Sept 8, 2019(Nyamilepedia) — As the next deadline – in a series of missed deadlines – to form the Revitalized Transitional Governent of National Unity (R-TGoNU) looms, we must understand that formation of government is not peace. The government will only be an administrative coalition to implement the provisions of the ‘compromise peace treaty’. It is through the implementation of the provisions of the Agreement, that the unbearable ‘status quo’ can be changed and a conducive environment for peace created. To promote the idea that peace shall be restored in our land because the R-TGoNU has been formed, or because Dr.Riek Machar – or any ’eminent personality’ – has come to Juba’, is ‘mischief’.
The ‘kulang”ni’ mentality – magic in the vernacular of South Sudan – has been a major stumbling block in the peace process and is a threat to our national security. In the world of “objective reality”, things don’t just happen magically. It is through planning and work that things happen – “plan your work and work your plan”, as it were – and the Agreement is the work plan for peace. If we dont do the work of implementing the provisions of the ‘negotiated settlement’, then how exactly is peace supposed to “come”?
The ‘traditional elite’ have associated, “peace”, with ‘power sharing’ and this in itself will not bring peace.
This peace – like the ‘armed struggle’ – is one which must be waged by the ‘best sons and daughters of our land’. The ‘traditional elite’ have a different concept of peace, than that held by the ‘revolutionary forces’ and they are easily identifiable. The ‘traditional elite’ – who have hijacked the state – view peace in the context of maintaining the unbearable ‘status quo’. These ‘dark forces’ have employed ‘intellectual mercenaries to create a narrative which portrays those advocating for ‘fundamental change’, as the obstacle to peace and by extension, the reason for the immense suffering borne by our civil population.
This is ‘mischief’!
There is a Zen saying which teaches that, “the only Zen you find at the top of the Mountain is the Zen you bring with you”. There is a lot of chatter about peace in our ‘national discourse’ but no genuine, factual understanding of what this entails, some of us in positions of responsibility are waiting for the supernatural to save us. We are looking for “national salvation’ from outside – we shall wait “until Kingdom come”. The peace we long for and desperately need can never be given to us by other nations which have their own ‘national interest’, this is naivity on the part of our intellectuals, who have the capacity to disseminate the Agreement so that our citizens can make informed judgements about who the real obstacle to peace is and deal with them accordingly. The Agreement has provisions to address the humanitarian crisis, the defunct economy, justice and accountability, parameters for a permanent constitution; the major issues that will give the edifice of our state, firm foundations.
Anyone in our country talking about peace within the context of the unbearable ‘status quo’, can only be a beneficiary of the ‘immense suffering’ the ‘power elite’ preside over. The ‘traditional elite in the government’ and the ‘traditional elite in the opposition’ – whose only quarrel is the division of the ‘national pie’ – are comfortable with only implementing Chapter I of the Agreement. They have reduced peace to power sharing, which means jobs for them. But, in the absence of a functional economy, what access will our civil population have to means of production? It is a mirage of peace if it does not move us out of abject poverty, into wealth.
Anything short of this is ‘mischief’!
There can be no genuine peace if there is a weak, out of touch administration. If we dont institute ‘radical reforms’ in our country – fix the broken economy and broken judicial system – then we shall be plagued with ‘permanent war’. The intercommunal violence which is used by the ‘power elite’ to divide our peoples and thus cling to power, originates in our villages as civil cases. If there is no legal recourse and our civil population feels disenfranchised, communities end up taking the law into their own hands. This has been the ‘status quo’ since the days of ‘colonialism’ and ‘slavery’ and the historic struggle of our peoples has always been to end this unbearable ‘status quo’. The ‘power elite’ – who are the custodians and beneficiaries of the ‘status quo’ – will never implement themselves out of power.
The peace we yearn for will never come from outside ourselves. If there is no genuine desire in our hearts for peace – which means implenting the Agreement – then the ‘war of attrition’ beimg waged by the Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) regime shall continue; and naturally, so shall our peoples resistance to this oppression. The ‘looming peace’ can only bring war , because there is no political will. If volitle chemicals are assembled for an experiment and they explode and the experimwnt is repeated and we observe the same results, then we should not repeat it a third time if the desired outcome is not another volatile explosion. If the SPLM/SPLA (IO) – through ‘mischief’ – is forced to go to Juba and the provisions of the Agreement neglected, then we will eventually slide back to war. There will be no difference in the political dispensation from 2013, we can’t create the same atmosphere which precipitated the civil war and expect that something miraculous is going to happen. Except for this peace being a voluntary and deliberate action on our part as leaders and citizens, the hatred will still manifest under the immense pressure of ‘objective reality.
“Tonignt’s meditation” is not intended to offend anyone, it is just a small contribution to our ‘national conversation’. It is an attempt to ‘manage our ‘ expectations’, as we have been ‘bamboozled’ into thinking that we will get peace through ‘kulang’ni’ and that will never happen. Our intellectuals should ‘man and woman up’ and perform our civic duty, it is only Junubeen – South Sudanese in the vernavular – who can restore sanity to our beloved patria.
I close by leaving part of the pre-amble of the Agreement which unified our peoples’ movement in 2002:
PREAMBLEÂ OF THE NAIROBI DECLARATION ON UNITY
BETWEEN THE SPLM/SPLA AND SPDF (5 JANUARY, 2002)
The leader of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLM/SPLA), Dr. John Garang de Mabior
AND
The leader of the Sudan Peoples Democratic Front and Sudan People’s Defence Force (SPDF), Dr. Riek Machar Teny;
MEETING in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 5th, 2002 on their own without the benefit of external mediation and pressure;
HAVING EVALUATED the situation of war and peace in the Sudan and the way forward for the just resolution of the conflict;
CONVINCED that the unity of our people is paramount for the success of the liberation struggle;
CONCERNED of the recalcitrant and bellicose attitude of the NIF regime and its rejection of the Right of Self-determination for the people of South Sudan including Abyei, and Southern Blue Nile, Southern Kordofan and other marginalized areas of the Sudan, while imposing at the same time an Islamic state in the country;
ALARMED by the determination of the NIF regime to impose an Islamic state and dictatorship on the people of the Sudan and perpetuate it by all means;
DETERMINED to halt the vandalization and wanton looting of our oil and other natural resources and their use for prosecution of the war by the illegitimate, fascist and Islamic Fundamentalist regime in Khartoum;
FULLY AWARE that a united stand is the only sure way to bring the war to a just and speedy end;
HEREBY AGREE …
A luta continua!
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