Security Arrangements=Nation Building
By Mayen D.M.A Ayarbior, Juba, South Sudan
November 8, 2015 (SSB) — As the title of this article and many other comments by IGAD-Plus delegates suggest, the security arrangements section of the current peace agreement involving three factions of the SPLM is the most important of all other elements of that agreement. I would go a step further to say that it (security arrangements) might constitutes over eighty percent of the process of nation building which South Sudan had not consciously undertaken when it achieved formal independence.
While there is no dispute whatsoever that armed forces are always the pride of nations, they always make relatively small percentages of the population counts of their countries. If the combined population of the SPLA factions and numerous militia fighters across this country stands at 250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand) strong, which is a serious permanent threat to democracy in and of itself, they hardly make 2% of the population of South Sudan.
As such, armed forces all over the world are well trained and cantoned in well serviced barracks where their members undergo continuous fitness and academic training until they eventually transition to civilian life through retirement. Over eighty percent of soldiers in most countries do not experience combat because there is no war to go to, yet they remain ready for that eventuality.
The security arrangements should be used to readjust an unfortunate reality all generations of South Sudanese have been experiencing for the last two hundred years. Since the Ottoman invasion of Sudan in 1820 which was motivated by slave trade and slave conscription, the region now called a Republic, with all sovereign rights of bragging associated with the designation, has witnessed no peace but only wars after wars after wars.
From fighting Ottoman invaders (1820-1881) through resisting Mahadists crusaders and slave traders (1881-1889) through skirmishes against British “civilizers” (1889-1955) and bravely fending off the scorched earth campaigns of Khartoum (1955-2015), this Republic has not known calm. Gunshots, killings and massive human flight have epitomized the story of South Sudan.
All the towns of South Sudan had been partitioned into military regiments and garrisons, while rural areas were beds of local resistance. They (towns) have never been safe habitats for civilians where they are protected by an elaborate criminal justice system (police, courts, prisons, etc) as it is the case worldwide, since every single South Sudanese was seen as a fifth columnist who is a rebel in disguise.
To some extent, the Addis Ababa generation (1971-1983) of Joseph Lago, Abel Alier and others tried their best to change that unjust arrangement in their attempt to establish a civil state. Most of today’s government structures in Juba and some (now defunct) factories across the country were built by that generation. What they achieved in eleven years, with little resources, was impressive. This is not to negate the SPLM achievement independence with its concomitant unprecedented urbanization of Juba and other towns across the country.
It is the duty of this current SPLM generation to lead South Sudan out of that skewed security arrangement which is inherited from oppressive invaders, as we chart a new path towards building a welfare state where the 98% civilian population of South Sudan take at least 90% of the national policy attention and resources of the country. Of course, in the initial period of the implementation of the security arrangements, retaining a high percentage of the country’s budget on security arrangements could be justified.
However, the rational for the security arrangements to have 40% or so of the budget should not only be paying salaries for accommodating more militia. The success of the new SPLM factions’ government (TGoNU) will be in creating tractor battalions instead of tanks battalions.
It will be in using cantonments to transform seasoned warriors into farmers, carpenters, masons, road and railway workers who are ready to lead peaceful and productive civilian lives. Only then shall the now subdued call of SPLM oyee regain its lost justification.
Mayen Ayarbior, BA Econ Poli. Science (Kampala Int’l Univ.), MA Int’l Security (JKSIS- Univ. of Denver), LLB (Univ. of London). mayen.ayarbior@gmail.com.
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