July 9th is another painful and fearful day of celebration for South Sudanese in Juba
6 min readSouth Sudan’s 5th Independence Day: July 9, 2016 is another painful and fearful year of celebration full with uncertainties
By David Mabior Atem, Canada
July 9, 2016 (SSB) — On July 9th, 2011, the Republic of South Sudan was declared the 196th country in the world, the 193rd member of the UN and the 54th country in the continent of Africa. Republic of South Sudan is a nation that was fought and founded on strong values of progresses; equality, dignity, freedom of expression, rule of law, human rights, freedom of association, religion, doctrines of liberalism and pluralism, but has stumbled down the wrong path due to leadership crises.
It is a high time for leaders to acknowledge that the nation is at the last point of collapsing due to many uncertainties; cripple economy, hasty insecurity, spiral corruption, unlawful detentions in known and unknown locations, ongoing pro-government and rebel violations of peace agreement, torturing of innocents, unlawful killings across the country and displacement of civilians before and recently in Wau. However, current civil unrest is a project of the very leaders (some) that fought bitterly against the Khartoum government to free the people of South Sudan from a system that didn’t recognize satellite societies.
Undoubtedly, Juba has adapted and applied the same uncaring manners to satellite (rural areas) similar to what Khartoum did in the past when the South and other areas of old Sudan were inconsiderate socially, economically, culturally and politically. Therefore, South Sudanese’ unwavering supports and contributions toward the movement has turned out to be planted seeds of disgrace and humiliation. From an observatory view, the current system was designed and developed to reward individuals that were known of opposing the liberation struggle specifically the NCP-likes.
From common sense analogy, when Bari person become a president, he/she will be surrounded by his/her tribal elders; parallel to the constitutional advisors. Take a moment and think! What kind of system are we building or developing in South Sudan? The answer to the above question is incumbent upon the reader(s) to conceptualize and take-and-leave whatever deemed necessary.
In short, July 9, 2016 is another painful and fearful year of independence celebration with uncertainties. South Sudanese leaders should reduce their personal egos and begin wearing a white hat of peace; STOP JCE from expanding unstudied division of country that fit communities against each other despite economic infeasibility. It is time to begin noticing that rewarding people that were allied to Khartoum is a gross mistake, begin realizing that South Sudan’s resources are not meant for few people in the leadership positions, begin realizing that being from a region where the leadership come from doesn’t make people to be the ones saying things correct or protect the government better than the other people from different regions.
An example was Presidential Advisor, Tor Deng and Ateny Wek repudiating a presidency decision of agreeing to form an inclusive 15-member committee, 10 from South Sudanese peace partners and 5 from Troika (USA, UK and Norway) and African countries (South Africa and Tanzania). However, through a filtered opinion, it has become clear that these individuals’ actions are tribal oriented rather than working toward supporting an inclusive solution that brings peace partners together.
Another example was when Ateny Wek’s interviewed with the Eyes Radio reporters where he participated in a fraudulent that Troika countries submitted a conditional letter to the government of Transitional Government of National Unity (TGNU) demanding certain issues to be resolved first. When questioned on the authenticity of the letter, he denied by saying he was misquoted but later on he was proven to be a liar beyond reasonable doubt when the audio version was produced.
Protocol-wise, let’s take a scenario that there was a conditional letter sent by Troika to the government of South Sudan, it should not be a responsibility for Ateny Wek to announce the letter publicly. It is a responsibility of the Minister of Information particularly Hon. Micheal Makuei Lueth to call a press conference when it is authorized by the council of ministries.
From a person viewpoint, something of such nature cannot be handled in the Presidency without involvement of the council of ministries that proved it as an “intended fraudulent”. It is time for Hon. Makuei to stop working behind the shadow of Ateny Wek when he is tainting a country as he did when he co-authored a letter published on NYT website. The pride of that nation is for all of us; to care and present a respectable image to ourselves and others wherever we may be!
Last year independence, I wrote an article titled “No reason to celebrate in South Sudan” published by the Winnipeg Press Free and the same article published by the PaanLuel Wël titled: “South Sudan’s Fourth Independence Day of Sorrow”. The intention of my article was that we should not be celebrating in South Sudan while our people are scattered in the bushes, UNMISS camps and refugee camps. When I was penning, one of the lingering question was, “what makes us happy when we are losing precious lives day and night”? What is the difference between my opinion article and the government position now of not celebrating the Independence Day of South Sudan?
After the above publications, groups of Trump-like full of “foolhardy” misunderstood the content of my writing therefore they gathered and deliberated on my article. One of their resolutions according to the ‘cable’ was that they will inform their relatives in the government so that an author would not be given a job in South Sudan. First of all, these individuals don’t know the difference between the facts and opinions. Through tested theories and policies, Intellectuals and thinkers are always opinionated on many issues at different ranges.
Threatening people using Kiir’s name is not one of his reasons he had spent almost entire life in the liberation struggle. If he (Kiir) buys that then I don’t blame the “frustrated idiots” with their imagination that they are helping President Kiir. However, through the view of an insider; says that His Excellency, President Kiir is a proud individual that devoted to the liberation struggle with exception of developmental programs as 1/3 of the country’s population are now depending on humanitarian assistance.
From a personal observation, his name and title are being misused by the people around or related to him. The case in point was a recent court-case that sentenced 16 people to life imprisonment because they stole public resources in the name of President. That stolen money plus other public resources misused for unproductive mission of self-appeasement would have given the citizens a sense of meaningful independence.
This article was written by David Atem a South Sudanese former child soldier; Manitoba, Canada. He can be reached at mabior4@hotmail.com
The opinion expressed here is solely the view of the writer. The veracity of any claim made are the responsibility of the author, not PaanLuel Wël: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB) website. If you want to submit an opinion article or news analysis, please email it to paanluel2011@gmail.com. SSB do reserve the right to edit material before publication. Please include your full name, email address, city and the country you are writing.
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