Political naivety and chauvinism are dangerous for Southern Sudanese

By Wani Tombe, The Khartoum Monitor

Feb 14, 2005 — It appears that, there are many southern Sudanese who fallaciously believe that, they have more authority than others when it comes to the matters of peace and war in this country. These folks seems to be labouring under a mammoth weight of political naivety that tends to blind them as to the fact that, issues of peace and war are of universal concern to all the peoples of this country, and that there are no human deities of peace and emancipation that one knows of Some individuals are ridiculously jumpy whenever southern Sudanese query some of the tangible issues related to peace in the country.

For example, whenever the issue of South-South Dialogue is mentioned, some southern Sudanese become unreasonably agitated and begin to utter words and sentences in the form of accusations that are politically stupid and unscrupulous to say the least. It is manifestly preposterous and equally outlandish to always equate southern Sudanese who are constructively critical of various political paradigms in southern Sudan as being traitors or collaborators with the State. These prophets of political doom and disharmony need to know that, the language of treason and such like is extremely stale in the current climate of universal peace and reconciliation in the whole of this country. For them to continue classifying critical southern Sudanese as being enemies of their own people simply because those so classified dare to interrogate certain political facts is a clear sign that, these malicious and emotional groups of southern Sudanese have lost the political plot and they need to become politically coolheaded, so that, they are able to contribute positively and constructively to the political debate some of us are engaged in.

Writing under the control of dangerous emotions does not allow you people to sift political grains from political chaffs. It is politically chauvinistic and bigotry to forcibly coerce all southern Sudanese to morally and practically belong to one sole political party, and if there are others who do not belong to this glorified one party system, they are automatically witch-hunted and hung out to dry as southern Sudanese traitors with the implied expectation of excommunication. This amounts to wild politics suited to groups that thrive on tribal warfare, and who in fact want to translate their traditional mode of politics where political foes are exterminated into national politics.

We reject such approach to national politics in southern Sudan. We are for national politics conducted in civilized fashion, where political opponents are accorded their due respect and dignity without calling them names nor attributing to them some false characteristic just to defile their political image. Southern Sudanese ought to understand that, even if the southern Sudan were to become an independent country, there is no way that, all of us shall belong to one party just because we are southern Sudanese or whatever name this independent entity wants to call its peoples.

People continuously talk of self-determination; this self-determination does not only mean territorial secession. It universally means the right to determine for yourself as a member of a group what is it that you want in life within the framework of the group you belong to, and that includes the freedom to belong to any legally recognized political party in your country of origin, and it does not mean forceful coercion of others to joint organizations such as political parties against their independent and conscious will. Self-determination also means that, others have no legal and moral right to make you feel unwanted and guilty in your own country of origin due to the nature of your conscience that those others do not want you to enjoy simply because they subjectively disagree with you. It also means that, others have no legal and moral right to make you therefore become a prisoner of conscience, this, in a plain legal language, is called violation of your civil and political rights within the remit of international human rights law.