By Dak Buoth Riek-Gaak,
April 3, 2022 — On the evening of 3rd April, 2022, I was reluctantly receiving updates and ‘breaking news’ on a rare peace agreement that was written in Arabic which is not even a national language in South Sudan. This act of writing a national peace Accord in foreign language amounts to breach of the constitution and the laws of South Sudan. The law is very clear, for in Article six of the South Sudan transitional constitution 2011, Arabic is not an official language nor a National Language in South Sudan.
English is an official language while other indigenous languages such as Acholi, Bari, Cholo, Didinga, Dinka, Luo, Nuer, Pari to mention a few are our national languages. Vast South Sudanese majority and President Kiir, who is principal signatory to this newly signed agreement cannot read and write in Arabic. so, don’t we think this language issue can hinder the implementation of this agreement? The event of the signing of this agreement occurred at the state house locally known as J-1. CGTN, China state-controlled media posted breaking news on its timeline stated saying ‘‘South Sudan’s rival leaders sealed an agreement Sunday on a key military provision of their faltering peace deal following mediation by neighboring Sudan.’’
In the blink of an eye, Juba based Eye Radio in its online breaking news posted saying that ‘‘peace parties have reached an agreement to end the stalemate over the command structure of the unified forces. The parties have signed a roadmap to chart the way forward on the implementation of the security arrangement of the revitalized peace agreement.’’
Equally, many Facebook accounts and WhatsApp groups were washed with updates and breaking news carrying the same content and communication. Surprisingly, the people sharing and posting these updates and breaking news are doing it with extraordinary excitement like never before.
However, I would say this is wasted jubilation, because these posters have little or no hope that what President Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar have agreed and signed will materialize within the stipulated time frame. But people like me can only stare at the pictures begrudgingly, owing to the fact that this is not the first time the duo signed the agreement on glaring cameras.
In fact, for the last ten years since they plunged our country into this unending political mess, they had signed dozens of peace agreements before the regional and the international leaders, but those agreements remained on paper to date, for they are yet to be implemented to the letter and spirit.
Albert Einstein is still right when he said and I quote ‘‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’’ We would be labeled as mad men and women, if we keep clapping for them when they sign documents that they will hardly implement.
I think we must clap and laugh for genuine reason, otherwise if one is found to be clapping and laughing for nothing, then he is giving reasons for others to think of him not as unsound mind. The only thing we can always do is to keep staring at them with a sign that we are unhappy over their laxity and lack of patriotism.
Over the years, President Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar have signed many documents from cessation of hostilities to agreements on the conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS) yet the conflict is still raging across the country.
In fact, when they posted saying ‘breaking news’, I wondered. I do not know what people mean by breaking news. Is it news for President Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar to sign an agreement? I thought news means something new. Maybe those whose first language is English can make an effort to intervene with a view to help us understand the meaning of such terminologies.
The mother of all dictionaries, online oxford dictionary precisely defined news as ‘‘new information’’, but is it new for the duo to sign an agreement? With this aside, we agree that they had been signing and their problem is in implementation of their agreements. The critical question is: why is there lack of implementation of these agreements? The answer is that the duo is greedy of power to a point that they cannot agree to unite and share power for the sake of the country.
In Latin they say ‘consensus Ad idem’ which means meeting of the minds. There is always no ‘‘meeting of the minds’’ on both feuding sides, and that is the reason why implementation is absent in all agreements that they appended their signatures on. Unfortunately, every time you see them sitting and signing a document relating to the resolution of the conflict, they are doing it by duress.
Veteran Lawyer Abel Alier in his book entitled ‘‘Southern Sudan, too many agreements dishonored’’ talked about past agreements which were never implemented by the previous regimes. But I think President Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar have surpassed the number of agreements that were violated by the previous regimes in Khartoum. Even as we mentioned their names together, it should be known to the world that it’s the former who enjoy violating these agreements with impunity, and time is now for swift action to be taken against anyone who appears to be wasting our time.
Moreover, we have a mediator factor. Remember the Sudan government which now leads the mediation talk has no moral authority to lecture us on peace, because they have bigger problems to resolve first. It is clearly and cleverly stated in the book of Mathew 7:5, that, ‘‘You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see well enough to deal with speck out of your brother’s eyes.’’ Thus, we can even say without fear of contradiction that, the Sudanese government is the one that South Sudan government emulate or imitate when it comes to peace violation, because they flagrantly and recently violated the IGAD brokered agreement signed after the revolution that ousted former Sudanese dictator, Gen. Omar Hassan Al Bashir.
You would concur that for a leader to mediate successfully, he or she must be a role model figure whom people can look up to. Finally, ‘if push comes to shove’’ due to these flagrant violations of the agreement, then we better do away with this agreement by calling a spade a spade.
The Writer is the Chairman of Liech Community Association in Kenya but the views expressed here are his own, and he can be reached for comments via eligodakb@yaho.com
