Read 1984, before a nation of sheep emerges

Read 1984, before a nation of sheep emerges

By Opoka Christopher Arop

The joke is at the end. I have been taken aback by recent glimpses of hope following the Arusha talks between people representing vested interests within the SPLM. It wasn’t in my best interest to have this hope in this senseless chaos, but I did just that. However, my angels soon came to my rescue and dashed these hopeless hopes to my satisfaction.

A document has emerged on the speech of Pagan Amum during the Arusha talks and this document in part said: “This crisis, as we all know, emanated from failure of leadership, resulting in differences among the top SPLM leaders”. My blessings continued when I came cross a facebook post by Jacob Akol, the head of Gurtong Peace Trust where he said: “Since we know that it all emanated from failure of leadership, why not start with a complete change of the leadership and let new and fresh minds to take over the leadership? Jacob went on to say that “this is the problem with the SPLM. As long as it maintains the same leadership membership and structure as it had before the crisis, there is no hope in making any radical transformation and departure from the old ways of doing things.

What will happen is every ndugu [comrade sic] will pat the other on the back and say all is forgiven, and we are back to business as usual. In any organization, a failure of leadership will entail a change of leadership.” This song as I should call it is too old and we have all heard it again and again. However, it reminded me that we are a people who win by force and not diplomacy. We are rigid and take pride in defending ideas even when they do not work in our best interest. This tragedy reminded me also that some problems that have become endemic will remain with us even when any failing peace is signed. We shall simply add chapters and not pages in Abel Alier’s book about Too Many Agreements Dishonored. I have shockingly not heard any commentary on land issues and yet fighting over land and other resources are the curse of this country.

In 20012, after several people were killed in land wrangle it prompted questions that I couldn’t find answers to. Should the corpses have been left at the door steps of parliament as many women were imposing? What message would this act have sent to security operatives and parliamentary committee on security? What would the government have done in the face of tensions amounting from 18 corpses at its doorsteps? Here I share my experience that day. I must warn the readers that when reporting from a demonstration it is always difficult if not impossible to put faces to words and words to titles. At this particular demonstration, everybody talks, others cry, many wale in pain, many more curse in agony. Emotions are flaring, tempers are fever pitch.

This was the grim picture at the gate of South Sudan Legislative Assembly that day from about 3:00 pm, at least as I saw it upon my arrival at what should be the place where all the problems resulting in the death of 18 people, the national parliament should have been prevented by enacting proper legislation and ensuring their implementation. I will skip the traditional writing format, of who, what, why. I will describe as best as I can the feelings of the people at the national assembly gates, about 10 meters away from where the late Dr. John Garang was laid to rest.Close to forty women sat atop coffins draped in black, holding placards with Arabic writings. Whatever was written on these brown pieces of cardboard paper, they seemed overwhelmed by the tears that soak. A group of women scatter dust in the air in front of the parliament building; signifying with accompanying teary voices of ‘from dust to dust’!30 year old lady shot to death. Her twin brother escaped because he spoke in Nuer to the assailants who went on to kill the other members of the family. BlaiseTombe Fiorentino, a lawyer, said he was returning from burying his aunt who had died earlier that week, when he got the shocking news of the shootings. “I lost four cousins in Gudele Two residential area of Juba County”.

A woman only identified as Rose, 25 years of age, was pregnant when she was shot to death along with her 5 year old son and two year old daughter.Tombe says “the description of the assailants fits that of military personnel.” The genesis of the fight according to Tombe: “They heard about the upcoming demolition exercise that would affect those who have constructed permanent residences on plots that didn’t belong to them.”These people feared that they would lose their property, said Tombe, amidst calls from one of the leaders of the demonstration who was by this time urging demonstrators to move away from the parliament building. Tombe called on the government to be more vigilant with people who cause insecurity and kill innocent people. He however shared his opinion that “the government should have provided security in these areas many days before these atrocities were committed.” I was however taken by surprise that there was no high level government official at the demonstration. Many of the mourners were calling for the transfer of the capital.They called for Equatorian politicians to be vigilant and defend the rights of Equatorians. Others blamed the shootings squarely on their elected representatives including the then speaker of the national parliament, Hon. James Wani Iga.Security on the road leading to the office of the former Vice President Dr. Riek Machar was on alert. His Excellency James Wani Iga now occupies the office Dr. Riek Machar once sat in. And Dr. Riek is of course where you know better. As many women called for the six coffins to be left at the entrance of parliament, other wailing mothers blamed shootings and deaths on politicians and said that “let them feast on the corpses”. I thought this was a huge story and that the government would respond, issue a press statement, institute a commission of inquiry, find the culprits and punish them according to the law.

I expected media news headlines to scream as loud as possible about these atrocities. But alas, the media too did not disappoint me at all. Government radio did a dismal job at reporting this hideous crime. Other newspapers tried, but failed to make the story stick. We went on as business as usual. And we are back at it again. Whether you call them G4, G11, SPLM-in-Opposition or SPLM in power or what other splinter political parties there may be, the results will always be the same. Why? Because the actors have never changed. I wouldn’t want to be a false prophet by giving some of these politicians 72 hours like one man of God. I only have wishes at best. The same names have been heard over and over again. The same faces, the same stories, alas, now not the same AK47’s. The now have brand new semi-automatic assault rifles. They drive around in nice cars and yet they do not smile. It’s a good not to disappoint you by not ending with some humor, dark or otherwise. The sex strikers must first ask themselves if their husbands really make love to them, or just have sex for the sake of sex? Good sex in my opinion is like a sweet goal. It should take everybody with a surprise. It should be spontaneous. It should like one of those de javu moments when you have sex and can’t remember names. What these politicians have with our mothers is not sex. But what they get from out in cities like Dubai, New York, on a beach in Miami, in London or Berlin, even in Tokyo or Madrid; alas from even really young but experienced girls, the age of their daughters. That is the real sex.