Current violence as means of political survival Jan. 29 Featured <http://www.southsudannation.com/category/featured/>, Uncategorized <http://www.southsudannation.com/category/uncategorized/> no comments<http://www.southsudannation.com/current-violence-as-means-of-political-survival/#respond>
BY: DENG BUL, AUSTRALIA, JAN/28/2014, SSN; The violence I chose to talk about is the current war in our country South Sudan. I am perfectly aware though that when I mention violence, they will surely say that there was no violence until when Dr. Riek Machar rebelled. Sure they are right perhaps. It is no surprise that either or both sides of the warring parties might have good reasons to justify their actions to this crisis. So to observe impartiality, I will accept their arguments prior to seeing them, but not necessarily agreeing with them. Those poor guys caused this violence, not Kiir; he is A SAINT you know!!! An Oxford English dictionary defines violence as behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something-that is the unlawful use of physical force or intimidation by exhibition of such force. However while I am writing this article, I have within me an ambivalence whether I should write something or remain silent until when that time comes, but when, that is what pushes me to open my poor brain to say at least a bit. I guess some of us have in different ways experienced violence in their lives. I had a share of it late in the 80s when they called me Jess El Amer. But what that meant, I did not know. I can literally say it referred to my young age then, but I will at the meantime leave it to the architects of the age. Let me begin by narrating to you a century old story about a pygmy from Central Congo who was brought in 1904 to America by a Missionary and placed in the Monkey house at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. While there, the pygmy attracted thousands of visitors and probably made millions if not billions of dollars through him and in turn boosted their economy. An act of Racism isn't it? A take away message is that it was a missionary who did that, so there is no saint, is there? Our actions betray our human likeness, true or false? Confirming why people chose to do horrible things even when they know the consequences will be dire; benefit outweighs prudence. Our politicians in Juba are no exception to this; let me say why. In this article, I am going to superficially discuss the unfortunate event that is taking place in our young impoverished nation. Just like all other African politicians, the elites in Juba have foolishly succeeded by brutally disrupting the most needed social cohesion to stay or ascend into power. They once again sowed hatred in our hearts; so our brothers are blindly killing themselves in order for them to meet their ultimate need, which is political survival at the expense of the innocent people. What is disturbing still however is that this current violence in our country has become so much a theory that it is hard to tell the truth from lies, but the truth is, it has killed a lot of innocent people. So I want to guess who would be held accountable for this mess. Without doubt, they will say "ho" it was Gatluak. No it was Deng. Or perhaps it was not me; it was them. I find it shocking to come to terms with those strange statements. As already expected, they have begun dispersing responsibility through their administrative apparatus about who would be responsible. Most of us might have heard our minister of information Michael Makuei, sentencing the allegedly accused coup plotters (political prisoners) to death either by hanging or firing squad. The minister is helplessly trying to tell us someone else and not them is responsible, but doesn't the buck stops with the president, Sir? The president on the other is looking behind him and very hard for the culprits in the Alice's Wonderland, but aren't they here in front of him? Although he admittedly said that some of his forces had killed residents in Juba he failed miserably to elaborate who they were. May be he was talking about the presidential guards or foreign agents, the bad guys who killed Isaiah Abraham!! Please do not ask me where is Riek in all this? I am working on it right now and I will release once completed. So wait, don't judge me yet. Is it senseless to attribute personal responsibility for this crisis to a definite group? No, I am blaming the leadership and in particular the president will have to bear much burden. Unfortunately in a military society, the one responsible is always the poor guy down the hierarchy. So the big guys always act with impunity. A Congolese parliamentarian once told a journalist that in order to survive politically, you have to be a bit corrupt, a bit ruthless..., but what he did not say was that these means of political survival are also ways of inciting violence. If your security agents kill people because they speak out against your government misdeeds, they are creating violence. If you put people under house arrest because they are asking you to fulfil your party's constitutional obligation, you are inciting violence. If you practice corruption by appointing your tribesmen to occupy some important government ministries or institutions, you are promoting violence. If you intentionally shelve the constitution then run the country the way it suits you, it is a call for violence. They are as many as the definition of corruption, so I cannot name them all in one go. I will come back another day. But the truth is if you suppress people through intimidation, violence ensues. And any nation or a party that is governed through intimidation is bound to explode into violence. *So in my opinion, the one who helps creating this deadly violence is the one responsible for the crisis. I am talking about our president.* I know he is very busy marginalising himself through his corrupt actions; fearing comrades, suspecting an imminent coup, so keeping them away. The only way for him is to keep these able gentlemen away from his government so as to avoid this Tsunami coming from Dr. Riek and Mr. Pagan Amum. Can a president who governs in fear admit responsibilities and achieve peace and reconciliation? This violence will never end unless a radical change is introduced. Please allow me to conclude this with a question from late Laurent Kabila of Congo in a press conference. *"Who has not been Mobutist in this country? Three-quarters of this country became part of it, so we saw you dancing in the glory of the monster."* If I ask our politicians in Juba whether in jail or free, if any of them has never been Kiirist in South Sudan? A few will surely say they have not been. But who wrote that constitution which granted our president all the powers to dictate everything? Aren't those of John Luk Jok its current victim and Michael Makuei its current but temporal defender part of the group? No, boys, you are dancing in the glory of the monster. END -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. 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