Govt of South Sudan should focus on the welfare of People
Open Letter to GoSS Administration
By Deng-Athoi Galuak*
July 4, 2006 — The vast citizens of South Sudan would like to see a dim of change and development. It is expected of any government to be effective and efficient to the need of citizens. I do not want to remind anyone about difficult terrain Southerners went through. Hence, changes, developments, trade and economic growth are viable and crucial at these vulnerable times. The government shouldn’t be lame duck to deliver the basic needs to the citizens. It is most important to note that there is outcry in every compass direction of the South not only because the government is “corrupt” but the government is too scrawny and immovable to do what it takes to surety citizens out the yoke of susceptibility.
As we steer in a new phase of tranquil and peace in the history, the core value of the GoSS in our lives should be more acute than when the period of liberation for freedom of this historic country was fought…precious blood of our people was sacrificed so that we attained freedom. So much has changed, yet so much remained the same… for this reason, citizens desperation have become increasingly the daily calling for “Good God” to propel help from above. What remained unvarying is that we still see corruption, nepotism, greed, tribal pride, dissection, lack of comprehensive unity of people of the South while I (we) expect our government to develop the ability to unite people and use CPA (comprehensive Peace Agreement) in their governmental aptitude and later in their professional sovereignty advantage — thus, the underlying philosophy of the GOSS, is that quality of government is an essential component of legitimacy. SPLA/M brought our long pride and tradition to peace loving people of South in a clear and meaningful technique so that our next generations will understand and learn to appreciate the ubiquitous nature of our pride.
In every country, the duty of citizens is very vital in participating in major areas of government policies. Therefore, to criticize the government is equally important how the government ponder policies. GOSS is not even deposit up the shutters to democracy, nevertheless somewhat exploring to be one. It’s unpredictable to make inferential statement without proving the result where the government of Southern Sudan is improving. So far, we have seen negative results of what the government is doing wrong such a as resignation of Nhial (queue of people who are contemplating to resign is alarming for me to mentioned here), corruption and disappearing of public funds became second nature. While the question is when are we going to glimpse reforms? Of course we have seen appointments of ambassadors, ministers, judges, commanders and share of oil revenues. However, appointmen t and promotion is not interchangeable with the result the ordinary citizens yearn for to see? The citizens want to see what the minister of health is doing to fight the deteriorating health of people. The citizens want to see money coming to the village and not to disappear somewhere in Juba. We want to see what the ambassadors are doing to create international relations with South in particular. We want to know why are the ambassadors not reaching to Australians, Canada, UK, USA and so on. We want to millions of judges to deliver millions justices — unlike injustice done in WES governor. Of course, it is a waste of time and money to appoint 25 & 21 ambassadors and judges respectively without a faint change.
At least twenty years after the SPLA/M fights bloody civil war, our political culture has been warped beyond recognition. Trepidation and repression were the dream of the day that skyrocket the moment. Today, those who did not even contribute to the moment are the rulers of the GoSS. And the brave soldiers who fought the war are roaming in Juba like prisoners of the war (POW), and anyone who dares say otherwise is branded as “unpatriotic at best, a “traitor” at worst. It’s absolutely injudicious for the government to brand the very citizens who advocate for changes as “traitors.” Scholars like me are obliged to urge to government to do the best — not the worst.
Most respectful citizens like Mr. Nhial Deng Nhial and others who are responsible by pandering to anti-corruption sentiment; are branded as traitor for denouncing corruption; our northerner brothers who fought in conjunction with us at the same cause are singled out and called “Arab” for condemning ?racism and segregation’ in the GOSS hierarchy; Governor of Western Equator was falsely accused of wrongdoing while the wolves roam in Juba region. But all of this pales when compared with poor government shadows and corruption sow in the GOSS. From money embezzlement, favoritism, and tribal pride, GOSS have transformed our South into unrecognizable position.
Consider just a few under-publicized examples of GoSS contempt as dysfunctional government of no-go: First, Mr. Nhial Deng expressed his frustration with corruption and his position as the minister rather than betraying anyone, however, he was referred as “betraying the people of…”. He was not allowed to protest publicly or even reveals his latent intent for resignation until he finally and voluntarily forced his way quit. Mr. Nhial didn’t resign. He quit in frustration. Second, Yasser Arman is gifted outspoken individual against the government transgression. He is now subject to daily surveillances because of his stance on injustices. Third, the house arrest of WES governor is totally intolerable in many aspects. Thus far, all of these scenarios are signals of surreptitious transformation of GoSS to deep doom. GoSS is failing the citizens instead of lifting them up. The government is busy with promot ion but promotion isn’t development. The GoSS should do something as “government for the people”.
* Deng-Athoi Galuak is a senior at the University of Mass Boston (USA) majoring in Political Theory and Philosophy. He can be reach at [email protected]