Is the Republic of South Sudan a failled (pre) nation?
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By Andrew Akon Akech
July 7, 2011 — Independent we will not. On face of it, voices are on
record that the CPA’s delivered autonomous south Sudan is loosing
credibility in good governance. Like others, we equally admit to the
existence of difficulties. Indeed the world has problems. It’s the
duty of ( wo)men to devise adapted solutions.
In this jungle of problems fraught pharmacy, we have no elixir, not
even a majestral preparation. The present “concoction” is the best we
assume could serve tackle our current short-comings. But the
Argus-eyed local and international circles read the picture
differently. It is then a question of a discriminate yard-stick.
Gauged against the chronological scale of human achievements and
experiences, a toddler aspiring nation of South Sudan is put, unjustly
on equal footings with nations counting behind millennia of trials and
errors which have brought them so far to the present show case of
equality management and universally accredited know how.
The south was to have an alibi. Emerging from a near sixty- year old
contester of difficult co-existence with a perfidious northern
“compatriot”, she cant transform over night into an arbitrator of
ethnically diverse society(Her Achilles’ heel),impromptu constituted
redundant civil service, destabilization oriented NCPs incitation of
disgruntled southerners, un regulated influx of “friendly” foreigners
(infringe on sovereignty ) and management of thorny issues posed prior
to the 9th Jan 2011 popular consultation and which have now become the
hanging issues.
The World certainly will have a new- born baby state. What’s uncertain
is its behavior in the’ new’ world’s order. Clouds at the horizon are
thick and charged. And there a silver lining around those clouds:
Juba has become a known spot on Africa’s geopolitical map.
International dignitaries who courageously came in 2005 to pay the
last homage to their peer, Dr John Garang, found it a desolate place
only comparable to an extra terrestrial planet. Six years on the
tally, Juba is taking on an aspect of a modern metropolitan. Its major
circulation arteries are on tarmac, a comfort our late leader lamented
didn’t exist since creation .The town became a Mecca for Sudanese in
search of a political pilgrimage. In September 2009 a sustained
consultation of political parties kept shuttling between Juba and
Khartoum until an umbrella of Juba parties was constituted. But being
driven by conflicting ulterior motives, the forum was simply a
consensus on the consensual.
An extrinsically (northern) engineered insecurity becomes for us a non
avenue. South Sudan is as secure as it has never been before. Foci of
insecurity articulated around abbaction and incitation to contesters
of all shades, simply become a manageable ‘hiccup’. Which secure
nation counts a zero level of insecurity?
Despite the alarming reports of high mortality rates among vulnerable
groups, South Sudan has an efficient net-work of essential drug
distribution to all her ten states. Health professionals are
struggling with available means to change things. We have yet no firm
information on the repercussions of these efforts on the declared
scourages.Timid indicators orient towards a balance tipping in the
direction of a positive change, but at a price of a challenge: to
integrate their health system into a tripod of cost/effective
preventive and curative medical practice, community based
comprehensive and efficient health education and a nationally
patronized health control mechanisms; all cast into a framework of
viable, solid social security protective umbrella.
Illiteracy is a blemish on the flesh of our society. Reliable data on
its rate and prevalence are lacking. The post war ministry of
education is seen by the public to have commendable strides towards
its eradication. Centers of primary education are mush-rooming albeit
in big towns, search for quality is another effort. Indeed, quality
education in colonial and immediate post colonial Sudan was amongst
the best in Africa in a culturally diverse society as ours. However
northern Sudanese pan-Arabists educators thought arabizing the system
would be the best way for the Arab expansion bridge into the depth of
sub Saharan Africa. It might have worked for them, but the
consequences for us are disastrous. The ministry of Education is
working hard to reverse the tide by adopting a new convenient
curriculum. What’s regrettable is our elites’ resort to seek quality
education in the neighborhood’s court yard. We might have educated
southerners, but in the end, definitely acculturalised ones.
Rural South Sudan is mired in a dependency syndrome as a means of
survival. In the hours of distress a philanthropic world mobilized
ambulances to come to her rescue, by providing life-line support. The
actors were the NGOs and their Arial droppings, a disaster in
disguise. Efforts are now operational to change mentalities by
providing civic education aimed at encouraging people to return to
work culture and self reliance rather than entirely depending on
ephemeral god send good Samaritans.
On the contrary a dry season rural Republic of South Sudan is thirsty
despite “its” Nile and uncountable tributaries. The paradox of too
much water and too much thirst needs an objective scrutiny in this
semi- equatorial part of Africa where we have a unique catch man, the
Sudd, the second largest world’s lung after that of the Amazon.
Preserve or exploit it with the attendant risks to the environment and
its echo- system is a dilemma.
In this globalised world, our capital (Juba) voluntarily accepts the
role of a globalised village. On its roll call, most Nations would
respond present except, maybe, Latin America. The signal is strong:
while we are a myriad of ethnically “exclusive” communities, we are
involved in playing the role of implicated actors in a racially
homogenized rainbow in the world’s community of Nations.
The thick clouds are entrenched around the CPA’s original ambiguities.
The CPA is only comprehensive in its inclusion of the six protocols.
Contentious issues that threatened to torpedo the boat of negotiations
were put to “later on”. This has, unfortunately, brought us to an
amputated mechanism where we clearly saw what was wrong without the
necessary mobility to advance towards a solution, except by acrobacy.
Legacy of avoidance of these thorny issues confronted us early on in
the course of CPA application. When faced with power sharing of
sovereign / service ministries, the NCP partner arrogantly arrogated
to herself the sovereign ministries of Defense, Interior, Energy and
Finance. Fearing to nib our cherished baby (CPA) in the bud and with
advice from friends we conceded and willingly accepted the service
ministries of Cabinet Affairs, Higher Education and Foreign Affairs.
Still later on, frustrated by the NCP’s blockage of electoral
protocols (April 2009, Referendum) and easing of restrictive
regulations on civil liberties, the SPLM in December 2007 retaliated
by declaring a self imposed “lock- out” from the government of
National unity until a change of heart brought them back in April
2008. With the advent of referendum a foot-dragging NCP partner
suddenly became aware of the non attractiveness of unity. In a
desperate attempt, she conceded the Energy Ministry only after having
been eviscerated of almost all of its contents in addition to the
creation of a still-born commission of making unity attractive.
After this milestone referendum, how does the Republic of South Sudan
(ROSS) behave with the North and itself? ROSS has two norths:
“southern” Northerners and its geographical North. Southern
Northerners are people to whom we must pay a double allegiance: moral
and pragmatic. Morally, during the struggle our visions converged on a
secular Sudan of equal rights and duties as a ladder of social
ascension. They had the courage to cross the “yellow line” drawn by
their original society to come and fight alongside the “infidels”.
Terms of the CPA application were achieved with their unfailing
support. They consequently become an integral part of us with our
respect to the cultural differences, unless they decide otherwise. A
choice we must respect. This brings us to the next obligation;
pragmatism.
Encouraging them to practice as SPLM Northern sector in a hostile NCP
environment will expose them as fifth columnists. Moreover, pulling
the strings of unity while the gin of separation has come out of the
jar and is slowly permeating every square inch of the one million
square mile surface area of the former united Sudan would for them be
an exercise in mechanical disadvantage. The South’s geographical north
is a huddle. It is at the same time the internationally forced
facilitator of the CPA’s protocols and the mastermind behind the
hanging issues. It would be wrong for the protagonists to play the
scorched earth policy as a leverage to contain the adversary. We must
be prepared to the idea that certain hanging issues can’t be resolved
in a limited time frame but could “hang” as long as possible if we
stick to the principle of dialogue as the least evil means of
achieving a solution/ compromise, for it is what could prevent us from
getting entangled in a protracted war of attrition. Skirmishes at the
Northern limitrophe areas are destabilizing and a psychological trauma
to the victim populations. Lack of a tit- for- tat response, however,
is not a sign of weakness but can be a litmus test on how resistance
to provocation can be-refusing to be goaded into an action whose
consequences could be excessively destructive to both sides. But where
are we from one another? The answer could be the gist of what can
shape our harmony in a successful nation-state. The south born out of
struggle and toil is not necessarily the south that is or simply can
be. It needs other dimensions to make it inclusive, an indispensable,
and a key element to our success. An appraisal of the pre referendum
interim period cannot be banal but evidently indispensable. The
objective isn’t undressing James to cloth Paul but find out in all
sincerity whether all went “well” or there were errors that could be
avoided in the future. In 2005 a triumphant SPLM/A marching to Juba
found itself in a disparate situation: a sitting wealth (dividends on
oil revenues) and a cruelly absent infrastructure. Rare in history
does an “under dog” stumble on a mountain of wealth but common-place
in that this abundance may inevitably lead to misplaced priorities.
Moreover, the liberator, in good faith, came promising a lot to the
too much expectant librated; a discrepancy that failed to fit into
available time frame of the CPA’s application. The vision of towns
going to the rural areas has yet to materialize; towns are still in
towns, more elusive is where the capital of ROSS will definitely sit.
Federalism is an idea that would put all at ease, the governor and the
governed. The present version in which the players are constitutional
post holders poses the important question of its long term
sustainability in terms of cost/effectiveness as the plethora of the
posts imposes an unbearable drain on our nascent economy. The
precedent years were those of “fat cows”. We should now be prepared to
go in for more years of “lean cows”. I n our opinion, constitutional
post holders should be limited to the Federal Government (former
GOSS), the Federal and State legislative Assemblies as well as the
state Governors, as these are elected institutions State ministers,
Commissioners and Secretary Generals by virtue of being appointees
should remain heads of theirs Dept, but affiliated to respective
federal mother units and under the supervision of the Governor.
Generosity and leisure time should be repatriated from government
offices to our homes where they naturally belong. Most government
offices are stuffed with giant screens where the holder spends most
time watching not only news but other diversities. There are sometimes
embarrassing situations where you want to talk to your host only to
discover that his attention is hay jacked by what is happening on the
screen. Did we ever imagine how much money are we paying for these
technological gadgets, with constant change of materials depending on
the taste of the occupant?
Aberrance is the exaggerated generosity in our public offices.
Whenever one enters an office, one is served a cold drink and water
.The episode is repetitive depending on the number of errands or
courtesy calls a visitor has each day. Worst is that some ‘guests’
leave behind almost halve of what has been offered. Suppose a bottle
of water and a can of cold drink each cost one Sudanese pound, how
much per day does our public treasury spend on this surge of absurd
official generosity across our ten states?
The nascent ROSS is under the lime-lights of scrutinizing
local/international communities as to what she might mean to its
people in particular and to the World at large, in terms of existing
standardized norms of good governance and performances. A perfect
nation doesn’t exist. It’s neither our intention to be one. We simply
want to be a successful Nation in the community of nations while
expecting to be given attenuated cir cumstances.The people of South
Sudan with its different components and epochs took under sixty years
of harsh and strenuous struggle to attain its objective-separation, a
difficult dream that has come to its realization ‘too soon’. ROSS is
now inheriting precarious peace time nationhood: a society under the
yoke of tribal animosities, deases, illiteracy, thirst, hunger,
concerns over installation and maintenance of an efficient governance
in a harmonized federal system, preservation of a virgin eco-system
and may be, difficulties in expressing her identity in a globalized
world. While the context might not necessarily fit us we will try to
fit into it.
Dr.Andrew Akon is a lecturer in University of Juba, he can be reached
at [email protected]
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