Articles and Analysies
Here we go again By: Kuir Garang (new southsudan)
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Aug 10, 2009 - 10:26:26 PM

Here we go again

By:   Kuir Garang (new southsudan)

By now we are used to being defeated and settling for the second better position.   By 'we' I mean South Sudanese. Well, let me first give credit to our leaders in South Sudan .   They are doing everything they can to make sure we are out of our recent messes.   Daah, that's what they'd want me to say.   Viola, I've said it.    But c'mon now...this is ridiculous!   Ha ha, can anyone laugh?   No, no, you better cry.

Well, politicians are a different breed and they always know how to find excuses. The 26th President of the United States said in a speech in Paris in 1910 that "it is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better."

Mr. President added that "the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause..."

Our leaders in Southern Sudan are now smiling. He was such a gentleman and his kind words will inspire our leaders. But hold on boys. There are critics, there are cynics and there are literary critics (in the name of political commentators) with no interest of the people at heart. If all critics are known to be only talkers with no substantative deeds, then my bad. But what exactly do critics say?

A man inside the system always supports the system and the man outside the system always sees the fault with the system.The honesty of the two is what counts.

If the President didn't see that...But because the leaders talk about what the critics say, then boo...the leaders know what is valuable in what's written...they use some of the criticisms to better their deeds.   Isn't that the value of criticisms and the requirement of sound leadership?

What's exactly happening in South Sudan ?   If you don't know, I'll tell you. You and not you, I guess because you perhaps know.

Innocent civilians die every single day in South Sudan and little if not nothing is being done to make sure the seeds to South Sudan stability are protected.

Recently the Permanent Court of Arbitration   (PCA) in the Hague ruled that most of the land belongs to the Abyei and that Abyei Border Commision overstepped its mandate. Fortunately and unfortunately, both NCP and SPLM accepted the ruling.

While the SPLM unwittingly think they care about the people and the land, the NCP cares about the Oil in Heglig. NCP all along cared about the oil. Now SPLM still argues that the case of Heglig is still contestable while they have accepted the ruling that says Heglig is not   part of Abyei but part of South Kordofan . How do these people think?

South Sudanese are becoming immune to bad news: insecurity, corruption and losing every battle to National Congress party.

While our leaders, like Theodore, can dismiss critics, it would be a good idea to ask why SPLM loses every batttle with NCP and all SPLM positions in the Government of National Unity are second in the position.

Christian women who are exempt from Sharia Law are lashed in Khartoum and SPLM says nothing to protect these women. SPLM officials in Juba and Khartoum sit in big fancy offices but I wonder what they do have to pride in when the people they are supposed to protect are humiliated everyday on the streets of Khartoum ?

Well, congratulations you have   big fat jobs with fancy titles, but hey, Mr, Ms, you have little pride in you as you sit in that office. Your people are dying. Don't tell me you're doing something. You have a title yes, but what do you have to tell that mother who is dying in Yei because of tuberculosis? What do you have to tell that mother in Akobo who has lost everyone in her family? What do you have to tell that Murle child whose childhood is robbed by being taught his life worth is only cattle raiding?   And what do you have to tell a promising young man who wants to contribute to development in South Sudan ?

Do you have to pride only in that fancy office where your only meaning is in the salary and the title? I just don't get it. You're nothing if you can't protect the very people whose name put you there.

Maybe I just write because I don't understand what happens on the ground, or maybe I care so much about that land. Or perhaps I'm just like all those leaders who are only sitting and talking. But at least I don't have that title and sit on my butt.

All I'm saying is that SPLM and   the government of South Sudan is becoming synonymous with incompetent and idealistic compromises. How ridiculous is it for someone to accept that Heglig is part of South Kordofan and then tell us it will be disputed again. It'd be a waste of time and resources we need for development.

Our people are dying in record numbers and our resources are being plundered while our leaders are telling us it is okay? I want our leaders to tell us what they're doing exactly for South Sudan . Big fancy offices and title?

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