Hypocrisy of the founding history of South Sudan BY: Nhomlau e' Wiel, JUBA
NOV. 27/2011, SSN; Five and half decades ago, a young south Sudanese who was an army officer, maj Gen Emedio Tafeng Odongi led what is known as Torit mutiny against the arch enemy in Khartoum to determine the aspiration and dignity of people of south Sudan. That very mutiny later on gave birth to formation of Anyanya one which negotiated peace with Khartoum in 1972. An agreement that did not live up to it terms. A good number of south politicians in the personalities of William Deng Nhial, who led SANU within Sudan, had called for unity of the Sudan based on federal governance while guys like Aggrey Jaden, Joseph Oduho and of course, Joseph Lagu included and many others, called for the total independence of south. Apparently, in 1983, Dr. Garang and his likes took up arms against Khartoum to dismantle the system of oppression, injustice and of inequality and to have it replaced with a workable system of equality and justice where every citizen of the Sudan should be treated with dignity and respect. That there shouldn’t be a second class citizen in his own country and that was a call well heeded to across the country Sudan by the most oppressed and marginalised people of the Sudan. People who were regarded as second class citizens of South, Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile and recently of Darfur hearkened to the very voice of dignity, liberty and freedom. Considering the wars of liberations and lives lost, one would know that the new nation of South Sudan was founded on a very rich history of liberation and freedom characterised by aspiration of the people to sustain, restore and reclaim lost dignity and respect of south Sudanese people that so many generations after generations have given up their lives to martyrdom for the creation of a free nation. However, given the six years of Juba semi-self-government and now with the independent nation government, things aren’t looking good and none is up to the people’s expectations. The hopes that people of south Sudan were going to have most things within reach and above all to live a decent live has seemingly faded away. Moreover, the dream that people of south were going to live freely and speak their minds without intimidation has turned into a nightmare. The very people who have toiled for so long a time with the hope of creating own nation based on fundamental principles of liberty, equality, justice and above all democracy are likely subjected to the same fate they have long rejected and fought against. One does not wish that all expectations are to be met at a go but there should be priorities that need a quick fix in order to give and reclaim people’s hope and to see and feel the result of their hard work that they have endured for long time and fought for. Things like freedom and dignity need to be guaranteed and that can give people a sigh of relief and can assure them of government living up to their dreams. Freedom by definition means being unrestricted, the power of self-determination, independence of fate and being free to act and to speak. On the contrary, some few individuals who happen to be in authority or those who gripped themselves to power through crooks and hooks would just look down on people with despise and contempt. We the people are supposed to be equal and all human beings of all walks of lives; be it a president, be it a minister, be it an army general, be it a watchman, be it a peasant or a cattle keeper, all are equal and specifically before the law. Conclusively, any attempts by anyone by taking laws into their own hands to directing state apparatus and state powers to scare and deter by instilling fear into people of South Sudan and robbing them from living free life is a complete hypocrisy and traitorous to our founding history of South Sudan. By: Nhomlau e’ Wiel. The writer is a South Sudanese living in Juba. He can be reached on [email protected] COMMENTS, PLEASE CLICK HERE Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author(s) and do not represent those of the website. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" 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/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
