Politics Divides the World into Friends and Enemies
By Abel Majur Leek, Juba, South Sudan
March 22, 2016 (SSB) —- Politics divides the world is into friend and enemy. (Francis,1962) Those politics made friends, it may soon make them enemies. Those it made enemies, it may soon make them friends. This is why it is often said that, no permanent friends or enemy in Politics. It’s all about permanent interest. Hey, don’t be carried away with the theory, let’s talk in practicals.
When politics turn people enemies, what do they do to each other? They try to injure or neutralize each other in all manners. Since one of the two is often saddled with governance, who suffers from their enmity and attempt of injury? The people.
This is why they say, Politics is a dirty game, but we must ask, is that true? For a moment, let us ask ourselves sincerely, is politics indeed a dirty game? I have pondered on this question times without number, and any time I think over it, I often get the same answer.
In my view, politics is not a dirty game, though it is a game.
Politics can be dirty if played dirty by dirty people, but I also believe that, politics can be good if played well by good people. What we must do is that, never allow the dirty people dominate the game, at all times, we must support the good people.
Since politics can be a dirty or a good game depending on the players, we must ask ourselves, In my little way ‘’Am I playing politics good or playing it dirty? This is a personal question everyone must answer to themselves sincerely.
A dirty politics is the politics of hatred, politics of religion and region. Yes, dirty politics is a politics of ethnicity, in-objectivity, sentiments and hypocrisy.
Ask yourself, am I hating others in the name of playing politics? Is my reasoning, choices and decisions being guided by region and religion? Am I being objective, fair and sincere?
Let us ask ourselves once again, can dirty politics ever help our country get better? Can dirty politics even help us as individuals?
Can it make life better for the people? The answer to the above questions is a resounding no. And if that is the case, we must put behind our grudges and be better people.
Although, dirty politics may help some aspirants gather crowd through ethnicity, religion etc., in generality, dirty politics keeps the country under-developed. Dirty politics often leads to disharmony, distrust, backwardness and crisis. We must re-direct our energy into productive engagement.
Why am I talking about this now?
Yesterday, while reflecting on our evolution on the social media as public commentators, analysts, activists, writers etc., I reflected on the role of politics in our social interaction and the damages it has done to our psyche. The dirty politics played and promoted by our leaders across party divide has greatly cause major fracture among we the youths, yet we are the victims, while they are the beneficiaries.
The youths are the tool of disunity, crisis and division, we are also the victim of our actions and in-actions.
The social media community are often caught in the middle, depending on our beliefs, ideology and political orientation. Before you know it, friends turn foe, as we have to defend and promote one side or the other.
People who are formally friends on social media had suddenly turn foes, those who often share good ideas suddenly became hostile to each other. The atmosphere of civil growth and intellectualism suddenly turn a dirty space, where people hardly make meaningful contribution.
Distrust and suspicion is now the order of the day.
It occurred to me that, unknown to us, politics has greatly divided us into friends and enemies, but as we try to consolidate on our friendship, it set us apart again and turn us to enemies again. We are often being set against each other by actions of others, shouldn’t we outgrow such immaturity?
We must all realize that, Politics has taken over our joy, harmony and civil engagements, he gave us sadness, division and in-civil sentiments. It has destroyed our business opportunities and replaced it with poverty of both mind and resources.
I recall that sometimes in 2011/2012, we all used to work together.
There are a lot of guys that we often share great ideas and pursue common agenda for growth and development. Many patriotic movement came up and everyone were united to pursue a common mission. A lot of projects were jointly embarked upon for the common good, but today, no meaningful engagement is taking place online. We are divided over almost every issue. No matter how fair and objective once try to be, some others will often see it from the other perspective.
Where is all that passion for South Sudan? Where is the selfless engagement we do embark upon? Where is the Unity of purpose? Where is the personal development and the business ideas we often try to work on together? We must rediscover ourselves.
A lot of people that we used to share sound ideas together toward both personal and societal development are now busy with political pursuit in their respective parties or caucus.
We must ask, how far can we go individually? How far can we go with hatred and division?
The youthful energy must be brought back, let the sound ideas of progress and development be re-introduced. We must restore the Unity and abandon our individual selfishness for the purpose of our collective strength and development, we must now set politics aside and focus on our own growth development as people of South Sudan.
Reach writer via mail:abeleek2@gmail.com
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