By Sirir Gabriel Yiei Rut,
Opinion.
October 27, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — The level of hate, anger and malice is simply astounding. The vile and toxic language that is routinely used defies all forms of human decency. We are caught up in this conundrum of heightened intolerance, disrespect and vulgarity. Brother has turned against brother and sister has turned against sister.
This is now a mumbo-jumbo spectacle of tongue-lashing and hate-filled malicious slandering and lewd propaganda.
South Sudan is on a knife edge. All caution has now been thrown to the wind as the struggle for political supremacy and economic dominance has entered the home stretch.
It is now dog-eat-dog. It’s now gloves off as the moment of reckoning is fast approaching. Where to South Sudan? Which way are we heading towards as an otherwise civilized nation? Is it all doom and gloom? Is there any logic in this madness?
We want to build a Federal Nation which will be South Sudan and as such we have to dismantle the spirit of hate, anger and intolerance that is permeating the nation; across the political divide. South Sudan is our beloved country and we, all of us, are obliged to be patriotic, respectful and indeed tolerant of different and sometimes, opposing political and religious views and convictions.
It is simply not feasible to build a great and progressive nation on a foundation of anger, intolerance, hate and malice. There should be unity in diversity.
We cannot afford the idiotic luxury of lambasting and publicly humiliating those amongst us whom we think are our enemies and political adversaries. There can be no homogeneity of ideas and political views in any nation.
It is simply impossible to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach when you are dealing with human beings. Human beings are very unique organisms; each one of us with a perfectly distinct set of fingerprints even if we are otherwise identical twins.
Thus, any attempt to package all South Sudanese into one political envelope will be as unwise as it is bizarre and impracticable.
South Sudan is at a historic turning point; make no mistake about that. We have now reached a defining moment in our national political discourse.
Going forward, South Sudan will never be the same again. The generation of yesteryear nationalists is now reaching the tail-end of their political careers.
Much as this generation might want to hold on to political power and appear to be defying the whims and fantasies of Mother Nature; but the long and short of it is that South Sudan has now entered a completely new phase in our national political tapestry.
We shall be witnessing a lot of political reconfiguration and regrouping in the not-too-distant future. Trust me. By the time we hold Election in a year I will not mention, the political landscape will be so very different and complex from what it is at the present moment in time. This is typical of dialectal materialism.
Nothing remains in an unchanged state forever. That’s the way it is and indeed that’s the way it is always going to be.
Whilst the national economy continues to be on life support in the intensive care unit, the ruling SPLM-Juba Faction party seems to be apparently lost in a maze of endless political factional bickering and mudslinging.
Of late, we have witnessed a complete abdication of governmental responsibility. In SPLM-Juba, things have completely fallen apart; the center can no longer hold. To all intents and purposes, SPLM has effectively split into at least two extremely antagonistic and opposing factions.
These two factions hate each other with a passion. There is certainly no love lost between these two opposing factions of the “revolutionary” party. Instead of attending to serious matters of State, of late, we have witnessed bootlicking Nuer (loyalist) Members of Parliament (MPs)making a beeline to show a fake deal to deceive President Kiir to work out mobilization in devastating areas control by mighty white army, will that bear fruits? Or it’s a contract to steal President Kiir’s money this time……………..?
Otherwise respectable men and women were reduced to puppets childishly cheering on their puppeteer as the latter huffed and puffed; blurting out toxic hate language and malicious propaganda against perceived political adversaries. Some of us had seen this coming a long time ago. SPLM effectively split several Months ago. This is now just the moment of reckoning. The chickens are simply coming home to roost.
South Sudanese should flatly and resolutely refuse to be trashed, used and abused. We should say a resounding NO to the creation of a family dynasty to run this country.
For how long shall we continue to be this docile as our country is taken to the dogs? This is the time for all well-meaning patriots to stand up and protest! Enough is enough!
Surely, we cannot see our beloved country jumping from the frying pan into the fire and we still pretend that it’s business as usual! What is wrong with us South Sudanese? Why are we so fearful?
Why are we so cowardly?
Across the political divide, we should stand up and fearlessly confront the ghost of hate, division, anger, malice and retrogression. We should be principled and abide by what we believe in.
No one has got a monopoly of wisdom. Indeed, no one was born with the sole and exclusive mandate of being kingmakers in their respective political formations.
This is our national call to action. We are not talking about Drinking beer, Roasted ‘Marial Nyang’ and or swallowing “Assida” here. We are discussing very serious matters of State.
We should flatly refuse to be entrapped into factional enclaves that are a passport to nowhere. We should learn to speak truth to power.
South Sudan have suffered enough at the hands of unscrupulous, corrupt and populist demagogues. We run the real risk of sliding into a permanent mode of a failed nation State if we remain docile, fearful and unprincipled. Let us learn to call a spade a spade.
The author can be reached at Sirirgabrielyiei3@gmail.com
