2 years of Independence!
By Luk Kuth Dak
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same.” Former US President, the late Ronald Reagan.
July 26, 2013 – At this high-tech era, anyone and everyone can ‘ google-in” anything they want to learn about such as the meaning of FREEDOM. But to this writer, those magic letters simply mean: enjoying our birth rights. There’s not a better feeling than to wake up in the morning knowing that you can do the stuff that you wanted to do when you wanted to do them. e.g.; being able to breath, talk, work and most importantly, express yourself freely as long you ‘re abide by the law of the land.
On July 9th, the nation known as the Republic of South Sudan (RSS) celebrated it’s 2nd anniversary of independence, after more than half a century of real, brutal and bloody oppression at the hands of the most bigoted regimes in Khartoum. During those long dark years, our people were denied the basic principles of life, liberty and freedom.
Now, the central question is: after two years of self-rule, are we there yet? I think not. Even as we are still celebrating, our people are not yet free. In most cases, they are even worse off than when they were under the most vicious bigotry, as my friend Peter Opach Segec put it. Peter, has just concluded his vacation to the new Republic for the first in over three decade. ” The ppeople are dying of diseases and hunger. There are no roads, and no health care of any kind,” he said.
But how could that be true when the rulers are ours? And after all, didn’t they take up arms to undo all of the injustices that were inflicted on their people?
I find it hard to fathom.
And as I always delve for information when am writing an article, I reached out to Ambassador Dhanojack Obongo, the number two must powerful man in the Embassy of the RSS in Washington, D.C., for his take on what peter has described as a dire situation in the country.
” Realistically, things are moving in the right direction. They might not be moving as faster as we would like to, but the truth of the matter is that there’s no silver bullet here, and certainly nothing will get done over night. The government and the party are both committed to make real changes in the lives of our people, and you can count on that,” he said.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. puts it best: ” I don’t need power for power’s sake, I need power that is just and that is good.”
I do not thing any of our leaders would say with stright face that they have done their best in the pass couple of years, and that is truly unfortunate.
South Sudan needs a new leadership that is caring, accessible, acountable and efficient.
The Author is a former anchorman at Juba Radio. E-mail him at: [email protected]