The CPA should be a meaningful peace dividend

By Dominic Woja Maku

August 12, 2006 — Following its inception in 2005, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement sent a wave of joy and gratitude to the people of Sudan at large, and South Sudanese in particular. Millions of hails were thrown to our leaders who stood firm to emancipate us from decades of civil war. Many thanks were also extended to the Government of Sudan and the International Community (the major actors that concluded the CPA in Nivasha-Kenya). That was a historic political achievement that our country has penned into its books.

Now that there is peace for the people of Sudan and the people of South Sudan, both sides should develop meaningful peacekeeping mechanisms. Sudanese should embrace the CPA with both hands and develop peace building strategies. Open up the social-political, and economic spaces to enable the people of Sudan as a whole and South Sudanese to participate in making socio-political, and economic decisions. Create a bottom up political approach (individuals should be allowed to talk the politics that shape their lives, grassroots level communities and local political organizations should be given the opportunity to discuss the politics of their country peacefully without intimidation, political leaders-parliamentarians at the local and national levels should permit the people of Sudan and South Sudan to talk with each other). Minimize the top to the bottom political approach (where orders are passed from the top to be implemented in the bottom without questioning reagrdless of their consequences, positive or negative outcomes). Sudanese should be able to identify their problems and design ways of solving or fixing those problems without reservations (too much external forces do not yield appropriate results sometimes). There should be no represive measures that impede socio-political and economic progress of the Sudanese people otherwise the CPA would lose its meaning which is not healthy to our political atmosphere and the development of our country. Especially if the incentive that give the voiceless and the marginalized (people affected by abject poverty) is taken away then the civil war that culminated to the loss of millions was fought invain. The CPA is a remedy to the revolution that swept across the Sudan. The revolution was for a total socio-political and economic change (elimination of the old repressive ideologies) and plant new ideologies (liberty,equality, unity, fratenity, etc.) meant to liberate the oppressed. However, if the political space is not open wide enough to allow for equal political participation of all Sudanese then the benefits of the CPA would be minimal (modest). Why was there a civil war in the first place if the old ways are not gotten rid off?

The benefits of the CPA are many to both Southerners and Northerners if all are allowed to participate in the political life of the Sudan as a whole. Therefore, peace making is very important because it is associated with enhanced security and guarantee of individual safety and survival. Peacekeeping and peace-making allow for the developmet of social capital (trust, faith and honest political behaviour, the development of economic structures- research and development). Then Sudanese would move to another major step of co-existing and economic development (wealth sharing in good faith). Ultimately, this would lead to the elimination injustices, matginalization, oppression, and violence towards each other to pave the way to a meaningful peace entrusted in the CPA.

The most significant and a remarkably honest thing to do is to allow the political space to open. Individuals, small groups, local and grassroots level political organizations should be allowed to form debating forums to reflect the meaning of the CPA. The SPLM as a ruling political party in South Sudan should ensure that these political spaces are its cornerstone decision-making policies at the apex of its political forces. After all that was the reason why the SPLA/M was all about (liberating the oppressed from the claws of hegemony, marginalization, slavery, poverty, racism??, sexism?, tribalism). South Sudanese and the people of South Sudan the world over should interact with each to realize a meaningful peace in the Sudan (the CPA). This is especially true with the people of South Sudan who need to change their attitudes for the betterment of all but not egoitism and greed.

* Dominic Woja Maku is a Sudan living in Canada. He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]