Why South Sudanese need to change?

By Chuar Juet Jock*

The laws of nature tells us that you can’t ask for the conditions and the environment that are surrounding you to change since you are not changing yourself nor the ways and habits you are used to, neither the beliefs and concepts that guides your current life. Change is the norm of life not the exception and the change that I am writing about here in this topic is the positive change, a change toward a better and a fulfilled life, a change that will take oneself to the realms of accomplishment, happiness and satisfaction with oneself and with life itself. Smart people always adopt a lot of changes in their lives whenever they discover that the current ways of life and the direction of things are not in their best interests, time is crucial for the right decision to make the necessary change. things also doesn’t change over night neither old habits die easy, there is resistance and a price to pay but surely with determination and strong will, victory is assured.

I was thinking about how we as southern Sudanese can reach our collective and common higher aspirations and goals, after signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which brought this relative peace that we are enjoying to day. The CPA has renewed, ignited and motivated our long suppressed dreams and hopes, dreams and aspirations that we held since the very birth of our visions to the world. Most of our generations fought and died and never have a chance to see these dreams materialized. It is our responsibility to make them be a reality, a sacred duty that we owed to honor our martyrs and heroes.

To realize these dreams, a clear identification and definition of our higher and common goals must be in place and accordingly, a road map must be clearly drawn and pursued, a set of necessary changes in our negative ways of life, beliefs and concepts must be adopted. Every habit or belief that is standing in our ways to reach these higher goals must be sidelined; the overall goal is a good life for every southern Sudanese, a life that is fill with fulfillment, success and joy. This won’t happen unless we all south Sudanese have to change and work together for change, government and people, tribes and clans, individuals and institutions.

In term of mentality, A free south Sudan, won’t really be free if our minds are not set free, we have undergone a systematic brainwash and mis-education for decades by all the successive central Khartoum regimes, a mis-education that its intentions and goals is to keep us in the state of servitude and weakness, a brainwashing that its main intentions is to keep us divided and in poor state so we can be easily ruled, dominated and poor in our own rich land. Our whole problems and shortcomings are all rooted to this brainwashing and mis-education systems. We can not have a sound and healthy life since our minds are not sound.

The ways we sees and judge ourselves is but a reflection of what our minds were shaped and brainwashed, though how come I see my fellow southerner as different as it is used to today in some of our communities. Why on earth that we look to ourselves as strangers and enemies while the reality says we are not. No doubt it has something to do with what we have got in our minds and hearts and that is the brainwashing and mis-education that I am talking about. Unfortunately, as a result, we have lost too many innocent south Sudanese souls as victims of this shameful ignorance and self unconsciousness as a nation.

The fact is that as southerners we have a high degree of unity and homogeneity than any nation in this earth except China and other Asian nations otherwise the consequences of this brainwashing could never be less than other African dilemmas, which have fallen as victims of this colonists’ conspiracy. However a useful advice to every southern Sudanese, accept it or not, we are one nation, diverse but one. give your mind a chance and ponder on our similarities, history and common roots and backgrounds, I have no doubt that you will find nothing but a nation that is meant by God, the creator, to be one

We are coming out from bitter war, a war that has transformed us and everything in our life; we have seen and endured a lot, the worst side of life and human behavior for more than two decades and a half, death, hunger, diseases, terror, slavery etc. we have been uprooted to all different parts of the world. There is no doubt that our hearts did bleed a lot and were affected by all cruelty of these conditions and hardship yet we have seen and touched the real world. Therefore, armed with this bitter experience and reality we have overcome all the miseries and more than that we have positioned ourselves to succeed and build a new future. However we will need to clean our hearts once more time in order for us to reach our novel destination, without healthy and clean hearts we can’t built a peaceful civilization that its pillars are peace, justice, unity and prosperity, let us forgive the cruelty of the world but never forget it. God has done its part to us by giving us the beauty and strength and this beautiful and rich land and thankfully what is left is our part.

Our ways of life and habits need to be checked if we need the positive change to happen, south Sudanese are too engaged in politics more than into establishment of their own businesses, vocational or technical centers or companies. That is a major weakness that has helped to make us powerless in resistance to economically empowered northern Sudanese. We are all waiting to be ministers, presidents and so on but none of us dream to be the most successful business person neither a famous technician nor a scientist. The advancement of any society is measured by availability and quality of various services and goods, these are provided through a service or product businesses. We, south Sudanese are expecting the government to provide and do everything, well that is not true, private sector is the real core driver for prosperity and development, we need to own and managed our factories and companies. Government should only regulate and engage in provision of public services that can not be provided efficiently by private sector.

There are vast opportunities for all of us, our country is richer than our total population number, yet some of us out of ignorance and greed are fighting for position of a minister or commissioner which salary might not be the same with owning a business or a factory, so to speak and just a simple question, which job is really more secure? I bet if you can stay for 10 years as commissioner but I am sure you can stay as Chief Executive Director of your company as long as you want. This focus on government positions need to be changed.

The role of government and non governmental organization in conducting and achieving the desired change are parallel, all of them can pursue this change through their institutions and theirs policies. Institutions such as educational institutions, media and religious, social planning and youth and culture all should work in conjunction and coordination to achieve the big picture of the desired change, every department and division of government should do its part in this process, school curriculum and substance should be aimed to build new directions of culture, morals and values. Religious institutions should do their part in arming a generation of peaceful and healthy souls and minds, social planning institutions should plan for a society that is homogenous in culture and structure, a society with less social bias and ills. Health department should plan for a healthy nation and for future generations that are not crumbled by AIDS and other endemics diseases, department for youth and culture should create and design a unified culture that gives us a clue for the direction of this change and so on

The greater change that will really help our situation a lot and will save a lot of efforts and monies is self-decided or individual change, south Sudanese who are really keen enough to see their country and people having a great future and life have already done so or are on the way to do so. They have positioned themselves to a south Sudan that is based on values of justice, equality, freedom and good life for every southern Sudanese. They believe that these are the final aspirations of all human kinds and no matter what, what is right is right. Yet we still have few that are still wondering in realms of negative tribalism, greed and hatred

South Sudanese has fought bitterly against marginalization, injustice and inequality, yet in their very autonomous government created and gained as result of this bitter struggle, crowned by the CPA, different intended and non intended forms of marginalization and discrimination are on the surface. On tribal, gender and individual level, some ethnics and tribes are hardly represented in different level of local, state and regional or central governments, while some tribe took it all. On individual level some highly educated and qualified southern Sudanese are left out from being considered for employment or representation just because they lack strong tribal or political backing, on gender level our women, the beautiful face of our country are still not represented fairly nor given their right full place in leadership, this is absurd and need to be change. Otherwise there are clear contradictions between what we said we have been fighting for and what we are now

Change is gradual, as one of my friend told me and also has a price that need to be paid, well, however we just need to begin the process and set ourselves right from the start, there is no doubt that with an excellent management, a good and strong will we will accomplish the desired change, reach the south Sudan of freedom, prosperity, equality and justice and where everyone of us shall have a good and a great life.

* The author is residing in USA, he can be reached at [email protected]. To read more topics by the author, please go at http://chuarjuetonline.blogspot.com