A Letter for Posterity Chapter 9: Is South Sudan worth the life of the Late Dr. John Garang?
Dear South Sudan,
I am writing you this piece with a bitter taste in my mouth, a heavy heart, blood boiling in my veins and wearing a long face of disappointment. In fact I am fuming with rage for yourself disposition in the way you are handling yourselves.
Do not ask me why, I believe you are in the known of my anger and the reasons for being angry. But, if you are in doubt of what my rage is all about then, I will let you in.
As an African from Sub-Sahara Africa, I always felt spited at, demoralized, locked out when Omar al Bashir treated the dark skin Sudanese with disdain. The flag then, had the black colour at the base. Everything disrespect was thrown at the dark skin Sudanese. The only hope then was the late Dr. John Garang. A freedom, equal and civil rights fighter, I doff my hat for him always. Unfortunately, Dr. Garang lost his worthy life after a meeting in Uganda in a helicopter crash.
However, when the casket carrying the body of the late Dr. Garang was drabbed in the Sudan flag at Juba, I thought the course of justice and freedom was here. Because that was what he fought and died for. By no stretch of human imagination did I think that South Sudan will gain her freedom and shelve it to gather dust or have it hang on a tree. I want to ask you most solemnly South Sudan; do you understand the freedom that you have under the current dispensation? I am asking you, because, you seem not to silence the sound from your guns.
I thought with all earnest that, Omar al Bashir was the enemy of South Sudan (SS). Never did I know that, you are your own enemy. What I intend to say is, you are an enemy to your own selves. Ever since, you gained independence to account to yourselves at Juba, it is either you killing fellow country men and women or sending them into refugee camps. Why have you become an enemy of yourselves?
I am disappointed in you Salva Kir and the loud-mouth-proud Rebel Leader Reik Machar. What have both of you made of the death of the late Dr. John Garang? If you are scratching your heads for the answer, let me lend a helping cue, "He wasted his life for nothing" Was it worth South Sudan gaining independence at all? If your reply is yes, I will like you to know unreservedly that it is "No" because you have not proved to the world what freedom means to you. Was it worth fighting Omar Al Bashir and loosing wonderful souls? It is not worth the war with Sudan.
I am not only sudden at heart but, annoyed with the way the capital still remains dusty. Yet millions of dollars are pumped into a worthless civil war. And who is the supposed winner? Generations lack education in South Sudan, yet you are wasting a whole lot on civil war. Need I mention lifesaving medical care, good drinking water and food for the ordinary South Sudanese? Very soon you will start appealing to the rest of the international community for food aid. You should bow your heads in shame for disappointing the many especially those of sub-Sahara Africa who were craving for your independence. If I may ask, who is winning the civil war? What future do you envisage for South Sudan? Salva Kir should answer.
Any time I read of the negativities spewing from South Sudan or view same on television, I scratch my head to find reasons. However, I have not identified any reasonable cause for war. Was it not better to have stayed in union with Omar al Bashir's Sudan? Thus, truth told in the face of the ugly, you cannot govern and manage your own affairs, simple. You have proved this incompetence with all the points indicating that, power should be taken away from you. I believe in all sincerity that, you have worked to desecrate the death of Dr. John Garang as worthless to mention to posterity. You are self-destructive. Today you are glorifying yourselves as to who is superior and winning the civil war. Tomorrow you will swim, cry, wallow and gnash your teeth in poverty. The pang is by the time ugly head of poverty begins to show itself you will be gone.
My dear South Sudan, my heart bleeds for the bleak future of your people. You will only bequeath poverty, lack of physical infrastructure, poor health facilities, lack of descent accommodation etc. what do you want posterity's verdict about you to be? You are spending quality developmental time on civil war. If you cut your nose, you spite yourself and none other. The world is moving very fast on the wheels of technology. You need to take your foot of the paddle of war. Please, South Sudan, you have to rethink of your future and take a new course of development. You cannot lock yourselves in the oddities of war. It is shameful that, a country named among the poorest countries in the world can invest so much not in health and education of her citizens but, war.
I am writing to prompt you and not to prop you that, there is no glory in war. And when you fight against yourself you are the looser. A house divided against its self cannot stand. When will you end the civil war, which seem parochial to national development? The world is not waiting for you. You are being left behind, because you have saddled yourself with frivolities. Or you should return to Sudan? Honestly speaking, you have proved to the world that, you are incapable of managing yourselves. You wrongly misled the world to believe that, Omar al Bashir was the common enemy, who was preventing development to occur at South Sudan. Again, you got the world to believe you were being discriminated racially, little did the world know that you are your own archenemy. I believe the countries that supported your independence fight might be kicking their heels in regret. Oh what a shame!
I am calling on all South Sudanese whether rich or poor, young or old to devote their service to the growth of South Sudan. All true and well-meaning South Sudanese should do well to turn their backs to those who offer to hand over weapons to them instead of good health, education, accommodation and employment.
May the good Lord help South Sudan as they chart their way out of civil war to development. Long live South Sudan!!! Long live Africa.
Patrick Twumasi
(0209045931)
