The South Sudan We Want Plus the Unity of President Kiir, Riek Machar and Sixty Four Cultures

By Beek Mabior, Nairobi, Kenya

Thursday, January 23, 2020 (PW) — Dear citizens of my country, peace, unity and harmony constructed and healed this planet many times, and the war and hatred unlocked old and new wounds millions times, and the history of our planet recorded it and realities need to be accepted. We South Sudanese need to decide what kind of nation we want to build for ourselves and they generations that will come after us. Either a united and prosperous or a violent, failed state, and sincerity must compel us to acknowledge that the ongoing tribalism, repellency, nepotism, war, graft and segregation are a problems today in our nation.  And I have no doubt they’ll continued and always will exist as long as people with small minds have a Satan to stimulate them and as long as we continued to maintained a clear willful denial of the objective veracities of our nation.

I just want to convince the wise South Sudanese and our foreign allies of what I believe is true, that continued meaningless conflict, tribalism, segregation, antipathy and disunity within our country pose many dangers that are a threat to our survival as a nation. We need wisdom, flexibility and political will to embrace and harness the incredible fortitude in our diversity and shun extreme hostility. What can we do to draw strength from our diversity at this time in our nation’s history when deep-seated division and conflict exist in our land? Civil conflict and discrimination are horrible but they compel us to embrace a need for oneness and peace.

They remind all of us who may have forgotten that we share one destiny as a nation and in times of war and crisis even haters, political jokers, warlords and separatists get a clearer picture and genuine realization that peace and unity are indeed they only key solutions to settle disputes peacefully in order to avoid meaningless bloodshed. That perhaps may lead to a full genocide which they may be part and parcel of it as either perpetrators or victims in the process of pursuing a reckless and deadly civil war.

Furthermore, there are millions of South Sudanese who have beautiful hopes and dreams in their hearts about this gorgeous young nation. People who dream, pray and long for the day when peace, unity and harmony will prevail in our nation. So that they can settle down and pursue their God-given dreams and to achieve their social and economic goals. It is also good to acknowledge that millions of our citizens have no political dreams and they simple just want to settle down and build a better lives for themselves and they generations that will come after them.

Moreover, millions of South Sudanese are fed up with war and the deep-seated division, repugnancy and disunity that was brought by unclean man-made politics in our nation. So we need to develop a new strategies of fairness, equality, affirmative action, justice, vision and prosperity that work and favor everyone and not just the few who control the power and wealth of the nation. In addition to that, South Sudanese in regardless of their ethnic backgrounds and political affiliations are desperate for peace, unity and economic prosperity and they desire to build a united nation in which they’re not divided along ethnic line any more. They came to realize that indeed war, disunity, tribalism, nepotism, sexism, segregation and corruption are unproductive and unprofitable in human’s life. They have realized that these vices are satanic and will always kept them in constant wars and fake unity if they’re to be part and parcel of their lives.

Additionally, there’re millions of our people in the diaspora who want to come back home, but first they want to see this dirty man-made civil war brought to a successful conclusion first. And then they’ll return home and build a better futures for themselves and their off springs and soldier on with their lives. Those who engineered this conflict should bring it to a dignified end and those to whom much as been given, much will be expected from them. We need back our South Sudan we voted for in 2011 referendum and it is our constitutional right to live in peace, unity and liberty as sixty four beautiful cultures of South Sudan.

Kiir and Riek must give us back our peace and unity, no other choices and they must accept. We don’t need their positions and they’ll still retain them but they must give us back our peace and unity which were spoiled by the war which they’ve knowledge about it. Furthermore, South Sudanese must know that president Kiir and Dr. Riek are part and parcel of South Sudan and they will forever remain as citizens of this great nation and you cannot have a South Sudan without the two principals at the moment. Additionally, what we need and expect is for our two leaders to find a common and unifying political chemistry among themselves so that they’ll not allow their political differences to generate into another cycle of violence and abhorrence again.

But remember, they must give us back our peace and unity we they sixty four ethnic groups of South Sudan. This is not a request but a constitutional demand and it is a constitutional obligation on their side to do so. In addition to that, South Sudanese must learn to co-exist in diversity and it should not be allow to become a source of conflict in our nation because take for instance, diversity in America is not a problem but a source of strength and blessing and drawing from that diversity is how America got to be the most powerful nation in the world faster than any other nation on earth.

So we South Sudanese from all walks of life need to learn from that golden illustration of Americans. Additionally, our former liberty fighters took up arms to fight for equality, justice, prosperity and autonomy for our country. They did it, not for themselves, their families, relatives or friends but for all of us collectively as people who were under the yoke of oppression and servitude. And those freedom fighters were from different ethnic groups and they came together to unite to fought for one common course and diversity was a non-issue to them.

Moreover, there are many South Sudanese who think and believe that deaths of political figures is the key solution in ending the civil war and many problems facing our nation today. But I strongly and completely disagree with them. They deaths of those political leaders is not and will never be a solution in ending the deadly circle of violence and many challenges facing our beloved South Sudan today. If those political actors pass on right now, it’ll worsen the situation more deadly and deeply than even before and it’ll fuel the already pointless conflict more severely.

Believe me, and it’ll put the nation in a state of rampant killing with impunity, scrambling over power, dictatorship, anarchy and our country will have a high chances of becoming a total successful fail state that’ll be ungovernable and regrettable in the long run. So the best and alternative solution is for our leaders to say enough is enough and unite among themselves, forgive each other, compromise and discuss political disputes, reforms and challenges facing the country in a peaceful manner that is back up by a genuine and clear political will and patriotism that aim at using South Sudanese’s solutions to South Sudanese’s problems instead of relying on foreign solutions and external pressure to make peace and end war in South Sudan.

We need a home grow solutions to solve social, political and economic problems instead of relying on outsiders’ solutions which are often temporary and can be manipulate any time depending with the measure of interest that they givers may have in their minds about what they want to achieve in our nation. I’m not rejecting foreign advices and help about how we can accomplish lasting peace and stability in South Sudan. But my argument is, we South Sudanese must first have a true desire for peace and unity in our hearts, souls and minds before our allies across the globe come to aid us with their precious ideas in ending the civil war.

Even if today they give us millions vital ideas and dollars and we’ve no political will to put our burning house in order and to fix our trouble nation from war and help her avoid greatest probability of becoming a total shameful fail state on earth, then their advices and significant ideas will not help us in this deadly, political man-made civil conflict. Believe me, We’ll be wasting their fundamental ideas and money for nothing and they’ll be fed up with us and remember, they’re more knowledgeable and experience in nation-building than we’re and we can profit from their political guidance and wisdom if only we’ve ears to listen and free will to implement what we’re pretty sure will assist us in establishing our state.

We need to be the first to extinguish our burning nation before they come to our rescue because in life, there’s no sound-minded human on the entire planet who can see his/her house burning and wait for the outsider to come and extinguish first and then join him/her in doing so, or to be compel with sanction and pressure by an outsider to extinguish his/her burning house when he/she is reluctant to do so while that house which is in fire is his/her dwelling place. Even devil doesn’t do that when his kingdom is in fire, believe me, he first take initiative and responsibility to extinguish before other demons and his humans’ worshippers join him to assist in putting off the fire and return his kingdom to normalcy first before he return back and torment or disturb other rebellious humans who’re rejecting his influence and authority on earth.

So We south Sudanese must have a sincere political will to implement our peace whether there’re funds or not, or whether there’s funding from donor countries or not, or whether there’s deep fear that we may lose our political positions or not, or whether there’s ten, twenty one and thirty two or even more states or not. Or whether there’s foods and medicines for the join forces of opposition and government or not. Or whether there’s federalism or not. Or whether there’s deep-seated resentment, tribalism, segregation and political graft or not. Or whether we still have a burning desire for war and revenge or not. Or whether we don’t feel any need for forgiveness in our hearts for each other or not.

Or whether there’s a security arrangement or not (but I wholehearted support the idea of security arrangement first because it portray a clear political and military will on both sides of warring parties that they’d not go back to war-field again and unlike the past when they used to have separate armies. It is an intelligent thought for warring groups. This time a join national army is a right political will in a right direction to avoid a return to full scale violence again thank to the spirit of the ceasefire and political will of the warring factions for agreeing on that section). They changes or reforms in the country are not events but processes and most of the things can be done gradually later on but they major ones need to be deal with first now.

And there should be no political blame game and trickery on either side of the political divide across our country whether at the moment or in the future for a truly permanent peace to be attain. This peace will be our salvation with they future generations of South Sudan that’ll come after us, and we need to do it with the purity of our hearts, souls and minds without political or military reservations whatsoever. We all have a role to play in this process and it’s not just our leaders who can do that by themselves. We citizens need to support them in building peace and unity. We need a peace which is South Sudanese made and own and not an impose peace which is not sustainable in the long run.

Conclusively, the tribes of South Sudan need to unite and embrace each other for a true and everlasting peace to be achieve. They need to develop peaceful co-existence and love among themselves. They need to leave bad politics, detestation, nepotism, discrimination, and tribalism for them to build a better South Sudan. They need to know that there’ll be no South Sudan without Nuer, Bari, Zande, Shilluk, Murle, Toposa, Acholi, Madi, Dinka and the rest of our beautiful cultures. And if any of the sixty four cultures is absent then South Sudan automatically will be incomplete and no matter how much we hate each other, we’ll always need each other for the betterment of this nation, believe me or take it to the bank.  

Also, we all need to share presidency and allow reforms that will bring equality and prosperity to the whole of South Sudan and I’d like to takes this golden opportunity to kindly appeal to the Dinkas. If we truly love this country and need this war to end. Then we must allow reforms that’ll benefit the whole nation sufficiently and we should allow presidency go to another tribe after president Kiir’s constitutional term is over for our nation to achieve genuine unity and political equality and justice. We need to acknowledge the undisputed reality that there’s no human that God has created on earth to be rule and have no capability to rule also.

And every society in this world have their own unique and smart people who’re capable to govern too if they’re given the opportunity to do so. That idea “we’re born to rule and no one else can do it better than us” have not help the past various oppressive Khartoum’s regimes from facing deadliest and senseless conflicts for over half a century from rest of the Sudan until now even after the succession of Sudan into two. So we need to learn some political lessons from that to avoid that scenario in our nation today. We need to let other tribes have their rightful share in the social, political and economic fields for South Sudan to be a great and prosperous nation.

We need to let every tribe be represented in all sectors of our nation and end oppression and dominance for South Sudan to become a wonderful nation. And I’d like to challenge and call upon any Dinka who’s a wise nationalist and democratic to join I in preparation for a non-Dinka president once the constitutional term of president Kiir is over and I’ll vote for a non-Dinka, my mark remark. We Dinkas must accept with honesty that if we attempt to cling on to power, then there’re two things involve, either we’ll live with endless cycle of conflicts, anarchy, militancy or our country will break up into three separate states in the future and God and humans who love justice will consider us responsible because we’ve not done what’ll better our multi-ethnic nation.

And believe me, if a single tribe overrule in a multi-cultural state and reject with impunity to give chance to others to test the sweetness of presidency. Then definitely it’ll fuel political war, ill will and disunity in a country. The reason I champion this thing is not because I want to be a leader. And kindly take note: I’ll be among those who’ll never be leaders one day, and I champion this stuff because I love our nation. I don’t want our citizenry to dwell in satanic revulsion.  My biggest dream is to be a scientist and to put South Sudan on the world’s map scientifically. I want to follow the footsteps of Aliko Dangote and Bill Gates of Nigeria and America respectively and I want to be a great philanthropist, industrialist and academician. So what’s crucial is not where a person come from or tribe but capability.

Let put aside the ethnic pride of having presidency and let look at the big picture, peace, unity and prosperity for our nation, and to prevent our nation from becoming a complete disgraceful fail state and war-field on earth and to prove the prophecy of the Khartoum invalid which they told the entire world during the separation time that we cannot rule ourselves. Although what’s happening today is an entirely political twist of events and you need a divine intervention and political intelligence to understand it and it’s hilarious although it’s politically correct and it confirm the indisputable veracity that in politics there’re no permanent adversaries and companions.

Today Khartoum is mediating the Juba’s peace while Juba is doing the same for Khartoum. It’s a unique and dynamic political chemistry dear reader and we love it although we don’t know the political lifespan of it due to the unpredictable nature of human’s politics and the still contentious outstanding border issues between our beloved two sisterly nations. It’s a delicate dance although it doesn’t defile the law of nature and politics. But only time will tell it true lifespan based on the objective realities of politics. But all in all we desire to have a permanent peace and understanding with the Khartoum despite the past events of our share history and we don’t long to be enemies for life and we need to end invidiousness, proxy wars and build healthy cooperation. We’re still one even if in different states now.

So back to my topic, we South Sudanese need to accept realities and be flexible in adapting new changes that’ll better our nation and avoid willful denial of facts. We cannot repeat what we fought against the North in the past and expect to get a different outcome. We must change the approach and mind-set whether you accept it or detest me to death, then that’s it. Thank you and long live our lovely cultures and may almighty God bless our citizens, leaders and our dearest elegant South Sudan!!

You can reach the author via his email address: betterarticle165@gmail.com

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