South Sudanese officials using ‘young country’ narrative to justify incompetence – American scholar

JUBA –  An American scholar is saying that South Sudanese government officials are incompetence to lead the world’s youngest country and have used the narrative that South Sudan is a young country to justify their failure.

Amir Idris, a professor of African history and politics in the Department of African and African American Studies at Fordham University, New York., wrote on The Hill newspaper, that “South Sudan’s politicians moved into offices, most of them lacking the needed skills and experience to govern a country.”

“Many had the intent to loot public resources, disregard institutions and the rule of law, suppress dissent and stifle reforms. They quickly turned South Sudan into an ethnocentric enclave dominated by a single ethnic group,” he adds.

He continued: “The lust for power and wealth transformed South Sudan into a country prone to abhorrent massacres. To justify their incompetence, South Sudan government officials often refer to their country as a ‘young country’ when asked by journalists about their failure. The intended message is that the political leadership is still learning how to govern. ”

“South Sudan, perhaps more than any other country in Africa, exists in the popular imagination as a place of extreme violence and heinous crimes. News media have portrayed South Sudan as a monolithic entity, synonymous with war, famine and refugees. Of course, the brutality and violence of the civil war that broke out in 2013, resulting in the displacement and deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, has sustained this image.

“No doubt, these inhuman crimes were committed by South Sudan’s political elites who have lost their political legitimacy and moral compass. It is easy enough to blame the people of South Sudan and their leaders for the failure.

“But the people of South Sudan are not alone in making this failure possible. Their failure is also a manifestation of the absence of global leadership and a lack of political will and commitment by the international community to save all lives equally.

“The international community — in particular, the United States — carved out South Sudan as a sovereign country. But the people of South Sudan have not convened a sovereign national constitutional conference to forge a social contract that defines who they are and how to govern the country.

“Those who presided over its government after independence, political and military elites, have utterly failed to transition the country into a democracy.”