Towards Meritocracy And Capability, South Sudan Should Be Driven

The future of South Sudan is never a dark one as long as the South Sudanese do still have the hope of heading towards life where human values are prioritized and cherished. With the beginning of this New Year, the sky has already been filled with countless positive wishes by almost all the South Sudanese. Among the wishes, peace, unity and prosperity are highly expected to reign this year. However, one of the South Sudanese wrote an honest comment on Facebook, “The New Year does not come with something new, what is needed from us is to think of new ideas. Human beings shall not change as long as their thoughts remain the same”. Our expectations are therefore built within us, for the New Year wishes to come to light, our ideas and deeds must be in line with our wishes.

South Sudanese from independence, yearn for a country with upright politics and sustainable peace and development. However, due to the divergence from the upright ideas, our country is still struggling politically, socially and economically. The current status of the country indicates that much needs to be done in the right way but which way?

According to Kishore Mahbubani, Singaporean former diplomat, meritocracy answers all the questions of the sinking third world countries. Based on his opinion, a country should be led by people whose performances have been outstanding and positive. Here he suggests that meritocracy should be used as a weapon to appoint political leaders and civil servants; which system encourages politicians and leaders to be upright in their conducts. 

Mohammed Rateb Al-Nabulsi Jordanian Islamic preacher, points out the main reasons for the success of the Western Countries. He points out that though the West is wise, rich and strong; their systems are built around capability and coordination while most of the Third World Countries/ developing countries rely on nepotism (family members and relatives) to run their governments and this is one of the reasons for underdevelopment and escalating corruption in the Third World Countries.  

In order to have South Sudan standing firmly and developing positively, we as South Sudanese must desist from nepotism and prioritize meritocracy and capability in appointing and electing people to the positions of great responsibilities. With meritocracy and capability prioritized, it is an assurance that peace will never be elusive, development will be achieved and unity will be binding us together for the decades to come. 

As a new beautiful year has started, may we as South Sudanese come together with a positive mentality to build our country with no dependence on tribe or region. “The twelve great months are filled with peace and unity which we must extract through hard work and positive mentality”.