Vive John Garang (2-6)

By Setepano Wöndu

July 22, 2008 — July is here again to remind us of Dr John Garang’s plan to ‘take towns to the people’. By our own standard and stage of development, Juba, Wau, Malakal, Bor, Rumbek, Bentiu, Torit, Yambio, Kapoeta, Aweil, Abyei, Gogrial, Kurmuk, and Kadugli are towns. The infrastructure in these places may not be comparable to that in real cities like Khartoum but they are the closest thing to urban centers in that part of Sudan. These towns are actually large villages with enclaves of modern facilities for the politicians, military brass and administrators. Yet, they still assume the aura of urban elegance and superiority in the psyche of our people. It is in these towns that one could make contact with amenities like clinics and schools. It is in these towns where government authority is based. In these towns, the wonders of the world like aircraft and electricity are seen, sometimes.

John Garang was familiar with the phenomenon of the rural-urban drift of the post colonial period that created the appalling slums in most African cities. John Garang wanted to nip this in the bud. Why go through the experiences of Omdurman when we can leap frog to a healthier population settlement scheme?

Rural folks flock to the towns in spite of the dirty living conditions because the clean air in the village cannot by itself satisfy the multiple human needs of today. By design or default, these towns had a disproportionate monopoly of opportunities in employment and access to education, health care, clean water, clothing, foot ware, sugar, soap, and prestige. Whoever can go to town goes to town. Consequently, the few facilities available in the towns get overstretched, households get overcrowded and living conditions deteriorate. Everyone becomes a loser and victim.

John Garang’s plan was to provide the attractions of urban life to the villages. He spoke of introducing wind and solar energy to power food processing mills, pump water to homes and fields, light houses and public institutions, and enable the use of modern equipment, tools and appliances. If people could obtain their cold drinks, preserve their food, run sewing machines, watch television, see at night, charge cell phones, use a computer and enjoy fresh clean air and vegetables, who would want to migrate to a stinking ghetto in town?

Garang planned to provide a primary health care clinic in every Payam and a complete hospital in every county. We have horrible health statistics; low life expectancy, high mortality rate, high birth related deaths for mothers and babies, and generally intolerable morbidity conditions. A sick person will go anywhere for medical care. As long as health facilities are concentrated in the so called towns, the drift will continue and the urban families and relatives will have to bear the burden of hospitality. In our social structure, no one can turn away a relative. The house is never full. If there is food for one person, that is enough for the whole clan.

We also have equally horrible education statistics; very low primary school enrolment, few secondary schools, no tertiary education. We lost an entire generation to illiteracy during the war. John Garang wanted an expedited program of expanding basic and secondary education along the same pattern as the expansion of health care. By the time of the signing of the CPA, external support for teacher training had been negotiated with friends in the region.

I have heard that Unity State is carrying out the Garang plan admirably. I have heard of an excellent school in Torit and, of course, the John Garang Institute in Bor. We have difficulties in other areas but on the whole, the physical facilities are coming up, thanks in part to multinational organizations like UNHCR. Unfortunately, the school and hospital buildings are, in the majority of cases hollow. A real school means students plus teachers, books, curricula, programs, discipline and counseling. It is nice to have buildings and furniture but the hardware alone cannot deliver education. A few weeks ago on children’s day, a student told the president of GOSS that most of them had received no tuition this year because the teachers had not been paid. He asked why? The president candidly admitted that it was true teachers are not being paid and why? The teachers are not being paid, said the president, because the state governments misappropriate the teachers’ salaries. In another country, this would be a scandal of major proportions. Anywhere else in the world there would have been a vicious public outrage. Why is it only Comrade Salva Kiir who has the courage and humility to account to that child? I stand to be corrected but I thought we had legislative assemblies, police, public prosecutors and courts. In colonial Sudan, the culprits would have been stripped of their jobs, titles, property and thrown to jail. In our era it does not seem to be a problem at all! It does not seem to bother us whether or not the children receive tuition. We do not seem to care whether the teacher gets paid or not. What happened to our sense of tomorrow? We seem to have forgotten that we have a moral obligation, not only to the pupils and the teachers but to the country as a whole and to Dr John Garang whose vision we have sworn to uphold.

Similarly, a hospital needs doctors, nurses and medicines. We cannot choose to pay medical staff if and when we have nothing else to do with their salaries. We cannot adopt the attitude that if the nurses want, they can go to the clinics and wards; if they do not feel like working they can stay home. Their presence or absence from duty is a matter of life or death for the patients. John Garang died so that we may live.

[To be continued on …]

The author is the Sudan’s Ambassador to Japan