By Gatgong Thany
July 26, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —– “As the Political class grapple, gamble and leisurely play their Political cards with view to out-man-oeuvre and outwit each other at the negotiation table, the ordinary Man and Woman continuous to brutally endlessly bleed their way to the graves’’
Ordinary Citizens or Common Citizens in this contexts refers to those Persons that makes up the lowest social, Economic and Political ladder within the Country, despite their majority, these group sometimes suffers serious, socio-economic and Political Marginalization and segregation in most societal set-up, however in Democratic societies where free and fair elections determine the National Leadership, these third-block is such a vital factor in determining the national-political direction through their votes.
In South Sudan Context, I would like to assume that the population that resides in the Countryside (villages) which makes up the largest portion of our national population are the commonest of the Common Citizens, these are ordinary men and women that lives their lives free from pushes and punches of the towns, almost completely oblivious of the Political hustles and bustles boiling up in the towns, which is eventually reigning their quiet and innocent lives. they continued to live- on their own natural and traditional means and sources of livelihood, traditional animals husbandry and small scale farming and fishing that has faithfully sustained them generation after generation.
Memorably during the South Sudan’s decade-long bitter-struggle which gave birth to our sweet independence, the rebel Moment, SPLM/SPLA lives entirely on these Ordinary Citizens, in fact was it not for the Village Population of Sudan particularly Southerners and their generous support to the moment which they entirely owned and knew was fighting for their own freedom there wouldn’t have been a rebel moment neither an independent State. As we all know the SPLM/A got everything, almost everything from the common man, from Materials resources ; Common Southerners voluntarily provided the rebels with food, it was the villagers’ strenuously cultivated grains and animals-wealth that provided the Moments’ army with the meals needed to continue the fight which ultimately won the freedom,
Besides economical supports; Southerners solely provided the man power for the SPLM/A, ordinary South Sudanese made extraordinary sacrifices during the struggle, for instant they offered their own sons like sacrifice lamps to the rebel Moment to fight for freedom, I could still recall those days when Gat-Tut (head-man) would move from house to house collecting either Male-Children for Military Recruitment, grains, cows, goats or sheep for military Logistics/food support, those were such a painful but necessary sacrifices to make, the common man also shouldered the entire logistical aspect of the rebellion, Junubiin mostly women, girls and boys were at times tasked with carrying the ammunition, heavy weaponry, food-stuffs etc. on their head or backs for thousand miles in support of the army, the villages civil population also provided vital intelligent and strategic information to the Moment, indeed they were everything, they were the Moment !!
Eventually despite their overwhelming loses , their glorious sacrifices pays off at last when once again the people ultimately secured their life-long dream for freedom, Southerners collectively and bravely sealed their fate, when they voted on favor of secession with landslide-majority following the historic South Sudan referendum. however it’s worth noting that even before the vote for independence was cast, in fact soon after the gun went silent and the former guerrilla Moment moved their headquarters from the bushes in to the towns formerly held by the retreating Khartoum regimes, the common man’s aspiration were dumped and forgotten, that mark the first betrayal of the Ordinary Citizenry by the SPLMs and Political class in general.
Shamelessly the ruling elites, taking advantages of the power at their fingertips hijacked the people’s Freedom, robbed their liberty (s) and resources thus chattering their dreams, the entire village Population and their hunger-stricken villages that sustained the struggle were abandoned, the High-Class-Citizens surrounded their huge, luxurious compounds with huge tanks in the towns as they mercilessly, gluttony-selfishly and corruptly consume the National wealth.
It was here where they embarked on their new-found agenda, theft and destruction, their wives, kin, Keith & Concubines control the pie at the expenses of others who sweat it out under the scotching Sun trying to make ends meets, the Orphans and the widows of the Martyrs who are themselves among the forgotten lots, toils with their fellow Citizens, scrambling over the remains the blessed ones throws out of their luxurious windows, yet we are blaming God for the Curse! These are but just the simplest yet the truer symbol of a robbed Nation-hood. Impunity-rule! Corruption is condoned, as its doers are just patted at the shoulders by their Uncles who are ill-leaned to old-failed compensatory policy ‘’ we fought for it, it’s our time to eat’’ the question is who didn’t fought for it? , betrayed and forsaken the common Citizens slept over it and looked up to God for solutions.
They said, whenever the Elephants fights, it’s the grass that suffers, this proverb is never truer especially in the case of South Sudan; as the Political class fall-out of love with each other in the course of distributing the National spoils, power and wealth, the ordinary man, though completely innocent is the one currently at the edge of the spear.
Since its brutal and bloody eruption in Mid-December of 2013, the South Sudan mayhem has continuously taken disastrous tools on absolutely innocent people. From the onset, the main target and victims of this destructive war had been ordinary Citizens, for instant the victims and targets of the Bizarre and un-Godly Juba Massacre that was supervised by Former President Salva Kiir were absolutely innocents Nuer Citizens, majority of whom didn’t even had any Political alignment whatsoever.
As the conflict rapidly, painfully and dangerously rages on, the plight of the ordinary citizens continue to aggravates and deteriorates beyond imagination, Human right watch , the United Nation Mission’s as well as other NGOs reports has repeatedly cited gross, horrifying and terrifying human right violations and abuses including but not limited to, mass murder of unarmed civilians including woman, children and elderly, sexual violent including raping (gangs-rapping) and abduction of woman and young girls ,castration of boys, burning alive of innocent girls/women, torching of civilians homesteads (houses), destruction of social amenities, robbing of sources of livelihood including cattle, foodstuffs and mass displacement among other crimes.
Painfully and admittedly as this horrors un-fallen it’s the common Citizens facing the axe, it’s the common man’s wife, daughter and sisters that’s getting raped, killed or abducted, it’s the ordinary boy that’s getting hunt down like an antelopes by the Enemies, it’s the ordinary man’s mother that’s gang-raped, humiliated, tortured and abused, its indeed the same common man’s cattle that’s robbed, it’s the very ordinary man’s humble hut that’s getting torched , its none-but the village folk’s grain-food-supplies that’s stolen or burned down , therefore its heart-breaking truth, that through all this mess; the ultimate loser is the Common Citizenry.
To end with; the common South Sudanese had had enough, they sacrificed all during the lengthy Struggle hoping lasting peace would come in the end, unfortunately they were heartlessly short-changed as the Politicians disowned them, stealing all that they painfully fought for, abandoning them in desperate and hopeless situation but even worst, despite having endured untold enslavement from successive Khartoum Regimes, it’s quite regrettable to see them going through another hell from their own Government and leaders once again. May God see the plight of the Common Man in South Sudan?
The author can be reached at g.gongk15@gmail.com
