To argue that the
28-States proposal is what the people of South Sudan want is to be
opportunistically dishonest. Learned people always make decisions based on empirical
studies that can be independently verified. In South Sudan, the learned ‘elders’
are an authoritative, opportunistic clique that hides behind the president
under the banner of Jieeng community.
In a society where
people support everything the leadership decides, the people can’t be the best
judges of what’s really good for the country when presented with face-value importance. The pros-and-cons of the proposal
need to be discussed and adequately addressed with the people before the consideration of
such an unfortunate, segregational proposal.
What’s the rush? The
rush is meant to derail peace and prolong the people's suffering! How can a leader, a
learned elder, just assume something will work without it being subjected
to the needed scrutiny? This speaks volume about why things are going wrong in
South Sudan. Decisions are made on a whim!
South Sudanese rely on
the learned to make their decisions, unfortunately, the elders they trust don’t
have the interest of the citizens at heart. People need peace not slicing up of the country into tribal enclaves.
Even when the Juba-JCE
knows very well that the proposal could jeopardize peace in South Sudan, they
went ahead and coerced the president to go ahead with it. Peace is obviously not
one of these ‘elders’ wish.
Western nations are
plagued by discrimination and racial hatred because of the racial segregation imposed
by economic and class differences and the not-admitted subconscious view of
others as inferiors. Children grow up in racially homogeneous neighborhoods with the view of racial others as different and inferior. Since they [children] don’t meet racial others to personally ascertain the claim of ‘inferior
others,’ they grow up believing that false assumption.
The 28-States proposal
will do exactly that. It will keep South Sudanese apart and limit the crucial interaction
that reduces tribal animosity. To say that keeping people apart in their ethnic
states will bring peace and harmony is a parochial, naïve thinking not worthy of a learned, 21st century African elderman. Tribal states were
created by colonial administrators to help them control the ‘natives’ as they
called us then. Those states were created in the interest of His Majesty not
the colonized subjects. For the Juba-JCE to argue that these tribal divisions
were good for us is ignorant.
I wished my dad were
alive. I would have asked him if this is the nature of Jieeng; or if this is
how Jieeng elders acted in the past.
It’s crucial for you [Jieeng] elders and leaders to
remember that we are the ones to appraise your deeds and achievements once you’re
gone. You’ve destroyed President Kiir Mayardit and his legacy and it’s time for
you to remember that history will judge you in a very unkind way. President Kiir now says 'Order number 36' doesn't violate the peace agreement. But what part of the agreement allows it?
We’ll not write 'facts' you’ve not presented. You're living like immortal beings. A man is as good as his legacy; something Juba-JCE is denying president Kiir.
You’ve showed how you disdain inter-tribal unity. You’ve
shown how little you care about the well-being of the average South Sudanese except the size of your wallets. You’ve shown how little you care about peace
in South Sudan and that’s why you support a controversial decision that could
derail peace and keep the nation in a perpetual state of insecurity and instability (political and tribal).
And you’ve shown how little you care about the future of South Sudan because
you’ll never be in it.
And you’ve shown how little you care about the national
constitution and that’s why you had to help the president make an
unconstitutional decision. Once you realized that you couldn’t bully Mr.
Kurbandy, who’s fortunately not a Jieeng man, you had a recourse to
constitutional amendment.
What exactly will you
do when the new constitution is written based on the peace agreement? Since
SPLM-IO, SPLM-FPD and other political parties reject 28 States, the writing of
the new constitution will be a sticky issue that’ll threaten peace. That’s what
you want, isn’t it?
You are the very reason
why other tribes hate us! But you are living in an insular fantasy so you don’t
care what other tribes think of us. You’re stuck in the past that any thought
that a future free of tribal parochialism is possible evades you. I’m ashamed of
you.
I want a South Sudan in
which Gatluak is a minister in my state, Ajullu a mayor of my state capital,
and Deng a head of state inter-tribal council of elders. I know mine is a
beautiful dream that’ll not materialize because I happen to belong to a tribe in which the wisdom of our village elders has been rejected and replaced with the
political opportunism of the callous city dwellers masquerading as 'elders.'
