The Divergence From The Real Visions And Ideas Of The Struggle Has Negatively Affected South Sudan

Refrendum 2011 (File Image)

By: Ogeryath Oger

Before the independence of South Sudan, it was known world all over that the history of South Sudanese was horrible and deplorable to be discussed and remembered because of the heartless maltreatment imposed on the people of South Sudan by then the Khartoum government which horrible mistreatment started way back before the independence of Sudan itself. The condition in which South Sudanese lived according to our own history was so dreadful and frightening. As a result of the severe mistreatment imposed on South Sudanese, our freedom fighters and the leaders of the struggle mobilized our own people to stand up for their rights and seek justice and equality by all means be it through roundtable negotiations or the use of force through taking up arms. Fortunately the South Sudanese then were well aware of the terrible conditions they lived in and joined the movement for freedom, justice and liberation of Sudan.

The South Sudanese according to our own history as it is narrated didn’t merely take up arms to fight against color, race or religion but against injustice, corruption, mistreatment and all sorts of Khartoum government’s plans to dehumanize the black man/woman on his/her own land and territory. The history narrates that it was worth taking up arms to stage an armed struggle by then since the possibility of South Sudanese experiencing justice, equality and consideration was far from the Khartoum government’s imaginations. Finally with time, the struggle bred positive results among which it led to the signing of the historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which thoroughly addressed most of the problems faced by Sudan and especially South Sudanese by then. The struggle which produced CPA yielded Elections after a long period of time followed by historic Referendum which later offered South Sudanese their own sovereign and God-given country.

However, the freedom fighters and the leaders of the movement that led South Sudanese for a long time through the sharp thorns, burning forests and bushes, non-selective bullets and bombs, period of severe thirst and hunger, had in their own imaginations and minds the most beautiful visions and dreams on how to launch and build a country that belongs to all the South Sudanese, political system that is democratic and pro-people, economic system that is promising and progressing and social life that is far better that the previous atrocious one. The leaders of the movement had in their own visions, the desire to build schools to lift millions of South Sudanese out of illiteracy, the desire to build hospitals to combat various diseases killing South Sudanese, the desire to construct roads to ease movements of people and goods and increase accessibility, the desire to provide electricity and better water systems to South Sudanese and finally the desire of eliminating threats and dangers that for long kept South Sudanese’s lives at risk and frightened like wars, injustices, oppressions and persecutions.   

Discussing more about the above mentioned visions and ideas of the leaders, lift our souls, quench our thirst and fills us with hope and peace as South Sudanese because if all the above ideas were to be implemented, then South Sudanese would be in a country of their own free from illiteracy, diseases, inaccessibility, corruption, nepotism and all sorts of stuffs that keep man out of peaceful environment.

But here we are today, facing the effects of the divergence from the real vision of the struggle and the challenges that the South Sudanese faced years ago still exist today and we must be honest and careful when talking about the achievements made by the South Sudanese. It is true that we have got a sovereign country but we haven’t built it according to our own real vision of the struggle and unless we re-educate ourselves honestly we shall not build a sovereign state which fills us with hope and the purpose of living. The mess that we experience today is by our own making and design which came as a result of greed for power, thirst for country’s wealth and lack of love for our own country.

There are always two significant steps that lifted many countries out of poverty, illiteracy, corruption, nepotism, hopelessness and dishonesty and those significant two steps are Planning and Implementation. Our leaders of the struggle and the movement have planned handsomely and magnificently but never implemented the plans beautifully and honestly. Today we shift our eyes towards different directions to find solutions for our own problems as our own leaders move from one country to another and hold innumerable conferences and consultations but we have just forgotten that we can’t find solutions simply because we have diverted from the real vision of the struggle and walked carelessly away from implementing the beautiful ideas.

All humans are intelligent, brilliant and wise but to expose the intelligence, brilliance and wisdom there must be intelligent, brilliant and wise work implemented on the ground. South Sudan isn’t poor, broken and isolated but we have chosen to possess poor, broken and solitary ideas instead of extracting and implementing the real ideas and visions of the struggle that we once possessed. It is never too late to re-start and never is it shameful to confess our failures and move forward in the right direction. It is an act of courage and honesty to admit that we have failed to deliver services and failed to live by our own promises. We must seek the ability to revisit the real ideas well written on the documents well locked up in the offices and bring the ideas to light and implement them.

South Sudanese seek peace in this time of instability and mistrust, unity in this time of division, justice in presence of injustice, liberty amidst suppression and prosperity in presence of poverty and to achieve all these we must courageously and honestly hold our hands together, forgive one another, detest tribalism and nepotism, fight corruption and scream out loud against injustices and through genuine walk for peace, our boat (Murkab) will stabilize as sang by Emmanuel Kembe, we shall finally drink milk and honey as sang by Viviana Nyachan and finally realize that South Sudanese is rich(Junub adik) as pointed out by Johnson Jok.

We as South Sudanese must change the tendency of showering ourselves with blames and get to work for South Sudan and direct our fingers right into our own faces when we fail but I believe failure is impossible when all South Sudanese re-discover the real ideas and visions of the struggle and support one another honestly in building a country that can last for generations to come and host our own children and grandchildren in unity, peace and prosperity. May God grant us the desire to revisit the documents of the real ideas and visions of the struggle and may God as well help us implement the great ideas and visions. May the current state in which we live as South Sudanese act as a lesson and a motivation for us to achieve justice, liberty and prosperity.

“With my own eyes, I see no superior tribe, state or region but what I clearly see and always see is a black boy, girl, woman and man seeking for a home full of peace, unity, prosperity free from tribalism and division and that is what you must be seeing I believe”.