The Restoration of Peace is the Restoration of Lives
By Aphar Daniel Makur, Juba, South Sudan
April 30, 2016 (SSB) —- It is my honor and privilege to convey this message to all the participates in the national culture of peace in the republic of south Sudan., I wish first of all to extend my heart-felt thanks for your presence at this Roundtable. This roundtable is so significant in a sense that it starts off a host of activities in active response to the national Year of Peace Culture propelled by the warring parties. For the realization of the Roundtable, we should not fail to mention the timely response from international community in terms of finance and wisdom as well as their active response and efficient contributions and the industrious work done by the international Organizations.
Many of south Sudanese friends would perhaps wonder why people who have held firm weapons in their hands in the course of thousands of lives should be among the first to respond to the International Year of Peace Culture. I wish to think that if we should dig up the thick layers of south Sudanese’s history, cultural traditions and its people’s characteristics, we would be sympathetic with the misfortune we had endured through centuries, and we would realize how much we cherish peace.
Though constantly living in the fire storm of wars, the south Sudanese people still always long for peace to live happily with their families, their friends, their land, to develop their talents and creative labour, and to build a more prosperous and beautiful country.
In my concept, however, the aspiration for peace is closely linked with that for national independence and freedom. Peace means national independence, people’s freedom and everyone’s happiness. There would be no peace when the country is still occupied by Muslim aggressors who persecute and exploit the people. Peace is not synonymous with no war. The south Sudanese people accept war when there is no other way to wrest back peace, independence and freedom. We always look at the relationship between peace and war through dialectical views.
This is a century where the struggle is going on between light and dark, the good and the evil, the beautiful and the ugly, the true and the fake. This is a century where the contradiction opens up between the trend of optimally developing the best values of human beings on one part and the accelerated religious and ethnic prejudices together with increased criminal acts of violence.
In -my opinion, there is only one kind of culture in the most expectant sense of the word, intimately linked with the preservation of peace and opposition of wars. It constitutes both the solid foundation and a driving force for the building of a peaceful and happy life for all peoples and humankind as it contains in itself the affections for our fellow countrymen, the love for nature. It is a culture having the good and the beautiful as its perpetual values. If that is the case, there can’t be a so-called culture of war and violence. Violence and belligerence exist only in the minds of a powerful circle who resorts to war and violence to reach their political and financial goals.
For conclusion, I wish to extend my heart-felt thanks to the warring parties and international representative and other distinguished foreign guests for coming to attend this roundtable. I would like also to extend my warmest greetings to south Sudanese women, religious leaders and youths who brought peace through their precious contributions.
The writer is a non-partisan and patriotic south Sudanese national who is political normative from south Sudan elites group. Email: apharmakurmaker@gmail.com
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