Personal Letter to the 1st Vice President Dr. Riek Machar
4 min readBy Pal Chol, Juba, South Sudan
May 1, 2016 (SSB) — I take this opportunity first and foremost to congratulate the collegial Presidency on the formation of TGONU in the Republic of South Sudan. South Sudan is destroyed in its entirety. The basic infrastructures put in place during the interim period and two years of independence have all been devastated. Your languages during the oath-taking ceremony were reconciliatory. Yes, it is time to reconcile and heal the wounds we had inflicted in ourselves. It is also high time to revive out economy and improve the security situation.
During the war, Your Excellency, some people exploited our suffering by enriching themselves. The whole scenario has been about how much money to get. The rate of nepotism and tribalism in the employment is very high. The professionals have been denied chances of continuous education by some heartless and selfish big shots in the government. Their charges are that because they refused to follow the filthy teachings. The notion of nation building is brushed aside. Many children have gone and laden the streets of Juba because their parents cannot afford to sustain them.
Our pound has become valueless because of too much and man-made inflations. The tribally- infested Central Bank needs reforms. There is no reason why our money should not have any value given the abundant resources we have. The prices have gone up and we have been being taken for a ride that the government had been working to regulate the prices, however, to our surprise, the government just rushed to join EAC instead of first putting our house in order. School fees are unaffordable to many families and I deduced that it might be the cause of many children leaving their homes for the streets inhaling silsion.
The number of street beggars has immensely increased. This is uncultural. The President has tried by all means to help the people but his attempts have been frustrated by the anti-peace elements and the beneficiaries of the ravages of war. The new cabinet especially your list and the inclusion of Dr Lam has given us rays of hope that the issues affecting the country will be debated and resolved intellectually. Despite some dissenting voices expressing disappointment about the government list, the people of South Sudan wholeheartedly welcome the formation of the TGONU.
I would request that what urgently needs to be addressed is the economic situation. This Western money have spoiled our economy. There needs to be official rates of the dollar against our money and this inflation needs to be stopped. The security and institutional reforms are also vital and should top the agenda of the next cabinet meeting. The hope of the common man is that when you are here, all will be good. I thank H.E, the President for apologizing to the people of South Sudan for the suffering inflicted. He said he needs forgiveness from the people because they have been failed and let them down by the SPLM leaders under him.
The warmest and tumultuous welcome accorded to you by the masses is telling that you are considered the person who will help them out of this difficult situation. I commended your pledge that you and the President will cooperate. The clusters of the cabinet as per the agreement are under you. The public is now happy with your list and it is important that you make them taste the peace dividends.
Forgive those who talked ills of you including those whose tongues tempted them to say they might quit politics should you set foot here. We are for peaceful and prosperous South Sudan. Thank you!
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