To President Kiir
“Your Excellency, accepting and expediting a national dialogue is not
a political defeat and not containing the ongoing crisis, that has
forced innocent civilians hiding in the bushes for fear of their
lives, will defeat the purpose of our hard won independence”.
23 December 2013
To General and President Kiir Mayardit
>From David Mabior Atem Kui
Ref: Expedite National Dialogue to Prevent Full Scale Civil War:
It is with grief I am writing this open letter to you Mr. President.
The growing rebellion, frustrations and deaths in some parts of South
Sudan portrays and betrays South Sudanese’s hard-won independent
nation as publicized in different media outlets. This is not a right
time for me to point-fingers or pose closed ended question, which will
not help our situation with ripple effects upon our nation. The
necessary question in this particular moment is what can we do to save
the lives of our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, children and our
comrades in uniform? For my own conviction, I would rather not use
some of the terminologies such as foiled, alleged and attempted coup
as reported by the different media to try and described the prevailing
situation. Rather I see it as lack of common national cohesion and
identity, where one’s identity is not based on ethnicity. We must
instill in our people a culture of seeing ourselves as South Sudanese
instead of viewing ourselves as Dinka, Nuer and Acholi and so on.
Our beloved nation is overwhelmed with loss of lives and property
damages in some areas of South Sudan. In your media briefings on
December 19, 2013 that “your vow to stop conflict escalating into
civil war as well as accept dialogue with Dr. Riek Machar’s group” was
indeed a welcoming news to prevent our nation from unwarranted civil
war. Mr. President, be an exemplary of peace and reconciliation
initiative that you suspended and reinstated with the formation of the
religious committee to oversee national peace and reconciliation.
Being a leader comes with a lot of compromise. In an entrusted
leadership as of your case, being an authority mean you are in very
challenging position where citizens of your nation can read you from
the gestures. Therefore, choice of words is very important. Use of
soft and diplomatic language will send a signal of trust and drive
people toward national dialogue to bring peace and eliminate
widespread of rumors that one group is being targeted. That way; you
prevent an escalation of ongoing situation and protect and promote
peace and reconciliation among your people of hard-won independence,
where our soil was flooded with bloods of our martyrs, your colleagues
and comrades in the SPLA/M.
As one of the founding member of the SPLA/M you are responsibility for
the history of our struggle and nation. If South Sudan disintegrates
at your watch you would be blamed by the dead and alive, especially
your colleagues and our comrades in the SPLA/M. Please kindly take a
moment by yourself without any interference from other people around
you and then, meditate and reflect, in order to recall or remember how
many challenges we encountered in the movement and what we did to
overcome them? Mr. President, when it comes to the course of our
struggle I trust you. Your experience and sole judgment would do a
better service to our nation than welcoming and accommodating
destructive ideas. Therefore, listen to yourself and follow what your
heart tells you to do for our nation to move forward. Being a
president automatically puts you in-charge of our national history and
anything you do will be recorded against your name but not others. As
president of the Republic of South Sudan and Chairman of the SPLM, the
ruling party, it would be much appreciated if you could re-evaluate
and revisit the course of South Sudanese’s struggle!
The following are my suggestions and recommendations to prevent and
reverse our nation from current trends:
Televised messages from the said community’s elders are not
helping or clarifying the widespread rumors that one group is being
targeted. Three messages at ago: calling for calm, attacking
individual’s personalities and trading accusations or pointing fingers
at current situation without planned of actions are not helpful at all
given the nature of our societies. A tone of peace is different from
the tone of war. I am writing this letter full with emotional feeling
but I try to control myself in order to fine-tune my language for a
purpose of communicating my idea(s);
Mr. President, swallow your pride and bitterness, and speed up
national dialogue process as well as be consistent with your offer for
said dialogue with Machar’s group. It will save lives of the citizens
that you devoted your life time for their course;
Evaluate advises from others, even however, close someone may be
to you, including your allies. Any mistake from others will be
recorded against your name not their names. History of struggle and
South Sudan future will judge you (president) but not your
surroundings. You were left behind by God for a reason and that
reason is what I am conveying to you (Mr. president);
Mr. President, while you should not distance yourself from any
citizen, but I would suggest that you assess the closeness and advice
from some of those you pardoned with your presidential degrees. Some
might use an ongoing situation within the SPLM party or South Sudan to
further their personal interests; including hatred toward individuals
of your camp during our “dark days”. Furthermore, organizational
differences should not be used as an opportunity for pursuing personal
interests;
Re-evaluate and revisit the state of those recently arrested for
the future of South Sudan. Structural issues within the party should
not override the long recorded national archive of our collective
struggle to liberate South Sudan. The more you (president) let these
issues drag on the more destructive it is to our party and nation at
large. An English proverb says that the devil you know is better than
an angel you don’t know. Mr. President listens to yourself and
follows your heart!
Dispatch peace and reconciliation committee members to various
areas with help of UNMISS that will substitute televised messages. The
said community elders can join peace committee to deliver a message of
calm face-to-face. Also, constituency members of most affected areas
should join peace committee, if the environment promise;
We still have other pending external issues so resolving our
internal matters in a timely manner will allow us to regroup ourselves
and then keep building on our current momentum. This current crisis
may justify others’ prediction that South Sudanese people cannot rule
themselves.
In conclusion, expediting your offer for national dialogue will save
lives. When a real course of dialogue is in progress then the message
of calm and peace will be disseminated and articulated than what
appeared in the news. Mr. President let’s do it differently to avoid
this notion of killing each other first and then peace at the end; as
has been the practice of many failed states. Mr. President, energize
yourself and speed up the process of dialogue for the sake of our
martyrs, widows, and orphans, children and South Sudan as a nation.
David Mabior Atem Kuir – Winnipeg, Canada, Manitoba. He can be
reached at: [email protected]
Posted in: Opinions, Open Letters
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