The Professor of Controversy: Taban Lo-Liyong warns South Sudanese after Kenyan violence

Prof. Taban Lo-Liyong

Jan. 18, 08 (Juba) - It is because you have ears to hear; it is because you have the minds to distinguish useful teachings; it is because you know what is good for us and what is harmful; it is because you have the future of South Sudan at heart, that I confidently feel emboldened to address you generally and one by one.

WE HAVE all travelled the same route together from the slaving days through the colonial days through the handover of power to Khartoum Arabists by the British colonisers, through the Anyanya War years, through the SPLM/SPLA War years, and have now reached CPA years whose third year we are going to celebrate soon.

We therefore have had many shared experiences; we have faced the past with united determination and have pulled through some of the trials that would have torn us apart. In the period when President Jaafar al Nimeiri ruled the Sudan , if the bitter truth has to be told, sections of Equatorians perceived that section(s) of the Dinka tribe wanted to monopolise power. They then said better have the administration of Southern Sudan decentralized (kokora) into smaller provinces (now States) so that, a): Southern Sudanese elites and cadres from the various parts go to serve their peoples at closer range; b): social and economic developments of the far-flung parts of Southern Sudan are accelerated; c): having moved together for so long, it was thought that we were better off minding our small family matters at our home areas rather than becoming irritants to Equatorians. There were, and still are, definite cultural differences: the Nilotes, that is Dinkas and Nuers, with the Shilluk uneasily incorporated, are cattle herders in the main, whereas Equatorians are cultivators in the main. Cattle herders look at the land as grazing land. Cultivators look at land as the place to bring up green plants. Cattle love eating cultivated plants more than mere grass. This brings friction between the two groups. This 'redivision' of Southern Sudan was also seen as the best way to take development away from Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan, to other parts of Southern Sudan . It was also seen as the best way for maintaining an amicable relationship between Southerners. (The relationship was indeed maintained. The relocation went off smoothly. After kokora Equatorians joined the SPLM/SPLA, led by a Dinka, in their thousands. And the Equatorian countryside was the area where most of the war took place.)

THIS redivision did not go down well with section(s) of the Dinka communities, later joined by other Southern Sudanese. Their response to kokora, if my reading of our recent history is correct, was to form the SPLM/SPLA whose underlying original aim, if my reading is correct again, was to force Nimeiri to remove Joseph Lagu, the kokora architect, and a former Anyanya One general, (who had yielded the leadership of South Sudan to Abel Alier, Khartoum nominee) from the Vice Presidency and have Mr. Abel Alier, a former President of Southern Sudan who hailed from Dinka Bor, reinstated or have the leader of the movement installed into the Vice Presidency of the Republic.

But President Nimeiri was then engaged in taking the fire out of Hassan al Turabi's Muslim Brotherhood. He was either not able to read the Southern situation clearly, or took the course that served his interests best. He then aggravated the situation by promulgating other obnoxious national policies such as amputating the hands of petty thieves as well as embarking on various anti-Southern Sudanese actions like kasha or repatriation of Southerners to their home areas. It was these acts of political obtuseness on the part of successive Khartoum regimes which made Dr John Garang de Mabior's movement more popular to Southern Sudanese, as well as nationally, and catapulted it into the only viable way to follow that would better the conditions of Southerners and the other marginalized peoples of the Sudan. It is the way successive Khartoum governments reacted to kokora I still maintain, that led to the expansion of SPLM/SPLA War to become the populist Southern Sudan-wide war; which made it extend its original agenda to become what it finally became: a movement that sought to change the politics of the whole Sudan so that it would empower and embrace within the ambits of national beneficiaries all the marginalised peoples of the Sudan, with Southerners at the core.

(For historical purposes the information produced above have to be stated, contentious or controversial as they may be. Otherwise we shall have a flawed sense of our recent history. Otherwise what follows will not make much sense.)

TODAY is January the second, 2008 . We are witnessing a national tragedy unfolding in Kenya . National Parliamentary and Presidential Elections were held on 27th December. The parliamentary results were promptly announced as they came from the returning officers. But the presidential results kept trickling in and were finally announced on the 30th of December, in darkness, to the national news-media only and without the party agents and civil authorities witnessing; without international observers witnessing. Within moments of the announcement, the secrecy-shrouded results were cemented by the hurried inauguration of one of the presidential candidates who had been the incumbent and for whom the results were rigged. Immediately violence erupted in various parts of the country: the electors who felt cheated vented then anger in a variety of ways. As I write, all is not well with Kenya ; as I write, concerned individuals and bodies are ranging themselves to mediate, seeking to control the situation, seeking to return Kenya to the democratic path. What solution they will come up with requires the wisdom of a Solomon on their side; as well as new nationalistic dedication on the side of the two opposing parties.

I, AS a Southern Sudanese, am concerned. We all as Southern Sudanese are, and should indeed be, concerned with the tragedy that is taking place in Kenya . We pray for a quick solution to it; a solution which will show the contestants and the world that transparently the will of the people, as expressed in the election of 27th December, counted at the source and witnessed as true records, is totalled and revealed. Whatever responses the opposing leading politicians take will then show openly who is on the right and who on the wrong. The real blame game can then begin. That, to me, looks like the best course of action. I pray that it be followed.

(Meanwhile everybody seems to have forgotten who landed Kenyans into this tragic situation: those returning officers who sent in their own cooked up figures, and those officials who announced the fraudulent results knowingly. The names of these people should be publicized and legal action taken against them. It is they who caused the deaths of hundreds of Kenyans. They, the instruments of this 'civilian coup', as Ali Mazrui termed it, landed Kenya into this international disgrace and upset the progress of democracy. Their paymasters, the fat cats who stand to benefit from Mwai Kibaki's presidency, as well as those thieves from the national treasuryssible unmasking by a Raila Odinga regime, should all bear the responsibility for all the deaths, injuries and property losses that innocent Kenyans have incurred. The upsetting of Kenya 's shining progress towards economic leadership of Eastern Africa was caused by them. If they are lawyers, then philosophy, especially ethics and public morality, subjects they do not seem to have studied, should be introduced into the legal curriculum in all Kenyan law schools. Whoever fails it should never become a lawyer. It was lawyers who did this disservice: who supervised the staging of this civilian coup. They caused the nation a million times more losses than the losses caused by the well-known economic embezzlers. )

IN KENYA there are four or five major tribes: the Kikuyu, the Abaluiya, the Luo, the Akamba and the conglomeration in the Rift Valley called the Kalenjins. For or from historical reasons, the Kikuyu and the Luo are, or have been perceived as rivals, pitted against each other. (Though, truth being what it is, Oginga Odinga, (Raila's late father) a Luo, had in his time promoted the fortunes of Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, when, if he was to have acted in the purported stereotypical tribal hatred way, he could have usurped the political leadership of colonial Kenya during the Mau Mau civil war years. Again, for reasons of Kenyan nationalism, Raila Odinga had fought Daniel arap Moi's dictatorial regime and helped install the same Mwai Kibaki (who is standing in his way), a Kikuyu, into the State House in 2002. When, if he had tribalism in his heart, he would not have done so but left dictator Daniel arap Moi to continue throttling democracy in Kenya .)

Oginga Odinga was jailed by Kenyatta. His party, the Kenya African Union, that was re-introducing multi-party democracy into independent Kenya , was demolished by Kenyatta with the collusion of American and British governments. Now when Mwai's turn to turn over the government to Raila, in response to the voters' wishes, he instead organized a vote tally-rigging. (If the truth then needs 'underlining' the Luo seem more sinned against politically by the Kikuyu than the other way round. In the present situation media people talk mostly about Luo versus Kikuyu. Whereas the major theatre of action against the Kikuyu and the sending them away, both bad as they are, is in Daniel arap Moi's area, carried out by his tribesmen, the Kalenjins.) (Now the above facts also need stating if the lessons I want to draw for Southern Sudanese are to make sense. As should also the following additional historical background information. ):

IN THE Lancaster House Conference where the independence of Kenya was discussed, Britain agreed to make available to independent Kenya funds for the purchase of the British settler farms, most of which were in the Rift Valley. When independence came, the Kikuyu President, Jomo Kenyatta, gave the bought farms mainly to his Kikuyu tribesmen. Later, more farms, lands and properties that were in the Rift Valley (both in Kalenjin and Abaluiya as well as other smaller tribal ancestral areas) were acquired by the Kikuyu who had easiest access to loans, contracts and government assistances.

Furthermore, during the long reign of Jomo Kenyatta, the Kalenjin Daniel Arap Moi from the Rift Valley was his Vice President for 18 years. During all that time the government organized the systematic settlement of Kikuyu tribesmen into the Rift Valley, as if arap Moi had been expressly appointed to allow it to take place, and maintained his position of Vice Presidency, so long as he allowed them to do so, took place.

After Kenyatta died, and arap Moi became president the Kalenjin youths who had helplessly witnessed the appropriation of their lands, or the acquisition of lands and properties in their ancestral lands by the Kikuyu, embarked upon the reacquisition of those lands and properties. Most times using non-legal means. There have been clashes in the Rift Valley since Daniel arap Moi became the president, and they continued sporadically but at low level during his long reign. Additionally Moi's Kalenjins also expanded into the business world, with little regards for other tribes as the Kikuyu had done and vying with them. In the parastatal world and government offices too, Kalenjin presence became visible. This was something the Kikuyu resented.

In the general elections of 2002, President Daniel arap Moi's KANU party was defeated by the combined forces of NARC. A union of Raila Odinga's party and Mwai Kibaki's party. Mzee Daniel arap Moi gracefully conceded defeat through his presidential candidate Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta. After the change of government from Moi's KANU to Mwai's original NARC government, the Kikuyu started reasserting themselves in the Rift Valley as well as in the Kenyan business world. (The extent of reassertion increased after NARC was disbanded.) In the governmental administration and parastatal organisations there are offices manned almost entirely by the Kikuyu. Government contracts are also given to those linked to the government of the day. (Since I was living in Kenya , 1968-1975, and saw the beginning of monopolisation of governance and government positions by Kenyatta's Kikuyu, I had thought, with maturity, the Kikuyu elders would see sense in equitable sharing of the national cake. Especially when their people are spread out all over the republic.) He who has relatives in other people's lands should make sure that he lives in peace with other people. Otherwise he exposes his children to the wrath of the other people should he misbehave against people from those areas in whose lands his children live. This is the lesson the Kikuyu, and other large national tribes in Africa , have to learn. (Unfortunately, it is the young Kikuyu who are embracing this new spirit of nationalism rather than their elders. Thumbs up to the youth! And may they be embraced by their fellow youthful patriots all over the nation.)

IT DID not therefore need Raila Odinga's ODM Pentagon to incite the Kalenjins and Luyia citizens to go and fight the Kikuyu settlers in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya, leave alone lake-side Luos, derogatorily referred to as 'the fish-eaters' or 'uncircumcised children'. What was needed was the opportune moment and plausible justification for doing so. And the election theft done in broad daylight, witnessed by all TV-watchers, was that spark. This goes to show that you should not deprive a sleeping dog of its bone. For, when it wakes up it will bite the thief who had deprived it of its bone, and perhaps also try to recover the stolen bone.

As far as the Luo are concerned they were relegated to develop themselves through self help, throughout most of Moi's long rule. After the departure of Raila from the disbanded NARC government that left Mwai in control, there are very few top senior civil servants and parastatal bodies' top leaders from the Luo tribe. Whereas the number of Kikuyu senior civil servants is preponderant. This appropriation of most of the cake by and for the Kikuyu in Mwai Kibaki's government has also angered upright Kikuyu people who had feared that the other ordinary poor, innocent and weak Kikuyu who are eking out some living (like their fellow poor Kenyans all over the nation) would suffer from any backlash brought about by the misdeeds of their senior greedy politicians, businessmen and civil servants; or should the seeds of hatred that they were sowing all over the nation one day become fruit and burst.

That there was need for change to a different system of governance, that Raila Odinga had represented the hope for that new day, was clear to the majority of Kenyan voters. That was why they voted most of President Mwai's candidates including senior ministers out. That was also why they voted Raila's parliamentary candidates in as well as gave him more votes than Mwai Kibaki. The flagrant vote-rigging that would take away this hope left them lost for words, and pushed them to vent their anger violently by taking the law in their hands. This was a situation most of us had feared would take place, which should have been foreseen by the Kenyan national intelligence and security organs. The security organs should have known and given to President Mwai Kibaki the truth from and their intelligence reports. As well as their fears of the repercussions to the vote-rigging. (Why fly to the safety of Jinja Barracks and leave your people suffer the consequences of your actions?)

The preference for Raila Odinga by so many non-Luo voters over their own tribal sons and daughters, which was clear to all, shows that Kenya is moving away from blind following of tribesmen just because they are their sons. Whoever offers hope for all Kenyans is the preferred choice. A national spirit was burgeoning. Let us hope this hope has only suffered a minor setback but still remains alive. Let us hope that the youth of Kenya from now onwards will come together and declare their independence from their elders. And form their own new youth party, with a new national programme; a programme that emphasizes the nobler aims of pre-independence majimbo of KADU. Clearly, a new majimbo movement is needed; a majimbo which will install equity as the guiding spirit of the nation. That is: favour disadvantaged peoples and areas with development projects and employment at all levels even at the expense of Central Province . In Nigeria they call it 'federal characterising' .

WHAT LESSONS can we, South Sudanese, learn from the above NOW when we are at peace with one another and when we can, and must, put into place mechanisms that would ensure that we do not travel the perilous path Kenyans are travelling now? For, though we have had our own tribal and inter-tribal tragedies, we had thought such things would not happen in Kenya , a more developed country, and a model we were beginning to emulate. Now that Kenyans have shown us what greediness for power and wealth can drive a nation to, we had better teach ourselves against such. Even repeatedly. That is the reason why I took my pen and wrote this epistle.

FIRSTLY, we have tribes and tribal allegiances. (To belong to a tribe is not a sin; we all have tribes. I am Kuku.You have your tribe too.) As well as histories or memories of inter-tribal wars, and intra-tribal wars. Now that we are becoming a new and larger family, we need to find rapprochement amongst our tribesmen, first of all, and then among the various tribes that will make this strong and prosperous nation of South Sudan . We need to make peace within the tribes and between the tribes. Above all, in governmental and public employments, there should never be a point when a fellow tribesman or tribeswoman is preferred above a better qualified candidate who does not belong to the boss's tribe. At all costs, no action which may be construed as punitive, or smacking of such, should be undertaken against people your group had crossed swords with. Prominent personalities who command much following should not hold serious grudges against other similar personalities.

Secondly should such people feel that they had done wrong or angered some individuals or groups through the wrong word or deed, they should seek out those they think or know they had wronged and ask for reconciliation. You sleep easier at night when you know that a fellow human being is happy because you had owned up to your transgression( s). The enmities or feuds among the mighty can fan out into bigger tribal or intra-tribal wars. Where grounds exist for peace and reconciliation arrangements amongst such, let them be done, even if it means the paying of blood money or compensation as the ultimate price at the end.

We are now generally at peace all over Southern Sudan . Let us put our relationships with one another in amicable order before we approach our forthcoming elections. It will not do to go visiting peoples who had sheltered you during the war for the first time when you want their votes. It will not do to go begging for forgiveness with one hand and asking for votes with the other. It smacks of dishonesty. Is it asking too much of SPLM if I say they should go to visit all the people in whose lands they had engaged the enemy? Is it asking too much of SPLM if I suggest that they should go and reaffirm friendship with people with whom they had disagreements, even if the fences had been mended already?

SECONDLY, both the Anyanya War and the SPLM/SPLA War were mostly fought in Equatoria: Eastern Equatoria, Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria , in that order of major engagements. The people in those areas, their properties, infrastructures and natural resources were utilized beyond those of Southern Sudanese in Greater Upper Nile and Greater Bahr el Ghazal. Leave alone loss of human lives in the field of war against our national enemy. (If the truth needs be told, Greater Bahr el Ghazal has been affected least by both wars). These sacrifices, made by Equatorians in the cause of higher national ideals, need acknowledging by the present leaders of South Sudan . (Just as we have orphans, widows, and disabled people from the last war all over the South whose losses need acknowledging; with those in dire needs being compensated. I hope they are being cared for, or plans for doing so are on the way.) Without due respect being paid to them for their past services, when they find themselves being bullied in their own home areas now after CPA, would Equatorians not begin to look at Dinkas and Nuers who hold most of the posts in the GOSS government, the army, the judiciary, etc. as revengers for kokora or colonizing armed occupiers? Especially when officials from these two tribes manhandle them all over Greater Equartoria: in Eastern Equatoria State , Central Equatoria State and Western Equatoria State ? (If I do not bring this out I shall be doing a greater disservice to the people of South Sudan . By saying it I may lose the friendship of most of my high placed friends. But by saying it I might avert a greater calamity in the near or far future. In any case it is better to sin in the cause of a greater good.)

I myself, now 67 year old, was slapped, ordered to sit down and stand up and was frog-marched for hundreds of yards by soldiers who are the ages of my sons. My sin? Going to look at the broken Juba bridge. The second time, another youth wanted to rob me of my plot, whose allocation papers I have. He never respected the stone and concrete foundation I had built in 1986. An SPLA general had to come to put the youth in his place. I was lucky. There are professors whose arms were twisted, gubernatorial advisers who were slapped, former ministers whose plots are already being used for making money by the illegal occupiers who have refused to vacate them. The cases of plot robbery are more and worse among the lower categories of our people. Yei has many.

If there exist Dinka or Nuer 'master plans' against Greater Equatorians, in oral or written forms, and if the acts of harassment and lawlessness that are perpetrated against us beginning from the East, through the Centre, all the way to the West are their manifestations then elders from the tribes perpetrating them should call for their review and scrapping. (If the elders are all tainted with memories of past unreconciled wars, then let the dot.com generation of South Sudan come to our aid.) Especially now that we have spoken out against such. Especially again, in the light of what is happening in Kenya now. Pent-up justifiable anger is a more powerful motivator towards violence. And violence against injustice breaks out spontaneously. There are cases of hit, brandish a gun, and drive away, taking place from time to time. In parts of Africa these are met with mob action. Is that what the perpetrators want meted out to them?

The two civil wars we have fought, Equatorians had thought, were fought against the oppressive Northern governments that were the enemy, and still remain the enemy. And the chance and means for freeing ourselves from their grip were the main objectives being sought. Freeing ourselves in order to forge a new nation out of all the various tribes of South Sudan is the option the CPA has given us. With the possibility that should we opt for separate nationhood we would have teething problems along the way. Even bloodletting incidences during our course of searching for common grounds for national cohesion. But through it all we would emerge a strong and prosperous nation in the middle belt of the Nile : a nation that links (or separates) Arab north from black African south, west and east. (With this document being my contribution to that noble cause.)

If seeking for a nation of our own is no longer the priority, then we who believe in it demand a public discussion that would end in a preliminary referendum. We do not want to be lured into a slaughter house. We want to differ with those who have other agenda to state them now so that they may go their way whilst we continue in the path, the only right path, which ensures that we do not head towards the third civil war. The past civil wars were fought with old minds and old tools. Please fellow South Sudanese save us from the devastating possible third war of the dot.com generation. I am also asking Northern Sudanese to save themselves from that third war. It does not need a prophet to tell them that such a war will also be foughyt in the streets of Khartoum . And Omdurman will fall again! (These are strong words. They were meant to be so.)

Though we have suffered together in the past and were expected to keep together as a result, because we are enjoying a truce now some of us have started to behave as if we are now out of the woods. Northern soldiers are still occupying areas of South Sudan : the North-South boundary is not yet settled. Our rightful quarter of oil revenue is not yet coming our way. Perhaps we are being asked to get it by force if we can. War drums are being beaten in the North. Militias allied to the NCP are made to prod our resolve from time to time. Do our elderly tribal leaders (particularly Dinka and Nuer) think this is the time to put into operation their secret programmes against fellow Southerners? If serious war breaks out between Northerners and Southerners (God forbid!) now or in the near future, can they put together as mighty an army as Dr John Garang de Mabior did within the two decades, that will not include Equatorians? If war breaks out again will they receive the same welcome in the Equatorian countryside? Since they, (the SPLM/SPLA leadership generally) have never publicly appreciated Equatorians' past hospitality? Since they have never gone to thank the chiefs and their people for past services and hospitality? Where they had serious misunderstandings or disagreements, does the SPLM/SPLA leadership think those scars have healed? Healed by themselves, healed enough for them to assume they will be welcomed with open arms? Whichever South Sudanese tribe thinks it is self-sufficient, or very strong, should think again. Whichever political party thinks it has a God-given right to ride roughshod over other South Sudanese people needs to think again. Peaceful coexistence among South Sudanese is the only way that ensures that we shall move forward together; is the only way that will ensure the safely of any of our children in lands that are not our own. Is the only guarantee of a future for South Sudanese.

There was kokora, started by Equatorians. I started by saying. Should non-Equatorians want it explained and atoned for, should those aggrieved by it want settlements for quantifiable suffering in the process of operating kokora, or should Equatorians who suffered when anti-kokora actions were practiced against them want these addressed, they should also bring these out into the open so that they are squarely faced; so that there is reconciliation between us all. We have been recommending South-South Dialogues. But the recommendations have fallen on death ears. Let us repeat it: Let there be South-South Dialogues. And let them take place: NOW. The first South-South Dialogue should concern kokora. (There are others other people may feel more passionately about than I. Let these also be faced.) For, should this not be done, individuals who may have already been exercising their own anti-kokora programmes without even SPLM/SPLA leadership sanctioning it; or those nursing inter-tribal animosities, or intra-tribal animosities will continue or increase their rate or level of activity. (Greater Bahr el Ghazal , for historical and cultural reasons seems to be particularly prone to intra-tribal wars. Particularly amongst the Dinka. Could they please have dialogues and reconciliations? I hope the people of Bor do not take umbrage if I also wish they sought peace amongst themselves. As well as with their neighbours. And their hosts in the Sudan and East Africa ? If I do not make that request, will I not be doing them a disservice?)

There are cases where Dinka or Nuer administrative officials do wrong things, from harassment to physical manhandling, to misappropriation of property, to taking away of life. Whenever these cases were taken to higher authorities, in most cases, as far as Greater Equatorians are concerned, no actions were taken against the culprits. Should higher level Equatorian officers take the right and necessary administrative action against the wrong-doer, fellow tribesmen of the culprits have gone and 'freed' their men from detention, or gone and even killed the Equatorian officials. Now what I want to ask is: if Equatorians also lose respect for the law, because those who consider themselves the 'ruling tribe(s)' now operate above the law with impunity, where will that land us? Please do not regard people who have learnt to respect the rule of law as 'cowards'. In a multi-tribal society, a multi-cultural society, the best instrument for ensuring peaceful co-existence is through respecting the rule of law. By everybody. From the President to the peasant farmer in Mundri or cattle herder in Warrap.

Perhaps I am bringing up what are non-issues, matters that SLPM/SPLA leadership think were better left unsaid. But after I saw what had started to happen in Kenya in my youth and had remained alive all these years and have now flared up to set a nation on fire, I am now more convinced that people of courage must speak out to nip danger in the bud, than wait till war has broken out and then run allover the war field when bullets are whizzing overhead. Historical events have tails with which they lasso the present; history bears its own children and grand-children that feed on the blood of the unborn. And, unless what the Acholi call matto oput (mutually burying the hatchet) takes place, and atonement: AT-ONE-MENT takes place blood will always call for bloody responses. Even decades afterwards. So compatriots please let us face squarely what we have done wrong against compatriots within the tribe or from outside the tribe. And make peace with them .And from now onwards establish new methods of co-existence with them, on an equality footing.

THIRDLY, and closely following from the above, we should distinguish between wartime logic and peacetime logic. During the war, in various cases, whenever SPLM/SPLA came to your area , Kalashnikov in one hand, you never asked them to convince you about what their mission was so that you would make up your mind whether to agree with it or not. If you did not care for their philosophy, instinct of self-preservation told you to accept. Unless you had superior gun power to theirs. So there may be many people in South Sudan , including those who fought for and in the SPLA, who were with the SPLA/SPLM under duress, or were never given the SPLM ideology. Most of those who joined the war, if not the majority, though, believed they were fighting for the liberation of Southern Sudan from the oppressive Arab Northern Sudanese. Because of believing in the above, they did not need convincing. Bu was the way forward ever been explained to them? Major General, Dr.John Garang de Mabior, had his vision. And it was a personal vision more than the group vision. After his demise, have the SPLM/SPLA leadership ever revisited that vision? Should it not be revisited and frankly debated with the full participation of the common people so that they too feel they are parts of the movement? Their inputs, misgivings, and criticism of approaches need to be sought, with their suggestions taken into consideration. Though they fought with you, they were on your side because they had given you the benefit of the doubt. They had thought the grounds for fighting were the same old ones. Now you should go and seek fresh mandates from them

They believed that you were fighting for the liberation of the South because they have never known any other sane reason why South Sudanese would go to war against Khartoum regimes. That is the popular view, the popular perception. Should SPLM one day start to say: We fought the north in order to live in a united Sudan with our "northern brothers and northern sisters" that would be absurd. For, should another person come along and reiterate the Anyanya Two mission of totally breaking away from the North, do not be surprised if SPLM loses following and the election hands down. Should, during the election, attempts be made at vote-rigging by supporters of 'unity', a worse war, pitting Southerners against Southerners, will most certainly ensue. That is my reading of the situation. And, I am not a prophet; it does not need a prophet to see this.

When CPA is still on, and the foreign guarantors are still around, the NCP fights us unconcerned with world opinion, should we vote to live with them will we not have willingly asked for our re-enslavement forever? Should we then be treated worse than we had ever been treated and want to call for outside mediation, won't the outsiders laugh at us and say, 'We gave you the chance to separate. You rejected it. You loved to lie in the same bed with your master. Enjoy your marriage?'

FOURTHLY, and following closely from the above, (again), the logic of peacetime is clearly stated out in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). It spells out the existence of political parties and democratic institutions and their natures and processes. In operationalising the democratic process, lively active political parties are the machineries. Through political rallies each party explains its manifestos. And it is through convincing the most voters through the superiority of their agenda: the programmes of actions the parties intend to carry out, as well as by showing the voters or prospective voters what the parties have already done for their benefit, that they will win the most votes. These two: what each party intends to do on the voters' behalf or which are beneficial to them; and a solid record of achievements: things each party has already done to or for the citizens and from which the citizens are already reaping benefits, are the only means each party has for getting their votes in the secret room where each one of them will exercise his/her democratic right.

Democracy, they say, is an ass. You may have the best programmes, the best manifesto or philosophy, the best vision and mission that even angels will applaud, but should the voters doubt their efficacies they will reject you. Whatever to you is, or looks like, the best course of action, if the voters are not convinced, even though their blindness is momentary, they will not vote for you; they will vote as they see fit. You may call them fools, wrongheaded, treacherous, or what have you, but should they not see the reasons for voting for you they will reject you. Furthermore, and this is why dictators hate it, in a democratic state there is no Beny Dit, and no Beny: all are non-Benys; lwak in Acholi, lui in Kuku, common people, free people in English. This general category includes women and the youth. In democracy each person has a vote. This is his or her strongest power, strongest voice, exercised in the secret voting booth. CPA and democracy are synonymous. They empower all the voting-age South Sudanese. If the SPLM/SPLA leaders do not give them the chance to speak out early so that they may hear their complaints and adjust their positions accordingly, then let them be prepared to hear the worst: their silent voices when they open them in the booth.

FIFTHLY, and as a corollary to the above, if the SPLM does not transform itself into a very active and vibrant political party that would explain what reason(s) brought it into being, and why, in the present peacetime (and without the use of armed cohesion ), Southerners would be hard put to it to believe they have their interests at heart. Even if the SPLM message were clear and convincing without the use of a gun, it is a message that should be reiterated, over and over again in peacetime. Especially since their leader, Dr John Garang, had kept on talking about those who did not want to go to the north to accompany him as far as Kosti. What did he want to do post-Kosti? Did he want to be the president of the whole Sudan ? With the South being a sub-region the way it is now? Was that what Southerners had wanted all along? Was that what he had thought they wanted? Or what he thought he had convinced them to accept? These are questions the SPLM politicians will have to explain to South Sudanese: voters or non-voters.

I repeat: South Sudanese had all these hundreds of years wanted to have a land of their own. They tried to explain it to the British colonisers in the Juba Conference of 1947 but were overpowered in the second day of the conference; they tried it again in Addis Ababa in 1972 but were overpowered, and had to settle for a midway house. They started to go for it again in the early eighties with Akuot Atem and Samuel Gai Tut reviving the Anyanya War. When Dr John Garang 'merged' the two movements by force those Southerners who went to join him, or remained with him, did so under the impression that the war was the same, the tactics different. They knew that he too was leading them to the Promised Land. Using diplomatic language. If the SPLM, post-John Garang have another mission for South Sudanese, let them bring it forward now so that we may examine it and react to it now.

What I have said in connection with the SPLM also goes for all the other South Sudanese political parties: SANU, USAP (Ukel) and USAP (Eliaba), SSDF, UDSF, and any other party represented in the State Assemblies, Southern Sudan Assembly and the National Assembly. As a matter of fact, instead of these other parties putting themselves forward as worthy alternative prospective governments of South Sudan , and for that purpose they should have been sitting in opposition, voicing their reactions to those of the SPLM/NCP coalition, they seem to be content with silent acceptance of the SPLM governments' programmes. It is not hostile attitude to SPLM and NCP that is expected from them. They should be civil and courteous in their dealings with the other parties, but follow the policies and programmes of their parties. Where their policies differ in principle with those of NCP and SPLM then let them state wherein they disagree. Otherwise why not disband and become one SPLM? Even if for comparison's purpose please give us alternative routes for South Sudan to travel towards nationhood; well enunciated. Let us see your policies. Let people accept or reject you for what you are. As I see it, in the discussion of the fate of South Sudan now, the other parties can be ignored. For they have not given us any reason why we should take them seriously.

There is therefore, as I see it now, no political party that echoes clearly the inner language of South Sudanese. In 2004 I had thought the 'Tortoise Wisdom' route would do. I had given the NCP people too much credit for wisdom now realise. They have shown that they do not hide their intentions. So it is now high time for Southern separatists to come out and be counted. President Omer al Bashir, through word and deed shouts: Go!! His uncle shouts daily, with a louder voice: GOO!!! I have then to say: COME! LET US STAY AT HOME. LET US BUILD OUR HOME. It is the only choice left us.

(As far as SPLM/SPLA is concerned, I see a serious decision needing making: should SPLA officers and men who are also serving in the parliaments, civil services, judiciaries, etc. not all be retired from their military posts and become civilians so that they can mix freely with the civilian population and then be able to find out easily what the people think or want? Should they not become full time civilians or political workers who would explain the position of SPLM on various matters without the armour of the gun?

The SPLA code of conduct whereby the seniorest voice over-rules all the other voices and when it has spoken then debate ends, does it not block the free airing of views? Does it not block democratic debate? Does it not hamper SPLM leaders' chances of hearing the voices of the people? Does it not block the free exchange of ideas, and therefore limit the party's access to views it normally would never get? Does it not take away from the cadres the opportunity of bringing to the party the criticisms and aspirations of the people as heard from the grassroots?

SIXTHLY, the CPA that has brought to us this breathing space needs to be observed, believed in and made to work. The foreign governments: African, European and American and the international bodies that brokered the peace agreement own that document. It is their baby. They should supervise its operation. It should therefore be meticulously supervised by them. At the moment they seem to stand aloof, or look on helplessly when the National Congress Party takes its time observing the provisions it likes, complies with what suits its programmes, complies partially and grudgingly when it wants to or when utmost pressure is exerted. You make an agreement with them, then they wriggle out of it, then they renegade.

Secondly, the Presidency of the Republic does not seem to be supervising the operation of CPA in the South as it should. The national powers and the concurrent powers that the national government was awarded are not being exercised as they should: sending money to the government of South Sudan: whether from oil or other sources; the collection of revenues such as import duties and taxes from the South seems to be left to commanders at the border who collect them for individual generals or whoever. Where does the money go? When citizens working at the border watch sacks and sacks of dollars being collected on a daily basis, and yet their salaries are not paid, can they believe the fiction that 'there is no money'?

The central government has illegally been deciding on its own in Khartoum how much revenue must have been collected within a certain season in the South and then deducting it from the monies to be sent to the South. That too must stop. Since we the people do not know where the collected revenue went, we have already lost once. For Khartoum to again deduct a similar amount from our funds from the Khartoum remittances is double cheating.

A government should be in control of its departments. To 'govern' means 'to exercise full authority over' the administration; to have authority over all government departments. We understand that the necessary legislations for effective dealing with revenue matters have not yet been promulgated. If so let these be done. Or alternative interim measures found for dealing with whatever cannot wait till tomorrow.

That the CPA is imperfect is also clear to me. Where it hurts the South the SPLM/SPLA should blame itself for not having had topnotch expert negotiators in Machakos and Naivasha. But I shall never exonerate President Omer al Bashir if he breaks it on behalf of the NCP, as I would also not exonerate the First Vice President Salva Kiir if he breaks it in the interest of SPLM/SPLA; or both, in the Presidency, if they break it in collusion. And I encourage civil organisations to take to court all the people and bodies with roles to play in making sure that CPA serves its purpose if they fail to carry out their responsibilities, or if they transgress against it. At the moment, all the NGOs should collectively take the President to court for refusing to recognise the borders between the North and the South as well as that between Abyei and the North.

There are many other portions of that document with which the Presidency and GOSS governments have not yet complied. Meanwhile, instead of speaking out, loudly or openly, the NGOs as well as the people grumble in private and leave it at that. It is only when we take the transgressing bodies or individuals to court that they shall begin to know and behave as if there are higher bodies to answer to. That also is the only way they shall begin to respect the rule of law. There are so many Commissions that have been created on all sorts of important matters. But we have not seen them get down to serious business. I hope they are there for service to the people of South Sudan . And to steady the government of South Sudan . If they do not justify their existence by meaningful work then the Southern Assembly should urge for the scrapping of the inactive ones. Or replacements of the commissioners who do not work (because they lack the appropriate qualifications) , or do not know their responsibilities. (Have they been taught what their responsibilities are in the first place? Have they been thoroughly work shopped in the nature of their commissions? I wonder!)

(Soon the time for the review of the CPA will be here. It is only after that exercise is concluded and alterations to the CPA have taken place that the tax collection from South Sudan are transferred to GOSS that they can then be collected by our people here as well as used here. I hope the GOSS government, the State governments, the lawmakers in the various Assemblies, the Southern Chief Justice and Attorney General, the civil organizations and all interested individuals are examining the CPA for imperfections as well as noting down the articles that need amending. Three years of putting the CPA into operation should have, by now, shown us what need amending.)(Perhaps cases could be made about willful obstructions by the NCP government. Where they do not want to move purposely, our lawyers should find ways around the obstructions. )

Most Southerners concerned with the lack of salary payments were mildly amused by the lively and healthy public exchanges between the President and the First Deputy during the celebration of the second anniversary of the CPA, January 9th 2007 . First Vice President Salva Kiir had accused the President of not sending money to the South. President Omer al Bashir retorted by questioning him about the whereabouts of the US$ 60,000,000 that had been sent to GOSS. For the common man, so long as the Presidency is supervising the application of the National and the Concurrent powers given to it by the CPA in South Sudan it is doing its duty.

Failure to exercise those provisions do not enhance the reputation of the person called Omer al Bashir, nor the reputation of the party called NCP, nor the reputation of the collective boby called the Presidency of the Republic of the Sudan. Our failures as political parties, as NGOs, and as individuals to take them to task for omission of duty, or commission of transgression against the CPA do our reputation no good either. Whenever the government does the right thing, we approve silently. As the Luo of Kenya say: Ero kamano: that is as it should be. Nothing less. But the wrong things that they do should be pointed out. Loudly, and frodm the rooftop.

A special word in the ear of the President of GOSS. Though we sympathise with your position: taking over power with little preparation, we also know that your arm is large. A President does not know everything. In fact it is not necessary for him to know much. His strength should be keenness in, and good sense at, identifying sources of expertise, summoning them to his assistance and making good use of them. You can summon to your aid any South Sudanese, both from inside here and from abroad. (You have already got a kitchen cabinet of your making. It contains think-tank agreeable to you. We hope they do a good job. But remember, they are nameless, faceless. The decisions they make under your chairmanship are mere recommendations. The final decision is yours. You cannot even plead that 'My advisers advised me wrongly.')

(As many foreign 'experts' here have found out (and admit openly), South Sudan has very many 'real expertise' on almost everything that needs doing here. Where we lack expertise you can then ask for foreign experts from all the countries which signed the CPA. You can consult any expert on any topic. Your ministers can help locate for you sources of help. With all that power at your fingertips if you fail to use it you will be blamed. Nobody is going to sympathise with you if things do not work out, if you fail to govern or do not govern well. Above all, we all call it a major weakness if you do not control those ministers and governors of yours who love to appropriate public funds for their personal uses. The recent outburst in a Juba bank by one of our GOSS-beneficiary instant millionaires is pathetic. It goes like this: The instant-millionaire : "Give me US$ 50,000. I want to go abroad with my family for holidays?" Bank teller: "We do not have dollars!" Instant millionaire: "How can you have no dollars? Have I not recently brought here US$ 5,000,000 in cash?" (A short while ago this multi-millionaire, and many like him, did not have bank accounts!)

Should all government monies be kept in the Bank of South Sudan? And, should all workers not be forced to open bank accounts in regular banks where their salaries may be deposited at the end of every month? Should contractors not be paid by government checks? Should traders not be forced to open bank accounts? Should money transfers not be done through the bank? Should it not be criminal for anybody to carry more that five hundred Sudanese pounds cash? Should people going abroad not be limited to carrying in cash a maximum of US$ 100 only? We do not put these measures into operation then how shall we determine company taxes? Then shall we not be confirmed the money laundering capital of East Africa ? With Kenyan businessmen leading the way, showing us the way? Money is leaving Juba at a terrific rate for Mauritius . Kenyan traders are evading paying company taxes by misreporting their earnings. (Though Kenya has some things to show South Sudanese, Kenyan greed, callousness and bad business habits should not be copied. I wonder whether this advice is not too late!)

SEVENTHLY: The Kenyan Judiciary bears most of the blame in the present and past acts of law breaking by the government. Instead of the Judiciary being the third arm of the government, behind the Executive and Parliament, as well as standing between them, guiding them at times, rebuking them at other times and keeping aloof of their wrangles when not needed, the Kenyan Judiciary has become the running dogs of the governments of the day: biting whomever the government directs it to bite, producing the mechanisms for protecting government officials after the officials have transgressed, and sometimes making the favoured officials feel that they could proceed to transgress in the full knowledge that their actions would be covered, or condone.

Since they have lost their independence, they have, so to speak, become hired assassins for the government. When the Attorney General's office could have produced the best electoral laws, it allowed Kibaki to scrap those which were used in the last election (2002) that had ensured that all parties appointed equal representations to the electoral commission which also exercised effective power. This time Kibaki selected his own slate of electoral commission. That was the crucial point for pre-emptive intervention. Why ODM members never saw this and never fought it wholeheartedly when it was still changeable are some things they have to regret. Just as why their representative( s) in the night-long vote counting was (or were) never given, by ODM secretariat and agents in the field, the vote tallies in the regional headquarters. Why was Honourable Orengo Jembe sent to count the cooked up votes and not given the authoritative list that the ODM agents in the regional counting centres had signed as the true and correct record of tallies? It was the moment of effective rigging that the dirty tricks department in Kibaki's camp was waiting for. That time came, perhaps too late, and in the full glare of Kenyan television viewers. Watching it in Juba here, I was surprised at the ineptitude of the perpetrators. One could say it was the work of clumsy thieves since everybody saw it. After over 600 innocent Kenyans are officially reported dead (though the deaths of the wounded and those not reported, like setting on fire a busload of passengers, could send the figures into thousands) and the thousands who lost their properties, I hope the perpetrators now realize the consequences of their nefarious deed.

Here in Southern Sudan, the Chief Justice and the Attorney General should combine to guide the Executive, the youngest and least expert arm of the South Sudan governance, in the execution of its duties. Laws concerning the execution of the CPA, the running of GOSS government, of running the State governments; and for my pet subjects: recruitment of qualified public officials and the payments of their salaries; exercising maximum control over revenue collection and its utilisation for the public good, devolving power to the States and ensuring that the power is exercised properly.

These are matters needing immediate attention. There are also matters we may want to defer till after the election so that the citizen voters would have heard candidates' justifications of them and other candidates' opposing views on them, so that the government would have heard from their citizens what their burning issues are. Such matters like where to construct the permanent capital of Southern Sudan, since GOSS now thinks the present Juba one is not adequate are matters that need local referendum. Or should be debated in the election. Most certainly they should wait till the Referendum.

There are also matters to be left to South Sudanese to address after Referendum. That is, after we have determined our fate: either to remain united in the present Sudan , or to go it alone. Everything should be done in its good time. (An Interim Government, with an Interim Constitution is not more than that. It cannot embark upon major projects that tie the hands of the real government to come on its own pet projects. Especially financial projects. With this GOSS government of Salva Kiir and Riak Machar that has never demonsrtrated any skill in financial control we cannot let them embark upon further manufacture of millionaires or increasing the wealth of those who have already handsomely enriched themselves.)

Since to govern means to control and oversee, then the amount of lawlessness around demonstrates clearly that the present government is not yet on top of its responsibility. The Judiciary then, at least, should demonstrate to us how that government department manned by legal experts is fully in charge of its turf. After all, it consists of 'learned gentlemen'. Unlike the Assemblies of party representatives and the ministers whose first allegiance is to their parties and then to the President who appointed them. Apart from making sure that the CPA is observed, together with all the laws that emanated from it, the law enforcers must also make sure that everybody should obey the law: from the President of Southern Sudan down to the villagers in Murle country, in Bor country and Gogrial country. Lawmakers as well as law enforcers should also keep the law; those who break them should get the punishments they deserve. The common people should also be protected from officials who do not respect the law. (The office of the Ombudsman, now called Public Complaints Commission should have, by now, been inundated by complaints from citizen workers who have fallen foul of their bosses.) Anybody who breaks the law is a law breaker, pure and simple, the same as common criminal. Nobody should be regarded as being above the law. That is the essence of 'rule of law.'

EIGHTHLY: Taking the government to the States, the districts and the payams is hardly being done. It is not being supervised. I recommend that a Ministry of Coordinating the Operation of State Governments be established to oversee this sector of waste. Otherwise when SPLM goes campaigning it will be rejected by all the people whose fate it had abandoned to the State and district governments. (When GOSS government leaves State governments to do as they wish, saying they are respecting the division of powers, will the SPLM overall command leave it to the State SPLM officials to also answer the possible charges from the electorate during the elections campaigns? And if the electorates reject SPLM will it affect only the States apparatuses? ) Payments of salaries are my major concern. There are people who had never missed getting their monthly salaries from the various Arab governments. They are now going without salaries for months from their own Southern government. When there are stories of sacks of dollars being carted back to Khartoum , or Uganda , or Kenya , or South Africa for purchasing multi-million dollar houses by officials with responsibility for running GOSS and State portfolios, can anybody convince the ordinary people that SPLM/SPLA has the interests of the ordinary South Sudanese at heart? How can they convince the voters that they serve their interests? Is a government's first responsibility not to govern well by making sure that work is done? And its second responsibility is to its workers: to make sure that the administrators, the teachers, hospital workers and civil servants are paid for the tireless work that they do? Lest we forget, the soldiers also need paying. But do not pay them and forget the civilians! (Problems of ghost workers and retired people should be ironed out in the process.)

Does it, secondly, not lie in controlling the national purse? If there is NO money for paying all the workers we all should tighten our belts. But when the people see their supposed leaders and guardians feathering their own nests, and urging others to wait, supposedly because there is no money, does this not mean either of two things: the government is not in control of its high officials or buys their allegiance by letting them fleece the public purse? Or the government does not care about its civil servants? I do not think the present government is that callous. Inexperienced, it may be. But this is also debatable. For, most of the GOSS and State ministers and top civil servants had held high governmental posts in the Sudan before, surely inexperience may be just a minor part of the excuse. The lack of the will to govern and govern effectively and impartially may be the major factor.

How long must we wait for the government to learn? Or to do the right things? With professors, doctors and graduates in ministerial posts and assemblies all the way from GNU in Khartoum , GOSS in Juba and State Assemblies and apparatuses, surely we have enough learned people everywhere in Southern Sudan to run a government. Perhaps the kitchen cabinet should take a retreat and have what in South Africa is called a bosberaad. That is facing a problem in the bush the way Bushmen faced problems: without books. In open discussions with their hearts and minds only. Whenever the South African apartheid President Verwoed wanted to make serious decisions he took his trusted followers into the bush and brainstormed till they had reached a decision. Without the aid of books, phones, secretaries or any other modern gadgets. By the time he came down he had made a serious decision. Decision about what should be done. And that should come from the top. In our case, that decision comes from the President of GOSS. If GOSS leadership shuns facing its responsibilities, then concerned outsiders should prod it to action. For, the government exercisers the power of the people. If it is not seen to be doing so, the people have the right to show it the lead.

The local NGOs are supposed to be doing this. As also are the foreign or international NGOs. The various representatives of the international humanitarian bodies, as well as the various organs of the United Nations, and finally the representatives of the various foreign governments are to help teach the government and peoples of Southern Sudan how a modern state is run. By putting their portions of it into action. The various Commissions that have been established are also supposed to steady the respective ministries. If the parliamentarians knew their jobs they should have been keeping the ministers individually, and the government generally, on their toes. Perhaps this year they would limit their foreign tours to the barest minimum. Till each party's representative has individuated its programme of action there is no need to go abroad. Without clear guidelines from the party politburo, all parliamentarians trips abroad are mere expensive tours. Knowledge is useful 'in context.'ð

The grace period normally given any government to put its house in order came and went. The President of GOSS himself even came up with a 200-day programme of important actions. That period came and went. We have not got its audited report yet. Will this year be any different? We shall anxiously wait and see. Intentions are good. But actions are better. President Salva Kiir Mayardit intends well for the people of South Sudan . But it is only when he has made his government translate his words into action, action whose results we see and benefit from, that we shall love him. We regard him as the father of the nation. When he does good things for the nation we shall love him on top. Perhaps the Salva Kiir era in fully running the affairs of South Sudan came with the temporary withdrawal of SPLM/SPLA ministers from GNU? We shall see.

,

I am conscious of the fact that all the matters I am bringing to the fore are common knowledge to most people of Juba . Perhaps I am even more ignorant than the common man. By airing them publicly I fear I may not be appreciated in some high circles. Please understand it: I too, like everybody else, would have liked to keep quiet and be loved. But does that help the situation? Do I not belong to the educated class? Am I not equally culpable of acts of commission and omission by the GOSS government headed by members of my class? Am I, because I know, not a prisoner of my conscience? Knowing that wrong things are being done and taking no action about them? Knowing that the right actions are not being taken and not speaking out? Above all, do I enjoy seeing our people who have worked suffer for lack of their rightful dues? In most districts, work is not being done. Because workers have to go to dig in order to get food or some money. Fellow South Sudanese intelligentsia, we are all culpable for the failures of this government whether we are in the government or not. It is our class which is letting South Sudan down. Let us stop playing. Let our infatuation with Juba not blind us to what are happening out there.

When senior officials of this government in all sectors keep their families: wives and children, abroad in Uganda, Kenya, Southern Africa, Britain, Europe, America and Canada, Australia, Egypt (and Khartoum!) do these officials know something we do not know about the insecurity of South Sudan in particular and the Sudan in general? Now that instability has been brought into Kenya because of the greed of some Kenyans, is South Sudan not safer than Kenya ? Are we not better off having members of our family members near us? If the last some of us had openly campaigned) do we know what would have happened to our families in Uganda ? East or west, home is best, so say the English.

The moneys that go abroad for maintaining those families or buying those multi-million pounds, shillings, dollars or rand houses go to strengthen the economies of those countries. It was perhaps excusable if the money had been made from honest trade. When ministers appropriate, perhaps ¼ of the ministrys budgets for their own uses is it not a criminal act on the part of the perpetrators and negligence on the part of the government?

Should the National government not step in and put a stop to this? Is this not covered by CPA? Please President Omer al Bashir, do the right thing. Let Bank of Sudan have fiscal control over moneys sent to the South. Let there be accounting at the end of the financial year. Let any and all culprits face the wrath of law. Let the donor countries demand financial accountability on a quarterly basis. And let them not release any money till the last dollar or euro is accounted for. If we have to be taught to do the right thing by foreigners: Arabs and Europeans, then I put my black pride aside and say: So is it. All the backers of our government financially, do not collude with the GOSS government officials when they do not show seriousness in following strictly rules governing financial accounting. Let the government account fully for every euro before you give it the next subvention. With 1/100 of the money that South Sudan has the government of Liberia is developing itself. Perhaps a Reconstruction Directorate should be created in the Ministry for Presidential Affairs to supervise this process/Or we should send delegations toSierra Leone and Liberia to see how they are developing on shoe strings. One day when we shall have opened our eyes, as far as fiscal matters are concerned, we shall find that there is no money. Then we shall cry for what has already gone down the drain. After today we should not cry for what will go down the drain because I have already pointed it out to you. Then let us blame ourselves for something else in our makeup or upbringing.

To begin with, government money should be kept by Bank of Southern Sudan. (I repeat). Secondly, no cash should be given to a minister or ministry. Let all payments be done through checks, through reputable regular banks. Thirdly, let all workers have bank accounts into which their salaries would be deposited at the ends of each month. The shepherds have been taking too much of the cow's milk. The cow is not being fed well in order to produce more milk. And the calf is starving. The owner of the cow keeps receiving reports about dead calves and marauding lions! Of milk or carcase, he sees very little. Perhaps the theft of millions is too much for our people to conceive? Perhaps the clan and tribal divisions among us are so vast we condone embezzlement from members of our clans or tribes?

I too have been abroad. I too have enjoyed the amenities abroad. I too have envied those advanced countries their advanced levels of development. Besides, I have better credentials for staying in any country I choose than most South Sudanese. I hurried to come back as soon as the CPA was signed. What we enjoyed abroad were results of painstaking efforts by past generations of those people. Thing they had prepared for their future generations. We should not be like snakes which do not dig their own holes but enter the rats' holes when ready. So why not come home and dedicate ourselves fully to initiating programmes at home, improving the facilities here at home so that they reach the levels in the countries we have seen abroad? so that all the citizens of South Sudan may enjoy them? so that what we shall build at home here equal those we are used to abroad?

Rome was not built in a day. Neither will South Sudan . But if you are a South Sudanese nationalist, and are committed to its building then you should be prepared to come and suffer with everybody else in its rebuilding. Otherwise you are coming to drain it of its milk which you then send to your nests abroad. Perhaps only Southerners with their families here should be entrusted with permanent employment. Let 'Southern expatriates' be given a period of time for deciding whether they want to recover their full citizenship or be treated as half foreigners. I even appreciate more those South Sudanese who are staying abroad but sending money back home for their brothers and sisters education as well as the general reconstruction. They are making positive contributions to our development. They are earning money for South Sudan .

There are, we now have realized, many qualified South Sudanese both here and abroad. When SPLM/SPLA first came home they had made others feel that unless you had been in the bush you were not needed. They later found out that there were many more jobs than they could fill. And most of these jobs needed expert workers: technical, professional and academic. Even to make the dreams that the SPLM/SPLA had for South Sudan to be realised. Now we all know better. All people with experience are needed. All people with technical and professional expertise are needed. All those who had worked at home in the South or the North are all needed. The South Sudanese who went abroad to study or learn some trade or pursue some commercial activities are all needed. The choice of whether to return or not is theirs. Whilst abroad they can contribute through giving advice, or channeling to South Sudan financial or other forms of developmental assistances, including influencing the foreign governments to generally help us.

The place of honour and respect for those who went to the bush to fight for a better future for fellow South Sudanese, whether they are still alive or fell gloriously in the battle front is there in our heart. Some ways for compensating the ex-combatants should be found. Perhaps the retraining that people have been talking about should be started, in a hurry. Some ways of compensating those who died in the war should be found. (In South Africa , the ANC government went about it this way: those who had survived the war were offered an attractive package. It was a financial package large enough (rank by rank) for them to start their own businesses. But they could opt for retraining and incorporation into the national army. It worked. In Zimbabwe , on the other hand, Robert Mugabe's soldiers foolishly demanded payment of cash money, after cash money like blackmail. You give them ten million Zim dollars in January by April they want twenty million. Till they brought Zimbabwe to ruin. So if SPLM/SPLA chooses to retrench its ex-combatants please teach them small business running first. Or cooperative ventures. Let a department be created for starting them off in business. And let the money be given to them on installments. )

In the early eighties, (as I have already said above) there was the movement for further administrative decentralisation of Southern Sudan called kokora. Its nobler purpose for all South Sudanese was for spreading development to other places of South Sudan . It aimed at deploying the human resources from Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Greater Upper Nile to those States where they would serve their people best, with inner knowledge of the people, and greater rapport from the people. That the States should be developed and developed by their own children first and foremost, is the best course of action. It therefore behooves every son and daughter of a State to develop his or her own State first and foremost. To have a thought for that State first and foremost. With whatever expertise they have. Whatever funds they have, they should put at the disposal of their State, for developing its human resources using their natural resources. For, taking government to the people also entails making one's expertise available to one's people, taking one's money to one's people.

In South Africa where I worked for ten years ending in 2004, there live the Venda , a people very wise. In fact the BhaVenda are wiser than other tribes in South Africa . They are proud of having HAYANI: Houses, homesteads. Each chief made available for the sons and daughters of the locality a plot of land for the erection of permanent houses, in the ancestral portion of the chieftainship. Thus you will find red tiled roofs or shining zinc roofs in any and every corner, hill-side and kloof, of Venda land. Something you do not see in the Xhosa land, Zulu land, and Sotho land. In building modern permanent habitations in rural areas the BhaVenda beat all other South African tribes. In fact, I am recommending to the government of South Sudan that future official visits or courses in South Africa should include visits to rural Venda land.

Intimate identification with one's ancestral land and working hard for its development is something I am recommending to all South Sudanese, beginning with our people of Kajokaji. That each Kuku who is able to should go and build a permanent home in his ancestral land. Since we like being buried in Kajokaji, it is a shame to be taken for burial under the lone mango tree in the deserted homestead: muruo. That spirit of minding of the ancestral area and working for its development, and permanent identification with it, is positive kokora.You

NINETHLY, and following closely on the taking of government closer to the people, is the question of a permanent capital for South Sudan which would be equidistant from the farthest flung corners of the country. Where we wish to have our capital should be decided by us all and not dictated by some foreign donors whose reasoning centres on money consideration alone. (It is acknowledged that governments have their priorities and what they want done with their money. Where their priority does not coincide with ours we can take our own course of action.) We do what is good for our situation and people.

Long ago Dr John Garang de Mabior, the SPLM/SPLA leader, an expert agricultural economist in his own right, had come to the considered decision that our capital should be in Ramchiel. He had preferred Ramchiel to Rumbek and Juba . Furthermore, the people of Ramchiel had welcomed this decision. When this proposal was presented to the donors, mostly from Europe and America , they said they did not have money for building a new capital. They were prepared to repair houses in Juba , not build new ones in Ramchiel. They had their budget priorities. (As any nation or organisation should.) Unfortunately, the repairing of dilapidated houses cost so much one wished they had built completely new ones. From the outside the repairs seem impressive. One does not know the quality of the fittings: electrical, sewerage and water pipes. The contractors and officials in charge seem to have been the most beneficiaries.

The Vice President of GOSS has written to the Governor of Central Equatoria State suggesting that an area north of Juba Airport that runs for 40 kilometres northwards on both sides of the River Nile, incorporating Gondokoro Island, (and probably extending to twenty kilometres on either side of the Nile) should be ceded to GOSS for a national capital. This is now a fresh matter. This does not concern the repairs of old Juba houses. Now, if we have our money and can build our own capital where we choose, should we not reopen the search for a capital city for South Sudan ? Should we not get expert advice from town planners and environmentalists about the place with the best climate all year round? Should we not also consider the security aspects of the sight? Should we not furthermore worry about the soil type? Takpiny's soil is so soft, any high-rise buildings in it sink.(The land asked for is an extension of Takpiny.) And if the place is good for agriculture, it should not be plastered with concrete roads and sinking buildings. We hope this matter would be carefully reconsidered. We should explore this, and other weighty matters, carefully. We should seek legal advice from constitutional experts on some of them. Where traditional land owners have to be convinced, we hope we seek their compliance through their local administrators. Where a State's Assembly has to be consulted first, like for example making a town a municipality with a mayor at the top, we hope the concerned Assembly is consulted first and the relevant provisions of CPA and interim constitutions complied with. Legal experts, please guide us.

Meanwhile, Juba can be the temporary capital of South Sudan and its educational and the economic capital. Later it can remain the educational and economic capital and a new capital, perhaps with Ramchiel confirmed as its national capital as Sydney is to Canberra in Australia ; as New York is to Washington D.C. in America ; as Johannesburg and Pretoria are to Cape Town in South Africa .

Central Equatoria could do without further concentration of urbanization and industrialisation. The more GOSS develops Central Equatoria, the more she enriches Greater Equatorias Juba at the expense of Greater Upper Niles Malakal and Greater Bahr el Ghazals Wau. The more her people are hated. The more they are irritated. The more they resent it.

I am sure this matter of where to locate the capital for South Sudan should be taken to the State Assemblies too for their consideration. Other States may have better locations than Juba and Ramchiel to offer. One wished GOSS learnt to consult with the State Assemblies rather than make important decisions without consulting the stake-holders: the States of South Sudan. It is the most rational way of dealing with the concurrent powers between GOSS and the States.

(My final point on this matter, as stated already above, is that this is not yet the time for embarking on the construction of a new capital. It is not a priority. We have better uses for whatever moneys we have or can get. For example; we have not yet brought home the internally displaced Southerners from Khartoum . We have not yet brought home those refugees in Kenya and Uganda , and Egypt . (The instability in Kenya may go on for sometime. Whilst the Kenyans are trying to cope with their internally displaced, they have little time for caring for our 'stragglers' .) All these people need to be brought home to be registered for the forthcoming National Census whose figures will be used in determining the kinds of services to be allocated in each area depending on the number of people.

TENTHLY: Non-members of SPLM now also have a say in matters that concern each individual in South Sudan or the whole South. The past route up to 2005 was mainly driven by Dr John Garang aqnd SPLM/SPLA. After CPA the route forward is now determined by all South Sudanese as legitimate stake-holders and co-drivers. That is democracy for you. What is good about it is that political leaders are forced to respect the owners of property be they land or votes. And the political parties, including SPLM, have to think carefully before approaching the owners of anything about any requests. They have to produce convincing reasons for any request(s) they may want to make; they have to use winning arguments, and not trust on the guns that SPLA have. This is better done in the manner of those Southern Sudanese tribes in whose cultures you woo your own bride and win her heart by persuasion rather than those cultures where parents force their daughters to marry whoever they choose for them.

FELLOW Southern Sudanese, it is because of the ongoing disturbances resulting from the debacle coming from a democratic exercise, viz. vote-rigging in the last presidential election in Kenya, that I sat down to review their positions vis-à-vis ours and then proceeded to draw some conclusions. This undertaking was not done with a light heart, as those of you who have ever spoken out on serious matters did realize. in their cases. To stick your neck out, and rub your friend's hairs the wrong way is not something one relishes doing. But if it is the only thing that will make you feel comfortable in your heart after doing so for your fellow countrymen's sake and humanity's good then you do it without fear of its consequences to you.

ELEVENTHLY: Upright people of Kenya are my judges on my remarks on aspects of the Kenyan history that I know; matters nobody seems to be bringing to the fore. Kenyans have had a hand in resolving problems arising out of our Sudanese acts of foolishness. Any assistance we can offer to help them find the right way forward we should have the courage to advance. Unless they take the long historical view backwards they will never find the long way forward, but will stumble from one disaster to another. It is permanent solution they should look for.

People of Southern Sudan , most of whom missed out on academic education during the last two decades and who are used only to the military regime of following your leader or leaders without questioning, I am sure you have the moral rectitude to judge between right and wrong. This does not demand an academic background on your part. What you have lacked is acquiring the academic tools for a systematic analysis of problems using well-developed pedagogical methods. There is our traditional method of arriving at the truth and acquiring knowledge: relying on intuition and accumulated oral knowledge and cultural practices. That method every African has. Then there is the formalized pursuit of knowledge which uses the scientific process of testing presuppositions by experimentation and the usages of some tools. This is what your school-educated brothers and sisters accumulated in the various institutions where they have been studying. Technical proficiency and professional expertise mean qualifications in performing operations with those tools and instruments whose results can be verified as well as using the related intellectual methodologies and paradigms.

To those of us who have had the privilege of studying abroad whilst our compatriots were in the bushes of Southern Sudan measuring military tactics against the enemy's tactics let us give to our country and people the fruits of our education. Including giving our people new approaches to and lessons in, cultural approaches to the old problems as well as the new social problems which the modern world has produced and which now affect our people too. How do we view the old culture? How do we deal with the impacts of displacement? How do we view the past and react to it when we are away? How do we adjust to the home culture upon return? What about the slow but sure approach of urbanisation that 'development' (that we clamour for) brings? We must realize that urbanization, with all its evils, is a necessary aspect of development. For example, what do we do with widow inheritance in the period of AIDS prevalence? When transparency is needed in the performance of duties by public officials, how do we run offices without paying undue considerations to our nephews and nieces? When accountability is needed from our public servants in the use of public funds, as well as in the execution of their responsibilities, how can we teach such lessons to our own people, in our own language as services in aid of spreading a new national culture? We must introduce these new concepts into our cultures. That is the only way we shall produce the South Sudanese of the present and future.

I HAVE had education from outside the Sudan : Uganda and the United States . I had vowed to bring the fruits of that education home and use them to help our fellow men and women who were not so fortunate. Let those of us who have also been so privileged not move about as if South Sudan does not have new eyes, as if we did not acquire new tongues, as if we did not have our ears opened. Above all, as if we did not acquire new knowledge for solving our problems of poverty and ignorance. We have also sharpened our sense of what is right and what is wrong according to the new world into which we are being ushered, or are ushering ourselves, in a hurry. We have people who have mastered various kinds of knowledge; people of good judgement: upright people who also have courage. Let us not move about as if we live in the land of the blind, the land of people without moral courage. Let those of us who have the ears to hear, hear the voices of the people. Let those who have eyes to see misdeeds, see them, bear witness, and say: Brother, that is wrong; Sister, that is wrong. As well as thank them publicly when they do good. Let those who have good judgement and moral courage speak out against false steps which they think might lead to disastrous consequences for South Sudan if left unchecked. The time for teaching is now when there is no big disaster. This is the time when lessons can be taught and taken in from the disastrous mistakes in our neighbour's house. (That time, when they had the leisure to think, passed away for Kenyans on December 26th.They are now doing the review in the morning after the fiasco.)

FINALLY, and to conclude: there are our enemies and distracters who are looking out for signs of weaknesses between us to exploit. Let us not give them that opportunity. When our leader, Dr. John Garang de Mabior died under mysterious circumstances, our enemies had hoped SPLM/SPLA would disintegrate and South Sudan would fall into chaos. It did not happen. We are more intelligent than they thought or think. We should now put into place mechanisms that would make us skirt future traps, future tragic situations, whilst we are at peace; while we have the time. And we have to learn to do so and learn very fast. Nobody is giving us any allowances for being the new kid on the block, or starters from below ground zero. The twenty four hours that the Japanese have are also the same twenty four hours the Germans have, Americans have, Kenyans have, and South Sudanese have. Let us use them effectively as well as others are using them. Above all let us not excuse our failures by castigating other people for their parts in our failures. Or say, they too have failures in their houses so how can they teach other people lessons in good behaviour? We can never give ourselves that expensive luxury. No nation is self-sufficient. And we in South Sudan are orphans the world has sympathized with. We owe our present existence to the outside world through the CPA. To our sympathizers and friends let us show ourselves willing learners. Learners who are picking up fast on the abcd of development and civility. Let us struggle to learn the right things, learn to do the right things. Then our friends and sympathisers will say, Let us continue to help them; they are on the right path, they are struggling to do the right thing. They are learning, may they succeed!

We should be learning all the time. Learning all the good things we shall need for developing our nation of South Sudan . We must strive to create a good world in South Sudan . So that we may leave the world, with our portion in it, better than we had found it.

I THANK you very much for sharing my thoughts. Please share them with friends: I am a teacher of humanity at large.

(As with all my writings, this is a personal testament. For every statement made here I am personally accountable and responsible. If there is any error of judgement or deduction, though I accept responsibility for it, none was made with malicious intent. It was made in the course of seeking for solutions to Kenyan problems and trying to avert similar ones from happening in South Sudan in future.)

*PAPER PRESENTED BY

18 JANUARY, 2008
Email: loliyongtaban@ yahoo.com