resources had existed for years even before the appearance of the rest of the world and history has it.
Why accepting such a status of vulnerability in a very rich nation like South Sudan? Anything that has history is not young again; because South Sudan history goes beyond our memories. Who in this country can claim that we are young when we have our ancestors like any other people in the world? The problem here is that we have refused to work. We have refused to know that we can stand alone. And our leaders have thought that they are not strong enough to run this country without consulting the west and the region.
And for that reason we are now repeating all the mistakes west and the region have experienced before. Many countries in the world have passed through military coups and wars. They have passed through many economic, social and political challenges and this is the reason they want us to experience their mistakes before we stand upright. We are being cheated; let me tell you my dear countrymen.
The government has made us suffered a lot because of keeping their consultations with the West and the region. We have refused to consult our own fellow countrymen and women. How many crises have you brought to South Sudan for the last ten years with the SPLM in rule? Economic drain is a crisis, rebellion in South Sudan is a crisis, tribalism is a crisis, and corruption is a crisis. Lack of planning and lack of services delivery is a crisis. Which one is not a crisis? Social disunity is also a deadly crisis. Now who to blame? Our leaders need to be serious! There is no more Khartoum to finger at in the north because we are independent.
Accept sanctions or you must bring peace! Our leaders need to know that countries and leaders can survive even after sanctions from the west. Western world are not creators of the universe but they are just human beings like us. Cuba, North Korea, Sudan and many other countries have survived for years with sanctions from the West and they became very strong during the period of the American sanctions. Countries and personalities can live with sanctions ladies and gentlemen! Know that you will not be sanctioned in heaven!
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Ariik Atekdit: South Sudan – Jounrnalist /freelancer /blogger: ariqdudic@gmail.com
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