Govt of South Sudan should focus on the welfare of People
Wednesday 5 July 2006.
Open Letter to GoSS Administration
By Deng-Athoi Galuak*
July 4, 2006 - The vast citizens of South Sudan would like to see a dim of
change and development. It is expected of any government to be effective and
efficient to the need of citizens. I do not want to remind anyone about
difficult terrain Southerners went through. Hence, changes, developments, trade
and economic growth are viable and crucial at these vulnerable times. The
government shouldn't be lame duck to deliver the basic needs to the citizens. It
is most important to note that there is outcry in every compass direction of the
South not only because the government is "corrupt" but the government is too
scrawny and immovable to do what it takes to surety citizens out the yoke of
susceptibility.
As we steer in a new phase of tranquil and peace in the history, the core value
of the GoSS in our lives should be more acute than when the period of liberation
for freedom of this historic country was fought...precious blood of our people
was sacrificed so that we attained freedom. So much has changed, yet so much
remained the same... for this reason, citizens desperation have become
increasingly the daily calling for "Good God" to propel help from above. What
remained unvarying is that we still see corruption, nepotism, greed, tribal
pride, dissection, lack of comprehensive unity of people of the South while I (we)
expect our government to develop the ability to unite people and use CPA
(comprehensive Peace Agreement) in their governmental aptitude and later in
their professional sovereignty advantage - thus, the underlying philosophy of
the GOSS, is that quality of government is an essential component of legitimacy.
SPLA/M brought our long pride and tradition to peace loving people of South in a
clear and meaningful technique so that our next generations will understand and
learn to appreciate the ubiquitous nature of our pride.
In every country, the duty of citizens is very vital in participating in major
areas of government policies. Therefore, to criticize the government is equally
important how the government ponder policies. GOSS is not even deposit up the
shutters to democracy, nevertheless somewhat exploring to be one. It's
unpredictable to make inferential statement without proving the result where the
government of Southern Sudan is improving. So far, we have seen negative results
of what the government is doing wrong such a as resignation of Nhial (queue of
people who are contemplating to resign is alarming for me to mentioned here),
corruption and disappearing of public funds became second nature. While the
question is when are we going to glimpse reforms? Of course we have seen
appointments of ambassadors, ministers, judges, commanders and share of oil
revenues. However, appointmen t and promotion is not interchangeable with the
result the ordinary citizens yearn for to see? The citizens want to see what the
minister of health is doing to fight the deteriorating health of people. The
citizens want to see money coming to the village and not to disappear somewhere
in Juba. We want to see what the ambassadors are doing to create international
relations with South in particular. We want to know why are the ambassadors not
reaching to Australians, Canada, UK, USA and so on. We want to millions of
judges to deliver millions justices - unlike injustice done in WES governor. Of
course, it is a waste of time and money to appoint 25 & 21 ambassadors and
judges respectively without a faint change.
At least twenty years after the SPLA/M fights bloody civil war, our political
culture has been warped beyond recognition. Trepidation and repression were the
dream of the day that skyrocket the moment. Today, those who did not even
contribute to the moment are the rulers of the GoSS. And the brave soldiers who
fought the war are roaming in Juba like prisoners of the war (POW), and anyone
who dares say otherwise is branded as "unpatriotic at best, a "traitor" at
worst. It's absolutely injudicious for the government to brand the very citizens
who advocate for changes as "traitors." Scholars like me are obliged to urge to
government to do the best - not the worst.
Most respectful citizens like Mr. Nhial Deng Nhial and others who are
responsible by pandering to anti-corruption sentiment; are branded as traitor
for denouncing corruption; our northerner brothers who fought in conjunction
with us at the same cause are singled out and called "Arab" for condemning 'racism
and segregation' in the GOSS hierarchy; Governor of Western Equator was falsely
accused of wrongdoing while the wolves roam in Juba region. But all of this
pales when compared with poor government shadows and corruption sow in the GOSS.
From money embezzlement, favoritism, and tribal pride, GOSS have transformed our
South into unrecognizable position.
Consider just a few under-publicized examples of GoSS contempt as dysfunctional
government of no-go: First, Mr. Nhial Deng expressed his frustration with
corruption and his position as the minister rather than betraying anyone,
however, he was referred as "betraying the people of...". He was not allowed to
protest publicly or even reveals his latent intent for resignation until he
finally and voluntarily forced his way quit. Mr. Nhial didn't resign. He quit in
frustration. Second, Yasser Arman is gifted outspoken individual against the
government transgression. He is now subject to daily surveillances because of
his stance on injustices. Third, the house arrest of WES governor is totally
intolerable in many aspects. Thus far, all of these scenarios are signals of
surreptitious transformation of GoSS to deep doom. GoSS is failing the citizens
instead of lifting them up. The government is busy with promot ion but promotion
isn't development. The GoSS should do something as "government for the people".
* Deng-Athoi Galuak is a senior at the University of Mass Boston (USA) majoring
in Political Theory and Philosophy. He can be reach at dengathoi.galuak@comcast.net
<mailto:dengathoi.galuak@comcast.net>