One Wrong Move Makes the Next Move More Complicated!

By Gatkuoth Majiok Chol,

Opinion.

Dec 06, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — There were some pruritus comments that frequently made by some government officials that put pressure on me to write this article even though I’m not in position to stop them of saying it. As it was written, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone (Romans 5:12)”. The one wrong moved that was made by Salva Kiir had brought death, so death spread everywhere in South Sudan and ruined the entire nation. Without hesitating, the current conflict that lacerated the new nation cause by poor leadership of the president and immersed the country in great mess.

First, we need to acknowledge that South Sudan is belonging to all tribes that inhabitant the land and live within South Sudan soil regardless their religion, ethnic background, language, sex and etc. If this new nation today becomes an animal that has been slaughter, all South Sudanese 64 tribes can divide it equally among themselves piece by piece without seeking any foreign advice. Therefore, the wrong moved that was taken by Salva Kiir to dissolves all South Sudan’s SPLM structures include the political Bureau in mid-November 2013, was the root cause of today crisis. Perhaps, Salva and his close aids thought that it was best strategy to skip from fierce pressure from the members of political bureau of SPLM. However, weight as immature decision that was very rare to be made by any political leader who interesting to maintain peace and unity within the party.

In attempt to escape from reality, some government officials replicated that Dr Riek Machar has make the war as between Nuer and Dinka in order to organized his tribesmen (Nuer). To be realistic, it was just merely the wailing souls of Nuer widows, orphanages and victim’s’ families of genocide in Juba that has echoed the Nuer community world-wide, white armies and some generals in the army to wage war against the government in Juba. In UN genocide convention, the genocide was recognised internationally as a deliberate act of human rights violations and crimes against humanity and one of five prohibited acts committed with intention to destroy, in whole or in part.

The genocide also defines as acts of dehumanisation, where one group denies the humanity of other group. To be sincere, the massacre of unarmed civilians that took place in Juba was one of the most tragic episodes of political violence in our country history. We never experience any kind of this extermination in the country that we call ourselves second citizens (Sudan). Despite that we don’t share same religion, culture or colour, the South Sudanese who were in the north enjoyed and shared the equal rights with northerners and they feels safe, secure in Khartoum or in any other part of Sudan, more than we feel secure today in our own country. Therefore, the response from the white armies and some generals in army was pure human reaction, has been said in Newton third law that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Their response align only with genocide of Nuer civilians and against the injustice that has been done in Juba rather than fighting to support Riek Machar or being mobilised by Riek.

Frankly speaking, the Juba genocide was well organised and well-coordinated and enough to convince the South Sudanese and international communities that president Salva was intent to carry out the genocide of unarmed civilians and fabricated that the war is between Dinka and Nuer. With evident that he is commander in chief of South Sudan national armed forces that killed the powerless and defenceless civilians, rather than shifting it to the Riek Machar. Regardless what has happen, the justice will be done for the injustice, and no any person that involved in war crime, human rights violation and crime against humanity will skip without facing the full complete account of what they have done. We must also understand that the cause of rebel is not for individual, but is the cause of fairness, justice, democracy and equality for all. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent”.

It is fact that any organisations resist change, but resistance it is an inevitable response to any major change in the society and the leader is about the change. As we seen in poor leadership in Juba, it comprises with lack of direction, poor judgment or strategies, lack of interpersonal skills, lack of creativity and innovative and lack of collaboration in decision making. The failure of addressing the injustice and the recognition of genocide of Nuer Civilians has diminished the pride of the nation and erased the beautiful image of the country first independent in 2011. Hence, the poor governance has jeopardized the sustainable development in the country such as lack of access medical service, health facilities, education, political instability and encourage the internal violent among the tribes such as in Lakes State. In matter of fact, South Sudan needs to go under comprehensive institutional, legal systems, justice, and democratic reforms, to convince the entire population that the past mistakes has been realised and correction has been made.

The most significant part of this pardonable genocide is because it took place inside Juba at present of President of the Republic of South Sudan who is Commander-in-Chief of the national armed forces and have responsible to preserve the security of South Sudan, its peoples and to protect their integrity, dignity and interests, while his own national armed forces privately enter under the cover of darkness with his blessing to carried out the mass killing of innocent civilians on 16 and before day break on 17 December 2013.

Base on the above reasons, the president have narrow window to escape of this injustice as long as he failed to attempt to prevent the genocide and failed to direct order to Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs that flow the information between the President, the SPLA and security services. Or to direct order to Minister of interior that have responsible to secure and maintain the South Sudan domestic and border security, or direct orders to General Chief of Staff of SPLA and Inspector General of the South Sudan Police service that were present in Juba during the fighting. Therefore, one wrong moved by Salva to eliminate Riek Machar from power by fake coup for being his problematic in politic, has makes the next move of trust, peace, unity, security and reconciliation more complicated.

Finally, South Sudan is one of beautiful community regardless how differences we may have, still we need each other and we need to embrace our differences. We must also understand that internal conflict doesn’t classify who is hero and who does not, nor winner or loser, there is no benefit or gain. Yes, our differences will exist, we may continue to kills ourselves and hate each other, but at the end of the day, we will sit together as one community and fight for one cause of purpose to defense this nation from any foreign invasion in near future. It is acceptable that mistake exist to any person at anywhere, but a man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them (John Maxwell). This is where the pardon is achievable, relationship restore, heartbroken is healed and cooperation and trust is rebuild. I do understand that peace is most expensive commodity in the world, but without peace the life of people will be endanger, development would be impossible to achieve and the economy would be at risk. Peace comes with tough decision and commitment, and comes within heart.

In order to achieve permanent peace in South Sudan, government must take the lead for peace talk to end the current crisis, with fact that the peace never come from rebel side. We experienced this in previous agreements in Sudan such as Addis-Ababa Agreement in 1972 and Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. It was the government that took the lead to bring peace in the country rather than rebels effort. If we are going to have peace today, we must display a highly develop sense of nationalism in South Sudan and open our hearts to each other. But, if we make peace because we tire to have peace without sincere commitment, dignity and respect, then South Sudan will be like a fox town, where no one will tell truth to each other. Importantly, we need to give the powers of hearts and mind a chance to the work for the cause of the nation building, unity and prosperity of our nation. King Hussein of Jordan said, this is peace with dignity, this is peace with commitment, and this is our gift to our people and the generations to come. It will be real as we open our hearts and minds to each other. Can we afford to have that kind of peace in our country?

Many thanks

The author can be reached at gatkuothchol@yahoo.com.au