The real enemies of our government are those who have been kept in various institutions for decades to loot the nation at will

On the National Priorities fashioned for Smear Media Campaign to fool our civil population.

By Ustaz. Morris Mabior Awikjok, Nairobi, Kenya

Sunday, April 10, 2022 (PW) — Since, we have achieved our hard won independence, government approved hundreds of “National projects” and “priority” measures in the name of service delivery and governance related concerns, but nothing has yielded fruits. The very fact that there were so many government policy frameworks and developmental projects suggested that we haven’t got around to addressing our real priorities until we intercepted the two unproductive shared Transitional Government of National Unity with briefcase political parties. 

We have constantly been reacting to events on social media platforms, clearing up the mess created at tea sipping places by our own misguided decisions. We have constantly lumped together big and small matters. But we have been only too happy to be sidetracked by dealing with easy tasks, thus justifying our own reluctance and our fear of meeting truly serious challenges surrounded our government of the day. 

The real enemies of our government are those who have been kept in various institutions for decades to loot the nation at will. The permanent intelligence Chief and his Khartoum allies have drainage the country’s system into the system of political deals and do away with the national resources without the consent knowledge of the sleeping Head of State. The future of my nation is in dilemma and her image is terribly wounded with unaccountable bullets.

If we don’t want to be thrown back to the past, if we don’t want our country to lag behind, we should determine the truly urgent tasks by removing all the professional political sycophants and stopping recycling outdated vehicles of twenty first century. The president should be made to understand that, this nation need new young faces who will be adhesive and respect his directives as compatible Head of State and government with supreme constitutional powers. There are so many ways to adjust our internal problems and set Priorities if there’s right approach and political understanding. Some individuals will take it negatively that I am criticizing my president but I am pointing out issues of concerns which needs our collective voices.

Our Collective priority is to fight poverty, corruption and senseless conflict across the country.We are used to be more proud of the national wealth that’s channel to individuals pockets and private accounts: our vast territory, natural resources especially oil, gold, uranium, multiethnic culture and educated populace are constitutionally abused in the face of the region. This is all true. No body can disputed and challenge my argument in this respect. But it is pitifully little for the great sovereign state that South Sudan is.

We should at long last tell ourselves: we are a rich country of poor people without and active democratic leadership. Automatically, people like Gen. Akol Koor Kuc, Gen. Tut Gatluak, Dr. Dhieu Mathok, and Muolana Ateny Wek Ateny are nothing to be allowed to rob the country on conocoted falsely frame political projects. In general we are a country of paradoxes, not so much political as social, economic and cultural. Until the last hour president Salva Kiir Mayardit should make reshuffling thoroughly and send all these wolves home to rest and invest the looted resources.

Our children are surviving with one meal a day while our billions of dollars are warrant abroad and overseas to educate theirs children and enjoy foreign luxurious. Some of us are denied decent job opportunities to enhance our livelihoods and educate our children. The funny thing is that, majority have been separated with our families and send to exile when we are not threats to National Security of the Republic of South Sudan. We are only treated as threats to individuals who wanted to install themselves into power through unconstitutional means. 

Our best brains are well informed in abroad and we can be advocating and speaking on behalf of the voiceless South Sudanese suffering in silence. South Sudanese prominent musicians and conductors in person of Muolana Larson Angok and others are economically made to be very weak to the point of composing songs praising those who have stolen our wealth. They can perform as much as the could to appease the national thieves to feel happy and be free from threats of their lives.

Millions of people in the country can barely make ends meet; they are skimping on everything, even on food. Parents and children have nothing to save for years in order to improve their standard and educated their children.The war veterans, elderly, windows and orphans who won the great Patriotic War of Liberation struggle and made South Sudan a glorious independence country are subjected to man made poverty and loses their dear lives of curable diseases/sickness. They are eking out a meagre existence or, worse, begging in the streets of Juba and former militias figures are enjoying comfortably. And yet it is the fruits of their labour that the present generation is living off while contributing very little to the national wealth. To repay our debt to them is not just a social, but a political and moral task in the full sense of the word.

Yes, we have at long last started paying funds to wounded but we paid them to black market dealers in Juba town in due time. Our war veterans and wounded heroes are left to the mercy of God almighty but no one is taking care of them. My president is busy feeding the lion cub to take over the leadership. We have started to do whatever we can to help the needy in our hearts but we have no power and resources to do so. But this truly nationwide problem cannot be solved by endlessly patching up holes, without ground-breaking ideas and new approaches.

Of course, it is impossible to get rid of the humiliation of poverty without money. But to further hyperinflation already hit massively on social security programme would not solve the anything either. Our main resource are the new able-bodied generation. Those who are willing and able to become well to do people within a civilized state are denied opportunities and kept behind bars in foreign countries.

Young and energetic people, all those who know the real price of labour and can earn a living, and who already know how to rid the country of the humiliation of poverty, they are capable of bringing back to South Sudan not only economic but also moral dignity. It is a nationwide task and we will solve it together. There are enough examples in South Sudan history. South Sudan has emerged from even worse scrapes from liberation struggle to an independence nation mastered by corrupt leaders.

Our priority is to protect the market from unlawful invasion both by bureaucrats and by criminals. It is our duty to secure property rights and protect entrepreneurs against arbitrary and illegal interference in our country economic activities. If the state does not provide these guarantees, criminal groups quickly fill the vacuum. They provide “protection” for those who have tried and failed to get it from the state.

During these years of civil unrest and economic hardships, the term “economic crime” became popular in our beloved country. This is not just legally inaccurate, it is a mistake. One cannot lump together all the crimes connected with economics and finance and launch campaigns against “corruption, Human Rights abuses, unlawful arrest and detentions of Human Rights Defenddefenders, economic criminals and he claimed to become future president”. The worse of all these scenarios is that young people have been a victim of targeted killings and assassination related cases.

But ever since the crime world discovered an extremely lucrative “economic specialisation”, it has been thriving in our financial and economic environment. And the state itself was helping it by its actions, or lack thereof. It was helping it by making poor laws, by failing to provide clear rules and by chaotic and incompetent tampering with the market.

Of course, tough state control is needed before the country head to the polls in 2023 or else, the proposed election will be a dream instead of a reality. But it alone is not enough. Look what is happening: you are not sure of the stability of the country’s political stability and business because we cannot count on the law and the honesty of government officials. So, we are not satisfied with the services of the state and therefore we are not Suppose to pay all our taxes because we are benefiting nothing out of our contribution for country’s development. And what is more important, is that we can live quite happily that way. Meanwhile, the state doesn’t have the wherewithal to support an unbiased legal system or pay proper salaries to its officials and civil workforce, who therefore take bribes. It is a vicious circle of rotated lions.

We have been talking about state regulation of the economy for years. But we mean different things by regulation. The essence of regulation is not to strangle the market and expand bureaucratic oversight to new sectors, but on the contrary, to help the market stand on its feet. People are entitled to be protected against the possibility of their business being grabbed by a group of bandits. They are entitled to expect the rules of fair competition to be followed. All businesses should be in the same conditions. And state institutions cannot be used in the interests of rivalries between clans or groups.

I think the picture is clear. We have high taxes, but we collect them poorly. We should have low taxes, but collect them well, so well as to make the state strong and effective. So that it could support a just legal system and a bureaucracy that is not venal. So that it could help those who cannot take care of themselves.

I am absolutely convinced that a strong state needs wealthy people with brain and program, I wish I can multiply Prof. John Akech Apurot into (12) John Akech Apurot, South Sudan would be a better country in the whole world. So a key goal of our economic policy should be to make honest work more rewarding than stealing.

It’s enough living with “packed suitcases” and keeping money under the mattresses. Enough feeding other countries by forcing our people to keep their earnings in foreign bank accounts. It is high time we created conditions conducive to the development of young and able-bodied citizens. They don’t need artificial hothouse conditions of the Republic of South Sudan, nor do they need excessive restrictions. Those who want to and can be wealthy, let them help themselves and their country.

Mr. President, Our priority as a sovereign nation-state is to restore the personal dignity of the people in the name of the dignity of the nation. The political thugs betrayers you retaining for years in the cabinet will not change anything better than the worse scrapes. Show them exits and you will praise me in future may life afford us all.

The past decade has brought dramatic changes to the consciousness of the people. Our citizens are not yet rich, but they are independent and self-confident of their future. Our press today is not free and it will forever not be free as long permanent intelligence Chief is still there. Our army is emerging from a prolonged crisis with honour and is becoming ever more inefficient and unprofessional due to lack of capacity building and well pay monthly wages.

True, South Sudan has ceased to be an empire of political returnees, but it has not wasted its potential as a great nation in East Africa community. The new generation has got a great historic chance to build a South Sudan that it will not be ashamed to pass on to its children.

Those who claim that we will use this chance to establish a dictatorship are engaged in scaremongering. A great country cherishes its freedom and respects that of others. It is unreasonable to be afraid of a strong of the disgruntled elements and misguided groups in falling apart our sovereignty, but it should be reckoned with. Insulting us indirectly with looted resources is counterproductive.

This leads us to another priority: to pursue our foreign policy in keeping with our national interests. In fact, we have to recognize the primacy of internal goals over external ones. We should at long last learn to do that. If certain international projects no matter how much they are touted and how fine they sound bring no benefits to our people, we shouldn’t join those projects. If South Sudan is being urged to engage in global ventures which cost a lot of money while we have to borrow and are unable to pay wages to our people, we have to think twice before taking further accumulated foreign loans from world Bank and IMF.

Where weakness and poverty hold sway, there can be no great legitimate system serving the interests of her people. It is time to understand that our place in the world, our wealth and our new rights depend on our success in dealing with our internal problems.

Let us be mindful of our national interests not only when they have to be loudly declared. Let us first formulate them competently and clearly and then implement them steadfastly. Only the real interests of our country, including economic interests, should be the law for South Sudan diplomats foreign policy with outside world.But we see these zones as sources of further peaceful socio-economic development  internationally and politically.

The list could be continued. But what I have mentioned is enough to start work immediately. Don’t we have enough pressing tasks? By pooling our efforts we will solve them one by one.

To be continued tomorrow at this time…….

The Author, Ustaz. Morris Mabior Awikjok, is the student pursuing Master’s program in Global Affairs and Strategic Security studies, in the Atlantic International University. You can reach him by email: morrisawikjok@yahoo.com

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