South Sudan: The “Breadbasket of the Middle East” in the midst of economic meltdown
13 min read“The Sudan has been described as the “Breadbasket of the Middle East,” a “Granary of the world,” and a “Land of tomorrow.” Dr. John Garang de Mabior
By Dr. Simon Wuor Gai, Colorado, USA
June 21, 2016 (SSB) — Recently, it comes to this writer’s attention that the beautiful south, I mean the Republic of South Sudan has been in a dire need of foods and that the country’s economy is getting worse day by day in line with different world reports. As this writer struggled to piece together what has been documented by the world researchers, I found out that Sudan, especially South Sudan has been projected to have fed one-third of the world’s population, according to the Canadian economic mission’s visitor in the old Sudan. Interested readers are referred to de Mabior (1981).
With that being said, why would a country like South Sudan be starving to death at this point? Using this question as a guidance to this piece, this author will try his best to highlight some of the failures, as to why our country is failing us and who has to be blamed. With that in mind, in any community or country, its leader easily becomes preys of the predators at any given point in time when things are not going well. Especially when prices are skyrocketing, when jobs are not available for the private citizens, when people are at war with each other when hunger is taking its toll on the citizens, when simple curable diseases are killing citizens at will, just to name a few.
As a result, South Sudan was well off for the last eight years economically, socially, culturally, and politically till the event of 2013 took place. For example, one Caucasian family in the Good Life State of Nebraska visited the country and fell in love with it to make a good living. The couples came back to Nebraska, USA and sold out all their possessions and moved to live in the Republic of South Sudan for good. By and large, it was a good example of the fact that the country was doing well before the senseless war has begun.
In other words, the move has, therefore, demonstrated beyond a shadow of a cloud that the country has a potential to nourish any life whether citizens or foreigners. Regrettably, the crisis of 2013 set the country back 20 years from now. Then the second question becomes, do our leaders know the consequences of their actions by putting the country back to war? Well, the endless debate among the private citizens has been ongoing, as each side supports and defends their leader along the ethnic lines. In such argument, it is difficult to draw a line as to which side is telling the truth.
To distinguish the fault play, one has to move away from the current debate and pay more attention to the past data. Scientific evidence indicated that future’s problem could be accurately predicted by analyzing the past and the recent data at hand to arrive at a conclusion. Because of this methodology, this writer went back to the previous data when Sudan still one country and thereafter or during the 21 civil war with the North Sudan. With this endeavor, this author found out that our country was not only capable of feeding 11 million people in line with 2011 South Sudan’s census. But also, the country was capable of feeding one-third of the world’s population, as evidenced by Canadian Subject-matter expert on the world economic field.
After the declaration of the South Sudan Independence from the North, the crisis of power struggle has immediately begun between the presidency, till the incumbent president stood his ground by discharging the current vice president in the Transitional Government of National Unity out of his position. Thus, this was where our country began its journey to the hell. The proponents of the South Sudan Vice President, who happened to be Nuer majority see the sitting head of the state as a Dinka president, as opposed to the president of the nation. At the same time, the Nuer nationalists, who have been outnumbered by proponents of Dr. Machar from Nuer tribe were seen as Nuer wew (Money Lovers).
At this point in time, the former vice president capitalized on this move and began to take advantage by accusing his former boss of being “Ineffective leader,” “Uneducated,” and all sort of names, leaving himself out of the equation while he was his runningmate and they ran the country’s affair together for the last 8 years. By then, the vice president began to act as if he were still holding a constitutional post of the state. A few days later, the crisis of our country broke out. If I may pose the third question here, from where on the mother earth a person deposed of his position began to act as if he were still in power by defying his boss’s order? Declaration of war, isn’t it? Perhaps some people may not accept this conclusion. For this writer, though, being defiant of the president’s order was the cause of the war.
To answer my three questions posed earlier, I would like to start with the third question and walk my way backward to the second question and the first question, respectively. From the perspective of the third question, any world leader including this writer could have made the same decision, which was made by the President Kiir of South Sudan had he been disrespected by one of his subordinates.
In our culture and many world’s cultures, I am aware of, a leader is supposed to be respected. Even a 5-year-old child can be respected if he is tasked with the leadership position. For this reason, I am not suggesting that a leader cannot be challenged; rather, the correction must be within the respectful tone of voice, as opposed to negativity. However, Dr. Riek did not respect his boss, for he saw himself as a president of his tribe, the Nuer, Wani Igga as a president of Equatorians, while Salva Kiir is seen as a president of his tribe, the Dinka. Although the three leaders look from the outside world as if they formed some sort of hieratical order regarding constitutional power, each in his own right represented his own tribe and regions as a president covertly. This reality is the essence of Southern Sudan’s problem.
On account of that scenario, our country has begun its journey to hell simply because of that fault belief system from Dr. Machar and some tribalistic followers on each side. In order to have a better Republic of South Sudan where we all live in peace, harmony, and peaceful coexistence, we need to get rid of such a mindset that such and such is a representative of my tribe or region. I like it better when current IO’s chief of staff, Simon Gatwech Dual put it when he landed at Juba International Airport that “South Sudan is one, one people, and one president.”
In the first world nations, or even in some African countries, for example, a disgruntled employee is not allowed to carry anything out by the name of the organization they previously worked for when they get dismissed. As free private citizens of the state, they are allowed to seek another employment without interfering with the state policy. In short, Dr. Riek Machar is the one who caused the war of 2013. Therefore, he must be held accountable for it. Although his proponents will never accept this, many world leaders including this author are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Dr. Machar caused the war. Even here in America, a disgruntled employee can be put to jail if they did what Dr. Riek Machar has done in the Republic of South Sudan.
While question three is taken care of, this author is now ready to answer question two. Looking back at the previous information as empirical data indicated, I have reached the conclusion that Dr. Riek Machar did not know the consequences of his actions. Here is why: During the liberation struggle, Dr. Machar broke the ranks and files of the movement with Dr. John Garang de Mabior, taking his own lion’s share all the way down to Khartoum where the regime of Khartoum killed it. Left with empty handed by then, he decided to come back to the mother SPLM/A. At that time, the CPA peace negotiation between the South and the North Sudan was ongoing; Dr. Garang accepted his brother back to the movement even though he had stabbed the movement in the back.
With that in mind, what the Bible said has become true in my mind as it puts it “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?” Luke 15: 4. During this time, Jinubian went through the toughest time in the history of South Sudan. For instance, many liberated towns and cities were recaptured with less or no resistance at all by the northern troops from the Mighty SPLM/A. Meanwhile, the euphoria that Dr. Riek Machar was going to deliver something unbelievable to South Sudanese people has just become a mirage. As a consequence, South Sudanese suffered a lot of losses in terms of lives and properties. Thank God that Dr. Garang, being supported by this incumbent president Kiir, vice president James Wani Igga, and many others did not give up. Otherwise, there could have been no power struggle between the presidency today because South Sudan could have become as a state by then.
Using the aforesaid data as a predictive power by reaching the conclusion of this current crisis, it is convincible that Dr. Machar did not know the consequences of his actions. The first rift of 1991 between Dr. Garang and himself (Dr. Riek) was a good lesson to any reasonable person that stabbing your brother in the back is not always a good thing in life. It ruins the future, and it brings the disaster upon the very people that one strive to help out from the situation. Unless social science is unpredictable, there is no doubt that Dr. Machar caused the suffering of the citizens of the Republic of South Sudan by blindly gratifying his own needs at the expense of the innocent Jinubian. What a world?
Although the two preceding questions addressed the part and parcel of this piece, the overarching question intended for this paper is the first question. According to Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” On the basis of Nelson Mandela’s statement, the declaration may be true, or it may not be true, depending on the individual’s character, who had the opportunity to obtain an education. For Mandela, yes his education was a powerful weapon because he changed the apartheid rule in South Africa and other weird things around the Globe.
In the case of Dr. Machar’s educational attainment, this writer argued that Dr. Machar did not use his education for the best interest of the nation, as opposed to his own preoccupation with being a president without doing a president’s job. It is, therefore, written in the Bible that “Faith without works is dead” James 2:14 – 26. I have encouraged the readers of this piece to read it from the Bible. With that in mind, Dr. Machar had been in power for the last eight years as the second powerful man in our nation, yet he did not carry out any piece of socioeconomic development in our nation.
Dr. Machar did not even remember our late famous generals, who liberated the country, such as Gen.William Nyuon Bany, Gen. Kerubino Kuanyin Bol, uncle Odo, to name a few, by building a highway or named a street in our nation capital after them. After being out of power, he turned around and complained that those bridged could have been built by now, those intuitions could have been renovated; federal system could have been the instrument of the governance. The Republic of South Sudan could have been divided into 21 states, plus many other countless demands that he was not able to do so when he was in power. Reading between the lines, though, any reasonable person should be able to see that the demands were made as a tactic to ascend himself to power, once again.
Having said that, South Sudan is a rich nation, which cannot only feed its inhabitants but also, it can feed the rest of the world. If Dr. Riek is for the better reforms on the behalf of the South Sudanese people, then why he did not execute any single socioeconomic project, which could have promoted the life standard of his people? The war of hunger, as opposed to the war of presidency. The war of diseases, as opposed to the ethnic and regional representation. The war against tribalism, as opposed to the war being fought along the tribal lines. If South Sudan was seen as breadbasket for the Middle East, then what prevent him from turning South Sudan to be a breadbasket for the South Sudanese people? Only God knows, isn’t it?
To conclude this piece of work, this author has reached a decision that the current suffering of our people is brought about by Dr. Machar himself as a result of his big ego for being a president. This need overshadowed him from seeing the disasters that have been devouring people on his behalf—twice not one. He did this incident in 1991 where a lot of lives were lost. A lot of properties and livestock were lost. The guy did not learn from it; he did it again in 2013. In social science, there is a good reason to believe that, if his inner circles do not correct Dr. Machar, he will put the country back to its third crisis. According to empirical evidence, past data can be collected and analyzed to predict the future’s outcome.
In the same line of reasoning, this writer has gathered the past data and predicted that Dr. Machar will instigate another crisis in our nation unless and otherwise, his inner circles emerged out and corrected him. The guy has failed completely to comprehend that the importance of education is to use it for the betterment of the society.
In other words, the old adage stated that “Overachievers fear they will have no value apart from their achievements; they are motivated to perform so they will be loved, accepted, and desirable.” For instance, former president of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, former assassinated president of the USA, John F. Kennedy, and retired football player or sucker player, Madonna were identified as overachievers. Given the fact that Dr. Machar is one of the very few people in the Republic of South Sudan with a doctorate, he wrongly assumed that working under someone’s leadership will cause him to lose his status of being loved, being accepted, and being desirable.
To connect dots, in this context, this writer inferred that Dr. Riek did not feel secured when he works under someone’s leadership, as opposed to his own tribal cocoon from within. Equal importantly, this author predicted that the above described desires blinded him beyond the point of repair. As a result, he will blindly drag our country back to war once again without being aware of it. Therefore, the implication is real because he overlooked many social cues that a disaster was in fact looming before. That is why he sometimes comes back for a peace without being aware of the consequences his actions brought upon the nation in general and upon individual family members in particular.
Uncle Dr. Machar, stop being a predator. This time, restrain your big ego from dragging our country back to war. Yes, I have concurred with you to come back with peace. However, remember, the lives that we have lost would never come back; the properties we destroyed as a result of war will never be replaced; the psychological trauma inflicted on our innocent people has no cure forever; the broken relationships between ethnicities will continue to endure for centuries; our country’s reputation will not be repaired for sometimes. I, therefore, suggested that you retired from the politics.
I will leave you with quotes from one of the greatest world’s leaders as he put it “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership” Nelson Mandela.
Can you do it, Uncle Dr. Machar?
For those of you who will take time out of your busy schedule to read this article, I thank you in advance. South Sudan Oyeeeeeeeeee!
The author is a resident of the U.S and a recent postgraduate with a doctoral degree at the Colorado Technical University, Colorado, USA. He is also an employee of the state government in the Good Life State of Nebraska. He can be reached at simongai22@gmail.com
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