What it means to liberate a country
By Zechariah Manyok Biar
July 2, 2011 — The formal announcement of the Republic of South Sudan is less than a week away from now. It is generating both the feeling of triumph and the feeling of the upcoming challenges. The upcoming challenges would need the change of our mindset if we are to overcome them and govern this country in a way that will satisfy its citizens. Misconceptions about the meaning of liberation will have to be corrected.
Those of us who participated in the arms liberation of South Sudan seem to believe that we are entitled to everything even what does not fall in our legally defined ownership. Some people use the name of liberation as a tool for silencing voices that do not support their individual interests. The question they are supposed to ask themselves is what it really means to liberate a county?
The real liberation means that people will have freedom to kick you, the liberator, out of their constitutionally defined property if they can legally prove that they own it. The real liberation means that people will have the freedom to question you when you try to force them do what they think is not appropriate to do. The real liberation means that people will have the right to determine how they want to be governed—that is, they will reject and condemn a behavior that the law defines as illegal.
Today, South Sudanese who express the above mentioned principles of freedom are seen as traitors. Some people question other citizens to clarify where they were during the liberation war. Of course, not everybody participated in the war, but that does not mean they would not know what their legal rights is. Respect for liberators is one thing and legal ownership of property and the rights to determine how one should be governed is quite another. A respect is not something that one demands; it is a voluntary choice of those who want to respect you.
The irony of intimidating people into respecting you as a liberator is this: people who cannot say no to what they do not like are not really liberated. People feel liberated when they can freely debate issues to prove their points right or wrong. People feel liberated when they can go to court and get their justice done convincingly. If a liberator silences people in the name of liberation, then he or she is telling them that they need a second liberation.
It could be true that liberators should be given special respect, but that does not mean they should coerce people who never participated in the liberation. These are the people that they liberated.
If the liberators were just entitled to anything they put their hands on, then why don’t we think today about those who lost their lives because of the liberation of this country? Do we even care how their children live? Who is the real hero between the living liberator and the dead one? Is it not the one who died for the freedom of those who are enjoying freedom while still alive?
The only way of rewarding the dead liberators, I think, is to let the living (who might not even have bothered to participate in the arms liberation) enjoy the freedom achieved through arms liberation.
In the Republic of South Sudan, personal interest must be separated from national pride because it soils it. We must follow the law and its definition of what our rights are. Being a liberator is not a right, it is a duty.
In my next article, I will take on those who mistreat others in the name of property ownership when in the real sense they are also thieves. Area belonging does not give one the right to claim everything. Those who do such things are not different from those who use liberation as a tool for achieving their selfish individual interests.
Zechariah Manyok Biar, BA. Edu., MACM, MSSW. He can be reached at [email protected]
innocent
What it means to liberate a country
Nice zechariah- this article is so much inspiring. You are legend forever. To be liberator donot give you a license to own the state properties. It is now happening in south sudan where the “former war commander fighters” are looting the state owned properties for their own deed,leaving the vulnerable population with nothing but with empty optimism .
Just keep writing Zechariah Manyok.
Akibon
What it means to liberate a country
This is a important article, however, those whom your article should have been useful are those illiterates who could not even read such article to quench their thirst on what liberation mean.
We those who may read your article knows quite well what liberation mean as we have studied it just like you do.
Please use your spare time to preach to them there that this is what liberation mean.
Your article is right because I witnessed such naive claims of mr X being a traitor and Mr Y being a liberator here on commentary boards.
Keep informing though the hard part is that the soldiers and civilians whose such articles target are just beside you there.
Cheers!!!
moses chol
Declaration of Independence on July 9, 2011 will be the most important document in the history of South Sudanese.
The South Sudan Declaration of Independence on July 9, 2011 will be the most important document in the history of South Sudanese. I am very happy, our Lord is beautiful indeed and we need to make use of resources in South Sudan to benefit our people. The Declaration of Independence of our nation should be the foundational document that will state the simple philosophy of government which will be the foundation of our nation, clearly define Government procurement systems of Centralization Decentralization because the choice of organizational structure developed for the procurement system varies widely from State to State. No standard approach or model can be recommended and a country will often evolve from a highly centralized to a more decentralized system as public procurement entities in line ministries or local authorities gain experience and expertise, the nature of equally, freedom of speeches and independent, and have certain inherent rights, and state of society, we cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest our posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety of all our citizens in South Sudan.
Moses Matur Chol
Makuei
What it means to liberate a country
Manyok,
Well done patriot!
You should form justice now team – to preach all these.
I hope someone is listening and folks helping to build but not to tear.
Keep on writing but remeber to form activists group for justice in the near future or join one and add your strength to it.
Chol de Kwot
Declaration of Independence on July 9, 2011 will be the most important document in the history of South Sudanese.
Moses Chol
Thank you for your interest in South Sudan public sector procurement system and how it can be improved to ensure best value for money in the provision of services to South Sudan population.
I am an expert in Procurement, Logistics and Supply Chain Management among other fields with considerable training and work experience in management of procurement activities within the UN system.
I have also noted area of public sector procurement had been neglected in South Sudan. There is no government that can ensure better value for money in delivering services to citizens without proper public sector procurement system in place.
I am currently doing an academic research paper on barriers to efficient and effective implementation of South Sudan public sector procurement system. I wish to share recommendations from that research with key stakeholders in GOSS especially Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning before the end of this year.
Some of the items you have mentioned especially organizational structure and centralization of complex procurement activities will certainly be among the recommendations.
I hope to see improvement in the way public sector procurement system operates in South Sudan starting next year.