By Dr. Hakim Dario,
July 21st, 2018(Nyamilepedia) — Many South Sudanese the world over have had sleepless nights wondering and thinking deeply about what was going on in Khartoum lately as the world watched on from 25th June till 18th July 2018. And of the many questions that people in opposition, in Diaspora and back home asked of themselves, and addressed to SPLM-IO and SSOA members were:
Did we fight all these years, leaving thousands dead, millions displaced, again millions driven into refuge, and the toll of suffering on all South Sudanese because we want a president who wants to die in office surrounded by five vice presidents, 35 Ministers, 10 deputy Ministers, 550 MPs and 50 senators, 32 Governors, 32 state legislative assemblies and their MPs?
All these to do what? What was the ideology of the war and opposition to Kiir’s JCE regime, to just end in number games? Isn’t this cost of Kiir Revitalization sickening and troubling?
It is now urgent to question all SSOA members and Dr. Riek Machar, if they still intend to carry on continuing this sham game of numbers in Khartoum to revitalize Kiir at such high cost to the country and the people. Where are the people in all this sham number games? “Revitalization of Kiir” is made more attractive by three to four, or five Vice Presidents, including one for each new comer in the form of SSOA and another SPLM-FDs incarnate in the form of a woman. It’s not surprising that the number of permutations has jumped from three Vice Presidents to four and five, and keeps oscillating for now to make signing KRA 2018 more attractive to SSOA on 26th July 2016.
We are at a cross roads, let those in opposition, IO, SSOA not abandon the people, but develop a very clear message to our people, that we have refused the sham number game because we are concerned about them. We wanted a lean Federal government of three (3) autonomous regions with their administrative areas, Presidency Council of three (3) one from each region, three (3) Governors one for each region agreed by the people of the region, because we wanted resources to go to them: the people in their region, for their reconstruction, health, education, alleviation of poverty, and development in general during the transitional period.
We in opposition do not subscribe to feeding elite parties’ bellies at the people’s expense. The bloated government underpinned by KRA proposal make elite parties target position in government first in order to have or buy a constituency for themselves later on using government. The parties to KRA 2018 proposal do not want to put the people, their constituency, first in order to be in government!
As Dr. Peter Adwok Nyaba has written and spoken about it in a string of postings one after another for so long now, we lack a unifying vision or ideology to steer the ship and the people through the storms of pre and post independence. The ship is now afloat with precious wealth aboard it sailing in high seas at the mercy of storms and local pirates to capture the wealth aboard the ship.
As a people, elites and tribes or political formations, we have without shame failed to govern ourselves, calling in the neighbours to take charge and arbitrate the affairs of our governance and existence of a whole country, and even dictate to us how we should govern with a meaningless and sham number games.
It’s not so difficult and insurmountable for our people to agree the simplest of structures that would help rebuild trust and the broken social fabric in South Sudan, by adopting a Federal system with a lean government based on a new social contract of the people in three (3) autonomous regions with their administrative areas, three (3) governors, Presidency council of three (3), one from each region by rotation, and a small Transitional Federal government of National Unity (TFGoNU).
This simplest of structures can be elaborated to add more value in the constitution making process. It offers a more people-centric approach to power sharing on the basis of 33.33% per region with their administrative areas. The people of South Sudan in all the three regions can make such agreement work for them, not for any elite party’s vested interests to rule with impunity. The people must regain their sovereignty that is vested in them and not in SPLM-IG, SPLM-IO, SPLM-FDs, nor in SSOA. Let us choose the people to exercise political power over the affairs of their existence and governance. On this, agreement on a new social contract is possible which would create the opportunity for people and the country to break with its ugly and ruptured social fabric towards a new future in which the people are truly sovereign over their wealth, and natural resources without pirates lurking in their decision making and exercise of political power without strings attached! Time to say enough is enough. It is time for NADAFA of the mess in the country.
Dr. Hakim Dario is the chairman of People Democratic Party. He can be reached for more information at press@pdm-rss.org
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