South Sudan: Bracketing Off the Suffering of 2016, Hope for Peace in 2017 and beyond!!
By Ariik Atekdit, Juba, South Sudan
January 2, 2017 (SSB) — South Sudan as a nation has suffered a political and economic crash so severely in 2016 at the drive of its own freedom fighters incited and at the smart push by the so-called world leaders and international community.
The political sufferings of South Sudan lack any ideological definition but foreign interests drive to push it for ethnic-related-disputes to sandwich their aspiration to cook a mess in the country in order to rule it for their selfish gain and political crafting, a business that our national elites in various camps have never understood for so long; that the elites have been fooled to kill their citizens and destroy their properties and infrastructures for no good reasons.
The political laboratory test of TROIKA, the IGAD, United Nations (UN) and United States on South Sudan has failed to occur to the expectations of the political drama makers. These guys were and are pushing for genocide to occur but South Sudanese have shamed them in the eyes.
All the negotiations and conditions set forward for the implementation of Compromise Peace Deal were meant to destroy and weaken South Sudan’s domain. These organizations and the Republic of the United States of America thought that South Sudan’s independence was a donation from their administrations and they desire that they could manipulate the political setup of a country they thought to be a political kid among the nations of the world.
Yes, many people have become victims of the several situations in 2016 in the hands of unknown gunmen and the Kiir & Machar loyalists’ conflict that badly resumed in July. This was all a cause of wrong calculations made before and during 2013 that sparked a crisis when some elites within the SPLM leadership were set on remote to irritate the peaceful association of South Sudanese in the name of a regime change at the request of Western governments and individuals.
The formula that was made to calculate the regime change was set in three. One group was to pursue the cause using armed confrontation while, the second cluster ran to Nairobi, Kenya and other nations to call for international organizations and governments to call for sanctions, the third cluster was to strangle up the South Sudan economy to anger the South Sudanese at home to either execute nonstop killings or stage protests to overthrow the current regime. However, until today here we are!
Political parties come and go, the politicians rise and fall but the nation remains our common share that we must strongly protect to survive or even sacrifice our lives in order to keep away what can destroy its physical stand. Our leaders should not embark in politics and political positions because there are times that anyone’s ideas can be rejected and it doesn’t mean that we must set the nation ablaze. Our political terms can crash but the term that the country survives is more serious and important for all the generations to come.
At the shared night of 31 December 2016 and 1 January 2017 I was lying on my bed waiting for the end of 2016. I was seriously waiting and wanting to know whether any shooting would occur in the night whether for looting or killing. The neighbourhood that I live in northern suburb of Juba is so insecure and that throughout 2016 there happened a lot of shootings. Home attacks have been made with innocent people shot and killed, losing lives to unknown criminals. My own colleague who we had studied together in the university was killed at the very near neighbourhood and we now miss him in our tea place, he is no more among us and many more have been killed too.
During 2016, I have seen the nutrition and physical fitness of South Sudanese changing seriously with many families every morning getting up with hungry faces with their children turning skinny and the number of street beggars increase. The hopes of 2016 diminish and they indeed went unachieved as the dreams that we made became untrue and unrealistic while we experienced most mess ever in our generation.
Those who died in 2016 knew that there was no reason to survive and they too were convince that everybody would die after them before reaching the year of 2017; this is because they died after ever hope had been lost to South Sudan’s desperation and catastrophe. However, we are here today to witness the beginning of 2017’s calendar. When the clock for 2017 stroke and I thought, however, that it was another stroke of bad luck for South Sudan. Nevertheless the striking of 2017 in my residential area happened with a lot of drum-beatings everywhere. Many people turned out for a big celebration that lasted for hours and the celebration went undisturbed.
By so happening, I realized that I was masked up by a certain fear and dooms of 2016 and could feel myself bracketing off this masked darkness around me. I did not beat any drum but I shared with my neighbours the happiness they were trying to create for 2017 just in a similar way I had shared with them the uncountable sufferings of 2016 that they had endured.
There was nothing good enough to celebrate for 2016 but we must mount and create more reasons to make 2017 celebrative for South Sudanese. The religious leaders and the common faithful and citizens have welcomed the year with prayers and our political leaders must welcome it with a better security setting for all South Sudanese people.
It is we and only we that can make this nation a country of our choice. We must stand up boldly to reject the transfer of 2016’s misunderstandings to control us in 2017. We must declare dead the year 2016 with all its bad deeds and wrongdoings and harmfulness that we had experienced for 366 days and nights.
Happy New Year!!! Let me pray that may all our positive hopes and dreams come true for 2017. I am hoping for the best. May 2017 resurrect our suspended pens and keyboards to continue to write for peace rather than writing hate speeches and statements on social media. May our fingers and keyboards push for a total peace in South Sudan? Let all South Sudanese learn to TYPE the “word” PEACE for 2017 and beyond! Me bracketing off the suffering 2016! God bless South Sudan.
The author is a long experienced journalist, a freelancer and holds a bachelor of education in bio/chemistry. He can be reached @ Atekdit Mawien: ariqdudic@gmail.com
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