GoSS incompetence let Sudan get away with border demarcation BY: Peter Abraham, RSS
Quote: "Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it..,” Franz Fanon. MAY 02/2012, SSN; When I was a young boy at cattle camp, I remember that a young boy does who not know how to milk cows should ask other friends who know for help. Often these friends may be bigger boys who have their own cows to milk thus they may refuse to offer help. When the boys accept to offer their help, they could either milk the cow in a rush or with biasness to avoid any future request for help from the boy. Milking the cow in a rush may mean that the boy who helps in milking on behaves of the other boy may just milk the cow half way and allow the calf to feed on. The boy whom the cow has been milked may have no choice but to accept the little amount of milk obtained from the cow. Because of the little amount of milk obtained out from the cow; the incompetent boy may go hungry throughout the day. The following morning this incompetent boy has a choice to either ask the same boy for help again or go for another boy in the camp. Since boys are always boys, there is always a likelihood that the other boy may do the same trick to the incompetent friend. This game is played not only to avoid being frequently asked for help but to allow the incompetent one to catch up and to quickly learn how to milk his cows. A result of the game, in the end, makes the incompetent boy speed up his practice of milking skill otherwise the other boys will always cheat him and benefit from him. South Sudan has to be conscious or her cows will often be milked in rush. International bodies may help to milk South Sudan’s cows but not to the satisfaction of the South Sudanese. Unless South Sudan’s government quickly catches up to stand on its own feet - be it economically, politically or military - no one can stand tall to fulfill South Sudanese interest. When South Sudan divorced off from North Sudan in July last year, Khartoum had been playing an older boy's game. It has been a norm in Khartoum to cheat South Sudanese government because South Sudan’s government, in Khartoum’s eye, is incompetent. Such a game has been played since CPA days. In fact Khartoum’s government was not implementing CPA in good spirit. The document was not honored to its letters. While South Sudan was very much aware of Khartoum bad spirit toward CPA, its government did claim that its eyes were picked on big mantra of the CPA- the referendum. Referendum article, within CPA, for South Sudanese was indeed an outstanding article. However, it was a mistake not to demarcate borders before referendum. SPLM should have forced Khartoum to accept borders demarcation. For a referendum with fluid, lousy undefined borders is a recipe for perpetuation of war between North and South Sudan. South Sudan’s government incompetence made Khartoum get away with key towns along borders. Had it not been for South Sudan’s government weakness, borders demarcation article of the CPA could have been implemented before the referendum. And should Khartoum had been defiant on borders demarcation as it always does, South Sudan’s government should have listed all the contested areas along the borders and copied the IGAD, the USA, the Africans Union, Arabs league, the United Nations and Europeans Union with copies of the list of contested areas. Without any hint of doubt, had Juba’s government done such a simple act, recent pressure exerted on Juba to withdraw from Panthou could have been averted. The world powers have been fooled by Arabs cheating savvy to believe that Panthou/Heglig is not a contested area; that it belongs to North Sudan! Such blatant lie is known to some citizens in North Sudan and to all people of South Sudan. However, the World powers are currently convinced that Panthou/Heglig is exclusively Northern. International community took such a weird stance because Juba’s government is weak diplomatically. Just like boys in cattle camps, politics among /between countries is steered on interests. The basic principle of today's politics is not about whose side is right but whose side would my National interests be served! Or for that matter, which side is gullible and malleable to kneel down just for the sake of peace! Even big international bodies like UN, EU and the AU have interests. Africans Union, for example, is offsetting South Sudan’s interest for North Sudan just because the latter is much more willing to wreak havoc in the region if its interest is not met. This has been the case in all negotiations in Ethiopian capital! While Khartoum’s government has been bombing South Sudan’s territories since August last year with pretext that South Sudan government is helping North Sudan rebels, neither the UN nor the AU intervened. Whether or not South Sudan’s government helps North Sudan rebels, Khartoum should have been held accountable for its indiscriminate bombardments. For the past 21 years of Khartoum civil wars against South Sudan rebels whose supports were visible from countries of Libya in mid 1980s; Ethiopia and Uganda, Khartoum, for all those years had never attempted to launch air or ground strikes against Libya, Ethiopia and Uganda, even when Khartoum knew that SPLA was being back up by such countries. For now peace is not an option at borders of North and South Sudan. Peace is going to come after borders demarcation. Apparently, Khartoum is not willing for the borders to be demarcated for they know that a genuine, fair and partial demarcation will bring both Abyei and Panthou to South Sudan. To bring Khartoum to its senses to accept demarcation, South Sudan’s government must step up its diplomatic stance. The World must be informed fully. And by steering its diplomatic wheels South Sudan’s government should, firstly, listen to her citizens. Our foreign affairs minister, Nhial Deng Nhial, should resign his post. He has betrayed South Sudan mission twice. His voice, despite uproar from his counterpart in Khartoum, was not heard on recent engagement in Heglig. Perhaps our foreign relation minister has not yet discovered his mission for South Sudan or he has just betrayed it. Nhial quit his post as minister for external relations in 2006, a move which baffled many. His recent failure to articulate our position to the World, however, proves his incompetency. President Kiir must listen to us. Nhial must resign his post. Our government must look further beyond knee jerk appointments of ministers meant to satisfy tribes or clans. Foreign relations ministry is by no means a Warrap state’s ministry. The ministry, too, doesn’t belong only to Dinka tribe. Kiir should reshuffle his cabinet and give this ministry to a competent guy in one of the nine other states other than Warrap. We have too many educated, articulate individuals from Equatoria States, Upper Nile States, Lake State, Northern and Western Bhar el Ghazel. By Peter Abraham. Email: abraham kuol [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.
