National dialogue: A key step toward real, sustainable peace in South Sudan
7 min readNational dialogue for six Months: A key step toward positive assurance of real peace in South Sudan.
By David Matiop Gai, Juba, South Sudan
December 12, 2016 (SSB) — Peace deals worldwide, for it to be owned by citizens within conflict zones, are followed by sequences of referendums, popular consultations, preaching about contents of peace itself, messages and tracks of forgiveness, peace and reconciliations, unity, or people to people initiatives, community to community dialogues, and national dialogue as a routine for proper stability to return in its normal place.
It is through sequences where victims are convinced and moved along together with the rest of the communities. The issues of treat me well, and forgive me come as a result of coming together in dialogue, debate serious issues/problems, and converse reservations, weeps, and realise wrong committed during the conflicts, identify and accommodate interest of people interns politics, but why not now in South Sudan?
A peace deal signed last year in August 2015, between the government of South Sudan and the SPLM-IO as well as many signatories to the agreement. Among them was South Sudan civil societies, former political detainees, IGAD, UN, AU, TRIOKA, and the entire international community who inflated the government of South Sudan with unnecessary amount of volume of pressures.
The peace on its own contents and context was an imposed peace on South Sudanese people with the clear intention to resume war in Juba which took place in July 8, 2016 by photocopying essences of CPA facts of two armies, two chiefs of general staff, and two separate commanders in chief of arms forces in one country, and among one peoples.
South Sudanese who know already that the deal made; it is a fresh bloodshed in the country and they complained much by gestures of public demonstrations in Juba, and in states and they were saying that “they don’t want two armies in one country”, and others were saying “copy and paste of CPA contents in this peace will not work at all but the signatories to peace agreement slammed the case as government motivated supporters. The ordinary citizens always saying, it is a transfer of war from the jungle to capital Juba, and in fact the three days fighting in July justified their claimed.
When the war resumed in J1, the signatories to peace agreement blamed the warring parties of what they know and what they have planned. Dr. Riek was ousted and replaced by Gen.Taban Deng Gai in order to save the gifts lines, and life of peace agreement; for sure Gen.Taban Deng Gai was seen by many south Sudanese peace lovers as a true agent of peace in SPLM-IO because in peace principles and for the sake of peace, you have to give in some of your rights in order to supplement these rights in the future.
Now Taban Deng as a man in his heart who is not after conflict of interest to destroy South Sudan, and opposers to peace have seen Taban Deng as a peaceful transit of giving in what were not rights in peace agreement from the very beginning, and the signatories to the peace agreement in South Sudan are seen again relaxing, especially UN, IGAD, TRIOKA, because they are not even supporting the current Transitional Government of National Unity.
What they do is to provoke over the country more and more with the issues of sanction, arm embargo, and other ill plans to impeded stability in south Sudanese and tries to cause processes into genocide so that UN trusteeship for ten-fifteen years is granted to them for free. It is actually a dead dream, because we not seen other nations who have problems with UN trusteeship or otherwise.
As other South Sudanese said, peace is dead or is severely injured, these are South Sudanese in exile who provoke their own environment in the country, and they did not trusted government anymore, so they want the current government let go, so that new atmosphere is open to them and they come in as free citizens from crimes, but it is still not a perfect solution to our problems, our problems need open national dialogue through Transitional Government of National Unity, (TGNU).
In reality, national dialogue is needed now so that South Sudanese people come back to their sense, and build their own nation. Issues of target killing on highways are now in this month subsiding down and this is a good step to be realised. As we know dialogue is a conversation or discussion to resolve problems, the main gate to national dialogue is the current government in Juba.
The transitional Government of National Unity headed by President Kiir Mayardit, First vice president Gen.Taban Deng Gai, and Vice President James Wani Igga should immediately opting for national dialogue and less pay attention to what outsiders are saying and doing, because outsiders divide, impediment or obstruction to peace, and almost gain proposals on innocent bloods in this country.
Indeed I am not against anybody, but the voices of outsiders about their concern in South Sudan as a nation and its citizens are not concerns about lives of the people but about oil and money. Their thunder voice is not about democratic exercises or practices, or transformation of government in systems require in democratic principles but it is about how to create war and destructions so that opportunities are still opening their ways and proposals exchange in hands with South Sudanese bloods, that is all.
The Transitional Government of National Unity is comprised of different parties like SPLM the ruling party, SPLM-IO, political detainees, JMEC, and other political parties. The Transitional National legislature is in charge to formulating laws, policies, and procedures of the Transitional Government of National Unity. Therefore, it is so wise at this moment to accelerate more efforts towards national dialogue, peace, forgiveness, and reconciliations among South Sudanese communities.
Our roles as citizens is to see government opening centres for national dialogue, and attaching serious campaigns so that citizens present their grievances, and news chapters are open, and serious crimes are address amicably to the best of victims expectations. In South Sudan, dialectics always happened at the top levels like the case of SPLM unification in 2002 where Dr. John Garang, Salva Kiir, Dr. Riek Machar, James Wani, and SPLA top leadership dialogued far away from the people whom they battle among them for some years; in fact they consolidated this peace in Nairobi Kenya.
Although little had been done in southern Sudan among communities when Wunliet peace Initiative had conducted for the Western Nile communities and Liliir conference in 2002 for the eastern Nile communities, it is still not enough as a full scale of peaceful co-existence and stability, because the people in this nation have been in deep grave of bitterness, hatred, revenge killings, hate speeches, lies, and wrong rumours for a long time which is not a piece of simple dialogue to be done in two-three days conference.
Together I thought, the Transitional Government of National Unity should allocate budget for a genuine national dialogue, beginning with executives, legislatures, judiciary, civil society, community associations, youth associations, women associations, traditional elders, traditional chiefs, government partners, government friends, the entire public, the nation as a whole, and search for good will South Sudanese citizens to consolidate peace to unreachable areas in south Sudan.
The right time and right chance is now. The government must close eyes and ears, and work for positive change that will bring people of South Sudan together as the logo concerned, “one people, one nation” by imminent of serious inclusivity of everybody earn commitment of national dialogues for six good months, and everybody will understand arts of war and arts of peace in the face of current economic crisis and benefits of peaceful nation toward future development.
The author is a co-founder of National mental health Care Organization. He can be reach at daivd.matiopgai@gmail.com
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