What is the relationship between economic stability and peace in South Sudan?
By Daniel Machar Dhieu, Juba, South Sudan
January 29, 2016 (SSB) — Over the past four months, the inflation caused by devaluation of Currency has been the subject of powerful debate at the street of Juba city till now. But today, instead of dwelling on the economic risks, I would like to turn instead to another important topic that is the relationship between economic stability and peace in the country. It is my abiding credence that they are intimately tangled. If you lose one, you are likely to lose the other item. Peace is a necessary requirement for trade, sustained economic growth, and prosperity.
In turn, economic stability, and a rising prosperity that is broadly shared both within and among outside image foster peace. Ultimately, peace and prosperity feed on each other. I believe history teaches us this lesson. We all remember how the Countless Unhappiness created fertile ground for a devastating war. More recently, in many parts of the country, economic instability provoked political upheaval, social unrest, and conflict.
The current stoppage of peace implementation by warring parties is the deepest and widest reason as why the country is coming to zero level of development both in security and economic situation, the country will take the lead over the corrupt countries as reported by many media houses. We cannot deny the allegations that our country is the leading .failed state in the region. Our leaders are root coursed of every problem we have today for example the ongoing inflation in the country was coursed by the Minister of finance by accepting the black market rate as an official rate in central Bank which resulted to devaluation of South Sudanese Pound.
As the result, the price of commodities has greatly raised to unexpected reason. Life has become so difficult to tolerate in big cities of South Sudan and therefore it also resulted to insecurity across the country. The circular from the Governor of Central Bank of South Sudan was not a mere accident. It was not just a joke. It came from the brave decisions taken by policymakers of the nation forgetting that it will affect the whole nation.
In the face of crisis, people should come together to face common challenges with common solutions, focusing on the national setup of the country. We saw this as fiscal policy, as monetary policy, and as financial sector policy but is the setback in the history of development because our country is at low stand to overcome such economic ideas unless government employ an economist that can loud this policy to South Sudanese people.
The challenge is to sustain the spirit of cooperation as we undertaking crisis in our own nation. In an atmosphere of great fear and uncertainty, cooperation was not so hard to achieve. But with optimism on the rise, and recovery on the possibility, people may be tempted to go their own way, and to abandon the obliging method that served them so well during the crisis. I am happy to note that early signs are positive. We tried to play our part in calming the nation by having confidence in us through increasing our resources by accepting to go to agricultural field to produces more food for both consumption and cash sale products but our nation was setback by our own sons and daughters in creating rebellion in the country.
As stated above we can still resolved this as we are the victim of all the problem of nation. Therefore, we failed our nation, we have to raise it again. Of course, to be effective, we must be seen as legitimate people in our own nation. Let me stress that the crisis is by no means over, and many risks remain. Economic activity is still dependent on policy support, and a premature withdrawal of this sustenance could kill the regaining of national economy. And even as growth recovers, it will take some time for jobs to follow suit. This economic instability will continue to threaten social stability.
War might justifiably be called development in opposite. War leads to death, disability, disease, and dislodgment of population. War increases paucity. War reduces advance potential by destroying infrastructure as well as financial and human capital. War diverts resources toward violence, rent-seeking, and corruption. War weakens societies. War in one country troubles neighbouring countries, including through an influx of refugees. In South Sudan, Most wars since 1980s have been wars within states of itself.
It is hard to estimate the true cost of a civil war but many people may agree with me that tribalism, nepotism, corruption and power struggle top the course of civil war in South Sudan but currently most crisis has been coursed by individuals through the spirit of selfishness. Of course, most decision nowadays resulted to violence and long run conflict through creating loss of life or the great human suffering that always accompanies war.
The causality also runs the other way. Just as wars devastate the economy, a weak economy makes a country more disposed to war. The evidence is quite clear on this point low income or slow economic growth increases the risk of a country falling into civil conflict. Poverty and economic stagnation lead people to become marginalized, without a stake in the productive economy.
With little hope of employment or a decent standard of living, they might turn instead to violent activities. Dependence on natural resources is also a risk factor competition for control over these resources can trigger conflict and income from natural resources can finance war.
And now we have a historic opportunity to renew our commitment to unite ourselves under one umbrella in the search for peace in our country. We all must rise to this challenge and hope to bring peace to our nation through having strong economic and peace restoration across the country.
The writer is the student at South Sudan University, Juba South Sudan. You can reach me through: machardhieu@gmail.com
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