Articles and Analysies
Existential threat in the South Sudan. By: Yien Lam, SUDAN
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Jun 4, 2009 - 12:02:59 PM

Existential threat in the South Sudan .

By: Yien Lam , SUDAN   

Why GoSS is incapable of governing? This question may have different answers according to an individual’s way of analyzing it. In my way of analyzing this, GoSS is paralyzed by its internal power struggle.

Groups believe in their members rather than in other people in south. Thus, the power struggle started among the southerners. Believe it or not, you can digest it with the way you want it to be. I think the system of government is genuine system that every one of us may think of because it has got intelligent people who are running it.

But the only existential threat that makes southerners to fail to govern properly this time is group struggle that I have mentioned above. This struggle produces favoritism & corruption, lack of implementation of law, and tribalism.   

First and foremost, favoritism and corruption are skyrocketing in south Sudan now than ever. Majority of the people who are in position of power in south Sudan admire these two very much. On the other hand, I don’t blame those who are playing with such a card because you can not extinguish the fire where the smoke is. There must be a source.

If there is a real implementation of law in place, these things should have not happened. Because it appears there is nothing like that, the things happen. However, in these circumstances, who do you blame while the whole system is doing so? Nobody, right?

If we continue to do so, our infrastructure and all the things we expected to be done will never be done because if the budget is released by the central government in Khartoum that appears to do the job, it will disappear in between without a doubt.

However, the one who may head that particular department may not qualify for the job while heading it anyway because he/she is my right person. If such a thing happens, do you think we will go ahead? Probably not. There will be no way for us to proceed.

Let me tell you this my fellow citizens, if you do this, you are the one who demoted our country. It is better for you to change your attitude before it is too late and put the right person on the right job.

Don’t employ a person because he/she is your right hand. That thinking will not take us anywhere and we will never achieve anything unless we change our attitude to tackle favoritism and corruption.

However, I know it will not be easy to change. But if you knock your chest and I do so, we can do it. Now, our system seems like a game with neither rules nor referees. Things are not going well in the south now because these two things are preventing us to develop our country. Most people fall in love with them. Do you think these will not lead us to chaos if we continue practicing them?

However, enforcement of the law in the south is problematic I would say. Government promises one thing today and tomorrow says another thing. Due to its numerous promises, lot of people are losing their lives as the result because it does not implement what it says in the first place and promises another.

One may not believe this for sure. Even Anyanya II couldn't allow its people to suffer with the scale that our people are suffering now; they had got rules to guide their areas of control. Now, who are we going to blame while we have our own government? I think nobody. We are the ones who could blame ourselves.

For instance, in 2005, government took a good step to disarm the civilians. All southerners welcomed the idea of disarming the civilians. When the government started its work in Lou Nuer, the civilians thought that the government is doing its work. Since it disarms Lou, it did not continue to disarm all. It just went back to Juba and sat without completing the disarmament of whole south Sudan and left the community that was disarmed vulnerable to others.

Due to GOSS failing strategy to disarm all, the community that was not disarmed attacked the community that was disarmed and now the problem is escalating to all communities of the South. Who should you blame in this scenario?

For me personally, I should blame the government because it should have completed its disarmament for all communities in the south without pausing at the time. Because it did not do that, I strongly believe that it is the one that causes all these mess. In my judgment, government should not blame anybody now if it had done enough to disarm all communities in the first place. I think if it had done that properly, the recent lost of lives could have been prevented.   

Nevertheless, the above mentioned problems are not the only factors that cause suffering in the South Sudan . However, the biggest threat is tribalism. Let me remind you, without dealing with this kind of practice, South will never be a successful state of it’s own, unless we change the policy of tribalism.

I remember one quote from an Arab man during comprehensive peace agreement in 2005 who said, “let them go for a while, I know they are not ready to govern themselves.” Now, if you compare with what is happening in Juba at this time, you can not discard what he said at all. People are acting exactly the way that he alluded to.   

Finally, south Sudan has been in disarray for some years now. It is not because its people are not smart to do things that could keep it in good shape. However, it is because of favoritism, lack of implementation of law and tribalism that appears to be the really test to the south Sudan government.

However, without redirecting our policy of the above mentioned factors, the country of south Sudan will never be as good as we may expect it to be.