Death will not silence the writers of South Sudan
- Details
- Category: Writing aboard the Kenya Airways: A story on coming to Rwanda for the first time
- Published on Monday, 10 December 2012 20:46
- Written by Deng DeKuek, The New Sudan Vision (NSV), www.newsudanvision.com
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JUBA – There is an inherent allergy and dislike for truths, principles and good hard work among the people in the upper echelons of our government. The apathy for truths and principles manifested itself in a heinous act of tyranny which was personified on the 4th of December in cold blooded assassination of Isaiah Diing Abraham. People who peddle truths, opinions and those who equally offer refreshing ideas have increasingly become targets in a sick country where ideology died with Dr. John and decomposed before his body did.
Yet, if we have learnt anything about death from Dr. John’s, it is that death cannot silence an idea. Death will not silence an idea. Death can not deter an idea and death will not deter an idea. One only has to look to the old Sudan to see what ideas have done and what ideas can do. Being threatened with death is a deterrent to a man of wavering convictions and principles. The Dinka people say, “Words nourish and sustain people”. But what is becoming of this nation where words are stifled and death meted out to the vociferous?
The ever increasing trend and direction of despondency, intolerance and corruption the nation is taking, typifies a failed state and it is disturbing. It appears that the eternal idea of freedom and all it connotes and was irrigated with the blood of millions to germinate is now stunted and withering. Assassination of Isaiah is disheartening and demoralizing and threatening others to a similar fate will not stop them from speaking or writing.
I disagreed with Isaiah on many ideas, clashed and contemptuous of Elhag Paul’s opinions and sympathized with Dr. Okuk in his ordeal and not ideas but what moron would want them dead. “What holds a civilized society together is an understanding of action and consequence, a duty of care to each other that allows some elasticity for fair mischief and good humor, but does not contravene a handful of basic tenets: humanity, dignity, compassion, respect,” so wrote an Australian despairing from unrelated tragedy of dim wisdom.
My people are reeling from this senseless murder. The ensuing death threats and harassment of some of its sons has rattled and shaken their confidence in the government. The unexpressed anger and yearning for immediate change is visible but the weight of responsibility and the necessity to maintain peace after many years of bloodshed has anchored it. It is imperative and not just a matter of justice for the responsible people to be held accountable because not only have they succeeded in alienating the confidence of my people in Salva Kiir but they have also shattered the little illusory hope they had that the Dinka Bor Community is not being targeted for prosecution in Salva Kiir’s South Sudan. It is not Dinka Bor’s bearing the burden that South Sudan yearns for a better government; it is the entire of South that wants the yoke of fate cast away.
The Government has always taken people’s loyalty and support for granted but it will have to work hard, listen and earn it, otherwise the government is doomed and the people are waiting and looking for a replacing alternative. The independence of South Sudan is a lamp lit with our blood but now it has become a shed of light for a chosen few, and in which some have to still crawl. The sweet waft of freedom scents the air inhaled by chosen few but that is unacceptable. A luta continua.Au revoir Isaiah Abraham. We’ll keep writing.
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