South Sudan: Leaders with Bloody Records Should Not Be Appeased!
5 min readBy Emmanuel Ariech Deng, Juba, South Sudan
May 31, 2016 (SSB) — Considering the previous years of jungle and modern leadership performances, I am not the only observer who should tell truth or lies about some bloody leaders in this country. This time around, the hungry population of South Sudan would not be ready to entertain those who manipulated the lives of innocents for their own gain, fame and interest with no any consideration and acknowledgement accorded to ordinary citizens after the leadership trouble-makers achieved their political scores and goals.
It is not also true that the whole country lacks better leaders as the war instigators claimed! If at all, we had to agree with the devil that there are no leaders to advance a peaceful leadership, we cannot fail to find them in the church if not in the political arenas. Who will be held accountable for the tenth of thousands life-lost and property demolition across the country as we all witnessed the December, 15th, 2013 nightmare? And how sure are we, together with peace partners that the same thing with the same leaders would not happen? Can they duo possibly and successfully reconcile?
In many occasions and more especially for the rest of the world, the best solution and the only alternative to save the country from any political deadlocks, is always a military intervention, in which the military takes over and in six months organizes for elections to give chance for the new faces. It happened in Myanmar, Egypt and Mali and now these countries are politically peaceful after the loggerheads failed to make their way back to the Presidential Palaces.
That is why compromise has been rated important in any situation a political heat wave is likely to escalate. Dr. Riek Machar should not have been removed from Vice Presidency if the 2013 reshuffle list nominators, knew that they would not be able to contain him from causing the conflict, death and destruction. Now that he is appointed again into the same position he was sacked from, he has clearly proven them wrong and the development of this act made no sense to the fathers, mothers and relatives of those killed in the war that should have been prevented from taking the stage.
It is also likely to become a fashion and a short cut to many others who are grooming themselves for these seats if election times are seen as too far to wait, and if elections outcomes are not trustworthy, the specialists of killing innocent civilians would just opt for chaos to achieve what they want rather than accepting exchange of ideas to allure voters in general elections.
Hopes and chances of South Sudan to remain peaceful are in an incredible limitation when you actually look at the number of militia groups with no law in place to punish the militia perpetrators. What we have seen from 2005 up to now is that you initiate militia groups, cause chaos, negotiate your come backs and the leader gets a position with his men integrated into the army with high ranks, resulting into real SPLA army over-crowded with huge number of unfaithful men to the military objectives and ranks that are not adjacent to international standard.
The more South Sudan continues to appease bloody leaders, the more the country would soon witness another Somalia like skirmishes in the region. There must be a law governing rebellion in that if anyone turns a gun against his country, he/she should not be appeased for killings and instead he/she be brought to books to discourage others from attempting similar actions or means of getting to power.
All these had nothing to do with tribes as perceived by ethnic politicians, South Sudanese are not naturally tribal fans as it can truly be historical retrieved back to the long struggle of more than two decades where every tribe participated and there was no sign of tribalism, even during the mourning after the death of Dr. John Garang, there was no tribalism and during Referendum, there was no tribalism too. When the war erupted in Pan-thou (Heglig), South Sudan Army the SPLA was supported from all corners of South Sudan in which the morale of soldiers was highly boosted by local citizens with gifts and food items- there was no tribalism there.
If there had been such feelings of tribalism, it is propagated by bloody and bad leaders who should be blamed, introduction of uneducated elements into decision-making levels to blame, wide spread corruption and its practitioners to blame and academically bankrupt groups, who know nothing else than nepotism and exploitation of others to blame. It is when you do what is right to unite people that the sentiments of being a good leader regenerate and develop into unshakable popularity.
If you are too a political leader aspiring for a leadership, avoid bloody means, do not follow suit the duo, for they will have criminal cases to answer, for they have deviated from what brings South Sudan together, for they have rallied behind their ethnic groups to keep their positions.
The ignorance, contempt, undermining, isolation, hatred and turning of a blind-eye on our nation from regionals, internationals and overseas has been instigated by political tensions that was/is to nobody interest but the duo. The interventions made and agreement signed still cast doubts but we are yet to see a real political will to end the conflict.
Let us not appease the leaders with bloody short cuts to gain power if we had patriotically struggled for South Sudan to be developed and made a better place for all of us. I remain your part-time contributor for issues of common good! The views expressed represent the writer’s personal observation! This article was once published by JM.
The writer is a cognoscente and can be reached via ariechemmanuel2015@gmail.com
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