What President Kiir and VP Taban should do to ensure that ARCISS is not hijacked in the name of regional intervention force
By Mariak Chol Majok, Kampala, Uganda
August 18, 2016 (SSB) —- When the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) was formed by the Government of South and the SPLM/A-IO, under the leadership of then, former First Vice-President Dr. Riek Machar, there were high hopes that it would be the end of the war that had afflicted serious of damages to our beloved nation.
However, all that came out was disappointment and betrayal to South Sudanese populace who accepted the peace considering the surreptitious content and intransigent and reneging tendencies on the side of the opposition.
The so-called partners and guarantors of the peace were also hard to fathom, given the way some of these monitors were acting, issuing threats of sanctions and arms embargo when the two parties were committed to implement peace. These moves were meant by the foreign powers that have their varied interests to keep us fighting ourselves so as they keep plundering with our country.
Well, all those dubious plans didn’t work because the people of South Sudan accepted peace and were able to implement it by all means for a relative peace to be realized. The Agreement on Conflict the Resolution in the Republic of South Sudan (ARCISS) suffered with lots of bottlenecks because Dr. Riek had his different side of the story on how ARCISS was to be implemented and made it hard.
Right from the word go, it has to be recalled that Dr. kept postponing his coming to Juba from his base, at Fangak which was characterized by so many postponements and emergence of new conditions after conditions which were not stipulated in the peace agreement.
But because the Government of South Sudan wanted nothing but peace, all his new demands that were outside the peace agreement were unconditionally accepted. All his organic weapons and his forces were allowed to come to Juba so as the new era of peace would be ushered in.
As well-spelt out in the peace agreement that ARCISS would be operationalized upon the arrival of the rebel chief and his team, that did not come to pass as he could not agree with the president because he wanted the peace to be implemented in the way he deemed fit for his personal interests, best known to him.
This could be seen in the way he lied to the media after every meeting with the president and the vice president, telling the public that they had discussed this and such with the president, which were facile and semblance to the general public and therefore, it made it difficult to smoothly implement important provisions of the peace agreement because he couldn’t acquiesce with the government.
Some of these provisions which were to be worked out immediately were the security arrangements, the constitution of the Transitional Legislative Assembly that would be formed within ninety (90) days after the TGoNU formation.
All these loopholes gave the TGoNU serious headache to smoothly implement the ARCISS but because the former First Vice-President had a different plan, far from the peace implementation, our country again almost went back to the dark days of 15th, December, 2013 and that was the covert plan of J1 incident.
This was a long term plan contrived as attempt to frustrate peace agreement but thanks to senior SPLM/A-IO members who chose not to follow Dr. Riek again but remained in Juba to implement peace because South Sudan is bigger than any person and bigger beyond the individual interests.
The appointment of General Deng Gai was a total rescue of ARCISS from its imminent collapse and a major step geared towards the real implementation of the peace agreement as it can be seen now the peace implementation is progressing well without Dr. Riek.
The international community and the region should not feel shame to say that Dr. Riek was the only person impeding peace; if they don’t assert to this white truth that can be seen and heard by blind and deaf, then they need to buy truth-tracking lenses or be treated from the disease of dishonesty and that is a truth beyond the reasonable doubt.
The international community and the region have not been happy since the appointment of Gen. Taban Deng as First Vice-President as seen from the moves they have been making and with the JMEC Chairman traversing across African countries as if he is vying for the post of the African Union Commission.
The only thing they do is proposing troops to be sent to our country; are these forces going to protect who when the TGoNU has refused, or they will protect the foreign interests in South Sudan that they have been yawning for years?
The coming of these forces to our soil will be more disastrous than any other catastrophes we have had gone through because they have been given all mandate to disarm both opposition and government forces when they deem fit and that, itself is the pronunciation of war.
They can provoke the SPLA forces at their own discretion and the fight will erupt again and when that happens, these forces will request for reinforcement from those who sent them to South Sudan, fight to destroy our country beyond the repair and eventually, Dr. Riek will emerge from his current hideout and do you know what is next?
Well, we all know and that is the maxim truth about the intervention forces. Taking into the account all these foreseen catastrophes, we need to reject that plan in its totality.
For us to own ARCISS and save it from being hijacked by the foreign elements who have different interests in our country, our government needs to enhance its diplomatic pursuit in protest of the proposed regional forces by sending the government team to the region and the world, educate these countries on the position the TGoNU has adopted to find a lasting solution using our domestic means.
Our Ambassadors and Heads of Mission should also educate the countries they are assigned to about the effort being made by the government to bring peace and for ARCISS’s smooth implementation. The South Sudanese abroad need also to be educated by the government teams that will be visiting those countries because they are stakeholders in bringing peace to our country as they are of important role.
The TGoNU should form an all-inclusive truce, peace and reconciliation committee to go around all the 28 states’ grassroots to carryout civic education about peace. The chiefs, religious leaders, civil society, women, blocs etc should also carryout nation-wide drive for peace mobilization and make the people who are at their reach aware of peace and national cohesion.
Of course all these shouldn’t work when we are now economically-handicapped and therefore, our government should come up with robust and drastic economic crisis management plans to curb the ongoing economic hardships. We need to look for alternative ways of generating revenues and that is by introducing aggressive financial policies to efficiently manage our taxes derived from businesses, customs and other financial sources.
It is high time the government resorts to mineral exploration since the oil prices have drastically dropped over time in the world market. The 2015 NGO Bill should be implemented to regulate the work of the NGOs so as their operations are balanced and checked by the concerned government authorities because some of these NGOs are not up to something good.
This will then enhance the employment opportunities for South Sudanese because the current high rate of unemployment is also another factor contributing to the current economic crises we are facing. The government on the other hand, has to securitize the operations and functioning of the demining companies because these companies are busy exploiting our minerals like gold, uranium and other minerals in the name of extracting landmines that were planted during the wars.
Within a few years, these resources will vanish unknowingly and it is high time the authorities concerned take note of these, OUR MINERALS ARE BEING EXPLOITED BY THE DEMINING COMPANIES, PLEASE WAKE UP!
Taking into account all these, we will own the ARCISS and implement it to the fullest without foreign or external influences and this is the only chance left with us to end the imposed war which has caused immense suffering of our people and we begin a new era of togetherness and oneness as before.
South Sudan will always be our country and if we can put aside our differences and personal egos, and embrace the spirit nationalism, we will build a better Country so as the hopes of present and future generations are kept alive.
Our ethnic backgrounds are our pride but these tribes shouldn’t be used on negative grounds to promote the malicious individual agenda that disintegrate our people and put them along tribal lines.
GOD BLESS SOUTH SUDAN!!
LONG LIVE REPUBLIC SOUTH SUDAN!!
LONG LIVE THE TGoNU!!
LONG LIVE THE SPLA!!
The writer is a student (finalist) of St. Lawrence university-Uganda and can be reached via mariakchol20@gmail.com or +211956777484
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