Government and the SPLM-IO should learn to embrace the new political dispensation in South Sudan
3 min read“The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.” –Julian Barnes
By PaanLuel Wël, Juba, South Sudan
April 14, 2016 (SSB) —- When one gets married, one has to compromise, out of sheer necessity, some lifelong principles for the sake of the new relationship. Similarly, the IO and the government, contrary to prevailing national circumstances, are yet to catch up with the stark reality that they are in a new, fragile, relationship.
Being in Juba, the IO should cease behaving like keyboard warriors on Facebook where one can do and say as one wishes without immediate and serious consequences. They should arrive, conduct themselves and live in Juba with the full knowledge that President Kiir, contrary to their public sloganeering, did not “GO”.
HELLO, Salva Kiir is still THE president, and Juba is in Africa, not in the WEST.
For the government, they should stop flattering themselves that it is business as usual in Juba; they failed spectacularly to defeat the rebellion, the knowledge of which compelled them to sign a humiliating power sharing arrangements with the very person they wanted “dead or alive.”
Much to their historical credit, they bankrupted the country and now their only economic salvation lies with the “triumphant” return of the very man they not long ago referred to as “the prophet of doom.”
The transformation of Dr. Riek Machar from the “prophet of doom” in December 2013 to “the economic savior” of the new nation in April 2016 is an incontestable testament to how successful they conducted the war.
Arresting the IO media personnel is in bad taste; it achieves nothing of substance and only highlights the extent of the mediocrity in handling the precarious political, security and humanitarian situations our beloved nation has slept-walked into.
Release the IO media guys for you are unwittingly making martyrs out of their nonsensical.
Rest assured that in just 3-month time in Juba, they (those arrested) will be as disillusioned with Riek Machar’s and the entire IO leadership as much as Junubeen have been disillusioned with and felt betrayed by the SPLM leadership in the post-independence South Sudan.
Government and the SPLM-IO should wake up to the new, stark realities in South Sudan. It is not business as it was in Pagak or Juba; it is the new dawn of Juba-Pagak.
PaanLuel Wël, the managing editor of PaanLuel Wel: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB), graduated with a double major in Economics and Philosophy from The George Washington University, Washington D.C, USA. He is the author of Who Killed Dr. John Garang, the editor of the essential speeches and writings of the late SPLM/A leader, Dr. John Garang, published as The Genius of Dr. John Garang, vol. 1-3, as well as a co-editor (with Simon Yel Yel) of President Sakva Kiir’s speeches before and after independence: Salva Kiir Mayaardit: The Joshua of South Sudan. You can reach him through his email: paanluel2011@gmail.com or Facebook page
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