Push to real independence
By Zechariah Manyok Biar
June 9, 2013 – In his usual emotional way of dealing with important national and international issues, the President of the Republic of the Sudan Field Marshal Omar al Bashir announced in a rally on June 8, 2013 that he has ordered his Minister of Petroleum to block the flow of oil from the Republic of South Sudan.
President Bashir is like a boy who bites the finger of another boy in fist fighting and keeps crying that he is being beaten. He is accusing South Sudan of supporting the rebels in his country when the evidence shows the opposite. He is the one supporting rebels against South Sudan because about three thousand South Sudanese rebels have now reunited with the Government of South Sudan and they came from the Sudan. No single group, on the other hand, has reunited with Bashir’s Government and claimed to have gone from South Sudan.
Therefore, few people will buy Bashir’s argument that he shut down the oil because of South Sudan’s support to rebels even if there are things that his Government claims to show to link South Sudan to Sudanese rebels. Our alleged support of Sudanese rebels could be more of a morale support than what many people in the international community know about the evidence showing Bashir’s active support to rebels against South Sudan.
The international community, especially those who did not know Sudanese Government very well, will be shocked by Bashir’s decision. But few of those who know Bashir and his Government better will not be surprised by the decision. We know that Sudan is known for dishonoring agreements.
It is obvious that Bashir’s Government decided to allow the oil flow this year because they wanted to use it as a bargain to take Abyei. Now that they have seen it would be difficult to use the oil flow as a bargain to take Abyei since the killing of the Paramount Chief of Abyei has toughened the position of Abyei people, the Sudanese politicians have decided to shut down the oil as a way of trying to hurt South Sudan Government.
But the irony of the situation is that the Sudan Government has given us in South Sudan real opportunity to become truly independent. Difficult situations make people smarter and creative. Diversification of the economy that we had been taking for granted because of oil money will now be done vigorously than ever before. Spending control that we saw in the year 2012 will now be perfected. People will get used to what they are entitled to because of the scarcity of resources. This will reduce opportunity-based corruption that had been prevalent in South Sudan.
Our people will no longer blame the Government for shutting down the oil flow because it is clear now that Sudan and not South Sudan is the problem. This will make the people support Government’s ideas about the diversification of the economy. People will become creative in order to survive even if they know that the Government will not support their creativity. Agricultural activities will soon increase and agricultural produces will be brought to market even if there are no feeder roads.
The international community members who are friends to the Republic of South Sudan will not blame South Sudan for shutting the oil down because it is now clear that Bashir ordered it. In 2012, Bashir’s Government outsmarted South Sudan in the eyes of the international community by squeezing it in darkness to the point it was forced to take a decision that was seen as unpopular by the international community. Now South Sudan has outsmarted Sudanese politicians to let them do in day light what they had been doing in darkness.
Chinese will now begin a friendship that respects the sovereignty of South Sudan because they will know that we are no longer related to them through Sudan. Chinese will also know that Sudan is the one destroying the pipeline not South Sudan.
All these make us real independent. Sudan will now know that the bond of dependence that had been connecting South Sudan to Sudan has been cut. We will now turn to East Africa more than ever before and Sudan will soon find itself wanting us more than we want them. The rebels they had been falsely accusing us of supporting could now decide to be our real friends even though we may still not mess around with the internal affairs of their country. Real independence indeed!
Zechariah Manyok Biar can be reached at [email protected]