Is the Republic of South Sudan a failled (pre) nation?

By Andrew Akon Akech

July 7, 2011 — Independent we will not. On face of it, voices are on record that the CPA’s delivered autonomous south Sudan is loosing credibility in good governance. Like others, we equally admit to the existence of difficulties. Indeed the world has problems. It’s the duty of ( wo)men to devise adapted solutions.

In this jungle of problems fraught pharmacy, we have no elixir, not even a majestral preparation. The present “concoction” is the best we assume could serve tackle our current short-comings. But the Argus-eyed local and international circles read the picture differently. It is then a question of a discriminate yard-stick. Gauged against the chronological scale of human achievements and experiences, a toddler aspiring nation of South Sudan is put, unjustly on equal footings with nations counting behind millennia of trials and errors which have brought them so far to the present show case of equality management and universally accredited know how.

The south was to have an alibi. Emerging from a near sixty- year old contester of difficult co-existence with a perfidious northern “compatriot”, she cant transform over night into an arbitrator of ethnically diverse society(Her Achilles’ heel),impromptu constituted redundant civil service, destabilization oriented NCPs incitation of disgruntled southerners, un regulated influx of “friendly” foreigners (infringe on sovereignty ) and management of thorny issues posed prior to the 9th Jan 2011 popular consultation and which have now become the hanging issues.

The World certainly will have a new- born baby state. What’s uncertain is its behavior in the’ new’ world’s order. Clouds at the horizon are thick and charged. And there a silver lining around those clouds:

Juba has become a known spot on Africa’s geopolitical map. International dignitaries who courageously came in 2005 to pay the last homage to their peer, Dr John Garang, found it a desolate place only comparable to an extra terrestrial planet. Six years on the tally, Juba is taking on an aspect of a modern metropolitan. Its major circulation arteries are on tarmac, a comfort our late leader lamented didn’t exist since creation .The town became a Mecca for Sudanese in search of a political pilgrimage. In September 2009 a sustained consultation of political parties kept shuttling between Juba and Khartoum until an umbrella of Juba parties was constituted. But being driven by conflicting ulterior motives, the forum was simply a consensus on the consensual.

An extrinsically (northern) engineered insecurity becomes for us a non avenue. South Sudan is as secure as it has never been before. Foci of insecurity articulated around abbaction and incitation to contesters of all shades, simply become a manageable ‘hiccup’. Which secure nation counts a zero level of insecurity?

Despite the alarming reports of high mortality rates among vulnerable groups, South Sudan has an efficient net-work of essential drug distribution to all her ten states. Health professionals are struggling with available means to change things. We have yet no firm information on the repercussions of these efforts on the declared scourages.Timid indicators orient towards a balance tipping in the direction of a positive change, but at a price of a challenge: to integrate their health system into a tripod of cost/effective preventive and curative medical practice, community based comprehensive and efficient health education and a nationally patronized health control mechanisms; all cast into a framework of viable, solid social security protective umbrella.

Illiteracy is a blemish on the flesh of our society. Reliable data on its rate and prevalence are lacking. The post war ministry of education is seen by the public to have commendable strides towards its eradication. Centers of primary education are mush-rooming albeit in big towns, search for quality is another effort. Indeed, quality education in colonial and immediate post colonial Sudan was amongst the best in Africa in a culturally diverse society as ours. However northern Sudanese pan-Arabists educators thought arabizing the system would be the best way for the Arab expansion bridge into the depth of sub Saharan Africa. It might have worked for them, but the consequences for us are disastrous. The ministry of Education is working hard to reverse the tide by adopting a new convenient curriculum. What’s regrettable is our elites’ resort to seek quality education in the neighborhood’s court yard. We might have educated southerners, but in the end, definitely acculturalised ones.

Rural South Sudan is mired in a dependency syndrome as a means of survival. In the hours of distress a philanthropic world mobilized ambulances to come to her rescue, by providing life-line support. The actors were the NGOs and their Arial droppings, a disaster in disguise. Efforts are now operational to change mentalities by providing civic education aimed at encouraging people to return to work culture and self reliance rather than entirely depending on ephemeral god send good Samaritans.

On the contrary a dry season rural Republic of South Sudan is thirsty despite “its” Nile and uncountable tributaries. The paradox of too much water and too much thirst needs an objective scrutiny in this semi- equatorial part of Africa where we have a unique catch man, the Sudd, the second largest world’s lung after that of the Amazon. Preserve or exploit it with the attendant risks to the environment and its echo- system is a dilemma.

In this globalised world, our capital (Juba) voluntarily accepts the role of a globalised village. On its roll call, most Nations would respond present except, maybe, Latin America. The signal is strong: while we are a myriad of ethnically “exclusive” communities, we are involved in playing the role of implicated actors in a racially homogenized rainbow in the world’s community of Nations.

The thick clouds are entrenched around the CPA’s original ambiguities. The CPA is only comprehensive in its inclusion of the six protocols. Contentious issues that threatened to torpedo the boat of negotiations were put to “later on”. This has, unfortunately, brought us to an amputated mechanism where we clearly saw what was wrong without the necessary mobility to advance towards a solution, except by acrobacy. Legacy of avoidance of these thorny issues confronted us early on in the course of CPA application. When faced with power sharing of sovereign / service ministries, the NCP partner arrogantly arrogated to herself the sovereign ministries of Defense, Interior, Energy and Finance. Fearing to nib our cherished baby (CPA) in the bud and with advice from friends we conceded and willingly accepted the service ministries of Cabinet Affairs, Higher Education and Foreign Affairs. Still later on, frustrated by the NCP’s blockage of electoral protocols (April 2009, Referendum) and easing of restrictive regulations on civil liberties, the SPLM in December 2007 retaliated by declaring a self imposed “lock- out” from the government of National unity until a change of heart brought them back in April 2008. With the advent of referendum a foot-dragging NCP partner suddenly became aware of the non attractiveness of unity. In a desperate attempt, she conceded the Energy Ministry only after having been eviscerated of almost all of its contents in addition to the creation of a still-born commission of making unity attractive.

After this milestone referendum, how does the Republic of South Sudan (ROSS) behave with the North and itself? ROSS has two norths: “southern” Northerners and its geographical North. Southern Northerners are people to whom we must pay a double allegiance: moral and pragmatic. Morally, during the struggle our visions converged on a secular Sudan of equal rights and duties as a ladder of social ascension. They had the courage to cross the “yellow line” drawn by their original society to come and fight alongside the “infidels”. Terms of the CPA application were achieved with their unfailing support. They consequently become an integral part of us with our respect to the cultural differences, unless they decide otherwise. A choice we must respect. This brings us to the next obligation; pragmatism.

Encouraging them to practice as SPLM Northern sector in a hostile NCP environment will expose them as fifth columnists. Moreover, pulling the strings of unity while the gin of separation has come out of the jar and is slowly permeating every square inch of the one million square mile surface area of the former united Sudan would for them be an exercise in mechanical disadvantage. The South’s geographical north is a huddle. It is at the same time the internationally forced facilitator of the CPA’s protocols and the mastermind behind the hanging issues. It would be wrong for the protagonists to play the scorched earth policy as a leverage to contain the adversary. We must be prepared to the idea that certain hanging issues can’t be resolved in a limited time frame but could “hang” as long as possible if we stick to the principle of dialogue as the least evil means of achieving a solution/ compromise, for it is what could prevent us from getting entangled in a protracted war of attrition. Skirmishes at the Northern limitrophe areas are destabilizing and a psychological trauma to the victim populations. Lack of a tit- for- tat response, however, is not a sign of weakness but can be a litmus test on how resistance to provocation can be-refusing to be goaded into an action whose consequences could be excessively destructive to both sides. But where are we from one another? The answer could be the gist of what can shape our harmony in a successful nation-state. The south born out of struggle and toil is not necessarily the south that is or simply can be. It needs other dimensions to make it inclusive, an indispensable, and a key element to our success.
An appraisal of the pre referendum interim period cannot be banal but evidently indispensable. The objective isn’t undressing James to cloth Paul but find out in all sincerity whether all went “well” or there were errors that could be avoided in the future. In 2005 a triumphant SPLM/A marching to Juba found itself in a disparate situation: a sitting wealth (dividends on oil revenues) and a cruelly absent infrastructure. Rare in history does an “under dog” stumble on a mountain of wealth but common-place in that this abundance may inevitably lead to misplaced priorities. Moreover, the liberator, in good faith, came promising a lot to the too much expectant librated; a discrepancy that failed to fit into available time frame of the CPA’s application. The vision of towns going to the rural areas has yet to materialize; towns are still in towns, more elusive is where the capital of ROSS will definitely sit.

Federalism is an idea that would put all at ease, the governor and the governed. The present version in which the players are constitutional post holders poses the important question of its long term sustainability in terms of cost/effectiveness as the plethora of the posts imposes an unbearable drain on our nascent economy. The precedent years were those of “fat cows”. We should now be prepared to go in for more years of “lean cows”. I n our opinion, constitutional post holders should be limited to the Federal Government (former GOSS), the Federal and State legislative Assemblies as well as the state Governors, as these are elected institutions State ministers, Commissioners and Secretary Generals by virtue of being appointees should remain heads of theirs Dept, but affiliated to respective federal mother units and under the supervision of the Governor.

Generosity and leisure time should be repatriated from government offices to our homes where they naturally belong. Most government offices are stuffed with giant screens where the holder spends most time watching not only news but other diversities. There are sometimes embarrassing situations where you want to talk to your host only to discover that his attention is hay jacked by what is happening on the screen. Did we ever imagine how much money are we paying for these technological gadgets, with constant change of materials depending on the taste of the occupant?

Aberrance is the exaggerated generosity in our public offices. Whenever one enters an office, one is served a cold drink and water .The episode is repetitive depending on the number of errands or courtesy calls a visitor has each day. Worst is that some ‘guests’ leave behind almost halve of what has been offered. Suppose a bottle of water and a can of cold drink each cost one Sudanese pound, how much per day does our public treasury spend on this surge of absurd official generosity across our ten states?

The nascent ROSS is under the lime-lights of scrutinizing local/international communities as to what she might mean to its people in particular and to the World at large, in terms of existing standardized norms of good governance and performances. A perfect nation doesn’t exist. It’s neither our intention to be one. We simply want to be a successful Nation in the community of nations while expecting to be given attenuated cir cumstances.The people of South Sudan with its different components and epochs took under sixty years of harsh and strenuous struggle to attain its objective-separation, a difficult dream that has come to its realization ‘too soon’. ROSS is now inheriting precarious peace time nationhood: a society under the yoke of tribal animosities, deases, illiteracy, thirst, hunger, concerns over installation and maintenance of an efficient governance in a harmonized federal system, preservation of a virgin eco-system and may be, difficulties in expressing her identity in a globalized world. While the context might not necessarily fit us we will try to fit into it.

Dr.Andrew Akon is a lecturer in University of Juba, he can be reached at [email protected]