Equatoria Conference queried BY: Isaiah Abraham, JUBA
APR. 19/2011, SSN; The people of the three states of Eastern, Western and Central Equatoria have met in Juba-Nyakuron for matters related to peace, unity and development lumped together under the theme unity, equality and prosperity. The foot soldiers of the big three leaders (Governors) of these states did an earlier preparatory shuttling a month ago, and all system went at Nyakuron Cultural Center during the past four days. The Conference commences colorfully, graced by invited other members from other regions. The participants and organizers were upbeat that the Conference will achieve it intended objectives for the good of the people of Equatoria in particular and that of the Southern Sudan. Now the resolutions are made public. But this author has faulted the theme and intent of the gathering by Equatorians. Regionalisms at this stage are uncalled for and indeed unnecessarily. I thought we have graduated from parochial politics, an outdate fashion that has killed progress in the developing countries. Any conference should have been about Southern Sudan and only South, unless there are compelling reasons to do so. In our case I doubt whether we have really issues to be address be one section of our region against others. To curb out one piece and leave others in suspense raises concerns. I know people aren’t saying things publicly this way but currency is that something is foreboding. Conversely however, I have a positive view about people of Equatoria in general; they are good and great right from day one in Torit to date. My hat goes down for you Equatorians for standing firm in thin and thick for the liberation of the people of Southern Sudan. Other regions of course have done their part but rugged most of the time. Equatorians have shown again and again that they mean liberation business. That spirit must not be charred by only looking inwardly. Our beloved Vice President has said everything good about you yesterday. But here I don’t take it kindly that you meet to chart out your future without others. Granted, regional gatherings aren’t new in our struggle. Greater Upper Nile had similar conference held in Panyagor in 2003, and Greater Bahr El Ghazal people did their own in Tonj area few months later. But at that time, the two aforesaid conferences (Panyagoor and Tonj) were largely about national focus opposed to regionalism matters. We are hearing that Equatorians have discussed unity, Justice and prosperity, and the imposing questions are: unity against whom? In another word, with whom are Equatorians uniting against? Southern Sudan has poverty, illiteracy, diseases and underdevelopment as main challenges for our new state. We have no more enemies among us so to design an outfit. We shared similar challenges and nothing will really be peculiar to Equatoria and not to others. How about justice, who can paraphrase it further here? I hear some saying that Equatorians don’t want police, prison and wild life nationalize. They want their sons and daughters to occupy any of the said security forces. They are even entertaining the idea that the army should be shared equally among the three states. The big Vice President had yesterday echoed the same sentiments to the delight of the participants. My ears couldn’t believe it, when he questions the kind of federalism under GOSS, the government he is the second most powerful person. The same government two governance perspectives! Am confused why these two leaders contradicting themselves in public! That is another topic another day. Justice from the layman understanding is a right, and any right once it is violated the aggrieved will seek a third party to redress it, yeah? May be there have been injustices done and the conference would love to address them. If that is the case, then am afraid we are scratching problems that will pitch one region against the same government they are stakeholders. Unless one insists of being an autonomous within the bigger South, I don’t see any relevant case to claim justice at this point in time, especially claiming it from a communal backyards. We have just established systems and government organs are there for anyone to seek justice, why are running to our communities and leaving those bodies behind? I doubt whether there is true Southerner will ever agree to federalize our security units. Nigeria has a federal system on everything but not security; the same is true with the remaining North Sudan and the United States. Why do we create furthermore constitutional crisis, when our laws talk of nationalizing security. Please fellow Southern Sudanese (Equatoria here in particular), leave our security status, structures and deployment alone; claim anything else and not the army, police, prison, wild life and fire brigade. That is a red herring thing we should stay away from. The South need that mixture! Look justice has another side of the coin called injustice; the later is done by a system manned by human hands and minds. If we take that someone somewhere has inflicted injustice to Equatoria, then who is he in the first place for us to kneel down and ask him to correct injustices done against Equatorians. We have missed the point therefore! The best place we could have use to fix things is the Book (constitution); if we failed to put up laws that will guarantee justice, equality and good governance, conferences would do us nothing. That is where we got it flatly wrong. I don’t have time to argue about ‘prosperity’ catch due to time, but the summation of what we have been saying in few words above is that regional conferences however noble their causes they are trouble shooters and hence problems in making. Already the public (say other regions) is calling it a perfidy scheme or Kokoro Renaissance Conference; a can of worms that was effectively applied by Khartoum to slice our psyche. That might not be the case in Nyakuron anyway. Proponents of the conference however argue that one of the resolutions of the Nyakuron Conference would touch power; say for instance presidency quest or key slots in the executive, more counties or constituencies. If for example we rotate presidency, then why not do it. International borders for the three states should be manned by Equatorians and the list is long. The drawback in the long run after we have chosen to go regionalism, would be that we will never be Southern Sudanese but groups; I must repeat myself here. South Sudan comes first! Some of us have tried to advocate for years the need for unity based on what an individual could do and not where that particular person comes from. Dr. Garang our founding father had made it vividly his strategy when he first appointed Chief Administrators in our ten states. He was conscious of our diversity but the same time ready to mould different parts of the South into something. We need each other for our common good. Regionalism is bad; we spent years together and no need to separate at the end of everything, I don’t care whether Equatoria Conference will complement the GOSS Task Force work, the point is this: how will the resolutions of this conference going to fit into the national Development Plan of the larger South when one section of our society move to start a liberation from within. Why do we want to chase away other Southerners in our cities and states at this stage when we have enough land, opportunities and resources to share together? Why would anyone start to rewrite ugly history we had closed, known then as regionalism? Please spare us such divisive theories, the new world is moving together not as pieces? Isaiah Abraham lives in Juba; he’s on [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
