Addis Ababa Peace Talks: A Tale of Bubbles

Reflections on peace talks currently mediated by IGAD to try and bring the warring parties in South Sudan to a swift and lasting peace deal.

South Sudan is about to log a full year at conflict with itself. We have had it up to our necks with efforts to mediate a peaceful resolution to the conflict that has starkly exposed our ethnic fault lines and the confines of euphoria, following our historic Independence in July 2011.

We have been at war forever. In fact, it does seem that the Ruling Party, SPLM/SPLA, would not have it any other way. This, in short, is the predicament of the world’s new nation. We have seen it before; and we are seeing it all over again. The warring parties are wasting time at the negotiating table, running in circles of self-righteousness and carelessness. The message the principal side is sending is clear: let us waste that oil money as fast as possible to retain power. Both sides of the acrimonious divide are actually running true to their ideological parentage, New Sudan. Since July 2011, South Sudan’s ruling party has not been able to forge a credible political objective or develop a national vision for transforming the country from its post-conflict setting to one of stability and prosperity.

Instead, death and destruction have been spreading across the nation’s ten states like hot lava. Poverty and misery are overriding claims of justice, equality and prosperity. This is not the vision of Dr. John Garang De Mabior. “Old Sudan” would be better if this was what “New Sudan” was about. Yes, but this is present-day SPLM’s vision of New Sudan, their South Sudan. South Sudan is too small for SPLM/SPLA and its tentacles-or factions. So, they prefer confrontation to conversation. It is simply a battle of egos. The Post-Independence South Sudan is supposed to be a race to the top. That is the SPLM’s Holy Grail. Killing and Pillaging seem to provide an answer to this quest.

As the nation waits in suspense, IGAD must avoid falling into the trap by playing its ill-advised snakes and ladders game. At one point in time, IGAD is seen as trying to pitch in at the last minute and secure a raw deal. Then IGAD turns around and shocks us with missteps that seem to suggest that it wants to stretch its partners’ paychecks or guarantee at least three square meals a day until the conflict ends on its own!

This capricious posture has left the African Union almost clueless. AU looks like it does not know the difference between Greece and Greek. Just pick and digest its stance on the peace process and you will make a similar conclusion. AU has born like this, in fact. That leaves us with the United Nations on whose shoulders rests the solemn duty to preserve peace and security across the globe. The Addis Ababa peace talks have shown that the UN is making a noise and saying nothing, really. The TROIKA is itself trying to shed light on both sides of the ledger. So far, it is not working, too. It is isn’t that bad, all things considered. But the people of South Sudan want more and can’t afford to wait anymore.

Because of the inaction resulting from the above framework, the principal side in the talks, Government of South Sudan (GOSS), gets the balls to turn its head the other way. It has copied its line from none other than Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni. Their thinking is that the other side, Riek Machar’s SPLM/SPLA in Opposition, can be sold a turnip for a tomato. If only it were that easy! Museveni counsel is idiocy itself. The Government has gone ahead with passing a controversial security bill that is part of the problem of reforming the security sector. The Government has also signed a strategic military cooperation agreement with its playmaker, Uganda, at a time when UPDF presence on South Sudan’s soil negates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the latter. The media bills have been bulldozed into law at short notice to invite venom for free speech, all at a time of national crisis.

Because of its credulity, GOSS has offered the country up for sale to the highest bidder who can secure the regime’s grip on power. That is the simplest explanation for the frantic and chaotic wave of bills signed into law or just about. History tells us that these will not work out as cute as a button. President Kiir’s government will live to see it happen.

South Sudanese want the warring parties to sign a peace deal, and not talk in bubbles in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They must do it or get off the stool. There are plenty of things to fight over without war! Killing one another is all old news in this country. Pick Lakes State, for instance, and it is all there. Politicians in the ruling party do it because they think they can stay voted in and keep their political seats for eternity. If I had my wish, they should line up against the wall and we would take care of the rest!

The people of this great country desire a lasting peace. They share a disdain for those politicians who call themselves the government and run their mouths about things they do not know. SPLM/SPLA is full of such likes. In fact, it seems to be the only true requirement for membership. Under them, we may as well lose all of our tomorrows. SPLM/SPLA, as we know it today, goes against who we are as a nation and a people. That is the bare fundamental of the genetic mistake SPLM/SPLA has committed against history, our history.

The Government of South Sudan has a political and moral duty to seek and seal a deal with its contender on the other side. Anything else will make cool toilet paper. Nothing seems to be getting better in this country and with this government. I am now convinced more than ever that SPLM/SPLA took up arms in 1983 for power, not for our people. Power is the container they have now; but the content is theft, stealing of public funds. As far as GOSS goes, I do not see GOVERNMENT; all I see is SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT. Our story full of sweat, tear and blood has long been forgotten. Instead, SPLM/SPLA and greed are making eyes at one another. The Government cannot stay apart from money and gun. It needs the gun to fend off contenders while it sucks dry the money. The stripes on the back of this money and the guns it buys are ugly. The only way to protect the profiteers’ hide is for the SPLM/SPLA to stay in power without end. They are digging their own hole unknowingly, too.

It is time to stop their wrongdoing. The Government in its present edition of SPLM/SPLA will not survive with a few scars. The parched ground of pain and sorrow it has caused will thirst for a torrent of retribution. Its monster of greed and evil will soon run off its leash and devour the master.

As a people, we have to put much thought into the SPLM/SPLA’s sick mantra that says power comes from the end of the barrel. It is this trash that got the SPLA drinking club beer and thinking the people of South Sudan owe them a free ride. Let the warring parties not fool us into a peace deal that means one of two things: blowing into a torn balloon or a run ride until it ends.

Leadership is only a short haul from achieving a genuine peace. Whether IGAD rushes or crushes it is not the deal. A long distance steeplechase is often better than a sprint. Dictators love a sprint. We the people prefer a real peace that will set in motion healing and reconciliation. We do not want another comedy of error. It will turn tragic as it did on 15^th December 2013. South Sudan does not want peace in bubbles because SPLM/SPLA and its Government hide inside.

We must learn to burst those bubbles we have built up around ourselves. Until then, Addis Ababa peace talks is a tale of bubbles.