South Sudan: My Prefect Country!!
By Mayen D.M.A. Ayarbior, Juba, South Sudan
February 28, 2016 (SSB) —- These days the BBC radio is starting a new programme titled “my perfect country.” I hope that the leaders of this imperiled country of ours gather little humility to hold pen and paper and follow that programme. Since there no such thing as perfection in nation-building, the name chosen for the programme is thought provoking, keeping the best political scientists in our continent guessing on what arguments they are up to encounter. Cynics among them may have already branded the whole programme as yet another attempt by the western world to make us feel inferior and failed states.
On my part, I could hazard a guess that the programme’s content would include both elements of highlighting success stories, especially in Europe, America, and South East Asia, and branding the rest of us (Africa, Latin America, the Far and Middle East) as big territories which are synonymous with failure. Territories where the presidential term limits agenda is being confused and lumped together with the usual ‘western agenda’ suspects such as god governance, corruption, as-well-as observance, protection and promotion of human rights, including gay rights, which according to the ultra-defensive lot of us are malicious.
As a somehow learned citizen of my country, I almost automatically and swiftly shift my analytical tools toward South Sudan’s position on such topics as my perfect country. I could already hear some (not all) of our sycophantic mediocre seniors (with the generic name: politicians) discounting any attempt at this point of our history to think of perfection as a misplaced attempt or lack of touch with the fact that we are just four years old, like ‘a baby’ who should enjoy its childhood without bothering about perfection. But, sometimes, trying to compare and contrast the perfect with the imperfect might not be more so irrational than drawing the usual “baby country” analogy could be.
Indeed, for South Sudan to be a perfect country, it has to bring its past, present and Vision 2040 on the country’s investigative table. For simplicity, let as consider one political governance element which is that a perfect state observes a sophisticated civil-military relations. This is a relationship which allows a country to separate between the military and civilian lives of its ‘children.’ A country which honors its military for the sacrifices soldiers always make when they put their lives at stake for the sake of the rest of their countrymen/women and children. For instance, I have seen in the United States that men-in-uniform board planes before “VIPs,” whatever that means, yet they must drop the uniform if they want to be in politics.
For the last 200 years, the territory now called South Sudan has virtually been a big military garrison. From the Ottoman invasion of 1820 through Khartoum’s scorched earth campaigns, to the civil war of 2013, warfare and South Sudan have almost become synonyms. All generations have been engaged in it. It has penetrated into the songs and traditional dances of frontline tribes where it (warfare) is mimicked with every move and stroke. For a former soldier like myself, I know firsthand how proud human beings could be when they are engaged in resisting invaders, hence I could diagnose the reason behind all the misplaced feelings of entitlement that our different generations of warriors have developed over the 90 percent civilians in the country.
However, by way of taming such excessive pride and placing the country on the long path to perfection, we should place on a positive light the IGAD-Plus agreement’s step to move our gallant sons and daughters away (25 kilometers) from civilian centers where trade and sports may not necessarily need direct military supervision; while protection of civilian lives and property is for the police, CID, prisons and courts. It (agreement) created a blueprint in which our gallant brothers and sisters will move to cantonments where a proud generation of committed freedom fighters will receive tertiary education in preparation for a new living. Skills that will keep them away from crime when they decide to transition to civilian life in towns- a new life where being a free fighter is the proudest part of one’s CV, nothing more-nothing less.
What is an indisputable truth is that, for all practical reasons, South Sudan has no more invaders to worry about, hence professionalism and division of tasks should reign when TGoNU starts operating. Let civilians do what civilians do best and soldiers do what they are cut out for. For example, while it could be practical to gradually transform the country (step-by-step), it would be a failure on the part of our current political leadership if after ten years from now South Sudan still has an active general as state governor, if we continue to treat the 28 states as military garrisons or having a Minister of Foreign Affairs so proud of his or her active military rank when writing his name. If so, I am sure BBC will lump us into the imperfect category, for all we care.
So far, we seem to have learned some lessons from the reasons why we are where we are, an imperfect state. Rwanda made “the big leap” in two decades, there is no reason why we should lose hope. Even though some are messing up the economy through a mixture of good-policy and bad-implementation, hope keeps on peeping its head in form of distribution of one thousand tractors, cantonments, better security arrangements, and imminent arrival of Dr. Riek (and hopefully Comrade Pagan Amum) to Juba to join hands with their long time comrades to put the country on the track to perfection.
Mayen Ayarbior has a Bachelor Degree in Economics and Political Science from Kampala International University (Uganda), Masters in International Security from JKSIS-University of Denver (USA), and Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of London. He is the author of “House of War (Civil War and State Failure in Africa) 2013” and currently the Press Secretary/ Spokesperson in the Office of South Sudan’s Vice President, H.E. James Wani Igga. You can reach him via his email address: mayen.ayarbior@gmail.com.
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