Don't take it over all of us, Mr. Luk Dak
By: Yahya Hussain Algaddal
Sudan's unity is not reparable according Mr. Luk Dak in his article "Is Sudanese unity beyond repair?" published in Sudanese online on June 20, 2010.
In the abovementioned article Mr. Dak seems to be pretty desperate that unity of
Sudan that every genuine peace loving Sudanese is all agog to maintain had become part of history. He views the writings of Al Tayeb mustafa of Al intibaha as an inducement to this unfortunate and gloomy fate.
First of all, Mr. Al Tayeb mustafa on whose notions Mr. Luk Dak has built his conclusions does not by any means represent every Northern Sudanese. Most of the writings of this man have been widely believed by his critics to be hatred provoking, disconcerting, and repugnance stimulant and emotive. We should not let Al Tayeb and his like to flare up bad blood between peace loving and equality supporters who don't want unity otherwise. The social texture we have been knitting for ages, which is at least giving fruits to harmonious relations in the popular arena, should not be left to separatists to tear out. No going back to square one. South and north have only lived together peacefully for short periods the most recent of which was after the Comprehensive Peace Accord. Five years are not quite enough a time to remove the feelings of bitterness and hatred that have built up during years of civil war. Knee-jerk reactions to such notions do not at all serve the cause of keeping our country united.
There is hope that unity of
Sudan could still stand a chance. This is what first vice president Mr. Salva Kiir had put it on June 19, 2010 commenting on the constitutional developments taking place in Sudan these days and the would –be efforts to be exerted in the six months to come to make unity of Sudan achievable. To light a candle is better than cursing the dark; this is what Mr. Kiir wanted to say in other words, if I have properly construed his wordings. What has not been materialized in five years cannot be practically done in six months as concatenation of circumstances denotes. Nevertheless, I am not pessimistic neither am I feeling it is impossible to maintain unity in such a short time.
The many pending problems between north and south that have not been resolved to date due to somewhat acceptable reasons in the one hand and out of political petulance mainly from the side of the national congress party, as SPLA claims, and external intervention in the other hand have made a good number of Southern Sudanese citizens feel that it is high time for them to go for separation. This is a chance that they would miss for ever had they not grasp it today. Many Sudanese have resigned to the above postulated facts or illusions (whatever they might be) and have accordingly viewed separation as inevitable. However, in my capacity as a strong and enthusiastic unity supporter I would wish to take this opportunity to call on those Sudanese, whether northerners or southerners, driving us "nuts" toward separation to reconsider their positions.
Things are changing in
Sudan and examples of this change, though slow, have been quite clear for every body to see. Flags of SPLA are now hoisted every where in
Sudan and many prominent northern
Sudan figures have become members of SPLA. These Northerners together with their brothers in the South are now working hardly to meet the objective of building the new
Sudan that SPLA has fought for for more than two decades. Meaning, the long waited homogeneous
Sudan that every body finds himself in is emerging.
Southern Sudan citizens are now appointed to fill in positions of full ministers something which was not happening in the past. The extra ordinary welcome of the late Dr. John Garang to
Khartoum in his first appearance after bitter years of war bespeaks of this change too. Building of nations takes time and change resistants will never let you meet your noble objectives, Luk. Call for separation by southerners is betrayal to our folks in the
Nuba
Mountains and Blue Nile who fought fiercely - side by side- with the southerners to make
Sudan a better place for all its citizens, as SPLA propagates." Mondokoro shakily Nuba " have made a real difference during war time and it is a pity that you leave them behind, Luk.
People of south Africa have practiced painstaking patience , enduring all sorts of torture , humiliation , human rights abuses and such other atrocities committed by their colonialists to have Nelson Mandela freed and apartheid regime removed. They managed afterwards to set up the Truth and reconciliation community. A community that came to terms with its past on a morally accepted basis and thus advanced to the cause of reconciliation.
South Africa is now the talk of the whole world.
Americans have fought for years before they arrived at a "
united states". African Americans have also struggled more than any other minority on earth to ultimately make
America live the era of Barak Obama. Why don't we follow the South African and American examples to arrive at our final objective of making all parts of Sudan attractive, not only the South, as Mr. Luka Beyong , minister of council of ministers affairs has expressed it recently.
I have very much liked two points made by the new Petroleum minister Dr. Lual Deng in an interview made with him in Sudan's ALshoroq TV on June 20, 2010. The first point is that he supports unity of
Sudan because he knows that consequences of separation are quite costly and that unity brings benefits to all parts of
Sudan. It is a win-win concept as he believes. Diversified Sudan, which is wonderfully situated between both African and Arab worlds, should be properly managed in such that the vast natural resources that this country is bound in could be directed to the welfare of its people and not to any thing else. The second point that Dr. Lual made was to give an ear to those calling for separation as we do to their rivals. As such, I would call on Mr. Luk not to take it over all of us" the so called northerners" just because some of us happened to call for separation.
An American writer named H Jackson Brown wrote some guidance in his "Life's Little Instruction "Book that he made as a gift to his son who was going to college for the first time then. The most important of this guidance is: Never deprive someone of hope; it might all they have. Hope is all we have at this critical time of the history of our nation and change is what we foresee to come true shorter that expected.
United we have been and united we will remain; God willing.
Yahya Hussain Algaddal
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