Who will pay the price when the CPA failed?
By Chuei Deng Mareng*
June 20, 2006 — The Arabs in the northern Sudan have always used the strategies of dividing Southerners on the basis of ethnicity. The question the southern Sudanese should have asked themselves is this: who is next when we have eliminated the current target ethnic group in Southern Sudan? To illustrate this point, I would use an example that I have heard long time ago. The story goes like this: it was a history between fox and docks when the fox lines up the docks into three lines. After fox has lined up the docks, he started killing the docks on the right line, and he told the docks on other two lines that, he is dealing with this line only and not other lines. The docks did not figure out what shall be the ultimate result when the first line is finished. It is like what the Arabs told our followers Southern Sudanese who opposed the SPLA that you are good people; you are not like other Southern Sudanese who are opposing the Arabs while knowing that these people are seeking freedom of oppression.
The 1972 Agreement can work as an example of why so many Southerners are skeptical about the Arabs approached to the southern Sudan’s problems. The 1972 agreement was presumed to be a solution between the South and the North’s problem, but that agreement was dismantled by the Nimeiri’s regime when he said that the ?Addis Ababa Agreement is not a Quaran,’ which cannot be altered. This statement underpins the assumption many Northerner Sudanese hold regarding the management of state affairs by Southern Sudanese. I would assume that Northern Sudanese perceived that Southern Sudanese are those who cannot play any significant political role in the country because they are backward. This assumption has become apparent among Southern Sudanese over the usage of ethnicity as political weapons by which a rivalry of ethnic group is an issue while ignoring the concept of statehood.
It is inevitable for a society to live without a rivalry; however, the importance of the common interests that will be affected when we think about our own interests should be looked upon first. I suppose that our interest should be personal and should not jeopardize the common interests because individual interests will not utilize the multi-interests rather than friction it off from the common goals. The Dinka and the Nuer should not be looked at as a major problem that set southern Sudanese back from struggle. I do believe that all ethnic groups in southern Sudan are responsible for what had taken us those decades to achieve our goals. The politicians in southern Sudan do not tell truths; instead they used ethnicity as a road to power.
If the politicians in the South were standing up together and say that this is wrong, I would presuppose that southern Sudan would not have been vulnerable as it did. This allows me to assume that all ethnic groups in southern Sudan would be blamed over the destruction of Southern Sudan. If there were no ethnic groups struggle in the South, we would at least be in a different stage at this time. This means that the ethnic groups’ aspiration for economic survival tells us to look for what would benefit one’s own group rather than a collective benefit. Southern Sudan is paying a price because we believe in old people’s wisdom and these old people are our politicians who are working for their interests by which they blindfolded our communities.
My main concern for writing this note is to appeal to southern Sudanese youth to think twice about their future in a common sense and not forming a group to support interests. I am assuming that many youth who currently in south Sudan were growing up during the conflict and therefore we should be very much concerned about the facts and not the fictions. I thought that southern Sudanese would have learned from the past experience because Anyany I signed the peace agreement with Khartoum, but that did not helped us from being oppressed. I suppose that the current movement that just signed the comprehensive peace agreement was our last chance to show to the world that we are being humiliated and not ourselves who should jeopardize the struggle. It is surprising to see people moving against their own people because of self-interest. For instance, the militia forces who had been an obstacle in South and still claim that they are fighting for Southern Sudanese’s interests. Who are they representing in south Sudan? This claim happens because we have not had any sense of the common goals that will embrace what we should do as a society to achieve our common interests.
I am assuming that southern Sudanese youth should be vigil about the politicians who expressed division statements among us. To illustrate this argument further, I will use a joking story which I heard a longtime ago when I was in Sudan. The joke goes like this: ?a man is not good with those clothes; it looks like dog and drama.’ This joke simply means that a dog does not bother when people are leaving for party; it will enjoy its day in the house stealing necessary things to feed itself. It is like southern Sudanese youth with a word politics wherever they are. This is because we South Sudanese youth just assumed that our politicians are on the right truck, while these politicians are always turning youth against each other. I would assume that we South Sudan youth should be able to question each politician motives so that we get a clear sense of their objectives regarding the future of southern Sudan. Giving other ethnic groups as a motive of his/her political objective is not an ideal goal that services the political objectives and therefore we should be meticulous about such politicians.
It is in my view that no southern Sudan will exist if all ethnic groups are not there and no one ethnic group will ever make southern Sudan a better place without others. What I am trying to say here is that we southern Sudan youth have turned to miss the word politics. To follow up our politicians is not a crime, but we should be very carefully about what we are going to do with the politicians who preach hatred. Such politicians like Bona Malual and David Dechan will tear us apart and it is we South Sudan youth who are going to pay the price if anything derails the comprehensive peace agreement. These politicians will not be in southern Sudan when something bad occurs and example of that would be the decades of civil war, none of these politicians were standing up for the cause of south Sudan, they were busy running after their interests. I will recommend that my follow country youth, be very vigilant about the evil politicians who wanted to destroy us only. If we do not get united during this period of comprehensive peace agreement, the referendum will be a misery. We youth in southern Sudan are not dog that can be pulled by a string and that does not question the direction it is being pulled to. We youth in southern Sudan are humans and should begin questioning the politicians objectives on the basic of intellectual spectrum. I do not like writing for news paper, but I am forced to do so because this is where many young south Sudanese always popped into and this is why I want them to read this article.
* Chuei Deng Mareng is a student who just finished graduate works at the University of Saskachewan in Canada. He can be reached at [email protected].