Past and Present experience will give us a lasting peace in future South Sudan
By Thon Madol Mathok, Kampala, Uganda
August 22, 2017 (SSB) — As an African child would not listen to the first beating but had to be repeatedly beaten for like 2 or 3 times until he would realize what he had done was bad. That is when he learned a lesson and would do things right, on the other hand, a stubborn child who would not listen to parent even after being beaten thoroughly is simply cursed and if he continued like that, the end result would be tragic to him.
It was eminent South Sudan would encounter many beatings because we are ignorant of educating ourselves of past occurrences in order to be cautious about the present and future life. South Sudanese struggle will end the moment we start reflecting on past experiences to remind ourselves of the past before we move forward peacefully.
Past knowledge is essential because it’s direct us on what we should do and what we should avoid. So today experience will act as a guideline in future and this will give a lasting peace in South Sudan, there is a quote I found attributed to Soren Kierkegaard which says “life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards.”
Let me elaborate on how experience gain from past sharp present and future. In many ways, our past can easily influence our present and the people we are today. We might not consciously think about it very often, but our experiences with the world around us shape our future, too. Think about the resources, relationships, and environment which have shaped you as a person.
How did you learn the skills you have today? How did you arrive in the occupation you have now? Perhaps there was an “Aha!?” moment, or perhaps it was more of a steady process. Even as I am composing my thoughts for this article, I recalled the voices and knowledge imparted from my past experiences regarding message and critical-thought of the issues beyond the face value.
From the classroom to the real world, our lives have been ripe with learning opportunities to try and understand how life works – how we work.
What do we do with all of the knowledge and experience we have gained though? In development terms, we use it – hopefully in a way that helps build and grow ourselves in achieving prosperous nation through keeping the positive peace, educating people.
In order to embark on that development though, others will want to know what happened in the past and how it shaped present and why it should play a role in their country. I will not go into details of past wars or crisis but I will mention brief examples, the much of history on what took place then can be read further in history books.
The first case was Israelites who fought for their freedom and went to the promised land and they established themselves into strong nations in order to avoid being oppressed as happened in the past.
The subsequent case was World wars which occurred on different stages (the First World War, Second World War, cold war), Berlin Wall built that separated West Germany and East Germany due to the cold war and their last unification, Korean wars that ultimately divided Korea into two states etc.
Consequently, a lot of lives were lost due to these wars, economic depression here and there, many countries were divided. As a result, the world came together and formed nowadays United Nations to stop the bloodshed, oversee world affairs and keep sustainable peace in the world.
Another past event worth considering is Rwanda genocide of 1994 as a clear African country who went through genocidal war within itself and thereafter came together to find a solution to their problems for the sake of lasting peace in their country.
Finally history of Anyanya one revolution and SPLA guerrilla war which took 49 years to CPA and final independence, therefore these are rich historical events when highlighted before taking actions would cement concrete lasting peace and future prosperity.
Intuitively, everybody knew these challenges were bound to happen to South Sudan because of being a newly born nation. The first thing we should have done was to seek past information from great countries that had gone through similar path before us and combined with our own history we achieved so far and adequately educate ourselves in order to learn something from it to redeem ourselves from falling into abyss of past, we should have revisited different countries that are worth learning from and how past experiences shaped their world.
We could have avoided these situations had we retrospectively did so before embarking on new challenges ahead.
Present experience should be a case study to prevent future crisis and war and only through embracing Education as a tool to change everything in the world, will we progress in South Sudan. So one cannot progress well without education, Education is needed in all aspects not only of academic papers but also on past experiences and meaning of life as well as a world view.
As UNESCO surveyed on South Sudan showed that 90% of the population is under illiteracy section, clearly we have a lot to do with education. It was apparent from very beginning to everyone that South Sudan was a newly liberated country with low education level, so there were expectations that there must be people with no formal education and people living a traditional way of lives who need the education to fit in a civilized society.
As a result of low general education, it is not surprising that South Sudan is experiencing; war, economic depression with unexplained inflation in history, a different type of insurgents, famine and external interference.
All these are anticipatory in nature and can be avoided had our leaders sit down and review past such that they reminded and educated themselves on past cases before moving forward, hence this crisis would have been prevented and contained long time ago.
Inference: This time we should work hard for peace as a first priority while absorbing critically Do’s and Don’ts of the government. Our development should be after attaining stability in order not to repeat what has gone wrong in the past. We have to learn from the past so that it may guide our present and future.
The writer is a student pursuing a bachelor degree in accounting and finance from Kampala University, and tax assistant inspector, western lakes state. I can be reached via Thonpeter0@gmail.com
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