Civil Society and the Uphill Task of Building the Republic of South Sudan BY: John Moi Venus, JUBA, RSS
SEPT. 26/2011, SSN; Experiences have shown humanity that the beginnings of most political parties, including their manifestos are humane and noble with a great sense of purpose, until its individuals, whose egos are inflated by the surrounding sycophants, succumb to worldly lure of power and honor; hence, theretofore springs a glorified dictator and tyrant rooted in the inconsistencies of the past opposed regimes. Now that Khartoum’s tyrannical political establishments have been relegated to the edges of history, any extant party with/without claim to upholding democratic principles and spearheading true democratic reforms should be progressively scrutinized with the eyes of the African Fish Eagle from which we draw our strength, resilience and vision. Indeed the real task of the civil society has to begin in South Sudan. South Sudan, in all actuality and purpose has become part of today’s Africa, a continent pressured with ubiquitous calls for democratic reforms. Routine discussions the world over are being advanced about the importance of civil society as a prime wheel for democratic reforms. A majority of people seem to agree to the effect that a strong civil society is crucial for instituting a sound democracy in which good governance and transparency are the guiding principles. This should be a noble calling for South Sudan, truly: a nascent nation-state that has been weighed down by very poor human right records compounded by continuous cases of child abductions, very early child marriages, and violent ethnic conflicts. This yearning for a vibrant, and self-transcending civil society should in fact be a matter of an honest quest for moral aptitude in a race against unjust social structures as the current political dispensation continues to take roots, a necessity that must take course irrespective of our ethnic background and political orientations. Frustratingly so, the strings of ethnic conflict, child abduction practices, including the business of marrying off the girl-child at their teens continue to reflect poorly on the credibility of this nascent country. Caught up in this hopeless situation, surely the rural populations living at the fringes of society under the fear of erratic violence and losing innocent children to unknown marauding personalities should be wondering whether the new state is really a state in Max Weber’s sense of the word with central authority firmly in control of events. These precarious events are holding the hopes and aspirations of the citizen of South Sudan as captives. When will the citizen of this new humble beginning rise up to the occasion and demonstrate the power of having a common purpose and destiny. A truly unified civil society in fact could be a force to reckon with in rowing citizens towards social reforms and government accountability. In South Africa, no single lane of history could be travelled without acknowledging the daring effort of students, and the ordinary citizens in humbling and bringing the perpetrators of the apartheid regime to their knees, a deserved effort that occasion the release of the magnanimous leader Nelson Mandela and steering him all the way to the leadership position between 1994 and 1999 - a clear triumph of good over evil. History is replete with such success stories in other African countries enough to corroborate how civil society activities could pose as very powerful watchtowers of reform and accountability. It is widely acknowledged that the concept of civil society does not enjoy conceptual precision. This is because, according to one Bob Edwards and some scholars, the concept is polemical or context specific. In various places of the world, it came to acquire the sense of ‘a sphere of social autonomy and democratization from below’, or ‘society against the state.’ In far flung places like Latin America, the conceptualization reflected both the struggle against the military dictatorship of the era and a widespread conviction that the conventional party politics had failed people. Activists and thinkers thus framed the concept not only as “society against a repressive state” but also as society in place of parties. In Africa, when the continent was overwhelmed by military regimes, a Nigerian called Matthew Hassan Kukah, observed that the notion came to be understood as a domain of society that was outside the realm of military uniforms. It comprised individuals who belong to churches, students, human right activists, or trade unions that stood to stage popular demonstrations and protest against the forces of oppression and repression, including expressing downright discomfort towards regimes or policies perceived to be detrimental to the common good and that seemed to infringe on the rights of citizens. Given the contextual/normatic dimension, it is therefore true to say that, at the analytical level, there is no formal conceptual agreement about ‘who and what’ to include under umbrella of civil society. In some societies, business groups and professionals who are perceived to influence the state to achieve their particular interests over against the collective interest of citizens are excluded and in other context these selfsame groups are included. That is to say, the real purchase of the notion of civil society largely remained polemically tied to the circumstances in which each version originated and could not therefore account for any comprehensive theory of a state-society relation. That said, the concept of civil society is a good heuristic model with far-reaching practical showdown implications against the forces of oppression and poor leadership. The concept served, as Bob Edwards believes, to juxtapose a sphere of voluntary, purposive association and opposition to the forces of chaos, or oppression by governments. Competing concepts of civil society do invariably bear an undaunted mark of struggle against injustices by a state towards the governed; it is a crystallization of projects of social autonomy over and against the repressive forces in any given time and place, a desire for justice and democratic space in which people create space to enjoy equal rights as individuals and as a group. It high time, the citizens of this humble nation-state contemplated the establishment of civil society’s central bureaus in the various states within the country as a matter of necessity to serve in networking and mobilization of the citizens for the common course of democracy, if this new country must avoid any rapid recourse to being what citizens now commonly refer to as “a government of self-service.” This could also be an opportunity for building an all-inclusive team to familiarize the citizens about our common destiny and educate individuals and groups on the alternative ways of addressing social issues without recourse to violence. With the international community watching, there is a reasonable milieu in which a concerted effort could sprout a sound democratic start-up in ways that could prevent people from falling preys to sectarian, religious or ethnic divisions that have bedeviled this region for so long. This is a tough venture, to begin with. Kukah observes so that a dangerous and tougher task for civil society begins when a new system or regime is ushered in. The new political dispensation in South Sudan, brought about by collective effort and desire to see the reign of justice, equality and dignity as reflected in our coat of arms, should serve as an exemplar of a determination for a result and true reform. The mundane self-defeating recoil of incompetence to: “where were you when we fought the war” must truly be treated with contempt. Martin Luther Junior was quoted as saying ‘the battle cry for democracy and justice should be: free at last, thank God! We are free at last! Till then, we should never rest.’ The reigning political force of the moment must truly begin to show some sense of purpose and direction. We now hear of the 13 most corrupt South Sudan Government officials, but first Mr. President Sir, Where are we on the Dura saga? John Moi Venus, South Sudan Citizen in Juba COMMENTS, PLEASE CLICK HERE Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author(s) and do not represent those of the website. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
