By. Mak Banguot Gok (Makjohnson),
Edited by Nyamilepedia editorial team
May 30, 2021 – The ideal implementation of the Revitalized Agreement of the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) is what almost all the South Sudanese are agreeing on that it is not being implemented by the warring parties in Juba. Faithful commitment to the agreement by those well-known schemers of ethnocentrisms hardly exists. Even when citizens are hearing the mere pronouncements and that the half-done installation of R-TGoNU from Juba down to the counties levels is equally the same disputed fact. The urgency of the people’s needs and the level of human sufferings in the country is somewhat a necessity more than a politically maneuvered response action by whoever claims to be heading the government in Juba. If South Sudanese people are expected to act accordingly, then there are genuine desires for more on this subject of actual peace implementation. “Positive Peace versus Negative Peace Dilemma” is what is driving the South Sudan nation today.
Without referring you to detailed parts the violations of peace agreement, generally the R-ARCSS in its relativity is not being implemented and South Sudanese are aware that the parties to the peace agreement are politically acting, and indeed the Jiang-led genocidal regime is detrimentally making almost everything motionless and impossible. We have plenty of convincing justifications that the so-called peace agreement is not going on well. Therefore, there are still critical needs for more powers to apply in persuasion of the accustomed oppressors in Juba into the recommitment and implementation of the Revitalize Peace Agreement in letter and spirit.
The secret agenda of the Jiang-led regime in Juba is not allowing any orderly and/or structural form of political scheming to go on. If there were to be patriotic political wills, the Jiang-led regime in Juba should not have wasted nearly three years in vain. South Sudan would have reached its recuperation stage as a result of a well established political system and in accordance with the essential articles of the peace agreement.
Before anything, a Security Arrangement phase would have been the first to have been implemented in the inception of a pre-transitional period. A necessary unified force and amalgamation process of the warring forces into a single national defense force should have followed. The second most important phase of the agreed document was to be the Constitutional Review process that guarantees an impartiality of the R-TGoNU during its formation. The third step had to be re-institutionalization of the National Legislature to mention only a few in sequence. None of the above has happened.
Instead, the parties in Juba are wasting time and resources on accommodation of politicians whereby the citizens hear only the appointments and removals of government posts’ holders. These core of the concerns are coupled and evidenced with the unimplemented security arrangements; prevailing wave of fragmentation by the political parties and groups; sharp and deeper tribalized politicization of the South Sudan defense force; continuously unstopping corruption and maladministration by unreformed public services; no rule of law but of a man; the dependency of the South Sudan’s judicial system on one man’s decision and suppression of the freedom of press and mass media; most frightening intimidation causing lack of popular participation in a decision making process; South Sudan’s relying on illegal constitution; the nation’s nonexistence of socioeconomic infrastructures throughout the country; widespread security dilemma and uncertainties just to mentions only a few.
This is how South Sudan is regarded today. And, on the topic of South Sudanese with the current peace implementation process, citizens are caught in mediocrity. Hence. We don’t really understand what is in and out of the box in regard to the resolution of the conflicts in South Sudan. Is the country still in active war or how are we the citizens believing in its halting?
With the current socio-political situation, South Sudanese are to reasonably rule out that our country is a failing state. This is because, the total ingredient onto which a nation-state maintains its sovereignty is not even approached. The vital phases of the agreement which has an essential relationship with people’s feelings as if there is a realistic change in their sufferings isn’t the one being implemented in Juba. Simply to say, with the current peace process, South Sudan still in a midst of crisis with the problem of state building and territorial integration; problem of nation-building without citizens ‘realization of the ideal of national integration; problem of political participation with large number of political parties and others organized groups demanding participation in decision-making are not allows; problems of distribution as to how national wealth and opportunities should be given to all people in the ten states without any artificial discrimination on some grounds to mention only few.
Therefore, the peace agreement with its current status coup, South Sudan is in a midst of identity crisis and people don’t go by the identification with their territorially delimited country but on tribes, regionalism; the country is faced by the legitimacy crisis because even under the auspice of R-ARCSS, there is no proper responsibility and accountability of the government to the people; even in pretext of the R-TGoNU being formed, penetration crisis still existing where there is no government reaching down to the lowest levels and touching the daily lives of the people outside Juba; meanwhile, absence of the law of land make a participation crisis because, the existing status coup is not giving all parties the freedom to participate in decision-making for a genuine democratic purpose; therefore, South Sudan is still in a severe integration crisis where there is no governmental system of interacting relationship amongst the officers and with the articulating citizens; and, more importantly, the country is caught up in a distribution crisis because of the corrupt governmental powers in Juba that does not allow equal distribution of resources and others opportunities to the people of South Sudan.
For a nation-state to fully prevail in the face of liberal Democratic political world, and, which are also recognized during the negotiations of the South Sudanese peace agreement by the negotiating and drafting parties, there is a need for immediate establishment of a functional government here in South Sudan. A government which recognizes the urgent need for adaptability where there are long, regular and disciplined chains of leadership ready to welcome new changes and adapting political and economic institutions accordingly; a government which observes the complexity of the network of institutions with each government agency in Juba to carrying its responsibility in a more or less free manner without interfering into the domain of others or without facing any interference from others’ sides; a government which recognizes an autonomy of its governmental institutions with all the government institutions here in Juba to have their clearly defined sphere of activity and so one of institution or person such as, the presidential security advisory board and/or Presidential Security Advisor-Tut for example, may not be a hindrance or source of interferences to others; and more importantly, a government with coherence and a degree of consensus among different governmental associations and institutions due to which, unity prevails in its system. Therefore, with all the above-mentioned uncertainties, we have good reasons to generally term the current peace implementation as somewhat stuck in the midst of impassibility due to the irresponsibility and unfaithfulness of the very enemy in Juba.
And, if the main obstacle such as, the source of rigidity, simplicity, subordinations, incoherence or disunity are identified to be groups in Juba, the only answer one should give is that, the SPLM/A-IO which have started the revolution is on its expedition to the radical change will makes it through when R-ARCSS comes to its final relapse. Insofar, the main subjects of reestablishing a nation of reasons to live and remain untouched, we simply understand that revolution is going on even if that shall be in a variety of techniques.
As too many surprises, some of individuals from within the SPLM-IO ‘movement’s very nucleus inner, and, indeed, a good enthusiasts of the revolution are entirely, and, without properly sorting out the consequences of their feeble actions, started threatening to gives up in some ways or altogether their revolutionary participations. Why? The answer is simply as that, because the tactical delaying of the peace implementation process in Juba caused an outraced massive frustration. Those with a nature of lousy moral characters, of inconsistencies, of uncommon political consciousness, and who have once joined unsuspectingly the SPLM/A-IO-led liberation struggle, are starting lowering their senses of patriotism and enthusiasm on the SPLM/A-IO. And, the majority resorted to unjust blaming of the SPLM-IO leadership for not performing miraculous moves to end the revolution.
Some of them who are overplaying the enemy’s card are ending up accusing the SPLM-IO Chairman of turning the SPLM-IO movement’s prime objective into somewhat privately benefiting his own families; of accommodating only his own relatives and well-wishers in framework of the current peace implementation; of leaving behind the SPLM-IO movement’s politico-military strengths in bewilderments and consorted with unworthy kinds of ‘political opportunists; and more importantly, they are wagging baseless accusations upon Dr. Riek Machar of submitting the SPLM-IO movement’s political objective to the very enemy in Juba. Some of the SPLM-IO ‘foes are extremely going wild to the point that, they miserably opting and insisting on for unnecessary reformation agenda that inciting few of the SPLM-IO followers toward developing hatred and disloyalty against the SPLM-IO Chairman, Dr. Riek Machar. None of the above is a conventional rationale to accept as true.
If someone see that peace implementation process is taking too long, and, may be the long and painful waiting is surpassing his/her endurance capacity, then, the best choice for that person would have been to quit the SPLM-IO movement and switching political allegiance to any of the party or political movement that suits his/her own immediate expectations. And, when someone is in process of leaving the SPLM-IO movement for any of their own reason, he/she better don’t do it in a pretext that, the SPLM-IO movement, and indeed, the revolutionary movement’s Chairman, Dr. Riek Machar, is losing the political weight in the face of today’s South Sudan political spectrum. This claim is irrelevant and isn’t making sense given the reality of the political situation on the ground. The SPLM-IO movement is winning the battles and there is no doubt that the position held by the movement’s leader has been clear and firm with the objective of altering the status of the coup in Juba entirely. This prime objective is what Dr Machar is toiling against all the way to the current state of affairs.
And, without doubts, the SPLM-IO Chairman is more than anyone of his kind, committing to the architecture of the most expected change in South Sudan anytime. In a course of time, this objective is surely realistic no matter how long and thorny the roads are to complete the change of South Sudan’s political maps. However, given the level of difficulties in Juba today, I don’t think anyone with a reason to judge politics in the context of our society can hold responsible Dr. Riek Machar or the entire leadership of the SPLM-IO for not being a success. Those who are blaming or disparaging the SPLM-IO movement for any delays in the current peace implementation process are showing a significant deficiency of objective reasoning. They are the ones ending up believing in legends and ill-projection by the SPLM-IO movement’s enemies. And, with accuracy, those of you who reprimand the SPLM-IO Chairman for whatever might be your own reason, are best described as doing so in a reflection of the fact that, none of you may take the lead and encounter the same ennui job as what Dr. Riek Machar is doing today.
The real problem which Dr. Machar is combating today was a well entrenched tribalized political demagoguery that has its roots in the political history of South Sudan for decades. Be informed that there is no shortcut or a quick fixed solution today or anytime soon to end such a tribalized political entrenchment similar to the Jiang-led status coup in Juba. It’s not an easy job, and therefore, one shouldn’t think he/she can do it better than Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhuorgon. If you knew that the problem in Juba is more structural than an average imagination, you should have at least understand that the same tribalized hegemony that is being battled by Dr. Riek Machar today through the SPLM/A-IO could have as well faced you if anytime you had happened to be in the same position Dr. Riek Machar is in today!
The author, Mark Johnson is a concerned citizen. He can be reached through email for more information at johnsonmak61@gmail.com.
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