The Mistaken Identity of South Sudan’s Conflict and its Calamitous Penalties
6 min readBy Awuol Gabriel Arok, Juba, South Sudan
February 1, 2017 (SSB) —- Mystifying the tribal drum of hatred in South Sudan is a fictional tale decorated by interests, greediness and weak patriotism supported by colossal corruptions. The widely chanting of tribal war after the onset of December 15th 2013 incidence is a fattened myth thrown into the public bus and greedily picked up by the sacrificial sheep.
In all the places of attendances across the world South Sudanese brotherly and healthily chats among themselves and never do they ever eye themselves as enemies rather than colleagues, friends and citizens of South Sudan, but as one attends to Social Medias, candidly one cannot navigate through without being hit on the nose by strange stuffs from some few grumbling individuals who at their own merits crowned themselves as representatives of some people without the knowledge of those they claim to be representing.
When an empty pot is forcefully smolder on the fierce burning fire, the prospect of it to break are very high, it has faultily been misinterpreted that the South Sudan war that started in Juba on 15th December 2013 was a tribal war, a tribal war never respect titles, a tribal war is never called a rebellion, a rebellion is when a group of people rise and take up arms against the government and in a multi-hued sense abetted by the meaning of the government, a tribe can never have a government, but there are tribal chieftains, a government can be a dominant government when most of the offices are occupied by a particular section or tribe.
To delve into the theory of Dinka dominant over other tribes in The Republic of South Sudan, anyone who know the compute of numbers can fairly judge and endorse the Dinka tallies, according to the 2008 National census, the population of Dinka was 3,031,743 out of 8,263,490 which was then disputed by the Government of Southern Sudan, that roughly represent 36.7 % of South Sudan Population and if 100 jobs are to be divided according to the tribal ratios how many are going to be taken by Dinka?
Probably 37 positions, meaning among every 3 South Sudanese there must be a Dinka. To team up with anyone who stylishly feast under the umbrella of history almost the whole of Bahr el Ghazal is Dinka and in the Upper Nile Region there is Dinka of Jonglei, Dinka of former Unity State and Dinka of former Upper Nile State, with such massive presentation how frequent can they been seen among the people of South Sudan, in the offices or in towns of South Sudan?
The December conflict of 2013 was never a tribal war, how can it be tribal when James Hoth Mai commanded the SPLA over the rebellion, can someone close his eyes and claim it was a tribal war when John Koang Nyuon was the Governor of Jonglei State where people were killed in churches and hospitals and never did the Dinka majority left in his Government disobeyed his authority.
Actually the town was brought back to life by John Koang thanks to Dinka of Jonglei for separating oil from the water, how credibly can it be a tribal war when Upper Nile and Unity States were both being governed during the war by Simon Kun Puoch and Joseph Monytuil respectively together with Dinka sons and daughters who were on the line of duties to their respective administrations?.
How can it be a tribal war when the sector commander of the Greater Upper Nile General Johnson Gony Biliu commanded all the operations against the rebels? How can it be a tribal war when the oil fields and installations were protected by General Teyep Galuak? How can it be termed a tribal war when the former Speaker Hon. Magok Rundial runs the Government house during the war until the formation of Transitional Government of National Unity?
How rationally can it be a tribal war when Marial Benjamin has been the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Riek Gai Kok as the Minister of Health, John Gai Yoh as the Minister of Education Science and Technology, Tut Gatluak Kew as Presidential Adviser on security affairs and Rachael Nyadak Paul as the Deputy Minister of Information and Broadcasting until the formation of TGONU.
The war was plainly a political war among the SPLM Leaderships and was improperly picked up by some few loyalists of Dr. Riek Machar who drolly caked it as a tribal war between Dinka and Nuer with the hope of persuading large number of Nuers as it was the case with the white army and some SPLA soldiers who defected and joined the SPLA-IO, when the leadership of the SPLA-IO realized that they are fighting the government rather than the surfaced assumption of tribal war they turned around and began a bush courting.
Since we have fallen victims of that strange drum beating, efforts from groups and individuals are needed such that we scoop out the muddy cement that has covered the nostril of Peace and Unity, people of South Sudan must support the pot of peace with both hands and one heart in order to rescue our dying dogma of kindness, hospitality and welcoming.
Putting one’s wellbeing ahead of others has never been our social adornment but currently the circumstances have heartened the trait of rudeness; the occurrence of thievery which is becoming an open hobby has never been in our social history. It is now a high time to sit down and collectively recall back our dignity that we have been known for a number of years.
A system that is founded on an exclusiveness than on the inclusiveness is never an inclusive system, instead of focusing on corruption and other biases which are of national interest people of South Sudan are keenly following a narrow route of death and suffering which has been risen on the false tribal floor, time to revisit our senses of reasoning is now, why can our children cry because of hunger and diseases, when our land is blessed with a lot of resources?
Why can our grandparents be killed because of an assumed tribal differences that they had peacefully been maintaining for ages, why can our daughters, mothers and wives fear us, while we are their fathers, their sons and their husbands just because of unknown circumstances of confusion?
Why can our children be molding guns instead of carrying pens? The current empty war which has led to economic crisis was caused by massive dream of assumption, peace should be given a chance without peace there is development and prosperity, after the storm comes calm and probably preparations for planting and constructions.
There is no need of watering the poverty tree that we have been struggling to uproot for a number of decades, now is the time to embrace peace for the benefit of our land, ourselves and the future generations to come.
The author is reachable at jjmkamzeearokson@yahoo.com
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