Freedom in the absence of development is no freedom

By Jacob K. Lupai*

July 14, 2007 — I would consider freedom and development as two sides of one coin. Fighting for freedom may also imply fighting for development. In reality, however, things may be different from the concept of freedom and development as two sides of a coin. Nonetheless strategists launching a struggle for freedom may adopt the word marginalisation to justify the struggle. Marginalisation may be the exclusion from participating in matters that may impact on one’s own interest. Exclusion may be on the basis of one’s race, ethnicity, religion, sex and so forth.

In the Sudan wars have been fought and are still being fought for freedom from marginalisation. Looking at it from another angle people have been and are fighting in fact for development. The fighting is not against a religion or a certain race. Simply put the wars have been fought ageist underdevelopment. The problem may be that marginalisation is identified with a certain race and religion because members of the certain race and religion may be very greedy that they may have become so insensitive to the legitimate aspirations of the others as equal citizens of one nation under the same flag.

We in the Sudan have been very unfortunate. After independence from the colonial rule the Sudan seemed to have seriously lacked a visionary leadership with the best interest of the Sudan as a nation at heart with respect to its diversities. Instead of being proud of the Sudanese emerging nation, the Sudanese tore themselves apart by identifying themselves either as Arabs, Black Africans, Muslims or non-Muslims. Race and religion became somewhat the political tools of manipulation for the leadership of the Sudanese nation. The outcome was obvious that the Sudan would be in turmoil as the highly pronounced dichotomies of race and religion were played at the centre stage which were nothing but divisive.

The only saviour of the Sudan from disintegration would have been the Sudan Communist Party. The Sudan Communist Party was the only political party that was secular and which made a scientific analysis of the Sudan with its diversities. It offered a solution through equitable development. The Sudan Communist Party manifesto may offer some idea of how the Sudan would have be a strong united country if the Sudan Communist Part had the opportunity to govern. In fact the 25 May 1969 revolution of Jaafer Mohamed El Numeiri borrowed heavily from the Sudan Communist Party ideology that led to the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972 which granted Southern Sudan a local autonomy. Local autonomy to Southern Sudan had been conceived by the Sudan Communist Party as a solution to the problem of underdevelopment and war in Southern Sudan.

In the 1965 Round Table Conference in Khartoum to address Southern Sudan grievances of marginalisation and underdevelopment the President of the Sudan African National Union (SANU) Mr Aggrey Jaden and the Secretary General of the Sudan Communist Party Mr Abdel Khalid Mahjoub presented papers which were the only that received wide commentaries. Unfortunately after the Sudan Communist Party had helped El Numeiri consolidate power he got rid of the communists claiming they connived to topple him in a failed military coup attempt. The rest is history.

The Sudan Communist Party can be seen as the friend of the marginalised in the sea of racism, sectarianism and religious bigotry in the Sudan. It contributed to Southern Sudan getting the local autonomy in 1972. However, as a survivor El Numeiri would have granted Southern Sudan local autonomy any way. Didn’t El Numeiri switch sides when he became an ardent loyalist of the National Islamic Front (NIF) under the influence of Dr Hassan Abdalla El Turabi the Islamic ideologue? El Numeiri, nonetheless, got the shock of his life when Dr El Turabi as an ambitious individual who also wanted to rule the Sudan in his own right tried to push El Numeiri over the edge. Dr El Turabi accelerated the demise of El Numeiri who ended up as a refugee in Egypt.

In his instinctive survival methods El Numeiri even damped his right hand man in Southern Sudan, Mr Abel Alier, the President of the then Southern Region, the product of the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972. El Numeiri took advantage when Mr Alier unfortunately became too tribalistic favouring his tribesmen over and above others as though the Addis Ababa Agreement was their own property. It is here one also hopes that the President of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), the product of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) does not repeat the mistakes of Mr Alier which were very divisive by turning people of one nation against each other for no good reason.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) fought a 21 year war precisely because of the misuse of power at the centre to deny other citizens their legitimate share of the national cake. This means that the war was fought for a fair share of development for a better quality of life for those who were denied the opportunity for too long. The CPA signed between the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Sudan people’s Liberation Army (SPLM/A) in January 2005 laid down guiding principles that include service delivery. However, two years on Southern Sudan is groaning under appalling conditions of the lack of basic services. The lack of clean drinking water, the non-existent sanitation system of sewage and waste disposal in cities and towns and the poorest road conditions especially in Juba the federal capital of Southern Sudan are a few examples.

It was interested to note that the Secretary General of the SPLM boasted that people in Southern Sudan today are driving at a speed of 100km per hour between Juba and Yei but unfortunately on dirt road not an asphalt one. The people driving to Yei may be the privilege of a very tiny fraction of the entire population of Southern Sudan. However, the maintenance of Juba-Yei road to a high standard is commendable as it is one of the main links for trade between Uganda and Southern Sudan and also between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan. The Secretary General also boasted that people in the various cities and towns in Southern Sudan are living in freedom because of the SPLM/A achievements. I will agree to some extent. Indeed people do not face harassment, torture and even death on daily basis as they did during the war. Freedom of movement of the people is also an achievement which the SPLM/A deserves a credit.

On the other side of the coin it is regrettable to note with utter sadness that the Juba Teaching Hospitals is one of the filthiest hospitals in any city leave alone the seat of the government in Sub-Saharan Africa. The sight of the wards, of patients scattered lying on the corridor and patients pushed on trolleys as though collected from a scrape yard leaves one to look upwards to the heavens wondering what on earth is going in Southern Sudan. There are many examples of appalling living conditions of people in and around cities and towns where the government could have at least assisted in cleaning the garbage and providing good sanitary conditions for public health.

According to the Sudan Joint Assessment Mission (JAM) of 2005 infrastructure investments in roads, energy, river transport and rural electrification are needed to contribute to development and poverty eradication in Southern Sudan. This clearly seems to indicate that in the absence of development there is no freedom. Development can be seen as a process of expanding the freedom that people enjoy. According to the JAM by 2007 there would have been adequate capacity in Southern Sudan and rural roads and rural electrification for small towns would have been developed. One would have expected the Secretary General of the SPLM to boast in terms of rural roads and rural electrification development.

The responsibility for the rehabilitation and development of transport infrastructure which include roads seemed to have fallen on the shoulders of Madame Rebecca Nyadeng as the Southern Sudan Minister of Roads and Transport. One would only sympathise with Madame Rebecca because of the enormous job of rehabilitating and developing the roads infrastructure that had been left in ruins for the better part of one of the most destructive wars in Sudan modern history. To make matter worse as though her advisors had gone to sleep Madame Rebecca started with the wrong foot. To rehabilitate the only asphalted road in Juba the repair work started the crude filling in of potholes with cement mortar probably the first road repair work of its kind. Sadly it was a miserable failure as the repaired road condition was no better than before. Another approach which seemed to have led to complete failure was the reliance on contractors from Nigeria. Some Nigerians are very well known as conmen. Some people must be aware of the volume of invitations through the Internet from people in West Africa trying to entice others for business deals allegedly for lucrative benefits. Most of those bogus invitations seem to be coming from Nigerians. What has become of the contract awarded to Nigeria for road construction in Southern Sudan may be an open question. Making business deals with Nigerians must be worrying.

One other serious error of judgement is the generous donation of $55m to the UN at the time the GOSS was in dire budgetary deficit in the face of lower than expected revenue and the GOSS was cutting down spending. Madame Rebecca knew the roads in Juba the seat of the GOSS were in a dire state of utter disrepair but instead chose to donate the meagre resources to the UN which should have been the reverse. It was not difficult to see how Madame Rebecca couldn’t deliver. It was not also difficult to see when a journalist conducted a survey in Juba for people’s views about the cabinet reshuffle, Madame Rebecca came top as a miserable failure in the construction of the roads network. To make her position even more untenable Madame Rebecca claimed in public that the visionary and charismatic leader, Dr John Garang de Mabior was assassinated without substantiating her. Most probably this might have hastened the consideration for Madame Rebecca to be stripped of her position as the Minister of Roads and Transport.

The First Vice President of the Republic of the Sudan and the President of the GOSS said the vision of Dr John Garang de Mabior will always continue to guide us until it is realised through the referendum. That is perfectly correct. However, I would like to add that we should also realise the vision of Dr John Garang de Mabior the great martyr of our times everyday in our lives through plans and actions for a better quality of life for which the great martyr gave his precious life. It is important to have a vision for our immediate benefit for example what type of hospitals we need, what type of roads, housing, agricultural activities for household food security, training for manpower development and so forth we need now not after the referendum. Out of the vision we can plan and make the plan operational for a tangible outcome for the marginalised people to know the difference. We need to have a culture of adherence to time instead of having open ended talk of development which is never seen to the frustration of people.

There seems to be a problem of visualising what needs to be done immediately for an instant impact. Construction of a modern health care facility will have an impact on people’s health. Construction of houses instead of struggling to maintain dilapidated houses that should have been pulled down centuries ago is the way to go in easing housing shortages. The lack of vision and action may explain the loud complaints of incompetence in services deliver in terms of clean drinking water, sanitation and waste disposal in our cities and towns, health care facilities, hygienic conditions in which fruit and vegetables, and meat is sold to the public, and good asphalt roads in our cities and towns, and furniture to schools. It has been noted that pupils have to bring chairs from home and also must pay for firewood for breakfast.

It was interesting to read about an international conference of the SPLM chapters in the Diaspora held in Juba on Wednesday 11 July. The conference was said to have been organised by the SPLM Secretariat Headquarters in Juba. Making enquiries with members of the SPLM chapter in London it was strange that there was hardly any official communication from the SPLM Secretariat Headquarters in Juba to the SPLM chapter in London. It was strange the SPLM chapter in London where Britain played a key role in the CPA would have been either ignored or marginalised. An explanation from the SPLM Secretariat Headquarters in Juba may be needed. The SPLM is not property of a special group to act on their whims to invite or not to invite other members. One can only hope that it was an oversight for it is unacceptable for the SPLM Secretariat Headquarters to behave like some old fashion and difficult administrative bureaucrats.

The Internet is a modern technology that has revolutionised communication the world over. The SPLM Secretariat Headquarters in Juba needs to understand this and have a system of reaching out to members in all corners of the world. The last thing the SPLM may want is to be seen as discriminative or inefficient to reach members or worse still incompetent to mobilise human resources for strength.

Freedom in the absence of development is no freedom was an attempt to remind ourselves to redouble our efforts in delivering services as a demonstration of our ability to do so. People have the right to clean drinking water and food, modern medical care and sanitary living conditions. At the moment people are living in conditions only slightly better than those in cattle camps. One only needs to visit any of the residential areas in Southern Sudan to prove me wrong on all counts. The vision of Dr John Garang de Mabior of taking towns to rural areas should be realised now not tomorrow. The JAM had expected that by 2007 rural roads and rural electrification should have been developed. The GOSS and the SPLM naturally have a myriad of explanations for the lack of basic services to the people. However, people are not fools. They are watching carefully and may register their frustration during the voting in an election.

* The writer is a researcher on household food security with focus on smallholder agriculture. He can be reached at [email protected]