Will SPLM delegation's visit to USA this year change anything in South Sudan?

August 10, 2008 (Texas, United States of America) - People achieve great things through small events if they take the events seriously. To be learned means to change one's behavior. This need for the change of behavior is the reason why [some] children are put together in boarding schools. Nobody learns in isolation. Those who get education in their local areas are nothing more than people who know how to read and write. In the same way, political leaders who operate in isolation are nothing more than local chiefs in rural areas.

For the first time in the history of Sudan, a high ranking delegation of a party from South Sudan is invited to attend both the United States “Democratic National Convention, which takes place August 25-28, 2008 and the Republican National Convention, slated for September 1-4, 2008," NSV. This, to me, is a great sign of success for Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) as a party, and for South Sudan as a whole. People of South Sudan had been sidelined for a long time in Sudan's politics. This sidelining of southerners in Sudanese politics started when northern political parties secretly orchestrated to travel to Cairo where in February 1947 they reached an agreement known as “Cairo Agreement” on self-rule on Sudan to the bitter exclusion of Southerners. When the Northerners were asked in Cairo why south Sudanese where not in the delegation, some of the northern politicians replied, “These people are still primitive, not educated and have no political parties. Let us just reach any accord and we shall inform them.”

It was true that southern Sudanese were not educated, but there were few who were educated. What they had not yet done was to form their political parities. So the North-Egypt conference in Cairo led to the formation of first south Sudanese political parties.

What is not clear is whether those southern political parties had learned any lesson from the small event that led to their formation. If they had learned something, there would have been no second war in Sudan. Anya nya 1 war would have been enough for the liberation of the marginalized people in Sudan.

Today, there are political parties in South Sudan. But we are not sure whether they are learning anything on how to govern South Sudan in the near future or not. The visit of Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) high ranking officers to Rwanda recently to learn on how Rwanda transformed its army from gorilla to conventional army raised a lot of hope in people like me. The upcoming SPLM visit to the United States of America looks like South Sudan is working for a change in Sudan.

But the question is: are these visits part of touring the world as usual or are they serious visits that might lead to a change in the way Sudan is now governed? If they are touring visits, then good luck to the tourists. But if they are really meant for learning, then there is a hope in our government of South Sudan. Families who are successful are those who learn from the successful families. There is a belief now in Africa that plants fear for the outsiders into the people. But even though outsiders sometimes take advantage of Africans, African governments still need to learn from outsiders and vice versa, because nobody learns in isolation.

When I came to the United States of America in 2007 for my graduate studies, I said to myself that I must make sure that I find out the magic behind the success of the United States. It did not take me a year before I found it out. Leaders in the USA never sleep in one day without a plan for tomorrow. Hundreds of laws for social transformation are enacted by the administration of one president, and all of them are implemented. These laws come from the minds of all the American people. Nobody is inferior in thinking here in the United States. Presidents learned from ordinary citizens on how to improve on the lives of the American people. The USA government also learns from other nations that have better social work system.

A president who enacts few social welfare laws and cancels some existing ones is regarded as ineffective president in the history of the United States. Presidents enact new social welfare laws and they implement all the laws that were enacted by their predecessors. That is why America is successful in everything they do.

If SPLM is willing to know why some countries are successful, then it will not take long for South Sudan to become successful too. There are many people who are willing to run with those who want to run. And there are many people who are also willing to push down those who want to fall. Nobody in this world will pull somebody from one side of the field to the other. One must learn how to run in the middle of the field if he or she wants to succeed in the race. Those who blame others for their own failures are not serious.

I hear many people in South Sudan say today that Rome was not built in one day. That could be true. But I don't think what they are saying is a good philosophy. It is a philosophy of complacency, which has no place in the world of today. The world of today is running. Those who like to turn their faces on the opposite direction will be the tail of every mad dog in this world. Countries like Rwanda which experienced horrible human destruction not long ago are now running very well with the rest of the successful world. South Sudan can do the same.

People who are unknown or despised become important in public offices if they know what they are there for. Former American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would not have become president in 1932 if he had shown that he was physically disabled. But when he became president, Roosevelt did more than any other American president before and after him did in the transformation of American welfare state. President Roosevelt turned around the Great Depression of 1929 to 1933 in the United States of America. In his campaign for second term of office, [and] nobody even thought about Roosevelt's physical challenges. His mental ability exceeded his physical challenges. In the same way, the less known government of South Sudan can show the world that South Sudanese can do more than what other people think about them. Therefore, let the SPLM/A current visits to successful countries aim at learning for the government of South Sudan. Let it not be a touring of the world for SPLM/A members.

*The writer of this article is a Graduate Student at Abilene Christian University, Texas, USA. He contributes to The New Sudan Vision. He can be reached at