A New Hope for Peace on the Horizons: The Appointment of Taban Deng & Stephen Dhieu

A New Hope for Peace on the Horizons: Why the Appointment of Taban & Stephen Dhieu can Revive South Sudan Again

By Luka Geng Geng, University Campus, Wau

August 2, 2016 (SSB) — If you look at history, you will ultimately find by the skin of your teeth few countries in the world to compare with a country we live in today, South Sudan, a country I would correctly call “born out of wars to live in wars” is so much in dire need of revival again to embrace peace, stability and progress.

Few years ended, our progress was overwhelmingly remarkable, even within a period as short as two years after gaining her independence, Juba, the capital city of South Sudan was able to be marked internationally as the World’s fastest developing city before we succumb to repetitive double folded crisis of conflicts and economic hardships; both of which are of man-made by roots or genesis.

The power hunting attitudes of man behind the scene Dr. Riek Machar in particular and SPLM-IO in general could not bring this country back to live in peaceful even after the ARCISS peace agreement was signed followed by the formation of TGoNU which firstly inspired a millions of hope for peaceful coexistence after a long run.

But before our millions hopes are succeeded by despairs, I must have this opportunity to say today there is a new hope for peace, stability and progress on horizons, and for saying I will disclose in detailed form below why the appointment of the duo; Taban and Stephen Dhieu provides a glimpses of new hopes for peace, stability, unity and progress which will save our country image again.

In short, lets’ look at the importance of the appointment of each to the possible revival of our country by taking them one by one

Why politics of appointing Taban Deng can revive South Sudan Again?

Unlike Dr. Riek Machar, Cde. Taban has unique visionary and patriotic sympathy for his country and his fellow country men and women, which is why the tears he shaded while delivering his speech after swearing in couldn’t be confused with crocodile tears.

Looking at how the current political climate in this country is taking shape to the utter dismay, what the country need is an unassailable, patriotic and fearless Taban who can possibly team up with President Salva Kiir and James Wani Igga to withstand divisive wars and economic-ridden forces acting to send South Sudan nation to imminent disaster.

To my mind Taban is the only senior SPLM-IO who has the mettle to put this country into the right pathway again.

Going by past experiences, unless someone is blind, either congenitally or due to blind political servility he/she would have realized that neither Dr. Riek Machar or Lado Gore can be compared with Taban taking into the account the numerous achievements and contribution he has made during the liberation period coupled with his recent contribution while serving as governor of Unity state.

His outstanding charisma, colossal personality and public appeal cannot be matched by any other leader in SPLM-IO. His love for the country, dedication and commitment to service to people and the wealth of experience he has in store from many years in politics would definitely make him perfect to revive South Sudan.

Without him on the side of SPLM-IO, the ARCISS peace agreement wouldn’t have been reached, the role cde. Taban played while he was SPLM-IO chief negotiator yielded peace which gave birth to TGoNU, I think, he is the only leader within the SPLM-IO leadership who has not yet lost the love for his country just for the sake of getting into power by hooked or crooked which correctly constitutes his former boss’s attitudes.

As the list might be too long to enlist and entails all the reasons why politics of appointing Taban can save South Sudan again, I would not bother to exhaust you reading an endless piece but foremost among those to mention must counts from his spirit of peace loving as proved by his courageous stands during the aftermath of Juba J-1 clashes where he stood candidly alongside Hon. Michael  Makuei Lueth to call for calm amid the crisis and honestly denounced the exaggeration on clashes  which was made by some biased media channels and social medias.

Applause able was also the remarkable speech of hope he gave sooner after he was sworn in to be the first Vice president of the republic of south Sudan. Shortly after he swear in, the speech Cde. Taban had delivered automatically defines his internal feeling of love, patriotism and sympathy for this country which are qualities of good leaders, he assured Mr. president that this country shall not have two army and police, something Dr. Riek Machar can hardly put up with.

Besides, he is also the only leader who can effectively mobilize the whole nation with his common touch and down to earth approach in modern politics.

Now having said this finally, my personal message to comrade Taban Deng of SPLM-IO  in particular and to the Government of Transitional unity at large under the leadership of president Salva Kiir, is to rise above party politics, forget emotional commitment and blind allegiance to your traditional  parties, burry to deep the SPLM-IO, SPLM-IG hatchets and rally around this core issue of rescuing beloved motherland and the nation from the dangers of imminent extinction caused by the blunders of architect of the current crisis which brought our country to where it is today.

I would want you also as leaders of this country to put security, peace, stability and the interest of the entire nation before everything else and therefore be dedicated to the future of our country. Hell with the divisive and devastating politics introduced by Dr. Riek Machar to destroy our country and our national unity which has done much to put our country into pieces in the last two years.

In this instances, I would also like to remind you of the famous saying that; “you need to have your country first to practice your political ideology”. Where will you have the country of your own should you destroy this country?

Why appointing new Minister of Finance and Economic planning can revive South Sudan economy again?

Given the fact that the problem facing our country is twofold, which are both the conflicts and economic crisis in amalgamation, their amicable solutions must be devised interpedently despite the fact that the current economic situation is a direct result of the war in the country. With that in mind, it is therefore hard to deny that a twofold solution must be provided to make sure our country is back to its normal progress.

This brings us to the point of why appointing two encounters to the current situation is important. Just like appointing peace partner on the side of SPL-IO to implement peace according to ARCISS peace agreement, it is also imperative to appoint a new finance minister who can encounter economic crisis with new economic strategies and policies that would meet the demand of our country.

Hence, the removal of the former minister of Finance and economic planning and replacing him with the new minister is the good approach in trying to deal with the current economic crisis in the country because having depreciation of local currency up to 70% is an indicative of poor performance at financial management field. I believe, the former minister had no one to blame for he was allowed an opportunity to try the best he can at his capacity with his economic professionalism, but the economy couldn’t improve so he has to surrender.

Our economy needs more attention with different fiscal approach from the current minister, however, the question is: can Stephen Dhieu be the right man in that position in the meantime? Every south Sudanese politician who has ever managed to hold a big office has always done it with big bang and exit with whimper but it is unfair to judge him by other’s incompetency.

Moreover, managing financial institution has always been the toughest assignment every politician has ever been faced and so answering this question is not easy, but if we look at Mr. Minister his previous performance in the ministry of petroleum and mining means you will agree with president for appointing Stephen Dhieu at this time.

My dear esteemed readers…up to here, I rest my point!

The author of this piece is a medical student in the University of Bahr el Ghazal; Wau. For contact, he can be reached at lukageng@gmail.com/0956661661

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