JohnAkecSouthSudan

Recommendations of Conference on Future of Higher Education in South Sudan, 14-15 November 2011, Heron Campsite Hotel, Juba

2011-11-19T11:14:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

(Pictured above from left to right: Professor Adil Mustafa Ahmad, University of Khartoum (keynote speaker), Professor Aggrey Awein Majok, Dr. John Garang's Memorial University, session chair; Hon. Gabriel Kuc Abiei, Deputy Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, opens the conference; and Professor Joseph Massaquoi, UNESCO Science Director, East African Region (Keynote speaker))

The Academics and Researchers Forum for Development (ARFD), in Collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, the Republic of South Sudan; organized a conference on "Future of Higher Education in South Sudan" at Heron Campsite Hotel, Juba, between 14 and 15 November 2011.

The conference was opened by Hon. Gabriel Kuc Abiei Mayool, the Deputy Minister of Higher, Research, Science and Technology, on behalf of the Minister of Higher Education, the Republic of South Sudan, Dr. Peter Adwok Nyaba. In his opening remarks, the Deputy Minister expressed his deepest appreciation to the organizers for the timely initiative to convene the conference on future of higher education in South Sudan. Adding that the conference is of great symbolic significance, as it embodies the very aspirations and goals of the struggle of the people of South Sudan, saying: "now is the right time for the people of South Sudan to choose the system of higher education they want in order to achieve national advancement, progress, and prosperity." He expressed his confidence that the membership of Academics and Researchers Forum for Development is imbued with talents that will enable the fruitful generation and application of knowledge and skills to the solving of social and economic problems of the new nation; and encouraged the academics and researchers to experiment and explore both the known and unknown for the benefit of future generations. The Deputy Minister also assured the participants that the government will commit resources necessary for realization of the recommendations of the conference.

(Pictured: Justice Benjamin Baak Deng, Member of South Sudan Supreme Court (left); and Professor Joseph Massaquoi, UNESCO Science Director, East African region(Right), listen attentively to a presentation)

An International Conference

The conference was well attended by both young and heavy weight academics from South Sudanese and abroad, legal experts, members of parliament, diplomats, government ministries, and the media. The speakers at the conference came from various South Sudanese universities, the Republic of Sudan, US, Norway, United Kingdom, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda. About twenty one papers were presented including a paper by Dr. Lam Akol, former Khartoum University and Imperial College educated chemical engineering professor, and currently the leader of opposition party, SPLM-DC. The conference was characterized by lively discussions after each presentation. The conference also received good coverage by the national media.

(Pictured: A view of Heron Hotel Conference Hall, an International presence)

Amongst the institutions represented by the speakers were UNESCO (Office of Science, Eastern Africa region, Nairobi); Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology; Ministry of Labour, Public Services, and Human Resource Development; SPLM Democratic Change; London School of Economics (LSE), University of Bergen, University of North Texas, the American University in Cairo, University of Makerere, University of Kwa Zulu-Natal, University of Khartoum, University of Juba University, Dr. John Garang Memorial University of Science and Technology, Upper Nile University, and the University of Northern Bahr El Ghazal.

(Pictured: Participants interacting during break time)

The themes covered by the papers included: quality assurance and accreditation, networking as a method for building up human resources, consolidation of higher education, building new universities as agents of change and development, management in higher education, students accommodation, media education, building new university campuses based on American university work models, meeting the increasing demand for higher education, elitist versus mass higher education, etc.
The conference attendance peaked at 150 on the first day, and dropped to 91 on the second (final) day.

(Pctured above: Dr. Lam Akol being interviewed after delivering his paper on future of higher education in South Sudan)

Meeting the Increasing Demand for Higher Education

Many papers (more than a quarter of total papers presented) recognized the need for South Sudan to get ready for the inevitable increase in social demand for higher education in the coming years (Joseph Massaquoi, UNESCO-Nairobi Office; Marc Cutright and Beno Basheka, University of North Texas and Uganda Management Institute; Naomi Pendle, London School of Economics; John Akec, University of Northern Bahr El Ghazal; Lam Akol, SPLM-DC; and Wilfred Ochieng, South Sudanese returnee from US and independent author).

All, with the exception of Dr Akol's paper, urged for the need to expand access to higher education. However, it was noted by this author that Akol's position paper that advocated for fewer universities (maximum of three) was based on personal intuition and preference which sees the whole issue as a zero-sum-game; as opposed to research-informed and evidence-based perspectives bore by cohorts' papers. The majority of these papers acknowledged the inevitable negative impact of the expected expansion on the quality of higher education in South Sudan, and proposed measures and strategies for maintaining quality and building up capacity such as using networking and partnerships, and adoption of US work college model, among others.

(Pictured above: Left Hon. James Duku, Chairperson of Educational Sub-Committe, South Sudan Legislative Assembly, presents his speech at the ARFD's conference; Right, Professor Vanasio Molidiang, session chair)

Not surprising, the topic attracted a heated debate amongst the participants between proponents and opponents of expansion in higher education. And like it or not, the demand for higher education is going to increase rapidly in the coming years, and that widening access through the expansion in the number of higher education providers (both public and private) is not just an option but a national duty.

Preliminary Recommendations
A special secretariat was set up to capture and distill recommendations from the presented papers and discussions that followed thereof. The preliminary recommendations as perceived by the committee are still being edited and the final recommendations will be published after extensive consultation between and amongst presenters and key participants. However, the preliminary list of recommendations is given below.

(Pictured above: Pannel Discussion chaired by Professor Joshua Otor Akol(Centre))

The institutions of higher education strive to design curricula best suited to the needs of South Sudan; the national government to allocate adequate resources for research, building lecture halls, libraries, and laboratories; while consolidating the quality of the current universities, the government must also increase access to higher education through expansion; in order to develop human capital and staffing capabilities, universities must collaborate and network with chohort institutions, nationally, regionally, and globally; technical education must be developed currently with the academic higher education; government to put in place institutions and mechanism for quality assurance; the proposed Council for Higher Education in South Sudan to device a mechanism for ranking of institutions of higher education; higher education institutions to embrace values of good governance, innovation, and enterprising; government and institutions of higher education to review the students accommodation model inherited from Sudan with a view to correcting shortcomings; the forthcoming Council for Higher Education to give a special attention to regulating and licensing of private higher education; retirement of tenured professors be abolished and made optional.

Many participants advised that the government takes a second look at its policy of free higher education for all because it is not going to be sustainable with the expansion in higher education. Instead the government should devise cost recovery strategy in which students must make contribution and only financially supports those who can't.

On the closing day, the Deputy Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology urged South Sudan academics to fight against corruption and encourage hard work, and time-keeping.

Overall, many participants expressed that the conference was a resounding success and an important milestone in the development of higher education policy for South Sudan.

South Sudan: Towards a Higher Education Fit for Twenty First Century

2011-11-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

It is attributed to Otto Von Bismarck, the architect of German nation-state and its first Chancellor, that: "A politician thinks of the next election, a statesman, of the next generation." It is my hope that we will have more statesmen than politicians when it comes to designing a policy for higher education in South Sudan.

When South Sudan declared its independence on 9th July 2011, it inherited nine public and sixteen private universities. Out of nine public universities, five are already functioning and have students on campus. The other four public universities are new and do not yet have any students. The situation of higher education institutions in the new republic is a major challenge. The physical infrastructures in the original campuses are dilapidated and not capable of accommodating the increased number of students. On the teaching staff situation the Northern Sudanese teaching staff on these universities used to average 65%, but now the capacity is at 35%. Generally, there is lack of regulations and institutions that control and assure quality of higher education in South Sudan.

The president of the republic, Salva Kiir Mayardit, on his remarks on the occasion of independence celebration at University of Juba Campus said:

“I appeal to you all both academic staff and administrations of our public universities to put your minds together and come up with well studied recommendations and plans for strengthening our institutions, which must become the pillars of nation-building.”

Clearly, the President call is a challenge directed at our university academics, civil society leaders, and all those concerned with higher education in our country; to get together and lay a solid and informed foundation for the vision of higher education in the new nation-state.

The Academics and Researchers Forum for Development, in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, has seized this call by the President of the Republic to organize a conference on "Future of Higher Education in South Sudan." This conference, we believe, will scientifically analyze the needs of higher education institutions of the nation and make policy recommendations after examining and addressing the associated issues of staffing, funding, maintaining the quality of academic standards, students accommodation, and a university infrastructure that is fit for the purpose in twenty first century.

The Academics and Researchers Forum for Development is an academics-led think tank that was launched in Juba in February 2011 and registered as nongovernmental organization in South Sudan in April 2011. Its aims to become a leading think tank and an advocacy group for poverty reduction, good governance, and conflict prevention in South Sudan and Eastern Africa region.

Its mission includes, among others, advocating for pro-poverty reduction policies in the nation and the region; promoting a culture of informed policy formulation in respect to design, implementation, and development of government strategies and policies; conducting research to assist government of South Sudan in policy formulation; promoting the indigenization of development process; and fostering a culture of intellectual innovation, creativity, and knowledge generation amongst academics and researchers.

The conference that is being organized by the Forum will take place over two days starting Monday 14th November and ending Tuesday 15 November 2011 at Heron Campsite Hotel in Juba (close to Juba Bridge Hotel).
About twenty three papers will be presented over two days and will cover a whole range of issues such as staffing policies, capacity building in higher education, networking as a way for building higher education institutions, accreditation and licensing of private universities, management and administration of institutions of higher education, elitist versus mass higher education, models for solving problem of students accommodation, and so on.

Unsurprisingly, the conference date will coincide with many other important events of great significance that will compete for media and public attention such as the Governors Forum that will kick off in Juba on Monday 14t November 2011, the same day our conference is planned to kick off, and this, God forbids, may eclipse the importance of the conference on Higher Education.
However, we trust that many in our political establishment, diplomatic circles, NGOs and civil society organizations, and private sector; will make time to participate in our deliberations at this important academic-get-together whose recommendations, we hope, will significantly impact the vision of Higher Education in our country for many years to come.

Please join us at the conference. Together, we can make a difference.

IMF- World Bank Annual Meetings 2011: Personal Impressions (Part 2)

2011-11-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

(IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, on BBC's Global Debate on World Economic Crisis)

This is the second part of a previous article in which I shared with readers my personal impressions about this year's IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings (from 19th to 26th September 2011). I attended the annual meetings with nine other IMF academic fellows for 2011. As pointed out in the previous article, IMF fellowships were awarded to ten academics from South Sudan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, Egypt, Mongolia, Paraguay, Romania, and Tanzania. Leaders of civil society organizations, journalists, and youth groups were invited, as has been the practice in the last decade, to attend the week-long annual events in Washington, DC, that involved taking part in thematic seminars, workshops, round-table discussions, televised debates, and conferences, all of which are concerned with discussing current global economic challenges. That said, this was the first time the Fund has invited academics through a fellowship. For the benefit of all, I am going to share my impressions about seminars, panel discussions, and conferences that are of particular relevance to the sort of economic challenges that are currently faced by South Sudan. Last but by no means least, the article will briefly comment on how academic community may contribute to enhancing IMF's effectiveness.

Conference on Commodity Price Volatility and Inclusive Growth in Low Income Countries (LIC's)
This conference was probably one of the highlights of the annual meetings in terms of the importance attached to the economic challenges it tried to address and the solutions the participants have put forward in their presentations which could be of great value to policy and decision-makers in South Sudan, and similar economies that are heavily dependent on natural resources for export earnings. In a nutshell, a well studied and lived problem by many resource-rich countries is that government income from export (such as diamond, oil, copper, natural gas, etc) are hard to predict but fluctuates with global commodity prices that in turn depend on demand for a particular commodity at a time. This poses budgeting difficulties to governments of the affected countries. Another well studied economic problem prevalent in resource-rich countries is that these countries that are endowed with natural resources have tended to remind poor, fragile, and less democratic in comparisons with countries that are not endowed with natural resources, and had to innovate to build their economies from scratch. Besides, natural resource dependency is understood to lead to the so-called resource-curse, or Dutch disease.

The conference opened with remarks by Christine Lagarde, the IMF Managing Director, who acknowledged how many low and medium income countries have successfully weathered the recent world financial crisis and that they have a vital role to play in the global economic recovery. The economic Nobel Prize winner for 2001, Joseph Stiglitz, gave a keynote speech on "Globalization and Income Distribution". He called for other accurate measures of equality and prosperity as opposed to GDP which, according to him, was adopted after Great Depression as a measure of economic activity, as opposed to that of wealth distribution among the members of a population. Furthermore, Stiglitz argued by the way of example, that a universal system of education that is accessible to all, is a better measure of equality. This is because, through education, Stiglitz maintained, majority of the citizens of a country have better chance of achieving their full potential. This keynote speech is bound to challenge the newly independent South Sudan to rethink its priorities regarding how prosperity can be equally spread among its citizens through such instruments as universal quality education and health service that is freely accessible to all.

The second keynote speech was by Jeffery Sachs, a renowned Columbia University's economic professor and former economic advisor to Mr. Koffi Annan, by then the UN Secretary General. Professor Sachs, who spoke via a video link from University of Coulmbia, addressed the conference on "Climate Change, Commodity Price Volatility and Consequences for LIC's." Jeffrey Sachs warned of the dangers of the increasing and unregulated scramble by the multi-national conglomerates for agricultural lands in Africa, describing the process of land acquisition as unsustainable. Professor Sachs called for regulation and good governance procedures to be followed when awarding lands to investors in Africa in order to avoid destroying livelihoods and physical environment, a call that should strike a chord with the decision-makers in Juba, especially after it came to light that investors have bought lands in South Sudan that are collectively the size of Rwanda through community leaders, away from any government oversight. Would you believe it?

Amongst other speakers were Jeffrey Frankel of Harvard University who gave a paper on "Resource Curse"; and Paul Collier, the distinguished development economist at Oxford University, former head of research at World Bank and author of the best seller book: The Bottom Billion, presented a paper on "Savings and Investment Decisions in Natural Resource Rich LIC's". Many more papers on the topic were also presented by illustrious economists, and space will not allow discussing them here. However, each paper tackled a different perspective of the problem. To present policy-makers' perspectives, the finance ministers from Ghana and Bolivia gave presentations about economic policies their countries are pursuing to overcome the challenges posed by commodity prices volatility to their countries.

Not only did the speakers agree that oil, gas, diamond, etc need not be a curse, they also proposed various ways of turning them into great blessings for the countries that are endowed with such resources and wisdom in economic management of the revenues they bring. By following a saving formula that increases with the decreasing reserves, Paul Collier believes, LICs with such resources can 'ride the tiger', smoothing out the dips in incomes when commodity prices are low using their reserves, and accumulating reserves in good times, for partial use in bad times. Ministers of finance in Ghana and Bolivia shared how their countries are riding against resource price volatility by budgeting government expenditure well below the revenue forecasts. That way, they argued, their countries were able to save and insulate their planned spending from chock of commodity price bumps. Like cigarettes and alcohol, the dangers of resource curse and possible solutions are well studied and publicized in literature; yet many a government continues to ignore these solutions at their own peril. South Sudan can do well by budgeting below average oil monthly income, saving the rest away for hard times, and diversifying into agriculture as well as improving tax collection, all within its budgeted expenditure.

IMF Engagement with Fragile States

(Pannel Discussion on IMF Engagement with Fragile States)
A panel discussion was devoted to this important topic. Examples of fragile states include Afghanistan, East Timor, Sudan, South Sudan, Iraq, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Fragility in this context refers to those states that are emerging from conflict. Their common features include low capacity to design and implement projects, low capacity for absorbing large volumes of direct foreign investment or large doses of foreign aid; having weak institutions that are viewed by the public as somewhat lacking in legitimacy, and existence of fragmented political situations that pose threat to peace and increase risk of reigniting conflict. Panelists observed that aid needs to be coordinated between providers in order to be effective. Too much aid money very early on a transition period is seen as not very effective in many low income fragile states. A paper distributed by IMF Strategy, Policy, and Review Department proposed among other things, flexibility and less ambitious performance targets in the Fund's supported or monitored programmes in fragile states, among others.

Global Development Debate: Jobs and Opportunities for All

(Pictured above: Pannel Discussion on Jobs at World Bank's with Participants from Mexico, Uganda, Kenya, and Jordan take part via video link)

This took form of a panel discussion moderated by Chrystia Freeland, Reuters Global Editor-at-Large. Involved in the discussions were Said Aidi, Minister of Vocational Training and Employment, Tunisia; Stella Li, Senior Vice President, BYD Company Limited, China; Allia El Mahdi, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, Egypt; and Manish Sabhardwal, CEO, TeamLease, India.

Amongst the questions debated included such things as what development strategies can be pursued to achieve both economic growth (GDP), and employment growth (employment rates)? How best to increase women employment rate as a way of boosting overall employment rate growth across regions? How to create decent jobs, as opposed to jobs that do not lift workers out of poverty? Is relevant vocational training the answer to putting great majority back into gainful employment? What role can knowledge and innovation-based industries play in bolstering economic growth? Participants in Preston Auditorium of World Bank in Washington DC (where the panel discussion took place) were joined through video link by participants from Mexico, Kenya, Uganda, and Jordan. The government of South Sudan, must wrestle with such questions to find jobs for many unemployed youth in its backyard.

IMF Technical Assistance: Tackling the Crisis and Building Institutions for the Future
For most of us, talking about IMF is talking about lender-debter relationship. Thankfully, it does not always have to be so. As I discovered in this year's annual meetings, there is more to the IMF than lending to its member states. The above seminar took place on Monday 26th September 2011, the last day of the annual meetings. Four specialised departments of IMF, namely Fiscal Affairs, Statistics, Monetray and Capital Markets, and Legal Departments, as well as IMF Instiute, do provide technical assistance in areas of fiscal, debt, finanical data gathering, supervision of banking system, liquidity management, that enables members to face economic crisis and build competent institutions capable of robustly managing their own national economies in future. Working through IMF training arm, the IMF Institute, these departments can channel policy-oriented training in macroeconomic and fiscal markets, macroecoomic management, debt management, among others. Succuessful case studies were presented at the seminar on how the Fund had assisted members countries such as Poland (to reduce inaccuracies in data related to balance of payment), Asian countries (strenegthening of bank supervision and regulation), and Peru (developing a national strategy for anti-money laundering and combating of financial terrorism). Presentations were followed by a pannel discussion that was later sealed by a remark by Nemat Shafik, the Deputy Managing Director of the IMF. It is worth pointing out that though Technical Assistance programme, the Fund can place experts to provide advice within finanical institutions of member states as well as organising workshops that facilitate peer-to-peer learning, as well as enabling the sharing and exchange of experiences. Hence, there is no dobut that South Sudan can benefit greatly from many of the services provided by Technical Assistance Programme of the IMF.

How the Academic Community Can Contribute to Enhancing IMF's Effectiveness?
(Pictured Above: Academic Fellows in Official Photo with Marjorie Henriquez (Centre, to the right of the author), The Academic Fellowships Coordinator, International Monetary Fund)

The IMF academic fellows for 2011 were asked to submit a short essay about their thoughts on this question, several weeks before travelling to Washington for the annual meetings. In the light of criticism of the Fund in relation to structural adjustment programmes in Africa, this author proposed that IMF and academic communities of the countries concerned collaborate in understanding the underlying success factors (or necessary prerequisites) in order to put them into account when designing IMF intervention programmes. This, in the author's view, would avoid the one-size-fits-all approach that had characterized numerous structural adjustment programmes in the past.

Another IMF academic fellow from Bangladesh, suggests that academic community can enhance the effectiveness of IMF's policy prescriptions through rigorous analysis and consultation prior to their adoption; and evaluation of the outcomes afterwards. In essence, he argues for contextualization of such policies to country's specific needs and competencies. "There should be no more square pegs in round holes, please," if I have read him correctly.

An academic from Egypt agrees independently with above propositions, and believes that academics can provide more country-specific insights such as identifying government champions to implement IMF policy recommendations. According to her, academics have access to media, and hence are well placed to correct any misconceptions that have often accompanied IMF's policy interventions in many countries.

As to the academic fellow from Cameroon, he calls for more cooperation between IMF resident country's representative and universities or research centers through partnership agreements, funded research, staff exchange programmes, joint organization of workshops, and presentation of IMF country reports to wider audience, among others.

The Armenian academic also argued in favor of academics playing a bridging role between IMF and World Bank on one hand, civil society, media, and general public on the other hand. Such approach, she emphasises strongly, will enhance mutual understanding and consolidate positive dialogue.

By mere coincidence, and not surprising by any measure, the positions of the academics from Armenia and Cameroon in regards the partnerships and tighter collaboration between the Fund and academic community were echoed by the academic fellow from Paraguay. However, the academic from Paraguay added a new twist. Instead of looking backward to the past, emphasis should be placed more on crafting a new and positive vision for the future that will better redefine the role of IMF in the increasingly globalized economy, and that the academics must contribute to the reshaping of such a role.

Last but not least, an academic from Romania unsurprisingly concurs in her independent analysis with most ideas put forward by IMF academic fellows. She, however, went on to propose a body comprised of academics at country level whose main responsibility is to monitor and analyze IMF policy prescriptions, conduct studies that complement IMF policies, and evaluate policy outcomes at a national level, amongst others.

And so, the academic fellows have spoken their minds by coming up with myriad of solutions as to how their professional community can enhance IMF's effectiveness in this increasingly interconnected world. Perhaps, the motto: think global and act local, has its perfect application in the IMF-academic community collaboration jigsaw. And yes, global challenges need global solutions.

Before concluding, however, I have to acknowledge that my brief overview of what the IMF academics fellows have proposed in their essays cannot do justice to them. Hence, all errors of misinterpretation and omission are mine.

Finally, on behalf of IMF Annual Meetings Academics Fellows for 2011, I would like to extend our deepest gratitude and appreciations to Margorie Henriquez, the Academic Fellowships Coordinator at International Monetary Fund, and her team; for her hard work, exceeding kindness, professionalism, and immense help to us, right from sending out invitations, to sorting the visas applications, to booking of flights, to arrival, and through to the time we left Washington DC for our home destinations. Thank you, Marjorie and team, for a job well done.

IMF- World Bank Annual Meetings 2011: Personal Impressions (Part I)

2011-10-09T07:37:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

(Pictured above: IMF Academic Annual Meetings Fellows 2011)

Introduction
I was very fortunate to be awarded an IMF Annual Meetings Academics Fellowship for 2011. The fellowship allowed me to travel to Washington, DC, and participate in the annual meetings from 19th to 26th September 2011. During my week-long attendance, I learned that the IMF and its sister organization, the World Bank, have been engaging civil society, media groups, and youth organizations for nearly a decade. However, this is the first time the Fund has engaged with the academics from ten different countries through this kind of fellowship Programme. The academics came from South Sudan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, Egypt, Mongolia, Paraguay, Romania, and Tanzania. Not surprisingly, the reader will notice that all the academics fellows who were invited to attend this year's annual meetings were from low or medium income countries, or from countries that are broadly classed by economists as emerging markets. These countries are facing many economic challenges to varying degrees but hold great potential for contributing to global economic stability if given the right help in curving the right path to economic growth and prosperity.

The annual official meetings opening was preceded by nearly a week of parallel programmes of topical seminars, conferences, panel and roundtable discussions, interactions of civil society, academics, media and youth groups with IMF Managing Director (Christine Lagarde) and World Bank President (Robert Zoellick). It was not possible to participate in every seminar or roundtable discussion but attended mostly those of interest to me and my home country. Some of the meetings I had been to included meeting up with IMF's mission chief in South Sudan and his team where we were able to exchange views on issues that are of concern to me. Beside academic papers and expert talks, policy makers such as central bank managers of member countries, finance ministers, industry leaders, and civil society leaders presented 'on the ground' perspective that enriched the discussions that followed the presentations.

Topics covered in various roundtable and panel discussions, seminars, and conferences included fostering the Fund's effective engagement with fragile states, challenges of commodity price volatility and inclusive growth in low-income countries, achieving inclusive growth in low-income countries, BBC World debate on current state of global economy, youth dialogue on job creation, IMF's technical assistance in crisis situations and building institutions for the future, and many more.

Friday 23rd was the main opening day which brought everyone together after days of intense interactions in roundtable and thematic panel discussions, conferences, and seminars.

The main speakers at the opening day were the IMF Managing Director and World Bank President. This article is an attempt to share my impressions and experiences at the annual meetings.

IMF in Few Lines!
For my non-economist readers, a brief introduction to International Monetary Fund is appropriate. However, for those well versed in economics, they may like to skip this paragraph or check my facts!

(Pictured above: Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director and Robert Zoellick, World Bank President Interacting with CBOS and Academics)

In a nutshell, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has its roots and conception in the aftermath of 1930s' Great [Economic] Depression that wreaked havoc on major world's economies, and destroyed wealth and lives of millions around the world. The Great Depression led to the early realization of the interconnectedness of World economy and the necessity of closer economic coordination amongst the countries of the world in order to discourage economic management behaviors or policies that may hamper international trade and threaten the recurrence of crisis of the mammoth scale such as that of 1930's depression. After World War II, there also arose the need to rebuild and reconstruct the war ravaged countries. Conceived in 1944 in New Hampshire's town of Bretton Woods in north east of United States, the IMF began operation on March 1, 1947. It was tasked, amongst others, with the responsibility of overseeing the international monetary system (exchange rate stability and international payment system that foster fruitful trade between countries and discourage competition that is destructive to international trade and hence can harm the health of global economy, and literally, everyone).

(Pictured above: CBOS Listening to IMF Managing Director and World Bank President)

Over the past decades, the role of the IMF has evolved and expanded extensively (in line with our increasingly interconnected economies) and can be summed up these days as that of global economic crisis management, monitoring and surveillance of global economy, ensuring macro-economic stability through design and giving of policy advice to member governments so as to implement their own economic and fiscal policy frameworks, providing technical assisatnce and capacity building for member countries, coordinating donor efforts, and lending to members in need. Based in Washington DC, the Fund is headed by its Managing Director (currently Madame Christine Lagarde, former finance minister of France), who is assisted by at least 2 Deputy Directors, and 24-member Board of Executive Directors representing some 187 member countries. The membership is expected to rise when South Sudan joins the Fund sometimes later in the year. Although the IMF work is distinct, it overlaps and complements that of the World Bank, also a Bretton Woods' brainchild. The two sisterly institutions work closely and their headquarters face each other across 19th Street in the North West of Washington, DC.

The Implications of Funds' Interaction with Academics and Civil Society During Annual Meetings and Spring Meetings.

(Pictured above: Third from left: Ms. Nemat Shafik, Deputy Managing Director of IMF debating young people from different countries, moderated by Ms. Tsepiso Makwetha, South Africa Broadcast Corportation)

For most of us, IMF is known for its mixed-bag attempts to revive the economies of poor and heavily indebted countries, mostly in Africa, in the last three decades; and how its structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) have come under fire from wide sectors of society worldwide. In that respect, the Fund has been accused of pushing for ambitious economic reforms and policies in developing countries that hit the vulnerable in society the hardest and stalled economic growth in the poor and heavily indebted countries in Africa. The Fund has also been accused of secrecy and ignoring the citizens, and working with governments instead to design monetary and fiscal policy frameworks that, in the case of Africa, have come to impact in many unpleasant ways the living standards of majority of the citizens without their consent or knowledge. Civil society groups have also criticized the Fund for reporting on growth and praising the governments of countries concerned without dude regard for inclusiveness of such growth, nor accounting for income distribution inequalities that are so prevalent in many African, Asian, and Arab countries, and the lack of effective investment in jobs creation, specially for young people globally and specially in Africa and the Middle East, in which a disproportionate percentage of youth struggle to find gainful employment. This situation is further aggravate by absence of social safety nets and is blamed for social and political upheavals in Middle East and some parts of Europe, as UK's most recent youth riots, for example.

(Pictured: Professor Jeffrey Sachs addressing the conference on commodity volatility via video link from Earth Institute, University of Columbia)

By letting down the curtains and opening up its doors and its annual meetings to academics, civil society groups, development agencies, and youth organisations; the Fund and the World Bank, I reckon, want to send an unmistakable message that they are embracing a positive change to become more responsive, more transparent, more accountable, and more willing than ever to be scrutinized from inside out (not just from without); as well as signalling their readiness to accommodate the views of these groups when designing and implementing economic policy frameworks. In other words, I think, the Fund and World Bank want to correct the old image and insetad strive to transform themselves into more credible, trustworthy, and effective global institutions for public good which everyone one of us has always wished them to be. At least this is the idea. A good idea that is worth applauding, and nurturing.

(Oliver Blanchard (tallest, in the middle back row) Director of IMF Research Department, Vasuki Shastry (back row second left) and Jeremy Mark (back row first left) from IMF Public Affairs and External Relations Department interacting with Academic Fellows)

In part 2 of this article, I am going to examine some of the topics covered at the annual meetings and how relevant are hey to the situation of South Sudan. I will also discuss the role the academic community can play in order to enhance IMF's effectiveness.

To be continued.

Call for Papers: Conference on Future of Higher Education in South Sudan

2011-08-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

14-16 November 2011, South Sudan Hotel, Juba

South Sudan has inherited nine public and sixteen private universities on 9th July 2011, the day on which it declared its independence. Out of nine public universities, five are already functioning and have students on campus. The other four public universities are new and do not yet have any students. Nevertheless, the situation of higher education institutions in the new republic is a major challenge. The physical infrastructures in the original campuses are dilapidated and unsuitable for accommodating the increased number of students. On the teaching staff situation the Northern Sudanese teaching staff on these universities used to average 65%, but now the capacity is at 35%. Moreover, there is lack of regulations and institutions that control and assure quality of higher education in South Sudan. These are but only the main problems that should concern South Sudanese, particularly those tasked with bringing rapid changes to the educational sector in the new republic.

The president of the republic on the occasion of independence celebration at University of Juba Campus said, “I appeal to you all both academic staff and administrations of our public universities to put your minds together and come up with well studied recommendations and plans for strengthening our institutions, which must become the pillars of nation-building.”

In response to President's call and in recognition of the invaluable role academics can play in shaping the future of higher education in our country, the Academics and Researchers Forum for Development in Collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology would like to launch a conference on Future of Higher Education in South Sudan between 14th and 16th November 2011; and invite all concerned to submit a 200-word abstract of their papers by 30th September 2011; and if accepted, submit a final draft paper by 30th October 2011. The themes of the conference include:

Expansion in Higher Education (Reasons, necessary conditions,
comparative studies)
Merits of focused higher education
Private higher education (Licensing and quality control)
Higher Education and Globalization
Staffing and maintaining quality in higher education and scientific research
Postgraduate research and education
Issues of management and funding in Higher Education
Higher Education and Vocational Training
Relevance of Subjects offered by universities
Adult Higher Education
Community-based higher education
Higher Education during South Sudan Transition
Higher Education and Economic Development

The important dates and deadlines are summarized below:
Submission of Abstracts (not exceeding 200 words) 30 September 2011
Submission of Final draft papers 30 October 2011
Conference 14-15 November

For enquiries and submission of abstracts and papers please contact any of the following members of the organizing committee:

Dr. Dheiu Mathok l (0955008855 aromjok@yahoo.com), Dr. Leben Nelson Moro (0128105701 lebenmoro@hotmail.coml) Dr. Melha Biel Rout ( 0955363752; mbiel55@hotmail.com)

Academics and Researchers Forum for Development is regsitered as NGO No. 985 in South Sudan.

Head Office, Juba

North-South Sudan economic war will not take prisoners

2011-07-29T01:03:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

If you think there are ethics to guide the current economic war that is taking shape between the Republic of Sudan and the newly independent South Sudan, be ready to be disappointed. As far as Sudan government is concerned, and in the words of its finance minister Ali Mahmud, his government is ready to do whatever it takes to protect North Sudan economy (Sudani, 12 July 2011, Issue 1992). Literally, that is what Sudan government has embarked on by fighting South Sudan economically hands off the glove, hitting hard under the belt, and taking no prisoners following the pattern of the 22-year war conflict that was waged against them by Sudan Liberation Army (SPLA) in the South and other areas of the North, a war that eventually led to separation of the South from the rest of the country on 9th July 2011.
What it is that the North is doing economically to the South that can be depicted in such harsh terms? And what has the new nation done to engender such an angry response from their erstwhile protagonists? Could anything have been done differently to avoid the economic war? And what kind of loss or gains we expect each party is going to incur in this unfortunate conflict? There are no easy answers.

How North Sudan is Waging its Economic War against South Sudan?

A few months in run up to South Sudan independence, the government in Khartoum stopped transportation of fuel and food items from the North to the South. Prices of the fuel rocketed in the South. People parked their cars in their homes and walked to work or risked spending long hours in queues to get a few gallons of petrol for arm and a leg. That fuel came from Kenya and Uganda. Then came the mass relief of Sudanese of Southern origin from the army and civil service in the North and ordering private sector employers to follow suite, a month ahead of declaration of South Sudan independence; a move that was roundly condemned by a wide spectrum of Northern Sudanese civil society which regarded it as inhumane and an attempt to export mass unemployment to the South.

In air travel, luck or coincidence was the ally of Khartoum government. The only 2 Fokker aircrafts owned by Feeder Airline were grounded by a manufacturer order, warning of faulty fog detection system. This is the only South Sudan based passenger-airliner connecting Khartoum and South Sudan main cities. Khartoum aviation authorities also refused to grant landing permit in Khartoum International Airport to Feeder's new Boeing aircraft. That gave the Northern airliners a monopoly of air travel business between Khartoum and South Sudan. Airfares tripled beyond what many Southerners can afford.

A few days before the declaration of South Sudan independence, all accounts of South Sudanese institutions with central bank were frozen. The electronic banking system used by the Bank of South Sudan (BOSS) and ministry of Finance in the South and the Central bank in Khartoum whose server was maintained in Khartoum was closed down, making it impossible to move funds between BOSS and its branches and between BOSS and other commercial banks in South Sudan or anywhere in the world. Then North launched its new currency barely two days after South Sudan launch of its currency and declaring as illegal tender the 2 billons worth of Sudanese pounds currently circulating in the South, a move that will cost South Sudan US$ 700 million. Finally, the Khartoum government asked Juba to pay US 32 for every barrel of crude oil transported through their pipeline, the highest ever charge in the world for rendering similar service, according to South Sudan officials.

What has South Sudan committed against Khartoum to merit this severe punishment?
According to leading figures in Sudan ruling party, the National Congress Party (NCP), South Sudan government is doing everything it could to politically destabilize the North, although they would rarely admit publicly that such sentiments are behind their economic furry against the world's newest nation.

Putting aside the unresolved issues over border demarcation and contested Abyei area, the government of South Sudan is being accused by Khartoum of supporting the recent armed insurgency in South Kordofan with potential rebellion in Blue Nile State, and extending help to Darfur's armed movements. The statement by the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, in his independence-day speech that he 'will not forget the people of South Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Darfur, was interpreted in the North as a public confession to interfere in Sudan internal affairs.

Worst, South Sudan is seen by the North as the linchpin of the West in the 'war' against Khartoum regime which the West has long accused of committing crimes against humanity in Darfur and possibly in South Kordofan. Recently, the NCP stalwart and presidential assistant, Nafi Ali Nafi, warned the South Sudan government to "distant itself from the West if they dream of building any cooperative relations with the North." Read economic cooperation.

The Road Not Taken
South Sudan had six years to insulate itself from impacts of North economic embargo, or at least minimize such impacts. However, it would seem that no one saw it coming, or rather there are countless things that could have been done and they haven’t. Furthermore, South Sudan should try to be seen to play positive influence in Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Darfur- difficult yet worth trying. On their part, the Khartoum government should reach a fair deal with armed movements in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur, a settlement that is not less brave than the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that successfully brought relative peace after 22 years of conflict.

Failing that, the Khartoum will continue to wage its brutal economic embargo on South Sudan, which will suffer greatly in short-term. However, in the long run, Khartoum risks provoking political uprising if it is seen to be incapable of achieving peace in the 3 areas as well as failing to forge beneficial relations with South Sudan.

South Sudan: Lifting off With the Flag

2011-07-12T03:12:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

On the eve of the declaration of South Sudan independence, namely on July 8th 2011, and as the nascent nation was preparing to receive its guests in its capital city, Juba; history was being made in the far away land of America. In Florida and from Kennedy's Space Centre, the Atlantis space shuttle was being launched for the last time to mark the end of 30-year US Space Shuttle Programme. And as I watched the launch of Atlantis on the TV at home, and as the clock counted down to the launch, my mind wondered off to reflect on our nation that was about to be borne the following day. I found many inspiring analogies and connections between the launch of the space shuttle, Atlantis, and the birth of the 193rd United Nation member, the Republic of South Sudan. This article is about sharing these thoughts with my readers. There are a few differences, though, that will be pointed out.

A space shuttle is a complex cutting-edge technology that has been championed and excelled by the United States' main space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), since its launch in April 1981. In fact, the Programme conception dates back as far as historic Apollo Moon Landing in 1969. The Space Shuttle fleet is comprised of 6 vehicles (technically referred to in NSAS' speak as orbiters), namely Discovery, Endeavour, Challenger, Atlantis, Columbia, and Enterprise. In the 30-year history of America's Space Shuttle Programme, the shuttles carried out 135 missions, flew over 870 million Kilometers, took some 335 astronauts into space at cost of US$ 209 billion, created hundreds of thousands of jobs across America; delivered communications satellites, scientific investigation equipment, and deep space probe telescopes into Earth's orbit; created advanced engineering technologies with many spin offs and applications that have greatly benefited mankind and saved lives; improved air travel safety; and deepened our understanding of the universe. Beside financial cost above, 14 precious astronaut lives were lost in 30 years. More lives could have been lost had it not been due to the ingenuity of NASA;s scientists and engineers, backed up by generous financial resources from the nation and the unwavering political commitment from the very top of the US Administration.

NASA is ending the Space Shuttle Programme to find alternative means of sending equipment and astronauts into space. And so this will be the last for Atlantis before retiring to space science museum. Like all other shuttles, Atlantis shuttle and its boosters contain some 2.5 million moving parts and hundreds of scientists and engineers sitting in front of giant control panels that monitor and display shuttle vital variables at every moment of its flight. Each moving part of the shuttle is wired up to computer system that ensures every component is functioning before final launch command is issued. And when that happens, it is "all system go!" It takes months and weeks of rehearsal by astronauts, preparation, and meticulous planning by all concerned because much is at stake. Here, failure is not an option.

So is it with launching of our new independent state of South Sudan. The new state must be made to work. Although some failure is expected and, indeed inevitable, it but must be minimized. Like space shuttle programme that was inspired by President Kennedy vision to land first man on the moon, the Republic of South Sudan is the realization of a vision by the Patriarchs of South Sudan struggle. It was achieved at a cost of 2 million lives and unaccounted lost in wealth and property. It took half century of struggle, engaged hundreds of thousands of citizens and various global actors at different levels and capacities, demanded commitment and perseverance to get to the point where South Sudan finds itself at the moment (free as bird, unshackled by will of man save its own!), a new nation fully ready to serve its citizens!

So like Atlantis, the raising of South Sudan's flag was the equivalent of countdown to launch. Hence in theory, it should have been 'all system go!' And if we are honest, we need to admit that it was not that simple for the birth of the Republic of South Sudan to just pick and go. This is because of various reasons, some of which are excusable to varying degree. While we can trust mechanical and electronic artifacts that make up the 2.5 million parts in shuttle and boosters to deliver at the touch of a button, we could not say the same thing exactly about human resources which make up for moving parts in the government of the world's newest country. Humans, by their very nature can forget, can be incompetent, may lack experience, or do not always obey orders in a way mechanical elements of the shuttle would do. Here 'ready to go' means the nation is fully ready to deliver services the citizens need on day to day basis such as keeping security, having electricity to light homes, availability of running water, installation of radars to watch our borders and skies, payment of workers' wages on time etc.

In South Sudan's 'launch', there might have been too many teething problems to contend with. For example, by coincidence or by design, many flights from Khartoum to the Southern cities were grounded on technical grounds at the time when demand was the highest. As a result, the fair of air tickets between Khartoum and Southern cities doubled or tripled in the last few months in the run up to Independence Day. What went wrong? We may ask. Whose business it is to protect citizens of a country from mass exploitation or deliberate economic persecution wherever they are in the world?

Next, the central government of Sudan issued an order to treat Southern banks as foreign banks, therefore demanding the existence of a correspondence bank in order to allow money transfer between Northern and South Sudan and the Republic of Southern Sudan, a measure that will cause untold hardship to over a million South Sudanese citizens in the North. If the Republic of South Sudan is not yet to offer unimpeded banking services on the next day of independence, then it is going to be easier to send money from Khartoum to London than to Juba. Are we ready for this or do we have long answers?

Also, when the North prevented fuel transportation from North to the South, the fuel prices rocketed in the South. Could we have foreseen this coming our way? Luckily, today we read in the newspapers that South Sudan is going to launch its own currency beginning from 18th July 2011. Hats off for that one, Mr. Deng Athorbe, Malok Aleng and your staff! This will counter recent measures in Khartoum that would treat transfers from South Sudan as from a foreign bank despite the initial plan to use Sudanese pounds for the next 6 months in the South. It would have meant buying the Sudanese pound twice – at the origin and at the destination. A double lost for citizens of the South.

While using the Atlantis analogy in the birth of our nation would be like comparing apples and oranges, we should make no mistake about the fact that many well tested engineering principles that have been successfully applied to design of tanks, oil refineries, and space shuttles in a way that ensures their smooth launch and operation, can also be applied to great effect to design a functioning government department, national economy, army logistic system, computer network, city transportation system, or even the whole government apparatus of a country so that things function smoothly and seamlessly in the shortest time possible. It is worth mentioning that a number of World Bank pundits have recently predicted that it is going to take 20 years for South Sudan to have a functioning government. However, this author believes if methods and tools of systems engineering are applied to design of system of governance, we can shrink this time to mere 3 or 4 years.

Systems engineering approach was developed by the military during World War II and later perfected by space and manufacturing industry in US and Europe. It emphasizes the necessity of taking a total view of design of organizations and hardware systems. Namely the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In other words, it is not about optimizing the output from sub-systems, but rather that of maximizing the whole system performance.

Thus the flag is up. The issues at stake are complex. Are we ready to go as a total system? If the answer is no, my question is why not? Instead of resting on the dire predictions of World Bank experts or importing civil servants from East Africa to fix our systemic problems, we can do well by first putting our in-house skills to good use. In Academics and Researchers Forum for Development, a think-tank and an advocacy group, we are more than ready to tackle such national challenges head on. Not with emotions but with skills and professionalism. So have a go, and give us a call.

President Salva Kiir in New African Top 100 List: Recognising a prophet in his home continent?

2011-06-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

President Salva Kiir, Mo Ibrahim and Alek Wek

Bad news travel fast. Good news travles slow but can also travel fast. That is the reality of our highly wired-up and networked global village, the world. For example, the unlucky South Sudan Member of Legislative Assembly Hon. Aleu Ayeny Aleu, received bad press last week when he was unable to take hard questions from journalists on some articles related to media freedom in South Sudan's interim constitution, and instead chose to walk out of a public consultation meeting in Juba's Nyakuron Cultural Centre. Instantly, everybody heard the unfortunate incident and what a flood of bad-mouthing the legislator had to endure!

In contrast, I thought to share with my readers some good news. And the news being that President of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit, fashion super model Alek Wek Athian, together with founder and former boss of Zain mobile telecom giant, Mo Ibrahim, are the 3 Sudanese who appear on the list of 100 top most influential Africans. The list was compiled and published by the London-based New African magazine. It also contains Bishop Desmond Tutu, President Nelson Mandela, Jonathon Goodluck, Jacob Zuma, Professor Wangari Maathi, writer Chenua Achebe, Kofi Annan, and Wael Ghonim, the Facebook blogger credited with organising the Egyptian revolution, among others. Having 2 South Sudanese in this illustrious list is a great credit for the people of the nascent nation. It signals a very promising start.

And for all the controversy stirred up by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in the last decade, Mr. Mugabe too is listed amongst the top 100 most influential Africans living today. The list is not ranked in any particular order of importance or significance, according to the magazine editors. Commenting on the publication of the list by New African, a commentator for the Economist makes clear the distinction between being famous (well known faces with no real influence on the world around them), and being influential (that is being one or more of "opinion-shapers, doers, agitators, groundbreakers, and myths busters..."). This clear distinction between what is influential and what is famous is something I never reflected on nor thought about before. For me, famous has always appears to be synonymous with influential. Now I know and have learned something for which I am forever grateful. Ustaz Bona Malwal

Justice Chan Reec Madut

Despite the generosity of the African culture and people, the continent has rarely taken the full credit in regards to its contribution to global good. This is now changing. According to Baffour Ankomah, editor of New African:
“This is the first Top 100 Influential Africans issue of New African.
“Our continent has produced, and continues to produce some impressive individuals from all walks of life who are having a profound impact not only on Africa but on the international community. The names on the list I am sure will be discussed the length and breadth of the Continent. And the list in itself is not necessarily an endorsement as such but what it does show is the diversity of skills, talents and personalities amongst Northern and Sub-Saharan Africans in contemporary times, and who are driving change across the continent and beyond.”

New African editor is right. The South Sudanese born supermodel Alek Wek has been in fashion world since 1995 and there is no slightest suggesting that she is quiting the limelight anytime soon. In words of New African editors: Alek Wek "inspires many African girls to say they are beautiful just as they are."

Nhial Bol

The North Sudanese of Nubi origin, Mo Ibrahim, an electronic engineer and telecom business tycoon turned-philanthropist, sold his mobile telecom business (Celtel) for US $ 3bn and devoted his time promoting good causes that include good governance in Africa by awarding very generous monetary prize annually to a retired African president who has done exceptionally good things for their country during their term of office.

And prominently on this prestigious list was President Salva Kiir Mayardit, the president of autonomous government of South Sudan who, according to the magazine, "using his dogged pragmatism, led his people through tough and tortuous negotiations to independence in 2011." The magazine hopes that in Kiir's reign which will commence on 9th of July 2011, South Sudan will witness improvement and peace. As son of South Sudan, these accolades make me proud. As son of Greater Gogrial in Warap State, where Kiir Mayardit and Alek Wek originate from, I am doubly enthused.
Dr. Jok Madut Jok and Manut Bol

It is worth reminding ourselves that we in South Sudan, have often criticised President Salva Kiir, not necessarily always fairly, for what he failed to do. Yet rarely acknowledging what has been achieved under his watchful eyes. Perhaps, this drives home the point that prophets are rarely recognised in their home town. New African shows us the importance of positive encouragement. Ours does not always have to be criticism, more of it. Juba today and other South Sudan cities are far more lively than they were in dark years of war in mid 1980s/early 1990s. That is if you were there at the time, and you happen to revisit Juba or other cities in 2011. We need to count our blessings and not only count what we do not have.

It is also worth noting that throughout the history of South Sudan, sons Greater Gogrial in Warap State, like their counterparts in other states of South Sudan have contributed enormously to the struggle and advancement of the cause of South Sudan in many spheres of life, ranging from politics to military to academia to judiciary to media to culture and sports. We have a long list (not in particular order of importance) of influential names that include Apuk Paramount Chief Giir Thiik (who baffled British administrators with his dodged wisdom), Southern politician and statesman Bona Malwal (Sudan's presidential advisor who recently announced his retirement from active party politics from 9th of July 2011 to devote his time to research and writing. I wish Bona Malwal good health and productive intellectual output in his new choosen role), General Emmanuel Abur Nhial (second in command to General Joseph Lagu during Adis Ababa accord in 1972), General Kuol Amum (a fearsome Anya I movement commander and later SPLA commander), basket ball player Manut Bol, Dr. Lawrence Wol Wol (first and last South Sudanese to be finance minister in Khartoum), Dr. Justin Yac Arop, Ambrose Wol Dhal (one of earliest South Sudanese diplomats of immense intellect and one a group of liberal Southern politicians called Big Six), Kerybino Kuanyin Bol (a Sudan army officer who led Battalion 106 in historic Bor mutiny in May 1983 and thereby sparked SPLA long liberation war), General Salva Mathok Beny (currently presidential advisor for Security and SPLA Veterans Affairs), Justice Ambrose Riiny (first South Sudan chief justice), Justice Chan Reec Madut (Khartoum and Harvard's trained judge who oversaw with Prof Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil the successful and historic South Sudan self-determination referendum in Jnauary 2011), Professor Matthew Atem Aduol (gynaecologist and 2-terms vice chancellor of Bahr El Ghazal University in Wau and currently founding vice chancellor of Rumbek University), Kornelio Koryom Mayik (founding general manager of Ivory Bank),Sister Amandit (an entrepreneurial-minded Catholic nun who founded and run a successful private girls school in Aweil before civil war broke out in 1980s to close it down), Nhial Bol Aken (the outspoken, yet fair-minded editor of the Citizen newspaper, who is always in trouble with police in Juba for his critical views), Jacob Jel Akol, the widely influential editor of Gurtong website, Dr. Jok Madut Jok (the Layola University Professor who did much to raise expose modern day slavery in Sudan through his books), Aman Aniek Atak (Alek Wek's niece, and a promising young women civil engineering student who began at Imperial College and now completing studies at Cambridge University). The list is very long. These are self-made individuals who elected to indulge their passion in the society without fear. Let us thank God and the women of Greater Gogrial for giving so generously from their wombs to the advancement of South Sudan. And may the culture of allowing individuals to be different and free to persue their passions without hinderance endure in that part of our land.

Last but not least, my final words are reserved for Gogrial great son, the President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Congratulations for this recognition. You are in a very privileged position and you hold great potential to make a difference to the lives of millions of South Sudanese at this point in our history. Indeed you have already done much through your 'dodged pragamatism." I pray that when it comes to making choices about your legacy as the first president of an independent South Sudan, that it will be working for peaceful coexistence of all our peoples; for peace and fearless freedom to reign across the length and breadth of our vast land; for prosperity that is not confined to privileged few; democracy that is self-evident; justice that knows no colour, status, or tribe; and rule of law that exempts no one, no matter how powerful. You are not to dwell on bradishing glittery yet empty slogans; nor engage in sweet talk during occasions that is never followed through with concrete actions, but to have deeds that are reality lived everyday by common man, woman, and child of South Sudan.

Mr. President, write these goals out at your door post. Let them decorate your chest. Tie them to your neck. Cling to them and let them direct whatever you do from rising of the sun to the time it sets. Let no self-interested kingmaker or temptations of power persuade you away from their sacred path. And may God of all truth be your wise counsellor, your protector, and your redeemer in your going out and your coming in: everyday, every hour, every minute, and every second.

Five Years of Blogging: Personal Reflections on Fifth Anniversary of Launching of South Sudan blog

2011-04-04T07:02:00.001-07:00

By John A. Akec

Five years ago, or on April 3rd, 2006 to be precise, I began to write articles and post them on my personal blog, namely (www.JohnAkecSouthSudan.blogspot.com). Ever since, my focus has been concerned with the socio-economic and political environment of Sudan with special emphasis on South Sudan. Once an article is posted on the blog, I often post it to a number of mailing lists that I subscribe to and to Sudan Tribune online (www.sudantribune.com) where the articles have usually found their way into newspapers and other websites.

In the run up to last year's elections, I began to publish my blog articles in the Citizen newspaper under my column: Bloggers Rants. That went on for 3 months and then I stopped it. It was hard work beating my weekly deadline especially given my academic workload. In addition, the newspaper administration did not keep up with their commitment as in our contract! Fair enough. I called it a quit. That said, as activist, I am always glad to see my articles published by the Citizen, Khartoum Monitor, Sudan Vision, the Democrat etc… even if not all of them ask for permission to do so. Most recently, I been posting copies of my blog articles to the Citizen and they publish them, thankfully.

English newspapers (especially those based in South Sudan) are very much underdeveloped, underfunded, and under everything. Many of these papers do not get any financial support from the government and survive by publishing stuff published by writing hobbyists and activists on the internet. The circulation of the newspapers is also poor, even in the Southern capital, Juba. If am to make any appeal on this occasion, it is that government contribute to nurturing of our news (print) media without compromising its independent. And that print media learn to value and respect intellectual property and copyrights of the writers (if they don’t pay fees, they should contact authors and ask their permission). That would be nice, wouldn't it?

Even better, the editors of the newspapers in South Sudan should sign up capable authors to write columns and then all share the cake. There is an adage in business world that goes something like this: what is better, to share one ($$$ 1) million US $ with yourself or share one hundred ($$$$100) million with a few others? In other words, make a bigger cake and share, and you will enjoy a bigger slice than just contenting with a small cake for yourself, which is not even enough for your need. The math is very simple and I hope the editors of English newspapers in South Sudan will soon get the message and break out of this self-inflicted hindrance to the newspaper business.

So far, I have posted 100 articles and poems in the last 5 years. That is 20 articles per year, or an average of 1.6 articles per month. My profile has had 10,187 views as of today. That is, the profile is clicked by roughly 2000 readers every year. This is not the actual number of those who read my articles. The actual number could be much higher than this.

As a busy academic, administrator, and a family man, it has not always been easy to find time to update my blog. However, I have to be more realistic and content with the fact that I managed so far to write at least one article a month. It would have been better if I wrote at least once a week, but that would have been a tall order, given my other commitments. It is interesting to draw parallel with playing football or any other form of sport – no matter how busy you are, you still find time to play your favorite game. Writing is my hobby and goes back to my college days in the 1980s, when I published a regular student wall paper by myself. And then I began to write on the internet discussion for in 2000. And as we all know, a job is what you do because you have to do it; while a hobby is what you do because you love to do it.

Am I happy with my contribution to our humanity's advancement? Absolutely, I think, I am. My readers tell me I am being provocative without being insulting or abusive. Others say I am being very analytic in my approach to writing. My highlights: contribution to raising awareness of the plight of Acholi people in Northern Ugandan who were caught between the scythe of the LRA and the hammer of Uganda Peoples Defense Force. I also raised awareness about the plight of those whose houses were demolished by planning authorities in Juba in 2009 without adequate provision of alternatives. I also followed up Sudan election in 2010, amongst others.

Over the years, I made many friends. I have had live radio interviews with some international media, wrote op-edits for a number of influential online magazines and websites. Most recent was a live interview with Columbia National Radio in which I was asked questions in English and my answers were translated to Spanish on air. This was in February when the results of South Sudan referendum were annouced. I also got an invitation from Sudan Programme at St. Antony's College, Oxford University, to be one of guest speakers at the conference in November 2010 about what SPLM and NCP were doing to prepare for South Sudan self-determination vote, among others. The blog was ranked as one of top 100 blogs about Africa and one of top 20 blogs on Sudan.

Coincidentally, the 5th anniversary of launching of this blog coincides with historic year 2011 in which South Sudan has voted peacefully for self-determination; while the year also saw many Middle Eastern autocracies tumble, and many more still to follow. All because the internet and satellite TV technologies have contributed immensely to rearing generation of Arab youth who have decided that their destiny lies in joining the global community to embrace the universal values of liberty, freedom, and human rights. And so mobile text-messaging service, Facebook, and Twitter, which have proved as powerful instruments for social networking, have been used as the weapons with which the iron curtain on the Middle East has been torn down. The Arab revolutions in 2011 have shown the oppressed people of the world that those who rule them with iron fists against their will are nothing but paper tigers. All the oppressed needs to do is tell them to go, and they will do so, willy-nilly.

My advice to fellow South Sudanese at this juncture is to be good listeners to one another and that no one should rush to reach any hasty conclusion (for or against one another) and do something foolish (we the rulers and the ruled) at this early stage of the life of our nation. We should avoid any attempts at perfection and strive to create a win-win situation through compromises (nobody should expect to be completely full, and nobody should go empty either). It is important that our government invites all groups that make up our society to an open minded debate in order to reach a reasonable consensus on the main principles, values, and 'constants' on which we would like to base our new nation.

Having emerged from a devastating war, we should also put violence out of the equation as a means for settling differences or addressing grievances. Yes, we need our government to be the only party that has monopoly of violence. But that government violence also needs to be used sensibly, proportionately, and only as a means for upholding justice as opposed to taking it away.

Do I have any favorite blog articles or poems? I could not say I have any favorites. However, you may like to check out some of the following links (not in any particular ranking):

South Sudan: Where Silence Pays Dividends
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2006/04/south-sudan-where-silence-pays.html
Dr Hassen Al Turabi Goes Secular and Sets Women Free!
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2006/04/dr-hassen-al-turabi-goes-secular-and.html
If SPLM is the PLO of Southern Sudan, Where is Hamas?
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2006/05/if-splm-is-plo-of-southern-sudan-where.html
Rats, Cats, Boats, and the President: Reflections on Salva Kiir’s Electoral Campaign Launch Speech
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2010/03/rats-cats-boats-and-president.html
Uganda's Museveni Should Negotiate Peace With LRA and Must Not Let ICC Fight His War for Him
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2006/06/ugandas-museveni-should-negotiate.html
South Sudan Communities Everywhere: How about Taking a Leaf from Maimonides?
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2006/07/south-sudan-diaspora-how-about-taking.html
Josephine Apira: Taking the Fight to Museveni
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2006/12/josephine-apira-taking-fight-to.html
Sudan: Overtaxed, Over-ticketed, and Overcharged Nation for Scarcely anything in Return
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2009/01/sudan-overtaxed-over-ticketed-and.html
Sudan's Elections: Teaching Elephants to Fly
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2010/03/sudans-elections-teaching-elephants-to.html
Crimes and Dodgy Deals
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2009/08/crimes-and-dodgy-deals.html

Leave Your Dignity at the Door - You are entering a bank
http://johnakecsouthsudan.blogspot.com/2008/04/leave-your-dignity-at-door-you-are.html

Enjoy and happy 5th birthday: South Sudan blog.

Serious Challenges Await Higher Education in Post-Referendum South Sudan

2011-03-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

Background

In post-referendum Sudan, we can be sure of three things. The Nile water will continue to flow from Uganda in Great Lakes through the Republic of South Sudan to sustain livelihood in the North. South Sudan's oil will continue to economically benefit the two neighborly countries of the North and the South. North Sudanese nomads in the border areas will continue to cross into the South in search for water and pastures for their livestock as they have done for centuries. However, what kind of relationships will exist between the higher education institutions in the South and those in the North remain uncertain. This is in light of recent repatriation of three main Southern universities (Juba, Upper Nile, and Bahr El Ghazal) to their original campuses in South Sudan and the reluctance of majority of students, and Northern academics, who form the greater bulk of teaching staff in these universities, to relocate with them as the region prepares itself for independence in July 2011. This situation is particularly aggravated by the absence of a middle-way formula that will allow South Sudan universities to continue to benefit from Northern Sudanese academics while providing job security to the Northern academics and their families.

As of time of writing, there are 9 public and 16 private universities in South Sudan. Of 9 public universities, only 5 are functioning while the remaining 4 are newly instituted and have neither infrastructure nor capacity to admit students in the near future. Between them, the functioning 5 Southern universities host over 25,000 regular students, about 18,000 of which study at University of Juba. Amongst the total student population, approximately 12,000 are from Northern Sudan.

Moreover, there are about 956 North Sudanese academics in 5 Southern Universities, of which 451 are based at University of Juba alone where they form 73% of the estimated 620 academic staff's total head count at that university. Nearly 700 Northerners are employed in administrative, technical, and support roles. In majority of colleges and schools in Southern universities, the number of Northern academics average 65% in all universities. In colleges such as veterinary and medicine, the percentage of Northern academics is higher and may exceed 90% or reach 100%.

On the other hand, the number of South Sudanese students studying in Northern universities is 33,000. About 5,000 of these are studying at Bachelor level; 8,000 are studying for intermediate diploma; while 20,000 are registered on postgraduate and distance education programmes. In South Sudan, about 30,000 students are sitting university entrance exams this year and an estimated 30,000 others are taking the exams in the North. Add to this an approximately 8,000 students sitting equivalent university entrance exams in East Africa, and the figure will soar to around 70,000 students who will be looking for university places in fall of 2011.

The Implications for Future of Higher Education in South Sudan

What does all this amount to? Simply put, there are more teaching staff members from the North in Southern universities than local South Sudanese academics. There are also more South Sudanese students studying in Northern universities than North Sudanese studying in the South. That means, without securing the continuation of North Sudanese academics at Southern universities in short to medium term, these universities will struggle to deliver on their mission adequately and their reopening time may be seriously affected.

Repatriation of three main Southern universities to their bases was initiated as far as 2002. However, the process has been slow due to lack of infrastructure (labs, lecture halls, staff and students residence) and scarcity of funding. The Southern universities received only meager grants from federal government in form of staff salaries and operating costs which is hardly sufficient to rebuild the needed infrastructure. As the referendum approached, the repatriation efforts intensified in 2009 to reach climax by the end of 2010 when the last colleges were expected to have repatriated. However, the process was not smooth as it was not accompanied by provision of needed financial resources, neither from the federal government nor from the government of South Sudan. Vice chancellors did their best within the available limited resources.

The Future of Northern Sudanese Academics and Students in Southern Universities
Until recently, no ready solutions were agreed upon between the federal government and the government of South Sudan regarding the future of Northern Sudanese academic staff members and students in Southern universities after July 2011 when South will become an independent state. Concerned about the uncertain future of the Northern Sudanese citizens in Southern universities and after a hard campaign and lobbying by those affected, the central Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has recently confirmed that it is now in advanced planning stage of instituting a new university to be called the University of Khartoum North (as reported in Al Sahafa newspaper, 22 March 2011). This university will provide education for students from the North who are currently registered at Southern universities as well as provide employment opportunities for the academic and administrative staff that used to be employed by Southern universities. At the end of their study, students will be awarded degrees that bear the names of their mother universities in the South. A bill is said to have been enacted to form the new university and applications by students to join the University has begun in earnest. South Sudanese students who would like to join the new university are also welcomed, according to the information received by this author. It is worth noting that what appear as a significant gain for Northern Sudanese students and academics may be a loss for South Sudan higher education sector. A win-win solution is yet to be crafted.

There were proposals earlier on to allow all those colleges of South Sudanese universities that have no ready facilities to accommodate students and staff in the South to continue to operate from their Northern bases and then gradually be phased out by mutual agreement between the two governments in the South and the North. In the mean time, any new admissions should start their academic programmes in the South. The advantage of this solution was that in the next five years or so, Southern universities will continue to benefit from Northern academic staff who will continue to commute between campuses in the North and the South, encouraged by an agreed financial package (possibly to be shared by two governments). This could be cheaper than hiring international expatriate staff. This way, the proponents of the idea believed, the institutions of higher education in South Sudan could undergo a smoother transition to self-reliance, just as the North continues to draw benefits from Nile water, South Sudan pastures, and the export of Southern oil through its soil after South Sudan's independence.

However, those proposals were in contradiction with the decision passed by South Sudan Council of Ministers that obliged all the colleges of South Sudan universities to complete repatriation by the end of December 2010, and hence were not pursued by the vice chancellors. If those proposals were pursued, they would have formed the basis for determining a viable solution to some of the negative impacts of secession on higher education institutions in South Sudan.

Moreover, the decision to implement an immediate repatriation of all the colleges created tensions between the top administrations of these universities and the Northern academics staff who favored a phased out approach and a clearer vision about their future in relation to South Sudan referendum vote outcome which has come out overwhelmingly in favor of independence. The academic staff from the North had complained about inadequacy of accommodation provisions for them and their families in the South, thus justifying their call for finding alternative solution for their future from their government. Recent decision by the Chairman of University of Juba Council to relief all Northern Sudanese deans from their positions helped only to reinforce the belief amongst North Sudanese academics that they will not fare in South Sudan universities on the same footing as their Southern Sudanese colleagues.

In this author's view, it is not too late for South Sudan government to review their current hands-off policy on higher education during the transition to independence. For example, it can negotiate to own or have stake in the new entity being established in Khartoum North. This is because if the mountain does not come to the wise, the wise should go to the mountain, to paraphrase an old adage.

Promises and More Promises in the Land of Great Promises
Against this backdrop, the new Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the government of South Sudan organized a two-day conference between 18 and 19 February 2011 in order to discuss the challenges and recommend solutions. The conference was attended by the vice chancellors of 8 public Southern universities and the minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the federal government. According to the reports given by the vice chancellors, South Sudan universities suffer from acute lack of infrastructure, understaffing, lack of adequate funding, and high dependency on academic staff from the North. In order to close the huge resource deficit and staffing, and make a significant impact, the federal minister of Higher Education, Professor Peter Adwok Nyaba, estimates that the government of South Sudan needs to pump large sums of money into higher education institutions that may be in the region of US $ 500 million.

The conference made a number of recommendations that were presented as a memo signed by vice chancellors of Southern Universities and handed to the President of the government of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit. The recommendations included the request for urgent release of impounded assets of Southern universities in Khartoum and Kosti, provision of urgent funds for infrastructure development, and financial support for newly instituted universities.

The conference was also informed about government's plans to set up Higher Education Council in South Sudan as well as South Sudan Research Council. There was also a mention of the plans to improve pay structure at Southern universities and to raise the level of funding in order to improve the quality of education in higher educational institutions and attract high qualified teaching staff. In addition, there are plans to set up legal framework and higher education bill that will regulate public and private institutions of higher education in the new country. As of time of writing, any real progress on this front is yet to be reported.

The vice chancellors of 5 operating universities in South Sudan are planning to reopen their universities in mid-May 2011. It is, however, unclear if the newly instituted universities will also begin admitting students any time soon as this depends on timely availability of resources such as academic staff, lecture halls, labs, and accommodation.

Concluding Remarks
While there is no reason to doubt the ability of the government of South Sudan to overcome some of the challenges enumerated above; given the time left until July, 9th 2011, and the fact that no visible progress is being made by these universities in areas such as acquisition of necessary finances for putting up the needed infrastructure, cast great shadows of uncertainty over the future of higher education in South Sudan. In addition to securing funding for building of the infrastructure, plans should be in place to fill in the gap that will be vacated when academic staff members from North Sudan pull out of Southern universities and setup their own university in the North.

It is also worth pointing out that when the future of higher education should have featured prominently in the frequent negotiations between the two ruling partners (SPLM and NCP) on post referendum arrangements on the same par as sharing of oil, Abyei, border demarcation, and Nile water; it is not even on the agenda and probably has never been the subject of discussion between the Sudan's ruling partners. High education is also not on the list of the 60 important issues identified for planning by South Sudan 2011 Taskforce Sub-Committee 3: Preparing the GOSS, under the chairmanship of Dr. Riek Machar, the Vice President of government of South Sudan.
It is possible that a vital barometer of a successful state has been overlooked, and hence has not received the attention it rightly deserves; yet this may come to catch up with the new Republic in a manner akin to that of a city whose dwellers knew about an impending tsunami and yet chose to do nothing to fend themselves from its destructive force.

Far from waiting for the storm to hit us unprepared, this situation demands an urgent action from our political system.

Challenges for an Independent South Sudan

2011-03-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

John A. Akec
South Sudanese at home and in the diaspora voted overwhelmingly in a referendum on January 9, 2011 to secede from the rest of Sudan. With the exception of a few violent incidents in the disputed Abyei region and areas along the North-South border, the voting process proceeded peacefully at polling stations across the country, debunking the dire predictions of chaos. The largely peaceful vote is a great achievement for the South Sudan Referendum Commission, Sudanese leaders in the North and South, and non-governmental and civil society organizations involved.

The quest for independence was fueled by the North’s economic and political marginalization of the South. This led to a North-South war that started in 1955, stopped temporarily between 1972 and 1982, resumed in 1983, and continued until the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) six years ago.

For many South Sudanese voters, a vote for secession is viewed as a means of unyoking northern political oppression. Secession is also perceived as a ticket to develop the South’s economy without relying on the North. The quest for the South’s economic independence, as well as political freedom implies that the government of a sovereign South Sudan should strive to deliver equitable economic development and offer political freedoms to its citizens in order to avoid the mistakes of the Khartoum government.

This is a tall order given the current indicators in South Sudan.

On the economic front, the baseline on which the government of an independent South Sudan will launch its developmental effort is grim, even by African standards. The region’s infrastructure—roads, bridges, and electricity—is poor or non-existent. South Sudan relies heavily on oil revenues. About 98 percent of the government of South Sudan’s income is derived from the sale of the South’s share of oil. Oil profits are currently divided between North and South. Other sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, are under-developed. Landlocked and with no productive industries of its own, South Sudan imports everything from Khartoum and Eastern Africa, while exporting nothing in return.

Economically, the current government of South Sudan, under the aegis of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), has squandered the opportunity to improve livelihoods in the five years leading up to the referendum.

An estimated US$7 billion in oil proceeds was spent in the last six years with little to show for it. Endemic corruption is to blame. To be fair, the government of South Sudan has established an anti-corruption commission. Led by Dr. Pauline Riak, an experienced Stanford-educated academic, the commission is yet to succeed in curbing corruption—partly due to its inability to prosecute perpetrators. Even with a mandate to prosecute, it would be difficult to detect and investigate incidents of corruption without the necessary institutional frameworks, systems and processes that allow corrupt practices to be identified and tracked down.

The ruling party, the SPLM, has dutifully supervised the implementation of the CPA protocols over the last six years, yet it does not have an articulated policy, strategy, and action plan to realize equitable economic development in South Sudan.

Regarding political freedoms, the government of South Sudan, currently dominated by the SPLM, would need to open up the democratic space, and create an inclusive government. It will have to convince various militia groups, some currently bearing arms against the government, to lay down their arms.

South Sudan’s population currently sits at 8.26 million, according to a December 2010 World Bank census. About 90 percent lives on less than one dollar per day, and 33 percent classified as chronically hungry. Only six percent has access to improved sanitation, 85 percent of adults are illiterate, and there is only one teacher for every 1,000 students. One in six mothers die during childbirth, and 135 out of 1,000 children die before the age of five.

The government of South Sudan will be faced with the task of improving on these dismal indicators. And if the past and present government's performances can provide any guide to the future, then the leaders of an independent South Sudan have a great challenge on their hands.

As the people of the South Sudan prepare for statehood, it seems the road to freedom will be a long painful one, littered with revolutionary slogans that are not backed by solid strategies, policies, and implementable action plans. The CPA bears testimony to the utility of a documented roadmap on which the stakeholders can fight and argue over implementation details.

As Malik Agar, a senior SPLM leader observed, the SPLM would need a 180-degree turn to improve scenarios in South Sudan. Even a 30-degree turn would still be better than the current directionless path to endemic poverty.

The SPLM, which is bound to dominate in an independent South Sudan, will need to look beyond the narrow fences of the party to the greater South Sudan in order to achieve the true dream of freedom, prosperity and happiness.

The Founding of Academics & Researchers Forum for Development

2011-02-24T14:37:00.001-08:00

The founding conference of Academics & Researchers Forum for Development took place in South Sudan Hotel in Juba, between 22nd and 23rd February 2011. The conference which was addressed by Dr Riek Machar Teny, the Vice President of South Sudan, agreed to take the above name and elected a 9-person committee to draft the constitution and complete the setting up of the organization. The provisional committee is to be chaired by John Apuruot Akec and includes Dr. Hakim Moi, Dr. Dhieu Mathok Wol, Dr. Alfred Lokuji, Dr. Lado Wani Kenyi, Dr. Kimo Aban Adiebo, Dr. Melha Rout Biel, Dr. Lebon Nelson, and Ms. Lily Akol Akol.

The Forum is an academics and researchers-led think tank and advocacy group for good governance, poverty reduction, and conflict prevention in South Sudan, and East African region. The Forum’s objects include:

o Promoting awareness and encouraging economic and socio-cultural studies and scholarship on contemporary issues confronting South Sudan people, their history, cultural heritage, social and political development and the way forward as a new born nation-state and country.

o Promoting public policy research, analysis and development in the areas of economic, civil and socio-cultural rights challenges to the development of South Sudanese state and society.

o Promoting mutually beneficial relationships (partnerships) with government, industry, civil society organizations and other cultural, research and academic institutions in South Sudan and abroad with similar aims and interest.

o Contributing to shaping of development agenda and identification of priorities

o Promoting the indigenization of development process

o Fostering a culture of intellectual innovation, creativity and knowledge generation among South Sudanese academics and researchers

o Contributing to professional and institutional capacity building

The conference was attended by representatives of media houses, NGOs and civil society organizations such as Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Norwegian Church Aid, and Justice Africa.

Dr. John A. Akec
Chairperson of Provisional Committee

2011-02-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

The founding conference of Academics & Researchers Forum for Development took place in South Sudan Hotel in Juba, between 22nd and 23rd February 2011. The conference which was addressed by Dr Riek Machar Teny, the Vice President of South Sudan, agreed to take the above name and elected a 9-person committee to draft the constitution and complete the setting up of the organization. The provisional committee is to be chaired by John Apuruot Akec and includes Dr. Hakim Moi, Dr. Dhieu Mathok Wol, Dr. Alfred Lokuji, Dr. Lado Wani Kenyi, Dr. Kimo Aban Adiebo, Dr. Melha Rout Biel, Dr. Lebon Nelson, and Ms. Lily Akol Akol.

The Forum is an academics and researchers-led think tank and advocacy group for good governance, poverty reduction, and conflict prevention in South Sudan, and East African region. The Forum’s objects include:

o Promoting awareness and encouraging economic and socio-cultural studies and scholarship on contemporary issues confronting South Sudan people, their history, cultural heritage, social and political development and the way forward as a new born nation-state and country.

o Promoting public policy research, analysis and development in the areas of economic, civil and socio-cultural rights challenges to the development of South Sudanese state and society.

o Promoting mutually beneficial relationships (partnerships) with government, industry, civil society organizations and other cultural, research and academic institutions in South Sudan and abroad with similar aims and interest.

o Contributing to shaping of development agenda and identification of priorities

o Promoting the indigenization of development process

o Fostering a culture of intellectual innovation, creativity and knowledge generation among South Sudanese academics and researchers

o Contributing to professional and institutional capacity building

The conference was attended by representative of media houses, NGOs and civil society organizations such as Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Norwegian Church Aid, and Justice Africa.

Dr. John A. Akec
Chairperson of Provisional Committee

South Sudan Referendum: The Count Down to Independence

2011-01-15T12:25:00.002-08:00

By John A. Akec

Juba, South Sudan

A Significant Event

Southern Sudanese call the 9th of January 2011 the day of deliverance. The US Secretary of the State, Hillary Clinton, described it as a 'ticking bomb'; the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Abul Geit, referred to it as the remaking of Sudan; President Barack Obama, during his address of the UN Security Council meeting in New York on 24 September, expressed similar sentiment when he said: "What happens in Sudan in the days ahead may decide whether a people who have endured too much war move towards peace or slip backwards into bloodshed."

Depending on how you look at it, this event is of immense significance to Sudan, and sometimes seems to mean different things to different people - in a way akin to the ten blind men guessing what an elephant looks like. Not surprising, given the far reaching implications the referendum outcome might entail for Sudan, Africa, and the Middle East.

In the last 7 days, South Sudanese at home and in the Diaspora went to polling stations in large numbers in order to cast their votes. The outcome of the January 9, 2011 referendum will determine whether or not the largest African nation will remain a unified country or split into two sovereign nations - one in the South and the other in the North.

The Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed on January 9, 2005 in the Kenyan town of Naivasha brought to an end a 22-year conflict that had cost two million South Sudanese lives. The agreement, which was internationally brokered under the leadership of the Bush administration, was also recognized by UNSC Resolution 1574.
A core CPA provision is that 6 years from the date of its signing, namely on January 9, 2011, South Sudanese vote in an internationally supervised referendum to either confirm the unity of Sudan or opt for independent sovereign state.

Writing in New York Times on the eve of South Sudan Referendum vote, President Barack Obama captured the significance of the event: "Not every generation is given the chance to turn the page on the past and write a new chapter in history. Yet today — after 50 years of civil wars that have killed two million people and turned millions more into refugees — this is the opportunity before the people of southern Sudan." (Barack Obama, In Sudan, an Election, and a Beginning, New York Times, 8 Jan 2011)

South Sudanese have not missed this rare opportunity to write a new page on Sudan's history. They poured into polling stations: young and old, healthy and sick, men and women, farmers and pastoralists, students and traders, professionals, politicians and organized forces. The atmosphere was that of harmony and civility across the country.

With exceptions of a few incidents in Abyei and areas close to the North-South border, things have worked out very smoothly at polling stations across the country in a way that has given a lie to the many dire predictions that thought voting was going to be accompanied by chaos. It is a great achievement to which South Sudan Referendum Commission, Sudanese leaders in both the South and the North, non-governmental and civil society organizations, and the international community can lay a legitimate claim.

In order to be valid, South Sudan Referendum Act 2009 requires a minimum turnout of 60 percent of the registered voters. This quorum was exceeded in the first three days of voting when 2,360,900 voted out of total 3,932,588registered. As of 14 January 2011, those who voted reached 3,081,000, or 86 percent of registered voters (break down: 75% in the South and 56% in the North).

As of 14 January the percentages of those who voted in 10 Southern States were as follows:
Upper Nile (88%), Jonglie (88%), Unity (81%), Warap (85%), Northern Bahr El Ghazal (88%), Western Bahr El Ghazal (83%), Lakes (73%), Western Equatoria (73%), Central Equatoria (82%), Eastern Equatoria (74%).
The number of complaints reached was 63 so far.

Referendum in Pictures

President of Government of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayaridt was first to cast his vote

115 year Old Rebeka Kadi casts her vote in Juba

A Business Women exercises her right to vote

Member of Armed Forces taking part in referendum

The Leader of South Sudan Legislative Assembly James Wani Iga Tours Polling Stations in Juba

President Jimmy Carter and President Thabo Mbeki Arrive Juba to Observe the Voting

The Men Responsible for Referendum Process (From Left: Justice Chan Reec and Prof Ibrahim Khalil)

Women of Juba Engagged in Micro-Business - Future Bright?

Referendum Outcome
South Sudanese will either confirm unity of the country or opt for independence. The result will not be out until mid February 2011. A vote for South Sudan's independence is highly likely. And if the vote is declared credible and fair and is accepted by all, South Sudan will join United Nations as its 193rd member. However, the new government of an independent South will not assume office until July 9th, 2011, according to Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement. President Omer EL Bashir visited Juba 2 weeks before voting and he declared that his government will be the first to recognize independence of the South (if that is the outcome) and will provide logistical, technical, and economic support for the new nation. So far, the leaders of National Congress Party (The dominant and ruling Northern party) have issued statements in which they regard the referendum to be credible and fair by international standards. After declaration of the results, the coalition partners: Sudan People's Liberation Movement and National Congress Party will embark on post referendum arrangement to resolve any outstdanding issues that include the future of Abyei, an oil rich border region inhabited by Dinka Ngok that was annexed to the North in 1905 by the British.

Historical Background and Timeline of Sudan Long

1947 Juba Conference
South Sudanese chiefs agree for the South to be part of independence Sudan provided Sudan adopts a federal system.

1955 Torit Mutiny
On 17th August 1955, Satarino Oliu, Emilio Tafeng, Ali Ghabtala and others from Equatorian Cop, rebelled in Torit in Southern Sudan and let to the killing of 261 northern Sudanese (including women and children), and 75 Southerners. The rebellion was sparked by an order to move the Equatorian Cop to the North in an atmosphere of great mistrust, a few months before Sudan declared its independence on first January 1956. The rebellion was considered by Sudan’s rulers as a mere security issue and believed they had crashed it at the bud.

January 1956
Sudan declared independence in parliament. South Sudanese voted in favour of Sudan independence from Britain and Egypt and were promised confederation. This was later dishonored.

1958-1964
General Ibrahim Aboud military dictator rules Sudan. He pursued a vigorous and repressive Islamisation and Arabisation programme for the South as a way of imposing unity (a sort of reverse colonization). In 1962 all Christian missionaries were expelled from the South.

1964-1969
Sudan second democratic era. Marked by continued repression of the South. Important events: Popular uprising against military dictatorship and its ousting on 21 October 1964. Round Table Conference to discuss the problem of the South (1965). South Sdanese called for right to self-determination. This was rejected by Northern parties. Round table collapsed. Assassination of William Deng Nhial (one of founders of South Sudan Liberation Movement and leader of Sudan African Nationalist Union - SANU) in 1967, many massacres in South Sudanese cities by Sudan army.

May 25, 1969
Second military coup led by General Jafar Mohamed Numeri against the civilian democratic rule. Numeri's May Regime was born that ruled Sudan with iron fist for 17 years (until April 1984 when it was toppled by popular uprising).

February 1972 to June 1983

Addis Ababa agreement signed by May Regime with South Sudan Liberation Movement (popularly known as Anya Nya). South Sudan gained autonomous government led in succession by Abel Alier (1972-78), Joseph Lagu (1978-79), Peter Jatkuoth (1979-80), Abel Alier (1980-81), Gismalla Rassas (1981-82) and Joseph James Tambura (1982-83).

1983
General Numerie abrogate Adis Ababa Agreement with the South in July 1983. Ended the autonomy and redivided power in the South into 3 regions accountable to Khartoum. Imposed Sharia Islamic Laws in September 1983 in whole Sudan.

May 16, 1983

Bor Mutiny led by former Anya officer, Major Kyerbino Kwanyin Bol followed by Ayod Mutiny in June 1983 led by William Nyuwan Beny.

Sudan People's Liberation Army/Sudan People's Liberation Movement was formed in Ethiopia led by Colonel Dr. John Garang de Mabior. It defined the Southern Problems as a Sudanese Problem whose roots are based in marginalization of peripheries by minority clique regime in Khartoum. It resolved to wage a protracted war for a united democratic and secular new Sudan.

1984
May Regime was toppled by popular uprising in April 1984. Third democratic era began. Sadiq El Mahadi became the elected prime minister of Sudan in 1986.

June 1989

Omer El Bashir Islamic Salvation Revolution toppled the civilian rule. Political parties banned.

1991 Nasir Declaration

August, SPLM split. Riek Machar and Lam Akol led the breakaway wing (later formed SPLA-United). The break away called for self-determination of the South as a solution to North-South war. They held talks with the Sudanese Salvation Regime in Frankfort in January 1992.

1992
SPLM conference in Chukudum resolved that self-determination will be part of its agenda.

1994 September
Nairobi Declaration of Principles signed. Acknowledged self-determination for people of South Sudan if need be. It formed the basis of Naivasha Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005.

1994 December
Asmara Declaration. Northern parties allied to SPLM accept the right to self-determination for South Sudan after giving unity a chance.

1997
Khartoum Peace Agreement (KPA) was signed between the government of Sudan and South Sudan Independent Movement (SSIM). Two years later SSIM splintered and KPA began to collapse.

1998
A famine devastated large parts of greater Bahr El Ghazal. The worst in its history.

2002

Machokos Protocol signed by Salva Kiir Mayardit and Government of Sudan representative. Recognised the right to self-determination of the people of South Sudan. Other protocols followed until November 2004. Cease fire declared.

2005

Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed on January 9, 2005. July 10, 2005, Dr John Garang De Mabior sworn in as First Vice President and President of Government of South Sudan. July 30, 2005, John Garang killed in helicopter crash on way from Uganda. Succeeded by Salva Kiir Mayardit.

2008

The Hague Arbitration Court ruled on Abei boundary on 22 July 2008.

2009
Sudan multiparty election conducted in April 2009. Results dominated by National Congress in the North and Sudan People Liberation Movement in the South.

2011

South Sudan Referendum takes place on 9th January 2011 and closed today 15th January 2011. Results will start to appear on 20th January 2011.

What impact will South secession have on Sudan neighbors, Africa and Middle East?
For Sudan, there is a widespread fear that a land of one million square miles will cease to be the largest African nation.

The secession vote may lead to formation of a hostile state in South Sudan that in turn works to undermine the North and pave the way for further disintegration of the country. Other regions in the West, East and North-South transition zone could decide to follow suit, as happened in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and previously in the Soviet Union. This view is prevalent among the northern Sudanese elite; it fears an international conspiracy, led by the US and its Zionist allies, to break up an Arab nation.

Others, however, particularly in the South, believe the independence of their region will end a half-century of irreconcilable differences over the political, social, cultural and religious orientation of Sudan, especially with regard to adopting a secular as opposed to an Islamic-theocratic constitution. Moreover, complete independence is seen as the only way South Sudan can rid itself of chronic political, cultural and socio-economic marginalization by the North.

A number of Sudan's neighbors, such as Chad, Ethiopia and Eritrea, shy away from openly endorsing secession of the South lest it provoke their erstwhile neighbor into supporting secessionist movements in their countries. Egypt fears that independence of South Sudan will strengthen the Nile basin countries that are pushing for review of the outmoded Nile water agreements that gave it and Sudan a lion's share. A new South Sudan may wish to use Nile waters for its economic development, making South Sudan's gain appear to count as a loss for Egypt. However, Egypt is striving to establish a good relationship with the new government in South Sudan in order to protect its interests. As for Uganda and Kenya, they see secession as the opening up of a new export market for their goods and services.

In the Arab world as a whole, many have committed to respect the choice of the people of South Sudan. Having been a witness to the signing of the peace agreement in 2005, the Arab League is not too vocal about the possible splitting up of Sudan. This is probably because many of its members have not recovered from the scars left by the polarization of public opinion surrounding Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent western-led Gulf wars that eventually resulted in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Therefore, it is unlikely that many Arab countries, some of which fear the influence of Sudan's Islamist movement, would shed tears over the South's secession. That many Arab countries have launched development initiatives for South Sudan bears witness to this hard reality

What does Independence Implies for the South?

South Sudan is one of the poorest spots on Earth. Its population ranges between 9 and 10 million of which 90 percent live on less than one dollar per day, 33 percent are classed as chronically hungry, only 6 percent have access to improved sanitation, 85 percent of adults don’t read or write, there is only 1 teacher for each 1000 students, 1 in 6 mothers dies during childbirth, and 135 out of 1000 children die before the age of five
What's more, 98 percent of government income comes from sale of its share of oil. The infrastructure (roads, bridges, and electricity) is poor or nil. Landlocked and with no productive industries of its own, South Sudan imports everything from the Northern and East Africa, while exporting nothing in return.

The government of South Sudan will therefore be faced with the task of improving on these heart-wrenching indicators in a timely manner. At the moment, the ruling party in the South (SPLM) has been successful in supervising the implementation of CPA. It is, however, yet to show it [SPLM] got strategy for a comprehensive economic development of the South.

Hopefully, these young kids will not need to fight another war

South Sudan: Management Deficit is Affecting Service Delivery across most Sectors of Economy

2010-12-18T12:04:00.001-08:00

By John A. Akec

Good fighters? Yes. Good managers? No. Excellent work culture? No. These questions and the accompanying answers are what generally characterise the running of every institution in South Sudan these days, irrespective of whether or not the institutions concerned are public or private. There may be exceptions to the rule, though very rare and far between, and apply mostly to foreign owned businesses and international non-governmental organisations. For example, the GOSS ministry of internal affairs under Gier Chuang, has delivered impressive results in form of organisation, training, and equipping the police forces in Juba. This could also be said about the GOSS ministry of transport under Anthony Makana, and Ministry of Public Services under Awut Deng Achuil. That is not to say these are the only performing GOSS ministries because there may be many others whose performances may be hard to quantify because of nature of their mission.

Generally speaking, everywhere I go, I see countless ways in which things could be improved, and more often than not, they have not been. Examples include airports that charge customers service fees and yet have been unable to provide or maintain decent customers' washrooms nor introduced noticeable service improvements over the last five years; state capitals whose citizens and visitors continue to live and walk amongst the rubbish, year after year after year, despite the fact that setting up a sustainable and self-financing waste collection system for a city is straight forward; hotels that charge premium sums for VIP rooms which are poorly maintained and not carefully looked after to ensure usability and cleanliness; many ministries in the government of South Sudan that have been unable to deliver visible results pertaining to their mission and mandate; departmental units within ministries whose heads/directors continue to operate like generals without troops, namely ineffective and failing to produce visible outputs to stakeholders since taking up their roles.

Recently I watched an entrepreneur striving to deliver high demand services single-handedly. This entrepreneur runs a lucrative money transfer business in Sudan. His clients deposit money in one end and have them drawn by beneficiaries at the other end across the country. The service involves registering details of each client (name, phone number, and city or location of residence) for the incoming transfers and outgoing transfer, as well as answering the enquiries from customers wanting to catch their remittances and paying them accordingly. First time I visited the place, I saw two employees toiling away to serve a long queue of clients in their little office in Khartoum downtown.

In my most recent visit, I witnessed only one person was handling all the tasks simultaneously. The outcome was a congested office full of queues of disaffected customers. Many of those intending to transfer money had to give up and leave to attend to other matters. This clearly presents a lost income for the company concerned. I gave the entrepreneur one or two suggestions on how to speed up the process that would involve employing 3 additional persons: one to receive incoming calls, one to handle outgoing transfers, and one to pay out the remiitances to clients, while he himself attend to handling enquiries, and directing clients to the appropriate windows/persons. That said, I very much doubt if my proposal has been given the attention it deserves.

Management deficit and poor work culture, I reckon, are at the heart of under performance of many of our institutions and businesses. Apart from being the leaders of our departmental units, bank branches, companies, hotels, commissions, universities, ministries and states; we need to be good managers as well.

For this author, good management is the ability to set achievable goals and targets, mobilise the necessary material and human resources, and working hard to achieve them within defined time scale and budget. Every manager needs to be organiser, assessor, motivator, controller and communicator, to name but a few of indispensable traits of a successful manager.

To be organiser is to be able to design a workable system for the organisation (putting the right man and woman in the right place, clear mandate and purpose, set goals, availing of resources and support). To be an assessor is to be able to evaluate performance and identify what more needs doing. To be a motivator is to be able to make subordinates willingly carry out their allocated tasks to their best ability; to be a controller is to ensure that everyone in the department unit, organisation, commission, hotel, or ministry is working towards agreed goals within the mandate not so much to optimise their own output but the overall output of the department, organisation, commission, hotel, or ministry. To be a communicator is to let subordinates have the information they need in order to carry out tasks and to give them feedback (what they are doing well, and what needs improving).

Organisations (governmental and non-governmental) come in different sizes. Each serving a different sort of customer base or stakeholders, and hence no single type of management style or component presents a fit for all. What's more, organisations are not markedly different from hard engineering systems such aeroplanes and automobiles in which each component has an allocated role which is vital for the overall functioning of the system. Hence, their performance can be analysed using similar tools as used to design and analyse machine systems.

Training of employees to deliver quality service is a must. That alone is not enough without the use of trained or experienced managers. There must be in place means for the management to monitor the quality of service being provided or the goods being produced (whether tangible or intangible). Sometimes this may require nothing more than the manager in charge going around the facility (such as looking into the toilets in an airport lounge, or visiting a restaurant in a hotel from time to time in order to see and taste what is being served on the menu). In a more systematic case, it may involve randomly asking customers to fill in questionnaires asking them to express opinion on service received and suggest ways of improving it.

However, training of employees does not always need to involve attending courses, but could be as mundane as spending time at different branches to allow employees to pick up best practices and skills which they can bring back to their respective home branches. For example, employees of Hotel X in Bantiu can spend time working in Hotel X branch in Juba. Companies and organisations in South Sudan can also use management consultants and professors of management at our various universities to assess the performance of organisations and re-engineer their business processes in order to raise the quality of service delivery and improve organisational profitability and efficiency. Some organisations may even strive for mark of excellence in service delivery by seeking international recognition through the attainment of ISO 9000 standard certification.

In the final analysis, management is a vital administrative and planning tool that can be learnt in class room and perfected in the field. Hence, South Sudan businesses, organisations and institutions can only continue to ignore its importance at their own peril.

Let us be reminded that there is no such thing as underdeveloped economies, but what we often mistake for underdevelopment are the ramifications of prolonged under management across wide economic sectors of economy of a particular country.

Armed with knowledge of management and with determination to put it to good use, South Sudan can escape the curse of languishing in the backwaters of underdevelopment for longer than is deemed necessary.

Guided Democracy: Any Lessons from Rwanda?

2010-10-31T05:12:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

Several months ago, a friend kindly forwarded me an article by Sarah Boseley describing how Rwanda continues to thrive as a prosperous and a leading 'model' African nation, barely sixteen years after the genocide (Rwanda: Kagame stands firm. Rights? Yes, but put food on the table first, guardian.co.uk, May 28, 2010).

More often than not, prosperity is seen as a natural dividend of democratic governance, except that it cannot be said about Rwanda and other countries like South Korea, Singapore, Syria, and China, to count but a few.

As Sarah Boseley discovered, one does not go to Kigali to hunt for a model democratic idol in the same way the Britons don’t go to Scotland for sunshine:

"Democracy is good music but you need somebody with ears to listen to that music... Tell me about a family who spend the whole night looking at each other and wondering whether they will have something to eat. Are they thinking about anything else?" President Paul Kigame asks Sarah Boseley.

Kagame then questioned the wisdom of adopting the Westminster-type democracy as model for Rwanda.

Paul Kigame is not alone in this. Libya's Muamer El Gaddafi was once on record: "What Africans need is not democracy but schools, hospitals, and bore wells for clean drinking water."

This cynical view of democracy is reinforced by one definition of democracy from an African perspective, anonymously expressed tongue in cheek:

"Democracy is a Western luxury which a poor uneducated African cannot afford."

Rwandan economy is largely agrarian (employing 90% of population), a GDP per capita of $ 1,000 (based on purchasing power parity) and an economy growing at a rate 4.7% and which places Rwanda ahead of countries such as Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Democratic Republic of Congo with respective per capita of $ 200, $ 700, $ 900, $ 600, $ 300; while falling closely behind better off African nations such as Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, and Sudan with GDP per capita (purchasing power parity) of $ 1,300, $ 1,400, 1,600, and $ 2,300 respectively (CIA Facts Book, 2010).

All this achievement is against a backdrop of troubled history of ethnic violence and genocide in which nearly a third of Tutsi minority population of Rwanda lost their lives in 1994. This was followed by accusations of gross human rights violation by Tutsi's dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and its allies in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR) against native Congolese and dissident Hutus, and the pillage of DCR's resources in form of illegal mining of diamonds and Coltan (short for columbite-tantalite, a metallic ore used in manufacture of components of mobile phones and consumer electronics products).

This year, Rwanda's ranked in World Press Freedom Index as the third worst African country that oppresses freedom of press (169th) (ahead of Somalia, 161st ) and only beaten by Eritrea (178th) and Sudan (172nd). It got to this unenviable position through the closure of a major opposition newspaper, murder of Umuvugizi newspaper deputy editor, Jean-Leonard, and refusal to allow the registration of a political party and house arrest of its Hutu leader ahead of presidential election in August 2010.

And the fact that Paul Kagame (a Tutsi) was re-elected in August 2010 for a second seven-year term (2010 to 2017) by a large margin of 93% against his rivals in a country where Hutus form 84% of population and Tutsis 14% is itself an African miracle if the elections were truly free and fair. This huge margin could either be a good thing (an enlightened majority voting into the office a member of a minor group, an African and world's rarity); or a bad thing (an oppressive minority rule manipulating election outcomes for its own good, a more likely possibility).

While Kagame regime keeps the IMF, investors and donor community sweet, we know little about how the composition of Rwanda government is representative of its ethnic groups, especially how the majority Hutus are given a fair representation. Now, someone may ask: is it the foreigners alone who point out these issues?

Getting away from this microscopic view of Rwanda and focusing the at big picture of the impressive economic performance so far, and counting on the quasi-democratic countries such as Singapore and South Korea (that is, assuming that good standard of living for an average citizens is better than free talk for all), we wonder if this sort of model can work for Sudan or South Sudan.

Some of the questions we might like to ask may include the following:
Is a benevolent dictatorship with elements of democracy a
solid path to democracy?

Is there a form of democracy which is more appropriate for
Sudan than Western-type democracy?

As Kagame implies, is the strong president model of South Korea and Singapore a proper blend and better choice for Sudan? What about Obama's warning that Africa does not need strongmen but strong institutions?

Will it lead to democracy or will it lead to malevolent dictatorship?
How can the path be assured? What role can church play as a custodian of democracy and a voice for the voiceless within such setting? How could a strong church influence the path? In the past a strong church as not always been servant-leader
oriented.

We may also ask: what is important? To be allowed to express your opinion freely, vote for party of your choice? Or entrust all your rights to self-selected, self-righteous individuals?

Putting it in other way: why is Western type democracy not a fix for African political and governance needs bearing in mind, according to Winston Churchill, that "… democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried"?

Space will not allow to critically examine why there is a common belief (not amongst Africans alone but Europeans as well) that democracy is a European luxury which poor, largely uneducated African nations cannot afford. Here is a partial answer.

It took Europe centuries to develop democracy and embed its core values in its traditions and cultures by fighting hard against aristocracy, absolute monarchies, and church restrictions on freedom of thought. Much of democratic foundation in Europe and Americas is traceable to 17th and 18th Century Enlightenment Movement. This movement promoted the ideas of reason, freedom of thought, and democracy as central values of a [civilized] society on which the legitimacy and authority should be derived. Enlightenment was later defined by the German Philosopher, Immanuel Kant, as right to use one's own intelligence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment):

"Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another."

The importance of using human reason and intelligence is also reflected by Voltaire statement: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

In other words, if you believe what is nonsense, you will be engaged in very nonsensical activities or deeds. This is an inherent criticism of church's orthodoxy at the time which restricted freedom of religious thought thus harming scientific thoughts that attempted to explore big questions in relation to nature of God and the origin of universe (refer to works to Kepler, Galileo, Isaac Newton and others).

The effect of Enlightenment Movement, among others was the call for enlightened reorganization of the society (through collectively agreed laws and regulations, for example). This is what we might describe in today's jargon as informed decision-making, the rule of law, and knowledge economy.

If we have to understand why Western European democracy is unfit for Africa it is partly because the notion of democracy is far deeper than the superficial notion that it is merely forming political parties and contesting free and fair elections.

If the voters lack conviction as to why they are voting for this party and not that party, and if it is nothing other than a well informed/enlightened choice, then democracy is highly compromised. In other words, if democracy has to succeed in Africa, and Sudan, it must be accompanied, if not preceded by Africa's own version of Enlightenment Movement.

However, enlightenment cannot come about without education and allowing the freedom of thought (or fighting for it). It also goes without saying that the reference to education in this context transcends the usual narrow meaning of ability to read and write, and hold an academic qualification in a specialised field, but to also encompass what Mosses Mendelssohn (a Jewish philosopher) described as education in ability to use reason [fruitfully].

To help us further in our understanding of enlightenment's role in democratic practice, one may refer to Henry Louis Mencken, an influential American Journalist fiction writer in 1920's who defined of democracy as "…the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

Add to it, the Aristotelian view of democracy as the system of government that empowers the poor more than the rich because the poor in any society are the majority and that the will of the majority must prevail.

Now in Sudan and Africa in general, the majority of the citizens are not just poor, but uneducated. This squares the vicious circle: the self-selected ruling elite will have no way of influencing things should they follow the principle of majority rule. The elite therefore must craft other clever means (including use of force and subversion of justice) in order to control political power while providing the masses with what they need most – food and clean drinking water. This, in my opinion, is core strategy of the guided democracy – some of which may lead to birth of benevolent dictatorship and others to malevolent dictatorship.

The Singaporean version of guided democracy, which is the model that aspires Paul Kagame (as it one time did aspire Isaias Afewerki in his early years in power) has ensured that People's Action Party (PAP) dominated by ethnic Chinese controls the power since 1959 to this date. This was achieved not just by controlling the media (by closing down independent newspapers and radios) but by also by controlling the electoral process and erecting social systems (such as housing) and administrative structures that make it impossible for other minority groups such as Malay, Indians, or Eurasians to form their own viable parties.

In this context, elections and other democratic institutions (such as parliaments) are merely means to obtain legitimacy. Unlike other guided democracies, PAP uses legal action to persecute its opposition, as opposed to locking up of opposition figures by security forces as happens in Rwanda (this was perhaps why the move to prosecute South Africa Zuma's ahead of presidential elections led to accusations of election manipulation and abuse of power against the sitting former president, Thabo Mbeki, which subsequently led to his impeachment).

Back to Rwanda's model, we do not fail to notice that Paul Kagame's regime suffers from Wolf-preacher syndrome that afflicts all quasi-democratic systems: in one moment the leader is preaching democracy and in the next moment he is a roaring lion ready to devour anyone who tries to practice democracy. For instance, compare the earlier views by Kigame about democracy and an excerpt from his foreword on his party website (http://www.rpfinkotanyi.org/foreword):

"We struggle for democracy because we have no doubt that it is the only proven method of good leadership that gives citizens say in their own affairs and enables them to participate in the governance of their country. It gives them an opportunity to elect leaders of their choice, to check on their performance and to participate in decision-making."

His actions, though, say he believes none of all he has just said.

Thus, while agreeing that Western European model lacks the supportive environment in which to thrive in Africa (such as an enlightened society that enthrones values of reason, free speech, rationalism, and informed-decision making at individual and collective level), it is also hard to accept the Wolf-preacher model of Singapore, Syria, Rwanda and the likes. Each nation must therefore create its own conditions for its own version of democracy to in order thrive. Moreover, we must bear in mind that rarely can any nation this day and age find its way to the future without the interference by big business and the vested interests of the global powers.

The next question is how can we bring about an African version of enlightenment movement? This is a subject for an essay for another time. Suffice to say that the church should teach and encourage the citizens to practice those values on which democracy may rest (honesty, fairness, reason, accepting defeat etc); and that the political parties begin to practice what they preach: that is, apply the democratic principles within the party. Europe's Enlightenment Movement owes much to Freemasons in putting those principles in practice. The African Church, political parties, and civil society organisations can play the same role.

Are there signs that African Age of Enlightenment is about to materialise? Yes, there is plenty of evidence that such enlightenment movement is just around the corner, if it is not already here. When we become interested in ideas, it means we have caught the virus, so much for our own good.

To Confederate or not to Confederate is a Matter of Strategy

2010-09-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

Success in anything, in my view, is determined by getting our goals right from the outset and then adopting the best strategy we can muster in order to attain the goals. Get any of the two elements wrong, and we are doomed to failure.

Strategy is loosely defined as a means to a goal. It is not an end in itself. To get to a goal, one needs to devise a winning strategy and then employ best feasible tactics that operationalize the planned strategy. Oftentimes, the uncanny fails to the see the distinction between strategy, tactics, and goal. Tragically still, mistaking a strategy for a goal or deploying the wrong strategy to pursue a goal is still very commonplace.

This partly explains the recent negative reaction in quite significant quarters in South Sudan to the proposal by a number of political commentators and later AU mediators that SPLM and NCP should consider tabling confederation as one of post referendum options in the bipartisan negotiations on post-referendum arrangements. According to such misconceived views, confederation equals unity and therefore equals bondage. And in the like manner, they try to make us believe that secession equals freedom. And this, in essence is confusing a strategy with the goal.

Those who know the history of the struggle of the people of South Sudan will recall how hundreds of combatants needlessly lost their lives when fight broke out in 1983 in Bilpham in Ethiopia between the forces of "separation" and forces of "unity" in the SPLM and Anya Nya II, as we were told later. Looking back in retrospect, it should be abundantly clear that the bloody confrontation was really a power struggle dressed up in form of differences over goals and strategies.

So what is the goal of the struggle of people of South Sudan? The goal was and still is for South Sudanese to live in their own country as free citizens with equal rights and dignity as the rest of Sudanese. One of the quotations attributed to Fr. Saturnino Lohure, one of founders of Anya Movement in Southern Sudan, goes as follows:

" The South has no intention of separating from the North, for had that been the case nothing on earth would have prevented the demand for separation. The South will at any moment separate from the North if and when the North so decides, directly or indirectly, through political, social and economic subjection of the South" – 1958 speech in the occasion of opening of Sudan second Parliament.

Reading Fr. Saturnino correctly, I would like to argue that the goal of the struggle waged by the South is to achieve a reasonable level of political, social, and economic equality with North Sudan, and not secession as such. Secession is one of strategies adopted by the protracted struggle to achieve freedom.

Put in another way, the goal is to have a country where no one is discriminated against on the basis of religion, tribe, ethnicity, or social standing. The goal, in the words of Dr. John Garang, is to have Sudan "where no body is above me, and I am above nobody." And if I must borrow the Afro-American expression, it is basically a Sudan "where nobody is gona carry nobody!"

Give me such a Sudan, and I will see no reason to wage war on anyone nor do I see need for seeking to break away. This is not to say we have attained such a Sudan of equality.

While we may disagree and fight over the best strategies and tactics that will enable us to achieve our goal of being free citizens with full dignity; it remains that unity, separation, independence, confederation, and similar terminologies that fill our daily political vocabulary are nothing but means to an end: freedom. They are not goals in themselves. Some strategies are better than others. Some strategies are winning, others are self-defeating.

Believing that all political activists worth their salt and who currently fill our political scene are genuinely fighting to advance the noble cause of liberating ourselves from yoke of oppression, each according to how they perceive it, would it not be more constructive if we were to see our differences of opinion in the right perspective, as opposed to resorting to derogatory categorisations that are patronising as they wrongly portray the arguments as those of 'heroes' versus 'traitors'; 'mentally liberated versus mentally enslaved'; or light heartedly if you prefer: as 'monks versus demons'?

Such dichotomies are divisive and block all the avenues to creative thinking and constructive dialogue as we examine the post-referendum options which South Sudan can pursue if the outcome of scheduled referendum in 2011 is secession. This is because it is the most likely outcome, gauging the current mood of the South.

And because no two countries are exactly the same, every people must chart their way to a free future by crafting winning strategies that are drawn from their very unique geopolitical environment and the political landscape on which the battle for freedom is waged. Namely, the terrain determines the type of weaponry and ammunition deployed at the front.

And while we may agree that voting for secession is one of the smartest choices South Sudan can make in January 2011, we may differ over what course of action that follows the secession vote. And here is the departure from the conventional thinking.

For South to really protect its interests (economic, political, and social), it can enter into strategic partnership with the North in form of renewable confederation between two sovereign states. What falls under confederal government and what goes under sovereign will be the subject of further debate and deliberations, provided we all agree in principle that confederation following a successful secession vote is a smart strategy for the South. Some of my previous suggestions included a rotating presidency, fighting crime, monetary union, open border trade. The rights of citizens of the South and North include freedom of movement, settlement, ownership, and employment in the two sovereign states. Institutions of high education such as universities can also come under confederation for example in the next 10 years and be reviewed after 5 years.

One of great advantages of confederation is that it will allow for a smoother transition for the South to build its institutions on solid ground without the distractions of social and economic upheavals it may find itself in should it opt for immediate severing of all political and economic links with the North. It will also appease the unionists in the North and South as it leaves the door ajar for future reunification of Sudan on voluntary and new basis if and when the peoples of the two confedral states feel ready for it. While ceasing full control of its oil resources, South should render a good share of its oil revenues to the North (this is cheaper and smarter way than spending billions of dollars on expensive arm race in order to fight or scare the North!).

This article cannot close without pointing out that South Sudan, if it really aims to be free in the right sense of the word, should desist from temptation of paying the North, its perceived oppressor, with same coin. Such approach will blind the South from identifying its interests (or mutual interests with the North to be specific).

Besides, politics of hate and vendetta has never been and will never be the tools of a successful liberation struggle to which we all aspire. All successful liberation struggles do acknowledge and condemn the evils of the repression (past or current) without the slightest reservation, and fight to transform this oppressive reality into free and more humane future for all concerned without any exceptions.

This should be the guiding ideology for South Sudan in all its quests to redeem itself from current and past oppressive reality.

Angels and Devils: We Need Them Both

2010-09-01T08:26:00.001-07:00

By John A. Akec

A world which is conflict free, where everything is perfect, where everyone will not err or disagree with the Pope, where we will all tow the mainstream line (wherever it might lead, for better or for worst) will be a boring one indeed. In fact, it will cease to be called the world as we know it.

Have you wondered why God let the devil goes loose on the world? Why was Job so severely tested despite his faith in the living God? Would it not been nice if the entire world had same religion, same culture, same race, and same colour of the skin? Why are other rich and others poor? Why others are generous and some are mean?

I always wonder why South Sudanese shun diversity of opinion in politics? Is that part of our backwardness? And what are these guys who have always been on the side of truth (as they see it)? The conformist who never wrong footed any leader whether wrong or right? Those ideal citizens who who always paid their taxes in full to the last penny and never stole a cent from public purse, if we can find them, that is?! And what about the non-conformists who come when asked to go, and go when asked to come, and sit up when the instruction is to sit down and, shout when the time is to shut up? Could'nt we do without them telling us the speck in our eyes and us telling them of the plank in their eyes?

Tell me how you would define an angel if you have not seen the devil? How would you define faith in a world free of temptation? How would you define white without knowing what black is? How would know darkness if you have not been in the light? How would you define sufficiency if you had not experienced want?

I would like to say that diversity of opinion, fortunes, cultures, outlook, etc etc makes for a healthy world.

Yes, different opinions, different outlooks, different strategies of solving a difficult problem should be welcome. All this diversity is what makes our world an exciting place and make out of us a more tolerant, creative and prosperous society…

It is our ability to detect the room for improvement in anything (be that our pet project or what have you)that motivates us to look for ways to perfect it (we could never perfect anything, but we can make it more better).

Monks, we also need devils to check up our faith and help us clean our teeth! Angels and demons --- we need them both.

Just a thought.

Invitation to Dialogue: A Call for Renewable Confederation in Post 2011 Sudan

2010-06-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

"Where there is no vision, the people perish"
- Proverbs 29:18
"We do not know what will happen in January 2011." I have heard this statement repeatedly said by a considerable number of fellow South Sudanese who hold positions of significant prominence in the government. This comment is also fast becoming the default resignation answer given by most government bureaucrats when confronted with issues whose resolution would call for some amount of long term view that transcends January 2011 Sudan. This is when South Sudanese are going to vote to choose between remaining in united Sudan and opting for an independent sovereign country of their own. Many of us are guilty of this ambivalence. It is nothing short of burying heads in the sand. We are becoming a nation of 40 million ostriches (minus the children who know nothing of our perilous history). That is, no one wants to say the truth or face up to inescapable reality.

No matter how hard-sounding or how bitter this reality may taste, it unequivocally says that South Sudanese are going to overwhelmingly vote for independence in the referendum scheduled early next year. This is evident from many opinion polls.

Besides, there are countless grounds on which this prediction can be defended. That being the case, I would like to first acknowledge that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in Kenya in January 2005 was a great Sudanese achievement that stopped bloodshed caused by the Africa' longest and most deadly civil conflict; brought relative stability to the country; restored some rights to the aggrieved Sudanese parties/citizens in South Sudan, South Blue Nile, and Nuba Mountains; devolved power throughout the country; allowed Sudanese from different cultural and religious backgrounds to work as equals in close proximity for five years; and permitted a first multiparty election in 24 years to take place last April 2010, among others.

However, despite promising Sudanese with long awaited change of political system, making unity attractive for all the Sudanese, and transforming the country democratically, CPA has somewhat fallen short of achieving those ideals. With respect to democratic transformation, the multiparty elections could not be described as completely free or fair as the more resourced ruling parties (NCP and SPLM) emerged with the lion share; that a number of national security laws have not been repealed and continue to pose threat to basic freedoms and freedom of press and media.

With respect to making unity attractive, 5 years is too short a time to build trust between parties that have fought each other for over half a century, that old habits would typically die hard, and there bound to exist within the political establishment a considerable number of spoilers who are constantly dreaming up ways to undoing the positive progress brought about by the CPA in all aspects of our political life; that the huge socio-economic gaps between the North and South which resulted from half a century of political and cultural marginalisation and inequality could not be closed over night. And most important of all, the great majority of South Sudanese (including the most optimistic unionists) would not miss this opportunity to exercise the right for self-determination to choose between voluntary union and complete independence that is guaranteed and supported by the international community.

In this atmosphere of mistrust and uncertain future fraught with unquantifiable risks, the better option of the two choices is independence because it is the only option that can be peacefully reversed anytime the Sudanese feel they are ready to reunite under new voluntary terms. On the other hand, choosing unity and trying to opt out later is only possible through violence and use of force.

Voices in both the North and South Sudan have been calling for "good neighbourliness" in post 2011 Sudan. Yet nothing much has been articulated about how this good neighbourliness would look like, or what institutions need be formed to act as the custodians of this peaceful coexistence across the borders of the two Sudans that will soon emerge.

Egypt has expressed the need to allow a 10-year transition, while Eritrea and South Africa have called for the delay of the referendum to a later date. A new NGO with membership of artists, academics, and civil society organisations has been launched from University of Ahfad for Women to advocate for unity vote in the referendum. The dominant political parties, NCP and SPLM, have pledged to collaborate to make unity attractive. All these are well meant intentions, and yet are unlikely to do much to avert the independence vote, nor do they provide clear vision on the shape or model of good neighbourliness that will serve the interests of two parts of Sudan. The best we can say to describe the state of the affairs regarding the future of North-South relationships in post referendum era is 'chaotic and incoherent.' The lack of vision about North-South relations in post referendum period cannot go on indefinitely.

And in humble contribution to shaping of this vision, the writer of this article would like to invite all the Sudanese to air their views on feasibility of adopting confederation to manage the North-South relationship when South votes for independence.

According to this vision, both South and North will be free to organise their foreign policy, security, and economic planning as would happen for all sovereign states. The current council of states and national legislative assemblies will have their life extended (funded by Confederation to 4 years) and functions of certain national commissions will be modified to support confederal government. There will be a Northern Chamber, where Khartoum government can discuss issues concerning the North. The merits of a monetary union should be carefully studied and given a serious consideration in this debate. The management and sharing of comment assets and regulating trade should be managed by the confederation whose president rotates every 6 months between the South and North. Citizens from both Northern and Southern states will be free to move freely and enjoy the full rights of the citizenship (education, medical treatment, right to buy and sell property) in two Sudans. Both Sudans should device tariffs that will not put any side at disadvantage and maximise the accrued benefits for all. Fighting crime and managing security across the borders is carried by confederal government in collaboration with the two sovereign states. This confederal arrangement will constantly be improved and renewed every 4 years (equivalent to life of legislative assemblies) and the renewal should be voluntary (each side can opt out at the end of 4 years should it feel there are good reasons to quit).

The two sovereign will constantly strive to widen the circle of "common good" so that in not too distant future, all the boundaries and governments will be rendered artificial and irrelevant like it is happening between countries of European Union.

By giving this post referendum arrangement a trial, I am certain that if we do not hit the sky, we will hit the tree. In all cases, we all stand to gain.

South Sudan: Circumventing the curse of petro-wealth (Part 2) - The Norwegian Experience

2010-05-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

In the first installment of this article (The Citizen, Tuesday May 25, 2010, Vol. 5, Issue 144), the author contended that wealth generated through the extraction and export of petroleum resources is a double edged sword. On the one hand, it provides those countries with guaranteed income to use to fund vital infrastructural projects and other services such as provision of health and education services, and development of sources of clean drinking water. One the other hand, it has the potential of harming the long-term economic sustainability of the country that depends on oil revenues entirely to fund everything. It does so by killing innovation, creating a nation of wealth consumers as opposed to a nation of wealth and technology producers.

And because of usual rise in government expenditure that comes about as a result of unrealistic expectations, the government of an oil exporting country will be tempted to borrow heavily using its oil reserves as collateral. When things don’t work out as predicted, as they usually do when oil prices fall and the interest rates rise at the same time, the leadership (or rather the government) of the heavily indebted country finds itself unable to service the debt and hence falls prey to the whims of the powerful global lending institutions of the last resort such the IMF and the World Bank, and eventually looses control of its economic decision-making as they are forced by the lending institutions to cut back on public spending in order to service their debt as a condition for debt relief or condition for approval of further borrowing.

As a consequence of imposed conditions for borrowing, the countries concerned get impoverished and their economies begin to decline, thereby setting the scene for social and political upheavals. The list of countries that suffered this fate includes Ecuador, Indonesia, and Nigeria (where 80% of oil wealth currently benefits only 1% of the population) (refer to presentation by Kristine Kendel: Should Timor-Leste Go into Debt? Lessons from Oil-Export Dependent Countries; La'o Hamutuk Public Meeting, April 2010).

Enough of grandfather's scary bed-side fairy tales; tell us more about success stories; I can hear some of my readers say…

Fair enough. Here are some good stories - the experiences of Norway and those of a number of countries in MENA region (namely, Middle East and North Africa).

June 12th, 1968 was a landmark date for Norway and the world. On that day, a promising oil well was struck by Philips in the North Sea on the shores of Norway. More discoveries followed and shortly after, Norway made it into the list of oil exporting countries, where it currently ranks as world's top seventh oil exporting nation, with production rate hovering around 2.5 million barrel per day. While oil exports make up 50 percent of Norwegian exports, the income from oil forms just a little over 30 percent of the GDP. With a total GDP of $ 280 billion, Norway exports goods worth $ 122 billion, and imports goods worth $ 64 billion. This is a healthy balance of trade. Moreover, Norway's current account surplus stands at $ 54 billion (that is the net income that remains in the country). Unemployment was at 3.2 percent in 2009 during the global economic downturn.

Beside oil, Norway exports natural gas, electricity, wheat, potatoes, pork, barley, fish, beef, milk, metals, chemicals, textiles, pulp and paper products, and ship-building equipment, among others.

This is all well, but how Norway does it? All this is exposed in a book by Farouk Al-Kasim entitled " Managing Petroleum Resources: The Norwegian Model in a Broad Perspective", Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, UK, 2006.

The writer is an oil expert of Iraqi origin who was an insider, having spent 4 decades working for companies and government institutions involved with the development and management of oil resources in Norway. From what Al-Kasim wrote, it is apparent that there was no one single solution which could be seen as a panacea for all the challenges posed by sustainable exploitation of petroleum resources. Yet, most prominent in the Norwegian government strategy was the exercise of good governance in the management of petroleum resources throughout the three main stages of oil resource development: upstream and downstream operations, and utilization of oil windfalls (revenues).

Broadly speaking, the Norwegian government had set specific goals to be achieved through the pursuit of good governance at each of the three stages. In upstream stage (exploration, drilling, and transportation of crude oil), the goals included the establishment of policies that are in line with national economic and developmental plans and devising of the optimal policies for development of oil infrastructure, protection of environment and improving the operating efficiency in oil fields.

Second, the goals of downstream or value adding stage (refining of crude oil to produce fuel and other by-products), include identification of local and international markets and adoption of best approaches to marketing of petroleum products; formation of institutions responsible for supervision and marketing of the oil and its byproducts, use of oil and gas products for local consumption, creation of local industries that use oil products as raw materials, and creation of employment opportunities for Norwegians in oil sector and associated industries.

Finally, the goals of utilization of windfall include collection of data and carrying out of detailed and most truthful analysis of all the components of oil accounts to ensure that Norway is getting its legal entitlement of the income in order to safeguard the national interests (let us be reminded of the unsettling findings of Global Witness in regards to Sudan oil accounts); putting in place development plans that encompass all the economic and social sectors and utilization of parts of revenue to create industries and innovation companies that would benefit future generations; formation of special fund for implementation of sustainable development initiatives; and formation of a bigger reserve fund whose aim is to protect national economy against fluctuations in oil prices, or for use in emergencies and serving future generations.

Four decades on, the results are there for all to see. There are no records that anyone in Norway lives below poverty line and the country runs a mixed of free market economy and social welfare capitalism where the gaps between the rich and the poor are narrow. Today, almost all the income from oil is invested in external accounts where it generates interest.

Another bright example of what good management of oil resources can do is that a number of MENA (Middle East and North African) oil-exporting countries were able to use their reserve fund to absorb the shocks of global economic crisis of 2008-2009. These countries include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman, Libya, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. All with exception of Dubai were able to weather the world economic downturn successfully.

Overall, good management of petroleum resources in South Sudan would demand learning all the above lessons and avoiding bad ones. In particular, South Sudan must try to live within its means while making most of what it got and avoid the temptation of borrowing against untapped reserves as a means to speeding up the wheel of economic development. The enactment of necessary legislation is also a must.

And finally, let us be reminded that good intentions or good policies alone will not see the light of day by the way of implementation unless very capable cadres are recruited and trained in order to faithfully carry out this extreme national duty on our behalf.

South Sudan: Circumventing the curse of petro-wealth (Part 1)

2010-05-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

South Sudan already enjoys substantial autonomy in its decision-making even before the conduct of referendum scheduled for January 2011. And should its citizen opt for complete independence from the North, more responsibility will fall on its government to think of best ways to create a prosperous and stable new country.

In fact, it takes more proactive energy and creative planning to prepare for an independent South Sudan than it would require for existence within a united Sudan. A new nation may choose to begin where others had started; or start where others have ended. The advantage of the latter over the former is that successful modi operandi can be emulated, and bad ones avoided.

As any politician worth his salt would tell you, the goals of any national political system are to have a stable and peaceful country; where the citizens can easily access education and training opportunities; where clean drinking water is easily available and health services within reach; where great majority of the citizens can engage in rewarding and meaningful employment that is capable of providing their families with essential needs in terms of accommodation, food, and clothing; where people are free to do business, move from one place to another without any impediments, live in freedom from fear of persecution, enjoy freedom of thought, worship, and self-expression; where values of hard work and innovation are cultivated, cherished, and rewarded.

As is apparent, the goals of a political system are myriad and varied, so are the means and the strategies to attaining them. At the centre of strategies at disposal of any government are its economic policies. The economic policies of a nation attempt to answer some very fundamental questions: how to create wealth and how to distribute and spend it?

Countries with natural resources such diamond or oil are fortunate enough to have access to sources of easy money. At the face of it, it would seem like a huge economic advantage for these countries as their governments can utilize such income to build vital economic infrastructure, hire foreign labour, and buy know-how. Oil in particular is known as a lucrative income generator for the countries that have it.

However, oil is also known to harm long term sustainability of the economies that depend on it. It kills innovation at home, provides no incentive to collect taxes, ties government’s spending to fluctuating global prices of petroleum products, creates national parasitic industries that depend solely on governments hand out in form of subsidies or government orders at non-competitive prices in order to survive, turn the beneficiaries into consumers of wealth and know-how, as opposed to being producers of wealth and technology. It distorts rural economy that depends on agriculture, animal production, and husbandry.

Petro-wealth also creates unrealistic expectations while sharpening the urge to spend money without putting anything aside for the rainy day. Way back in 1960s, an Abu Dhabi’s shiekh, Shakhbut ibn Sultan, was concerned about the influence of new petro-wealth on the way of life of his people. Rather than allowed it to be spent, he decided to hide the money from oil proceeds under his bed and later relocated it to the bank when moth began to eat it, saying: "I am a Bedou (nomad). All my people are Bedou. We are accustomed to living with a camel or a goat in the desert. If we spend the money, it is going to ruin my people, and they are not going to like it." However, all the forces of vested interests ganged up against him, and he was consequently overthrown in 1966 (please refer to Daniel Pipes's article: The Curse of Oil Wealth, Middle East Forum, July 1981).

Modern-day political analysts view the action of Shikh Ibn Sultan, as progressive and far sighted. Unfortunately, he was up against the forces of short-sightedness and get-rich-quick that were far beyond his capability.

Today, the chances of an enlightened policy-making have never been so greater so that the nations led by the wise can do without gravitating towards the black-hole of dependency on petro-wealth from which it is going to be hard to emerge once suck into its bosom.

South Sudan is a living proof of what high dependency on oil revenues can do to an economy. In the last five years, establishing a system to collect taxes has been slow. Development of other means of income has not started. We imported everything from chicken, to tomato, to razor, to toilet rolls from Uganda and Kenya; and exported nothing to them. We sent our children to Uganda and Kenya for their education, and rushed there ourselves when not feeling well to buy the medical services from these countries or travel further afield in quest for medical treatment. 70% of South Sudan income was paid out as salaries in the public sector, while getting nothing back by the of way economic output.

We have become perfect consumers with immense talent to sink billions of dollars on intangible goods. Many of our folks, including one-time hard-working entrepreneurs, have abandoned their erstwhile vacations and flocked to Juba where they queued up at Ministry of Finance to gain access to free-money that is guaranteed once a paper-contract has been signed by the minister. The values of hard work and risk taking which is the core of any sustainable business and entrepreneurship have been binned.

For the last five years, great majority of government officials and top civil servants have taken expensive hotels as their permanent abode, paying a bill of $200 per night. There is almost a total dependence on foreigners in vital economic sectors that requires skills that can be easily acquired nationally yet remained beyond our reach. Easy money, easy goes.

In North Sudan, the deterioration of Gezira Scheme which once formed the backbone of Sudan economy is a living testimony to high dependence on oil revenue. Agriculture as a whole has been neglected since petro-dollars began to flow into the coffin of our central government. Central Sudan which used to be the high ground of development and progress is now falling behind the new areas in extreme North that have benefited from white elephant projects built by money borrowed against future oil income.

No doubt, we all recognise that we are digging a deep grave for our economy and our future as a viable nation by relying on oil which now forms more than 90% of our national income. That figure has to change by developing alternative sources such as agriculture and animal resources, and development of light manufacturing industries, communications and ICT sectors, and service and retail sectors. This should be in such a way as to increase government revenue in terms of corporation tax and personal income tax.

In order to promote and develop the above economic sectors, investment in education and training should be pursued with more vigor than it currently is. Doing so will cut down on the addictive dependency on imported labour, skills, and know-how. This will imply opening up vocational training centres across South Sudan, strengthening universities by pumping more money into the sector to improve living standards of the faculty and staff and to halt the increasing trends to leave education and migrate to NGOs and governmental sectors where pay is more lucrative; building laboratories, libraries, lecture halls, and funding research that will have direct socio-economic impact.

Part two of this article (next week) will look at how a minority of oil-producing countries have managed to successfully tame the evil of petro-wealth away from impacting their economies and their way of life.

To be continued.

Doleib Hill Crisis: The House of Celebrations and House of Funerals Cannot Live Next to Each Other

2010-05-11T03:03:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

“We must go back [in history] in order to go forward [to the future]” – Dr. John Garang de Mabior, Naivash, Kenya, 2005.

Big fires start small. Mishandling a disused match can create an inferno in a dry bush that goes on to engulf thousands of acres of land in deadly flames. This eventually puts many lives and property at risk some hundreds of miles away from the scene of the original incident. The history of our world is awash with countless examples from which the wise should learn priceless lessons so as to avoid creating perilous situations, needlessly out of teacup storms.

For instance, on 28 July 1914, Archduke Frank Ferdinand, heir to Austrian-Hungarian throne (composed by then of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia), and his wife Sophie Ferdinand were driving in their car from a town hall reception while on a formal visit to Sarajevo (in the modern day Yugoslavia); when a Serb nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, shot them dead at point blank range. Ferdinand assassination in Sarajevo set Europe on the road of diplomatic crisis that eventually let to the outbreak of World War I by the end of July of same year. The war lasted four years from 1914 to 1918 and claimed over 16 million lives and wounded 21 others across the world. A year later on (1919), the Treaty of Versailles was concluded that laid the blueprints for free Europe and peaceful world. And because some of signatories did not wholeheartedly embrace the resolutions of Treaty of Versailles, lessons of WW I were lost, and another deadly war, the World War II, had to be fought one more time from 1932 to 1945; leading to another 50 million civilian and 25 million soldiers' deaths.

In fact, we do not need to look farther afield than having a glance at our own backyard for lessons in history. On 17th August 1955, Satarino Oliu, Emilio Tafeng, Ali Ghabtala and others from Equatorian Cop, rebelled in Torit in Southern Sudan and let to the killing of 261 northern Sudanese (including women and children), and 75 Southerners. The rebellion was sparked by an order to move the Equatorian Cop to the North in an atmosphere of great mistrust, a few months before Sudan declared its independence on first January 1956. The rebellion was considered by Sudan’s rulers as a mere security issue and believed they had crashed it at the bud.

However, the Torit mutiny, as we can all testify, was the real mother of all other mutinies that followed in the South afterwards. The small fires (call them the off springs of Torit if you like) along the way included Akobo mutiny in 1974 led by surgeon Bol Kur; Wau Mutiny led by Captain Aguet in Feb 1976, and Bor Mutiny led by Major Kerybino Kuanyin Bol. These were small fires with that eventually let to catastrophic long term consequences to the nation and people caught in them.

Looking back in retrospect, these mutinies represented the tip of an iceberg, and the keys that turned the lock of the floodgate.

This is a rather windy introduction to the incident on 30th April 2010 in Doleib Hill military barrack in Upper Nile State, close to border with Jonglei State in Southern Sudan. It involved the exchange of gun fire between of SPLA forces, some of whom were said to be loyal to George Athor. A score of people were killed and others wounded. Implicated in the incident was the well regarded former SPLA high ranking officer, Maj. General George Athor Deng who was contesting gubernatorial seat for Jonglei State as an independent candidate, but was declared a loser by the National Election Commission. The military spoke person stated that the attack was unprovoked, and that it was instigated by Major General George Athor. On his part, General Athor denied direct involvement, but admitted that those involved were SPLA officers and soldiers who had resisted orders to arrest him. Claims and counter claims. What version should we believe?

Worryingly still, initial announcements to resolve the unfortunate conflict peacefully and amicably between George Athor and his supporters on one the hand, and the South Sudan government had come to a dead end. The conflict has escalated, and claimed more lives in recent days, while the diplomatic tone has begun to give way to hawkish language that will do nothing to alley our fears that we are being driven into the old beaten path from which we had emerged after concluding of Naivasha agreement in 2005. The spirit of Naivasha agreement ought to rebuke us by reminding us that war and violence are futile ways of settling any difference, large or small. The spirit of Naivash should guide us all, as individuals and as authorities.

Yes, the election conduct has left much to be desired. The playing field was not that leveled to all. Some parties had better resources than others. But regarding where we came from, it is a great achievement. And so, like many before me, I would like to warmly congratulate General Kiir Mayardit for his re-election. Congratulations also go to those who won. And for those who lost, let them remember that they will sill have another chance in future to win and to shine. Those who are not satisfied with the results should follow peaceful means to redress their complaints. Yet we must not tolerate the house of celebration to live side by side with the house of mourning. We would like all to celebrate in their own way.

Therefore, we cannot stand idle while this conflict spirals out of control. We must use peaceful means to resolve it. We must also address the root causes of the problem. The government of the day thought they crashed Torit Mutiny only to be proven wrong by the events of history. Major Aguet who rebelled in Wau after killing colleagues including General Emmanuel Abor Nhial was eventually tracked down in Central African Republic, brought back and executed. But did his executioners ask why he did it what he did? Or was Aguet’s mutiny the last? Of course, it was not the last. Numeri thought he crashed Bor Mutiny. Again the events that followed Bor Mutiny recounted a different tale.

The parties involved in this conflict (GOSS and General Athor and his colleagues) should resort to third parties to mediate and to uncover all facts behind this unfortunate incident. AU, friends of Sudan, Sudan peace partners, men and women of good will should intervene. Church leaders and leaders of civil society should raise their voices in respect to this developing situation for the good of the country. Let truth, justice, human rights, freedom for all, and reconciliation be our guide and our sole motivator while we seek acceptable resolution for Doleib Hill crisis.

We have a very rich experience by the way of what violence can bring on a nation. We have lost more than 2 million lives in civil conflict to fight for our freedom. The lessons and mistakes of the past (whether committed by us or by others) are for us to learn from in order to craft a brighter future for ourselves and for our children.

These invaluable lessons of history must not be thrown away.

Sudan Election Outcomes: Pointing Towards a de facto Two-Party State

2010-05-04T03:46:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec
Source of Photograph: EL Sahafa Daliy

Some things are predictable, others are not. Sudan elections results had defied our earlier analysis, irrespective of whether or not they were rigged or fair. For instance, we expected NCP to continue to dominate our political scene, albeit with a reduced majority (refer to my article: A Chink of Light for Democracy? Published by the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, 10 April, 2010; UK; http://www.iwpr.net/people/john-akec.

Instead, NCP got close to 90% of votes in the North. On the other hand, SPLM was expected to win elections in the South with a comfortable majority of between 70 and 75%. However, SPLM got over 80% of votes in the South.

What’s more, analysts expected both president Omer Al Bashir and vice president and president of Government of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, to win their seats. Overall, President Al Bashir got 68% (90% of which were obtained from the North), while GOSS President Salva Kiir got 93% of the votes in the South. This is not surprising, especially in regards to attaining win votes.

To sum up, the elections have seen both the Naivasha partners tighten their grip on power by increasing their mechanical majorities substantially.

Writing in the Citizen last week, the venerable Sudanese journalist and writer, Mahajoub Mohamed Saleh, wondered as to why many of the Sudan presidential candidates, apart from Omer Al Bashir and a few others, have failed to attain at least 15,000 votes which would be equivalent to the number of those who endorsed their candidacy. He asked if the presidential candidates’ endorsees have had a last minute change of mind when the real voting took place. Unconvinced by such a scenario, Majoub Saleh described the inconsistencies as puzzling. Many of us would be inclined to agree with this observation.

We also expected a number of independent candidates for gubernatorial positions to make it through. However, many of them failed, except one in Western Equatoria.

Initial counting showed a great threat being posed by SPLM independent candidates in Central Equatoria, Northern Bhal El Ghazal, Western Equatoria, and Unity Sates. It was noted that the independent candidate in Western Equatoria was involved in a neck to neck competition in which the incumbent Jemma Nunu was trailing behind the winning candidate, Jopseph Bokosoro, by just 6 percentage points. Many election watchers were taken by surprise when the results were announced and to see Nunu loose, while her counterparts in other states won in the 11th hour.

The architects of Nivasha agreement were wise in the way in which they rationed the power: 70% of positions in South Sudan for SPLM, 20% for NCP, and 10% for Southern parties; while at national level, 52% of positions in Federal government (both in the executive and legislative branches) went to NCP, 28% to SPLM, and 14% to other parties. That kind of balanced/rationed approach created a more democratic governance and oversight. It gave opposition a voice.

In order to find some answers to these election outcomes that gave the lion share to the two Naivasha partners, we need to turn to ‘science of election.’

Our understanding of elections is based on assumption that this is a kind of fair random dice. The truth is, it is more of a biased coin (two-faced, two-party duel), as opposed to six-faced dice, multiparty competition.

In fact, we may recall what Professor Hassan Maki, the well known Sudan political analyst, once described in El Sahafa newspaper, that what a political manifesto means in Sudan, saying it is really composed of 20% candidate’s charisma, 20% candidate’s tribal weight, 20% candidate’s financial muscle, and 15% due to the weight of the political party behind the candidate. This is now confirmed by these elections in which the most influential political parties (by the virtue of control of state apparatus, and large active membership) won by a wide margin. In other, words, what is in party’s manifesto is of no great consequence but is only a small proportion amongst many factors that voters depend on when choosing whom to vote into office.

Add to this, political theorists, like the French political scientist Maurice Duverger, argue that a first-past-the-post voting system ends up strengthening the top most powerful parties on the expense of other smaller parties. This is a system of voting in which the candidate that gets more votes in a constituency is declared a winner. This is the voting system that was followed in Sudan’s April elections. It is the same system being followed in US, Britain, Australia, and India. It is also called majoritarian system. Unlike the proportional voting system, which leads to a diversified multiparty government, Duverger’s Law maintains that experienced citizens regard smaller parties as unlikely to make significant difference in transforming their daily political reality, and therefore, bet on a stronger horse.

Interestingly still, the pollsters, especially in the Southern Sudan, were able to vote tactically. For example, one voter in Central Equatoria declared that her voting ‘mix’ was going to be composed of Salva Kiir (SPLM) for presidency of GOSS, Wani Iga (SPLM) for Southern Legislative Assembly, and Ladu Gore (Independent) for seat of the governor. This is a sort of intelligent voting in which they would like their vote to effective in terms of imparting bargaining power to one party with a reasonable weight.

It is also believed that a two-party state does strengthen the democratic practice by speeding up the democratic decision-making and increasing the bargaining power of the dominant party, which will otherwise would not be possible in a multiparty democracy in which no single party commands a significant majority.

It is also worth pointing out that in the event of Southern secession, two new single-party states will emerge from the ashes of Sudan’s fourth democratic era.

In the light of all this, the evolution of a true multiparty system in Sudan will have to wait longer than was initially advocated or hoped for.

Meet Al Khatim Adlan: The Voice of Freedom and Justice for All Sudan

2010-04-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

Figure 1 Al Khatim Adlan
I have no doubt that a great number of South Sudanese would be familiar with writings and political stands of Dr. Mansour Khalid, former Sudan foreign minister, member of SPLM political bureau, and currently, Sudan presidential advisor. As non-conformist that he is, Dr. Mansur Khalid is well known for his brutal criticism of the Northern political elites on whose shoulders he squarely put blame for Sudan’s destructive civil wars in South Sudan, and was the first high profile Northern Sudanese to join SPLM against the conventional wisdom of the time and stayed on course for two decades until Naivasha agreement was concluded, and only then did he return home in the company of Dr. John Garang to a great reception.

Similarly, many in my generation would have heard of, or read the works of late Mahmud Mohamed Taha, the founder of the Republican Movement, whose aims was to reform Islamic thought in Sudan in such away as to do away with militaristic tendencies of the popular Islamic movement, and to elevate the voice of reason, justice, and universal fraternity above voices of religious bigotry and doctrines of racial superiority.

Ustaz Mahmud Mohamed Taha, paid the ultimate price. He was executed in 1983 for opposing Numeri’s September Laws, by the very destructive forces he tried to withstand through peaceful and intellectual means. While a student in Gezira University in 1980’s, I was so impressed by the power of his teachings, and captivated by his deep sense of humanity (as revealed by his thoughts in his many writings) to the extent of confessing to my closest friends that if I were a Muslim, I would be a Republican.

In contrast, I suspect fewer or modest number of South Sudanese would be familiar with intellectual and political contributions of Al-Khatim Adlan (pictured above), and perhaps not many would be keen to find out who he was. For out of sight is out of mind. This, I have to admit, would be pure ignorance and real tragedy should the ideas and struggles of Al Khatim be eclipsed from our utmost attention, for one reason or another. Read on.

And so I would like to invite my readers to meet Al-Khatim Adlan (in case they never met him), and remind those who knew him and are in danger of forgetting him. Al Khatim is a political figure larger than life, an intellectual giant of immense prowess, humanist, and a great thinker. Al-Khatim tragically passed away while in exile in London on 23rd April 2005 at age of 55, barely three months after signing of Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). By his untimely death, Al Khatim left behind an unfinished business and great political void that will be hard to fill for many years to come.

Figure 2 AL Khatim Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development, KACE

This week, Al-Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development in Khartoum (KACE) (pictured above) is commemorating the fifth of anniversary of his death.

Al-Khatim Adlan is a persuasive and infectious political advocate of first rate. On his deathbed in Wood Green, not far from Palmers Green where I once lived in London, and on the eve of Thursday April 21 2005, precisely two days before he succumbed to his terminal pancreas cancer, Al Khatim wrote:
“Witness of me… and write about me…that I lived all my life spreading enlightenment and fighting superstition…and if I have only two days…or two hours…or two seconds to live, and if I am able within this span of time, I would spread enlightenment..”

In an article entitled “Peace in Sudan” dated January 5th 2005, four days before signing of Naivasha Peace Agreement, Al Khatim Adlan asked very deep and penetrating questions:
“Is it possible to achieve peace while keeping the ideology of war? Are we willing to face ourselves and organise our thoughts? Have we learned anything from our painful experience? Is it possible to bypass this experience without any analysis?” (Al Khatim Adlan, What is Exile and What is Home? Selected Essays, 2006).

He went on to persuade the Sudanese people to erect a more enduring peace by inviting them to embrace a culture of radical change, saying:
“Greats nations are not the ones that did not make mistakes…but those which learn from their mistakes and discover better ways…that is what the Athenians had done when they got rid of 30 tyrannical rulers and established a democracy….Great nations get rid of their internal contradictions and liberate themselves so that they no longer live in accordance to those contradictions… that is what the Americans did when they eliminated contradiction in their constitution between the freedom of individual and legitimacy of slavery…”

Figure 3 Dr Al Bagir Afif, Director of KACE

With a life full of struggle for justice, equality, and fairness, Al Khatim Adlan is by no means a shooting star that appeared suddenly in Sudan’s political skyline, and then disappeared at the same rate as he came; far from it.

In 1969, and as a member of Khartoum University Students Union (KUSU), Al Khatim initiated a fact finding mission that travelled to Wau and Juba in South Sudan to investigate the atrocities committed by Sudan army between 1965 and 1969. These atrocities included Malakia Massacre in Juba, and Wedding Massacre in Wau in 1967. On returning from their fact-finding mission, Al Khatim and colleagues including Abdon Agaw (the current general secretary of GOSS) conducted a press conference in Khartoum that was reported by all the major media outlets in which they exposed and condemned those atrocities. Not long after that, Al Khatim was imprisoned by May regime from 1971 and only emerged from his prison after the political uprising that toppled May regime in April 1985.

Reflecting on his stand on oppression of the South by the successive Northern regimes, Al Khatim wrote: “I have asked myself this question: Am I responsible for the atrocities meted against my people in South Sudan? Have I contributed in anyway to their bloody oppression? Have I done enough to defend them from where I am? I answered with clean conscience that I am completely clean- I have befriended South Sudanese boys and girls since a very young age, and I never felt being superior to them, although there were occasions when I felt many of them to far superior to me…and I never resented it because I have long overcome the illusions of racial superiority…” (What is Exile and What is Home?, pp 52).

Who is this Al Khatim then? And what was his real political affiliation apart from his fiery writings? You are bound to ask.

Al Khatim Adlan was born in Umdaka Al Jaleen village in Gezira in Central Sudan in 1948. He studied at Medani Secondary School and University of Khartoum Faculty of Arts where he majored in Philosophy. As a student in University of Khartoum he shone as a serious political activist, thinker, philosopher, and intellectual of the highest caliber.

At a very young age, Al Khatim joined Sudan Communist Party while he was in secondary school, and rose to be a member of its Central Committee. He was also a fierce advocate of voluntary unity amongst Sudanese based on universal values of equality that recognises Sudan’s religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity.

Al Khatim left Sudan and headed for UK to escape persecution in 1994 where he was reunited with his family in London. Having tried to initiate radical reforms within the Communist Party without success, Al-Khatim and a number of his colleagues resigned from the party in the same year. In 1996, he founded with others the Sudan New Democratic Forces Movement (HAQ).

He summarized his quitting the Communist Party saying: “I realized in the early 1990s how the Marxist project for social change had been proven wrong by history. I have not chosen to fall back on the 30 years I have spent serving that project. I was not paralyzed by fear to form or construct a new way of thinking, and create a new identity. I have not cared for what people will say, dead or living. I declared it to myself and then I went public. I went back to the roots of all our projects – the interests of the people and their right to live in dignity, peace and justice”

He is described by those who knew him closely as a faithful patriot, a true leader who fought on the side of oppressed, and who never walked away from a battle in the defense of the rights of the marinalised, but always willing to sacrifice his own life for the sake of the people, the nation, and his principles.

A great enthusiast of New Sudan project, Al Khatim wrote to Dr. John Garang after signing of Naivasha agreement “you Dr. John and SPLM/A are now living your finest hour. You have ushered into a new era of peace and reconciliation. Democratic governance, social justice, respect for human rights, and acknowledgement of diversity, have for the first time become achievable. [These] are exceptional achievements to which you can lay claim with full legitimacy.”

Dr. Al Bagir Afif (pictured above in his office at KACE), long time friend of Al Khatim, and Director and founder of KACE wrote of him “Al Khatim devoted his life to the powerless, he was not concerned with worldly pleasures of life. He came to life a poor person, and he passed away a poor person. Like them, he lived his short life in purity.”

His long suffering wife, Tissir Mustafa, making a telephone conference call to the gatherers at Al Khatim memorial evening last Friday, described him as “a loving person, a simple man.”

I wonder what would Al Khatim Adlan write or say about Sudan’s elections and what has become of Naivasha agreement and highly touted democratic transformation? I very much suspect he would have been disappointed.

The struggle for freedom goes on.

Is Salva Kiir Ready to Work with “Independent” Governors?

2010-04-13T02:11:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

It is not unusual for an independent candidate to operate as a sole backbencher in a law making body (that is, Legislative Assembly, as we call it in South Sudan). It is also not a big deal if the leadership of a ruling party with overwhelming majority, such as SPLM, chooses to ignore an independent lawmaker (MP).

However, it is totally a different matter if an independent candidate concerned was voted in as a governor of a state. If that is the case (having an independent candidate becoming an elected governor), it is going to be inevitable that some common understanding be reached between the independent candidate and the ruling party as soon as possible in order to facilitate the smooth running of the affairs of the concerned state.

In the event of these elections bringing in a number of SPLM independent candidates on gubernatorial seats (as it is very likely to occur in a number of states), it would call for immediate negotiations between SPLM leadership and the candidate to build bridges if the citizens of those states are not to be victimized (or rather, antagonized) by the government.

Yet, surprisingly enough, excommunicating independent governors from her party’s government support was what Dr. Anne Ito, the deputy SPLM Secretary General for South Sudan, was alluding to when she told an audience at a campaign trail (as reported last month by the Citizen) that: “If you vote in an independent candidate as a governor, that governor is not going to be supported by President Salva Kiir…”

Following this statement, we would also be obliged to wonder whether or not the SPLM leadership is going to mete out a similar, albeit unconstitutional, treatment on potential winning candidates of other political parties, or is this is going to be confined as a special punitive measure against those who rebelled within the SPLM and chose to go it alone against the wishes of the mother party? Were Madam Anne Ito serious, or was she just playing scare-mongering tactics to discourage pollsters from voting in independent candidates, which also qualifies as electoral blackmail?

I believe, by ‘support’, Anne Ito must have meant financial provision in the form of budgetary allocations for day to day running of the state bureaucracy as well as availing the resources necessary for successful execution of developmental projects that are going to be initiated by the winning SPLM independent governors in their respective states.

If such a position as expressed by Anne Ito is carried out to its logical conclusion, it would create political crisis of immense magnitude. Apart from being unconstitutional, it will antagonize whole states and classify some of states as pro-SPLM and others as anti-SPLM. And will find ourselves in similar situations where Palestinian Authority (headed by Fatah) controls the West Bank, while Hamas rules Gaza. The gravity may vary, but the picture is one of the same. And no one in their right senses would like to see this kind of situation played out on top of the many thorny issues South Sudan may already have to contend with at this juncture of our political history.

The situation of a party member rebelling against party’s selection outcome and going it alone is not entirely unique to South Sudan, or SPLM to be specific. I witnessed in the UK when Ken Livingstone, a long-serving Labour Party politician, refused to recognize the Electoral College selection process that favoured Frank Dobson (another erstwhile Labour Party member) and Livingstone contender for candidacy for London Mayor’s elections in 2000. Labeled as a left-winger in the Labour Party, the Labour Headquarter (the equivalent of SPLM PB) preferred Frank Dobson over Livingstone who won majority of member votes but lost what was described as “complex” Electoral College selection.

Livingstone argued that the selection process by Electoral College was flawed and possibly manipulated by Labour leadership; and that he was more popular than Frank Dobson, and stood a better chance winning. Notwithstanding, Labour leadership contended that Livingstone leave the race to Dobson. Failing that, they dismissed him from the Labour Party as he adamantly insisted to run as independent candidate. Elections were conducted and the Londoners voted in Ken Livingstone, while Frank Dobson (the preferred Labour candidate) and Steve Norris (the Conservative candidate) lost.

Under Livingstone’s mayor-ship, London continued to thrive as Europe’s leading financial capital, contrary to expressed fears that Livingstone (a left-winger) was going to drive business out of London. A creative leader that he is, Livingstone was responsible for many ground breaking initiatives such Congestion Charges in central London during working days, tolled motorway routes, exclusive bus lanes in London, and free bus passes for under-16s school children. In 2004, his membership was reinstated in the Labour party, and he ran the race for London Mayor as Labour candidate. That gave him a second term win.

The situation we have in South Sudan, especially in regards to SPLM independent candidates, is extremely similar; and Madam Anne Ito and the leadership of SPLM party need to take a leaf from it. Vocal and strong-headed Independent candidates of caliber of Alfred Ladu Gore, Joseph Bakosoro, Deng Aturjuong and others are likely to make it through to governorship seats in their respective states.

SPLM as a party has had many divisions over recent months. We have seen DC breaking away not long ago. Then we have independent candidates being disowned. Then most recently, there had been serious disagreements within SPLM political bureau (PB) on whether or not to join or to boycott all elections in the North. The disagreement which was manifested in form of a party speaking in different ‘tongues’ warns of a brewing factionalism within SPLM. So far, SPLM independent candidates have maintained that they are not leaving the party, while all of them support Salva Kiir candidacy.

Therefore, SPLM should have plan B of mending fences and welcoming their independent candidates back into the Party’s fold; and to work fruitfully with them to take the South through the final leg of CPA implementation.

Flexible politics is good politics.

South Sudan presidential candidates’ manifestos and the economy

2010-04-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

Over the last few weeks, I watched South Sudan Presidential candidates Salva Kiir Mayardit and Lam Akol Ajawin fighting back to back in the Citizen newspaper. I mean, their campaign teams have been hiring the back and front pages of the paper in order to divulge the content of their electoral manifestos. Lam Akol campaign advert occupies most of the front page, while Kiir Mayardit’s team hired the back page. This exercise in itself contributes positively to advancing the cause of democracy in South Sudan. Yes, change or reelection ought to be through the ballot as opposed to bullet.

Our two candidates are promising voters all kinds of agendas. For example, Salva Kiir, the incumbent president of government of South Sudan, is asking to be elected for good governance, reconciliation, freedom of expression and association, fighting corruption, national security and stability, empowerment of women, teachers’ training and universal education for all, reduction of infant mortality rate, commitment to the right of self-determination, promotion of traditional authority, promotion of multicultural, ethnically and religiously diverse society.

On the other hand, Lam Akol, Kiir’s sole challenger, is promising good governance, capacity building and transformation of SPLA into a professional army, reform of civil service, fighting corruption, modernization of agriculture, fighting the encroachment of desert by planting of trees, South-South reconciliation, protection of human rights, and adoption of sound economic policies, among others.

It has to be noted that what our presidential candidates are advocating for can be classified as general stuff. Much of it is common and there is little by the way of differentiation. In fact South, Sudan is in need of all these things like good governance, freedom of self-expression, security, education, health, food security, and clean water. It is also not surprising that their campaign teams would like to fill their candidates’ wish list with as many politically trendy catch phrases as they can muster.

Yet, shockingly enough, few of what the candidates advocate for would be taken seriously by the voters in South Sudan where literacy is only 15% compared to 65% in North Sudan. In other words, how nice their manifestos look, is unlikely to significantly impact on who will be voted in or who will be voted out. These things are more or less pre decided by other factors that bear tenuous relationship to election manifesto.

This bitter truth was echoed yesterday by Professor Hassan Maki, the renowned Sudanese political analyst and Vice Chancellor of African International University (based in Khartoum). In an interview with El Sahafa newspaper (a leading independent Sudan’s daily) on Sunday (4 April 2010), Prof. Maki commented on the insignificance of political manifesto as the determinant of voting a candidate into office in Sudan, and I quote:

“There is little weight attached to political manifesto in this election. It is all about sectarian, tribal, and racial tussles. In essence, what we describe as political manifesto is really comprised of 20% candidate’s charisma, 20% candidate’s tribal weight, 20% candidate’s financial muscle, and 15% due to the weight of the political party behind the candidate.”

That being the case, we still insist that election ought to be a battle ground for various visions that are intent to positively impact people’s quality of life by directing spending in targeted programmes such as education, health, and security.

One area of great interest to any nation is economy. Without good economic policies, all these promises will come to nothing. It is essentially about how to allocate scarce national resources to produce goods and services which people need. And also to create, spend, keep, and distribute national income in most optimal and satisfactory way.

Reading Salva Kiir’s campaign website, one notes that he promises to: “work to stimulate economic growth and create jobs; use oil revenues to fuel and develop agriculture as the main engine of development, as oil is a finite and non-renewable resource; transform subsistence economy into efficient, self-reliant economy; develop small and medium size industries through domestic and direct foreign investment; create opportunities for equal participation in trade, giving priority to the socially and economically disadvantaged groups in society such as youth, women and ex-combatants; provide an enabling environment for the Private Sector to flourish as a prime driver for job and wealth creation etc…“

On the economy, Lam Akol promised among other things to ensure just distribution of national income, creation of self-reliant economy, adoption of stringent fiscal and structural policies, control of government expenditure, control and auditing of public finances, exploitation of animal and fish resources, protection of wild life, opening of export markets, encouraging planting of trees, revision of banking polices, introduction of mechanized agriculture, rehabilitation old factories, and creating of new ones based the raw materials available in the locality.

It is all about economy and what needs doing. However, in my opinion, none of the presidential candidates has really diagnosed where they should concentrate their efforts. Yes, stamping out corruption will contribute to the improvement of economic performance. So far, this has been one of the hardest nuts to crack. An important issue that the next president would need to address would be to close the many loopholes in South Sudan economy that are responsible for massive unemployment and loss of our national wealth to neigbhouring countries.

One important area of economy that merits greatest attention is empowering local entrepreneurs who are loosing the market to foreigners (mainly Kenyans, Ugandans, Somalis, and Eritreans, and Ethiopians) due to lack of financing and dearth of entrepreneurial skills (which can be taught and cultivated if the government wants to do so). The other is employment of foreign skills in service sector such as catering, restaurants, hotels, and offices. While avoiding outlawing the employment of foreigners in these sectors, there ought to be policies in place to regulate the process of taking on foreign workers, while ensuring that local citizens have priority in employment.

For instance, foreign businesses housed in South Sudan must be asked to train and employ certain percentage (say 60%) of South Sudanese and to raise the level to 95% in a number of years as condition for granting them operating license. That way, many South Sudanese citizens will find employment, pay taxes, and lift their families out of poverty.

In order to provide skilled workforce to service sector, vocational education should be given great priority so as to make available a workforce with skills in plumbing, electrical wiring, auto mechanics, and construction.

Furthermore, South Sudan needs to start to implement strategies to create its manufacturing industrial base by sending on scholarships something between 50 and 100 bright young people from all over the South to go and train in management, marketing, and manufacturing technologies (in areas such as food processing, chemicals and textiles, plastics, building material, agro-chemicals, poultry, animal production and breeding, and so on). When they come back, they should receive government support to begin establishing our manufacturing base by pairing up with foreign investors.

Last but not least, South Sudan needs to take due dilligence to avoid falling victim to global financial piracy. We need to be aware that the third world countries are currently indebted to developed nations by an staggering sum of US$ 2.5 trillion (where Sudan share is US$ 43 billion). The indebted nations pay some US$ 375 billion annually to service this debt (measured at 2004 rate). This figure far exceeds the budget the indebted countries spend annually on education and health; and ten times the amount of funds received in foreign aid from the developed countries.

Most of these debts were engineered and did not achieve the goal of lifting those nations out of . Instead, it kept them in a system of dependency and bondage to global corporate interests. The would be president of government of South Sudan needs to carefully read John Perkins’ book: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, not to take it literally, but to learn something from it. No tongues in cheeks.

South Sudan Referendum: between readiness, securing civil divorce, and striving for marriage makeover afterwards

2010-03-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

A recent internet poll conducted this week by Sudan Tribune (which I believe is credible), asked readers to choose between independence, confederation, and unity. Those who chose independence were 59%, 32% selected confederation, and only 9% chose unity. I assume the majority of Sudanese readers who visit Sudan Tribune website come from South Sudan, because this site is a prime source of news and analysis on Sudan with English language as a medium of communication. Still, the likelihood that there could be a good mix of readership from all over Sudan cannot be dismissed. And interestingly enough, even if my vote was counted in the 59% who chose independence, I regard 32% in favour of confederation to have very significant implications for deciphering the Sudanese mind on issues of unity or independence for South Sudan.

And this is why. Other polls in the past that offered only two choices between unity and independence ended with more than 91% voting in favour of independence while only 9% favoured unity. What does all this tell us? It says an awful lot. It means a sizable number of South Sudanese do not regard independence to be the ideal solution to Sudan political ailments. Yet offered a choice between independence and being locked into an open-ended unity (for better or for worst), Southerners will rather secure the divorce certificate, and try a marriage makeover afterwards.

Independence has both its pros and cons. There is a price tag attached to any choice. Needless to point to those 2.5 million lives already paid just to get to where the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has brought us. The most obvious advantage of independence is being able to set one's own rules for living and to do things as one sees fit. Your own tent in which you have all freedom is a thousand times better than a decorated room in king's palace with so many constraints imposed on your freedom. Yet, going it alone too soon has its own perils. Missing the synergies of a shared house (pooling of resources with attendant economies of scale) is independence price worth noting. And the more "ready" we are, the less stressful the transition is going to be.

There are two components to readiness. One being the post-referendum arrangements between the North and South; and the other is the capacity of the independent South to stand on its own feet without being a burden to international community.

In terms of post-referendum arrangements, a report by !Enough Project released in March (entitled: Preparing for Two Sudans, March 2010) expressed concern about peace partners (the National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM)) giving too much attention to elections on the expense of implementing outstanding issues in the CPA, negotiating and agreeing on citizenship rights, post-referendum wealth-sharing, sharing of Sudan liabilities (national debt), and agreeing on policies that will regulate the movement of people between two parts of Sudan after January 2011. In January, 2010, the Government of South Sudan announced the formation of Referendum Task Force. Details of its membership have not been revealed. In February, 2010, the chair and deputy chair of Referendum Commission were appointed. With election now dominating everything, no visible progress will be seen in this respect until well into June 2010; by which time Sudan would be left with six months to referendum. !Enough reports urged international community (US, EU, AU, China, Egypt, Emirate, and other players) to step up pressure on peace partners to speed up the implementation of outstanding CPA provisions (North-South demarcation, residence status and citizenry in Abyei, and formation of Referendum Commission), and to come up with a consistent framework for negotiating post-referendum arrangements.

Church Leaders' Forum convened recently in Juba from 23rd to 26th March. The Forum was attended by 60 representatives of 14 churches inside and outside Sudan (including church leaders from Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda, and South Africa).

Inspired by a Bible verse from book of Micah (6:8): "Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God," the leaders resolved to "re-engage with burning issues of the day… and to roll out a new People to People Process of Dialogue…to engage with national and international bodies, and to increase [Church's] role in civic education, and monitoring of elections, popular consultation, and referendum…".

It is worth noting that the Church's voice has been relatively dimmed in recent years following the signing of CPA in 2005. Therefore, this re-engagement with pertinent issues facing Sudan at this juncture by the Church with its local, regional, and international dimension is a tremendous boost to the efforts being exerted by stakeholders to achieve a peaceful, just, and democratic transition for Sudan.

Regarding readiness of the South to govern itself, much concern has been expressed about the inability of the independent South to manage its own security in the face of spiralling ethnic violence. In 2009 alone, 2,500 people were killed and 35,000 others displaced by inter-tribal violence. Analysts see the situation worsening after independence that may undermine the viability of the newly born nation. Therefore, voices have been heard calling for delay of referendum until such time when the South has better capacity to run itself. Apart from outright rejection by the majority of people of South Sudan, one is bound to ask: how long is long enough until referendum?

A USAID report published in December 2009 does not advocate for delay of referendum as a relief to capacity problem, but recommended a robust intervention by the international community that is estimated at US$ 373 per year for ten years in form of financial and technical assistance, and social services at appropriate level of the government. The report estimates that South Sudan would need between 3,000 to 5,000 expatriates to beef up its capacity, based on USAID's past experience in countries in post-conflict reconstruction situations like Botswana, Mozambique, and Timor-Leste. That South Sudan will continue to need long term support of varying level and intensity for at least 20 years or more.

In conclusion, it is inevitable that South Sudan will vote for independence in January 2011 as predicted by many polls. Hopefully, doors will not be closed for future economic and political reunification of Sudan through mutual agreement. In short to medium term, the two new Sudan entities will continue to be interdependent to the extent that makes it absolutely necessary to cooperate fruitfully for their citizen's interests. That South Sudan can fail if not given a helping hand by international community is real. With so much needs identified and facts provided in hand, it is understandable that South is suffering from serious shortage of capacity and can do with robust intervention by the international community.

On South Sudan part, their government will need to be seen as doing the best with what it already got. By doing so, the South will be sending out a positive signal to the international community that will hopefully be willing to come to our rescue in the mid river.

Good leadership, prudent management of South Sudan scarce resources, and a helping hand by the international community will make the hugely challenging task to be within the grasp of the stakeholders.

Sudan's Elections: Teaching Elephants to Fly

2010-03-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

Most recently, I shared a table with a Sudanese diplomat in a social function in Juba. The EU-based diplomat was on special leave to enable him to join Salva Kiir's election campaign team. Learning that, all the eyes on the table turned on him. Quizzed as to what he thought about the impending elections, the diplomat was brutally honest: "It is the first time in history that a guerrilla movement is asked to practice democracy in so short a time", he said. I was quick to respond: "what about ANC in South Africa? Was it not a guerrilla movement like SPLM and yet did not have problem contesting elections and practicing democracy?" I asked.

The diplomat calmly explained that considering the baseline or the legacy SPLM is building on, especially where South Sudan was five years ago, to be asked to practice true democracy now is quite a tall order. Many heads on the table nodded in a reserved approval. I liked his honesty. And in a way, this election is really about teaching old elephants to fly. I will explain my sweeping statement.

For starter, the ruling parties themselves, Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM), and National Congress (NCP) are not inherently democratic by their very history. There is one big difference, though: SPLM has claimed all along that its main aim is to transform Sudan into a secular democratic state. Yet as a movement, it never practiced democracy. While fighting for democracy, the SPLM leaders, as read through their actions and occasional utterances, never believed democracy is an effective tool of decision-making when waging a liberation war. Alternative views or visions were never tolerated, let alone any form of criticism no how matter mild or constructive it may be. And this was one of the reasons for the many splits the movement suffered and still is stalked by it to this day. Yet, it does not stop SPLM supporters and Sudanese people from holding SPLM to ransom for its long advocated slogans.

NCP, too, has been fighting for an Islamic theocracy with no mention of democracy. And for two decades, NCP has thrived on repressive dictatorship. To have their way, they built torturing houses that have become popularised in Sudan's political vocabulary as "Ghost Houses". This is the baseline for the two ruling parties. None has a track record of democracy.

Outside the corridors of power, are some of Sudan political parties with a long history of contesting elections and practicing democracy at certain times since independence. As all know, Sudan has seen power changing hands many times between democratically elected governments and despotic military juntas, the NCP regime being the most repressive and yet most versatile dictatorship to rule in modern history of Sudan. Manned by a bunch of educated elites, they bend and twist without breaking in order to survive. Overall, Sudan has been under dictatorship more than it has been ruled by a democracy.

Democracy, therefore, if I may say, was a kind of heaven we longed for, yet never experienced in real life. Although war and oppression has pushed millions of Sudanese to seek refuge in democracies of Europe, North America, and Australia. This author spent nearly two decades in Britain and had only returned to Sudan two years ago, having experienced real democracy for 17 years in the UK. And speaking from this experience, democracy as such is not an unattainable utopia as we would like sometimes to think. It is not defect free either, but it is by far the most natural and humane alternative to despotism that Sudan and most of Middle East are accustomed to. The coming elections may attest to that.

Back to the point of this article, here we are asking giant elephants that never flied nor danced in their entire lives to do just that. We have two powerful ruling parties (SPLM and NCP) controlling both military and financial resources, and state machinery of the country; and we are asking them to contest democratic elections while creating a levelled playing field for all and protecting the rights of all.

European Union is sending 130 election monitors (56 of them already in the country), Carter Centre has already deployed 60 monitors, while the League of Arab States is planning to deploy 60 of its own monitors. Surrounded by ubiquitous means of transmitting information from mobile phone to internet, the pressure for all to ensure a "fair and free elections" has never been high.

Both the SPLM and NCP have assured the Sudanese that they are working hard towards fair and free elections. Like rats playing a game with cats, it could go ugly anytime when a rat gets on cat's sensitive nerve. That is exactly what happened when a group of youth formed NGO organisation in Khartoum calling themselves "Girivina", meaning "fed up", began to distribute leaflets calling for voting out of NCP regime and organising public rallies. Many of their members were arrested and tortured on charge of causing public disorder. No one believes the government's accusation. It is all about election heat getting to them, and stretching their patience beyond breaking point. And so the smiley Omer Al Bashir could in no time turned into an angry boar, causing all the rabbits in the election valley to disappear into holes, shaking with terror.

This is also true of SPLM in South Sudan. Having shown good faith by according the only other candidates for presidency of South Sudan, Dr. Lam Akol, the protection of the state security forces, and having issued guidelines on code of good practice, there are incidents that showed the party's intolerance to ideal of democracy such as competition and freedom of expression.

Lam Akol, the leader of SPLM Democratic Changed accused some of SPLA forces in Malakal of tearing down his party's posters and called for more discipline in the SPLA once elected. This generated an angry reaction from the army spokesperson General Kuol Diem, who called for the presidential candidate to "shut up" and avoid talking about SPLA. That in turn sparked public controversy about the constitutionality of asking a presidential candidate to shut up.

Also, in Unity State last week, there were clashes in the stadium between supporters of incumbent governor, Taban Deng Gai, and his independent contender, Angelina Riek Teny. Presidential candidate and incumbent President of South Sudan was in town to launch his electoral campaign. Seeing the clashes, Kiir flew back to Juba without addressing the rally, the attendants of which were united in Kiir's candidacy and that of Yasir Arman but disagreed on who should be elected as the next governor of Unity State.

In Western Equatoria state, there had been raids on the lodge of Joseph Bakosoro, the independent candidate for post of the governor. Cars were taken away by police and body guards arrested and later released. It was not clear who was behind this harassment but not too hard to form opinion as to who might be responsible for it. But within minutes of the incident, one of his supporters sent an urgent message to an internet discussion group, and quickly generated heated debate about the fairness and freedom of candidates for right to campaign without fear.

All in all, this election is putting Sudan's "test tube" democracy on trial. We can see that the parties are trying their best to rise to the challenge. It is a matter of weeks to see whether or not Sudan elephants have been taught to dance and fly.

Rats, Cats, Boats, and the President: Reflections on Salva Kiir’s Electoral Campaign Launch Speech

2010-03-16T00:34:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec
(Photos by Larco Lomayat)

I was in Juba when Government of South Sudan Presidential Candidate, Salva Kiir Mayardit, launched his election campaign trail in the town on February 24, 2010.

Many major roads were blocked by the police, which made it painful for motorists to find their way round the town. The sun was blazing hot like an open fire and was enough to scare off Jubans except the dedicated party’s activists who defied the searing heat and assemble en masse in the open space surrounding Dr. John Garang’s Mausoleum. I later learned that many SPLM activists drove from as far as Yei to participate in the launch.

The GOSS presidential hopeful and other party leaders fended under brightly decorated tents in the corner of the mausoleum. Police band music and the drums of traditional dancers mixed harmoniously in the background creating truly celebratory atmosphere. It was also apparent that the party’s as well as government’s resources were on high gear to support Kiir’s election campaign launch.

Fortunately for me, I observed the gathering from the distance before going off to do my other business. However, that night, I sat by the TV and watched the coverage of the event by South Sudan Television (SSTV). It included the full recording of Kiir's speech from the beginning to the end.

And as one might expect, Kiir’s speech contained phrases that acknowledged the historical role played by his party in bringing about a peaceful end to the 21-year conflict: “The SPLM, since its inception has consistently championed the cause of the marginalized people of the Sudan. The people’s movement has progressively liberated most rural parts of the South Sudan and other marginalized regions in the Sudan. SPLM remains systematic, consistent and vigilant to the full implementations of the CPA including the right to self determination, justice and equality for all”, he said.

There is much truth in the above statement as supported by an overwhelming consensus amongst South Sudanese that SPLM with its armed wing, the SPLA, spearheaded the struggle of people of the South and other marginalized areas of Sudan for freedom and equitable share of political power. That SPLM has done great good by successfully mobilizing the Sudan’s underdog for the first time in history to claim their rights on equal footing with the rest of the privileged areas of the country. As a result of SPLM struggle, there is a general opening up of political space to all Sudanese political forces (despite discrepancies between the political message of ruling parties and practice on the ground). The upcoming April the 10th multiparty election, first of its kind since 1986, is one such clear indicator of edging forward to a more democratic Sudan.

Yet, time is ripe to also acknowledge that SPLM alone could not have done it without the support and contribution by the Sudanese of all walks of life (be they from the South or the North, friends or foes, opposition or allies, directly or indirectly). This contribution made what appeared impossible to be possible.

For instance, the confrontations between the displaced Sudanese with rite police in the IDPs camps in the outskirts of Khartoum exposed the regimes ills to the world and generated immense international condemnation of the regime. Students’ peaceful resistance to NCP regime represents another important facet to this multi-front scramble for freedom and rebellion against totalitarianism of the Sudanese state.

It also goes without mention, the struggle of Sudanese Diaspora in North America, Europe, and Africa (the seventh front, according to John Garang), made huge difference. The cooperation between the Sudanese Diaspora, rights groups (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, CSI International), think tanks such as International Crisis Group, NGOs Against Oil in Sudan, Sudan Advocacy groups in US, have all played very important role in realizing a just peace in Sudan, among others. SPLM could not have succeeded without all these invaluable contributions.

What’s more, the solidarity of Northern Sudanese parties (the DUP, Uma, Sudan Communist Party and others), was also vital to survival of SPLM morally and materially, thanks to SPLM New Sudan ideology, that brought them on board.

Even SPLM’s arch enemies, the Anya Nya 2 and the splinter groups such as South Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM), had helped the movement find its compass in the maize of political quagmire of mid 80s and early 1990. That was the time when greed, ambition, and abuse of guerrilla power had had the better of SPLM leaders. Despite the setbacks caused by such splintering groups, they were a blessing in disguise. There was progress in human rights records in the movement. Self-determination was brought into the political vocabulary of SPLM for the first time after Nasir Rebellion in 1991.

All the above demands acknowledgment by the SPLM leadership. Such awareness will do much to moderate the current "winner-takes-all" doctrine that is being used by the ruling party in recruiting people in the government of South Sudan (GOSS).

This "make-and-eat your own cake" ideology is currently the "Berlin Wall" that still separates between those who took up arms to fight the injustice, and those who struggled through other peaceful means for freedom. And without breaking down this "Berlin Wall", mobilization of South Sudan human and intellectual capital will remain a myth. The long term consequences for the South will be grave.

And about the SPLM original vision, the presidential candidate reminded his listeners of being the key to future political and economic success of South Sudan: “Since the formation of the SPLM in 1983 I faithfully remained guided by its vision and mission. A Nation without an absolute vision shall face serious challenges especially in development. It is essential for any nation striving for peace, stability and prosperity which is inspired by a people’s-driven vision lead by a committed leader.”

While the SPLM vision of New Sudan had captured the imagination of great majority of Sudanese, realizing it on the ground has presented many challenges to the party. For instance, the call for a secular democratic Sudan has been undermined by party's inability to set up institutions that protects basic freedoms and rights for all. And hence, SPLA which should now be an independent army of the South is still in practical terms, an armed wing of SPLM.

Moreover, there is no clear economic vision to empower the countryside population and stop migration to urban areas. In fact, over the last five years, more and more people have immigrated to large towns such as Juba for search of jobs and opportunities. At the same time, foreign businesses have taken over almost all the business in South Sudan due to lack of government policy that supports Southern entrepreneurs or encourages foreign businesses to train and employ local workforce. In other words, the total commitment of Salva Kiir to the vision of his party is questionable in the absence of clear policies to achieve that vision.

Yes, we all agree that Kiir has been committed to pushing for the implementation of all clauses of CPA,. Yet his government has not delivered the expected socio-economic dividend that should be part and parcel of this equation.

Finally, I could not end this commentary without referring to an anecdote presented by President Salva Kiir in his launch speech. It ran something like this:

"The cat and the rat were crossing a river in a boat. The cat was the captain and was busy rowing the boat. The rat began to eat the basement of the boat. Water started leaking in. The cat noticed, and warned the rat to stop. The rat didn't head the warning and all begun to sink as predicted. Both the rat and the cat swam safely to the shore. Reaching the shore, the cat wanted to eat the rat to vent its anger. Fortunately, the rat escaped into a small hall. However, the two boat companions have been sworn enemies ever since."

So what do we make of this anecdote? Easy. The president is the cat. Kiir’ critics in the party and opposition are the rat(s). All those criticizing the performance of SPLM dominated government of South Sudan of which he is the commander in chief, are risking his reelection and jeopardize the support of rights to self-determination for the South for fear of giving birth to a failed-sate. And if he succeeds to be reelected despite all the criticism, his government will try to eradicate and marginalize the opposition or his party's critics. It is all good and well.

Whether such a hypothetical anecdote is going to help him or not in his bid to be the next President of South Sudan, remains to be seen. One thing is certain: it will do nothing to alley fears that under his leadership, South Sudan will be heading towards undemocratic, totalitarian system. One friend puts it like this: there is a great potential that when Kiir gets the capacity, he is going to resort to absolute rule to stay in power indefinitely.

Let me also add. It is quite certain that Salva Kiir Mayardit is going to be reelected as our next president despite our intense criticism of his running of GOSS. South Sudanese are doing this by using a kind of “filtering” principle: bad is better than worse, and worse is better than the worst.

When that happens, as already been predicted, President elect Salva Kiir Mayardit will be playing the Cat hunting down the Rats (that is, repressing the people and curtailing their basic freedoms).

Hence, I would advise that we, the Rats, better get prepared for this eventuality, tooth and nail, in order to hang the bell on the Cat's neck. And when we hear the Cat visiting our counties, we (the Rats) can flee to safety, in good time!

Finally, our thanks to President Kiir Mayardit for introducing new words into our political vocabulary: The cats (rulers), the rats (citizens), and the boat (the nation).

Lessons from Sun-Air Boeing 737 Carrying Sudan Presidential Advisor Involved in Near Mid-Air Collision during Landing in Khartoum Airport

2010-02-27T23:54:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

Source of Photo:

www.abudhabiairport.ae

On Friday 26 February 2010 I was in Juba International Airport when I waved a colleague off as he boarded Sun-Air Boeing 737. About 20 minutes or so later I watched the Boeing 737 speeding across the runway before taking off gracefully into sky with a banging roar of a distance thunder.

For less than half a minute I held my breath as the technological wonder, the Boeing 737, penetrated the clouds over East of Juba city; twisting as it went in North Easterly direction with its nose pointing upwards to avoid coming close to Jebel [Mount] Lado. I could not help but admire human ingenuity and fine engineering that has allowed man to navigate the treacherous skies with such confidence so that he can get to destinations thousands of miles away in matter of hours instead of days, months, even years.

Beside internet and mobile phone, aviation industry is one of the prime enablers of globalization. However, there is a flip side to it. Safety rules must be adhered to religiously by all concerned from passengers to pilots, from ground crew to flight engineers and air hostesses in order to continue to maintain high reliability required of air travel where accidents are rare but costly when they happen. This is easy said than done, especially in the third world countries like Sudan. And here is one scary tell-tale sign of poor safety in Sudan aviation services.

On following morning (Saturday 27th Feb 2010) the colleague whom I waved off at Juba International Airport phoned to inform me how close their flight on Friday came to the brink of disaster during the landing at Khartoum International Airport. As the Sun-Air Boeing 737 was about to land, he narrated, another plane was taking off. Realizing that, the pilot of Sun-Air Boeing 737 pulled up to avoid colliding with the plane that was taking off. He then quickly dived downwards to resume the aborted landing. As a result, the aircraft’s front underway carriage hid the ground before the back carriage. The pilot struggled to control the aircraft until it came to a standstill. The passengers were shocked and scared out of their wits.

Later on the day, the passengers learned that the pilot of Sun-Air Boeing 737 was instructed by the aviation control to delay landing for 10 minutes in order to allow another aircraft to take off on the same runway. However, according to this source, the pilot ignored the advice and attempted to land, narrowly missing coming into mid-air collision with the aircraft taking off. Instead of aborting the landing, the pilot resumed landing in the middle runway, almost loosing control. By these actions, the aircraft and passengers where exposed to a double risk.

On board the Boeing 737 was Dr. Mansur Khalid, a leading member of Sudan People Libration Movement and Sudan presidential advisor, and other notables including Khartoum University law professor, Akolda Mading Tier, who is also a member of National Election Commission.

At the time when international aviation safety experts have warned of treacherous African skies, Sudan has had a fair share of aviation disasters involving passenger planes in recent years.

On July 8th, 2003, Sudan Airways Flight 139 (Boeing 737-200) crashed in Port Sudan, with exception of a 2-year old, all 117 passengers on board died. On June 10th 2008 Sudan Airways Flight 109 (Airbus A310-324) crashed during landing in Khartoum International Airport. About 30 passengers died and 178 survived. It was on its way from Amman in Jordan. Bad weather was blamed. There were numerous accidents involving crash of cargo planes in 2008 that lead to dismissal of director of Aviation in Khartoum International Airport by presidential decree.

In South Sudan, South Sudan Air Connection Beechcraft 1900 crashed near Rumbek in the morning of 2 May 2008, killing 21 passengers including South Sudan defence minister and South Sudan presidential advisor.

Sudan internal aviation industry has expanded markedly in recent years as demand for air travel increased due to rising spending power attributable to oil-driven economic boom. The airliners currently operating in the East African country include: Sudan Airways (the ailing national carrier that has been privatized with barely noticeable improvement in operating performance), Air West, Azza Transport, Blue Bird Aviation, Dove Air Service, Feeder Air Line, Marsland Aviation, Mid Airline, Bentiu Air, Nova Airline, and Sun-Air, among others.

One significant problem with Sudan aviation industry is that many of the airliners own old and creaky aircrafts, many of which have origin in countries of the old Soviet Union. Security is lax in some smaller airports due to lack of x-ray and other scanning equipment. Moreover, passengers can carry as much hand luggage as they can muster, in contrast with recently internationally adopted limit of 2 (one of which should be a laptop).

On the positive side, the newly formed privately own carriers are serious to make money and hence try to be punctual, unlike Sudan Airways which is still dodged by problems of punctuality and arbitrary cancelation of flights. This has eroded passengers’ confidence in Sudan Airways despite being regarded as more safe.

Amongst airliners serving Juba are Marsland Aviation, Feeder Airline, Sudan Airways, and Sun Air. Marsland Aviation and Sun Air are close competitors, offering flights to and from Khartoum on a daily basis. The former (Marsland) is famed for economy and availability, but perceived by passengers as less safe because of its ailing aircrafts. UN personnel have been advised not to fly on Marsland. The latter (SUN Air) is known for higher quality aircrafts, tight punctuality, and higher fares. Because, it has relatively new equipment, those who can afford choose it for safety reasons. The latest incident involving Sun-Air on Friday will undermine this hardly earned safety image of Sun-Air.

Was the Sun-Air pilot being diligent or negligent? We can never know unless a thorough investigation is carried out and results made public. It is highly likely he was being careless and irresponsible, having decided to acquire the same attitude as motorists in the streets of Khartoum who are fond of cutting corners and flouting road traffic rules. Air aviation cannot afford this sort of lax attitude to aviation traffic rules. On the other hand, there could be serious problems with aviation control service in Khartoum International airport that has let to pilot’s confusion.

Whatever the reasons, this incident will do nothing to alley fears of Sudan poor aviation safety records. Aviation decisions-makers need to move quickly to close up the hole. And Juba government needs to be concerned in regards to these developments and take steps to investigate the incident to determine the cause of the confusion against the current aviation control practices in Khartoum International Airport.

For South Sudan, it is high time for the government of the autonomous region to come up with clear vision regarding the future of aviation industry in our region. How to create safe skies and attract investment to the sector must be a top priority of such a vision.

SPLM Independent Candidates (IDC's) add taste to what would have been a dull electioneering process

2010-02-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

Elections can be exciting only if they promise change for the better. It is very rare that citizens rush to any polls in order to maintain the status quo, especially given the glaring shortcomings of sort seen in the current government of South Sudan (GOSS). Any election whose outcomes can be predicted with certainty and precision is anything but interesting.

There is no doubt that there will be those amongst South Sudanese who would argue that “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know”- meaning we better cling to the disappointing status quo than trusting our future in the hands of candidates not blessed by the SPLM’s leading body. However, humanity would be condemned to backwaters of unbearable political stagnation if great majority of free nations were to subscribe to such a reactionary mantra.

Yet, paradoxically enough, the majority of candidates blessed by the SPLM political bureau (SPLM PB) are those who have supervised over a government that has delivered pitiful socio-economic dividend to South Sudan at a price of five. Namely, the patchy services the current government of South Sudan prides itself in are incomparable to the billions dollars of oil money spent and five years in the office. All things being equal, a different composition of the SPLM government could have delivered far better peace dividends given same resources, power, and time.

I believe many South Sudanese will view the current debate on the right of SPLM independent candidate to contest against the candidates that have been hand-picked by SPLM PB, through the lenses of giving people more opportunities to elect into power better change-makers than the narrow menu of “yes men and women” being offered by SPLM political bureau (PB).

There are 340 in total SPLM candidates contesting independently (IDCs), including 6 contesting for positions of governors in Upper Nile, Jonglie, Eastern Equatoria, Unity, Central Equatoria, and Northern Bhar El Ghazal States. In a move that made National Congress Party (NCP) looks more like a saint in tackling the issue of independent candidates in the party, SPLM PB met on 16 February in Juba and issued a brave statement declaring an automatic end of SPLM membership for all those candidates insisting on going it alone without the SPLM PB’s stamp of approval. A painful shot in the foot for the party’s ruling minority clique.

On their part, a leading SPLM independent candidate, Alfred Ladu Gore, and an advisor to President of Government of South Sudan on diplomatic affairs, described SPLM Secretary General, Pagan Amum, as a failure and demanded his resignation. And as the electoral campaign kicked off over South Sudan, many independent candidates have already reported incidents of harassment from the very government dominated by their own party.

In Northern Bhar El Ghazal, a rally organised by the independent candidate general Dau Aturjuong was dismantled by the police and security intelligence on the behest of governor Paul Malong Awan. In Bantiu, Angelina Teny rally was harassed by police and yet managed to address some 1,200 supporters who turned up at a stadium.

What we see taking place in SPLM is not new. The party historically has never embraced meritocracy as the main criterion for creating leaders in its ranks. More often than not, personal preferences, favouritism, and other hard to account for factors contributed to rise of many of current SPLM leaders to position of power. Independent thinking or pure individual competence have never been the main ladders to power positions in SPLM. In fact, independent thinking and individual competence had contributed to falling out of a very significant number of SPLM members with the leadership. Thus, the action of SPLM PB against party’s independent candidates is precisely to maintain the status quo: everything stays the same.

And as GOSS President Slava Kiir Mayardit campaign’s trail sets off today, the onlookers could hardly fail to notice that it was without his deputy, Dr. Riek Machar Teny. And without a shred of doubt, this election journey has started on a wrong footing for Salva Kiir Mayardit, given the controversy the selection process has already sparked, which is aggravated further by the repressive actions of police and security forces in South Sudan against independent candidates as well as against candidates of other political parties. Skeptics may view this as setting the scene for a likely “Karazaic election” in April in South Sudan. A bad prospect for a government to be borne out of such controversy.

Already, the incumbent SPLM government has lost many teeth to this early democratic exercise as party’s democratic credentials wear thin in the face of competition from within and from without. Indeed, it would be interesting to know how many teeth would be left at the end of this campaign trail, under the current SPLM PB stewardship.

In one way or the other, a political change is being set in motion, whether SPLM PB likes it or not. The independent candidates have added a sweet taste to what would have been a predictable and dull electioneering. They are a dim hope in dark skies of political stagnation.

Many SPLM faithfuls (and indeed South Sudanese citizens dreaming for a change of guards) are now pining hope on independent candidates (IDC's) to end the domination of SPLM PB by a self-serving clique.

Most likely, the IDC's will give SPLM PB a bleeding nose, and hopefully, bring about the long awaited change within the party.

Political Freedom in South Sudan is being repressed by “Invisible Hand”

2010-02-13T05:19:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

The little yet influential book of Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, should make a good reading for many South Sudanese during these testing times of count down to elections, if only to be reminded of its key theme: for some to be [free] is to be like oppressor. This time- tested premise by Freire speaks of the melanoma suffered by many of the former freedom fighters turned-rulers who emerge from years of struggle against oppression of man by man, and having internalized the oppressor’s consciousness, turn against their fellow men and women to dehumanize them and unleach on them the most attrocious acts of repression as a way of expressing their attainment of freedom. Namely, do the oppressor's job on his behalf.

Apart from the usual suspects, namely the men in the uniform, one would also count the apologists of the status quo in all their colours and guises. They, too, are caught between the choice of ejecting the oppressor’s image within or keeping him; between standing in solidarity with the oppressed to transform the oppressive reality, and alienating the oppressed to shut up; between rejecting the culture of silence, and embracing it; just to enumerate only a few of the dilemmas faced by the liberator in oppressor’s uniform as expounded in the book of the Brazilian educational philosopher, Paulo Friere.

Goodbye Freire, you have opened our eyes. We now know, and can tell where all this oppressive reality is originating from. Still we would like to admit that it is always murky for most of us. And the fear of freedom in our midst is real, alive, and kicking.

To get to the point, there have been many incidents of harassment of political activists, mainly from opposition parties, and journalists in South Sudan in the last few months. Most of these harassments are election-related. Cases in point were arrest of members of SPLM Democratic Change in Malakal and Yei. Reports on arbitrary arrests of members of South Sudan Democratic Forum (SSDF), and Unified Democratic Party (UDP); the rounding up, beating, and detention in Aweil of 13 supporters of SPLM independent candidate, Akuei Aturjuong. Their names were published in the Citizen newspaper, yet the governor Paul Malong Awan, whose candidacy for governorship is being challenged by Aturjong flatly denied the accusations. I believe those who did these acts did them in the name of patroitism, and nationalism. They did them out of sense of duty. Plain wrong.

Speaking in an interview with the Citizen (February 9, 2010), James Wani Iga, Deputy SPLM Chairman, and leader of South Sudan Legislative Assembly minimized the acts of arbitrary arrests reported in the press as “individual incidents that do not constitute a trend by the government.” He then sent a very soft message of assurance to the perpetrators by adding: “We have issued clear instructions to all the departments to allow all to practice political work in freedom without any intervention.” He could not give any information on the specific punitive measures being taken against these violators of human rights. One reckons this message is music in the ears of the repressors, and a nightmare redoubled for those on the receiving end.

As dominant and ruling political party in South Sudan, SPLM is finding itself playing the role of a judge, jury, and defendant at same time. And this is not working out very well. Having acquired an image of being the champion of basic freedoms at a national level, the party has been struggling to practice what it preaches in South Sudan where it has the upper hand.

And to prove Freire right, it seems SPLM has internalized the oppressor’s image, the NCP's. And so for a significant proportion of South Sudanese people, SPLM is the look-alike of the NCP in South Sudan. SPLM government is imitating many of NCP’s oppressive ways: repressing basic freedoms and denying the fact; financing and facilitating supportive demonstrations, and refusing or oppressing the dissenting protests.

If anyone is in doubt, let them recall the shooting of students and youth demonstrations in Yambio and Juba. Contrast that with those organised by SPLM party to mobilize moral support for GOSS in its fight against NCP. And so any anti-GOSS protest is criminalized. All pro-GOSS demonstrations are legalized. NCP invents. SPLM borrows. Under such circumistances, how can anyone tell who is who? Or who is what?

Therefore, these days you could recognize the voice of Dr. Nafi Ali Nafi in the person of SPLM Secretary General, Pagan Amum, in cajoling and threatening the independent candidates in his party. Dr. Nafi was quoted by the press saying that: "those who will defy the decision by the NCP leadership on choice of electoral candidates will suffer." Secretary General Pagan Amum threatened his party members with dismissal from the Party, before softening up under intense criticism by independent candidates and party's grassroot. There is one thing that escaped SPLM SG about South Sudanese: they have stronger democratic culture than North and can defy any attempt to replicate in the South the open repression that is practiced by NCP on the Northern Sudanese and anyone in Khartoum.

We will also count ourselves naïve if we believe that SPLM is going to grant us basic freedoms in a platter without being challenged to clean up its act. This would be true irrespective of whether or not we are members of SPLM, members of other parties, or neutral citizens; or whether or not we are supporters of SPLM, or its staunchest critics. We have to struggle hard in order to push back the invissible hand that is repressing us.

And for freedom to be truly authentic, it ought to be freedom for all. Here, there are no exceptions such as denying those whom we regard as less nationalistic than ourselves the platform to practice political freedom in order to advance their views and convictions. Doing so would be continuing to internalize the oppressor’s image and thereby undermining our claim of being democratic people, and therefore, fully human.

This noble quest for authentic freedom should commence by recognizing that we as SPLMers and non-SPLMers may linger within us the demons of oppression that need not only to be ejected, but be ejected and slain.

We can go about achieving this goal by spreading the culture of freedom amongst ourselves. One of the influential figures in laying the foundation to modern Western culture of free thought and expression was the French thinker and philosopher, Voltaire (real name Francois Marie Arouet), who is credited with a quote taken from a letter to one Monsieur l'abbé: “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I am ready to die to defend your right to say it. “

Hence, let us use the word freedom to mean freedom for us, freedom for others like us, and last but not least, freedom for others unlike us.

An Integrated Multipronged approach is needed in order to curb armed ethnic violence in South Sudan

2010-01-10T01:33:00.001-08:00

By John A. Akec

“Intelligence community had failed to connect the dots….That is not acceptable, and I will nor tolerate it”, said the disappointed Obama in the wake of the failed attempt by a Nigerian man, Umar Farouq Abdalmutallab, to blow up an American liner over the US city of Detroit on Christmas day last December 2009. In South Sudan, we could almost have uttered similar words when hit by calamities of ethnic and criminal violence, save the fact that we don’t have dots in hand to connect in order to curb the rising death toll caused by inter-tribal violence and cattle rustling that has claimed thousands of innocent lives in the last 5 years and continues to do so to this day. In other words, unlike Obama, we seem to be almost clueless.

This is much so because the government of South Sudan never articulated publicly what it could have done differently in order to stop the massacres that are becoming an everyday occurrence. And at the face of it, it looks as though there is no clear strategy and systems in place to handle the problem of insecurity in consistent, effective, and sustainable manner. Or so, I believe. I stand to be corrected.

There is, however, a consensus that a host of issues are responsible for the rising armed violence and death toll in the region. These include arms proliferation amongst communities, border disputes between neigbhouring communities, frictions over grazing lands and water resources, local political competition gone mad, cattle rustling linked to criminal activities, and (hardly mentioned) acute economic underdevelopment (mass unemployment and lack of nothing useful to do, for example). As a result, a recent UN report shows that the death toll in South Sudan in 2009 resulting from tribal violence has reached 2,500, and displaced 350,000 others. This figure far exceeds that of Darfur over the same period.

Weeks hardly pass without hearing of horrific news of such conflicts claiming more lives. And more often than not, civilians have turned their guns on SPLA forces whose role is supposed to be that of peace-keeping and protection of the citizens from law breakers. It appears the trust of the citizens on SPLA is also wearing thin. Such accidents raise more questions than it could be answered regarding management, training, deployment policies, and command line structures.

For instance, the most recent incident took place in Lakes State on January 1 2010 when pastoralists ambushed a truck carrying SPLA soldiers, killing 13 and wounding 20 others. The ambush followed similar clashes when SPLA forces shut dead a local man who, according to local sources, was not armed. SPLA sources claim the man was uncooperative with the force. We can never know the truth. What all agree on is that SPLA has been carrying out disarmament of civilians in Lakes States over recent months. But on this occasion, it went out of control to the extent that SPLA forces retaliated by burning down houses in Akot, the capital of Rumbek East County.

A few days ago Luac community in Warap State was attacked by cattle raiders believed to belong to Nuer community in Western Upper Nile State. About 140 unidentified people were killed and 4000 heads of cattle taken by the raiders. The high number of casualties puzzles many analysts as to the nature of the attack, whether the motive of the attackers was to get cattle or intended to commit massacre remains a mystery:

“I think what's happened in Warrap is no ordinary cattle raiding in the traditional sense as we know it…cattle raiding often targeted cattle not human lives as the ultimate price of the raid, and with a relatively a small number of defenders who resisted the attack getting killed in the process.”, said Dr. Hakim Moi of Association for Media Development in South Sudan (ADMISS).

However, Gordon Buoy, a former SPLA combatant and now SPLM political activist in North America, made a chilling observation: “Cattle raiders' fire power can kill 1000 people in a cattle camp. If you were a soldier before, you would agree that AK-47, PKM, RPG and Grenades can kill more than that.

I want people to acknowledge that motivation for fighting is important. The cattle raiders are more motivated than SPLA soldiers to fight because that is their livelihood. If they don't get the cattle, then they would not be able to provide food to their families”, Buoy concluded.

Dr. Luka Biong Deng, the minister for presidential affairs in the government of South Sudan was quoted by Miraya FM that “his government is exerting all efforts to end tribal conflicts in the region.” However, minister Deng could not elaborate on the sort of measures being taken by his government to end tribal violence. Such generalized statements by South Sudanese authorities is frequent and will do nothing to allay the fears of the concerned citizens that the situation is spinning out of control, and that their government lacks a comprehensive strategy for combating the rising inter-communal violence. Something must be done to arrest the continuing erosion of public and international community confidence in the government’s ability to maintain stability during the sensitive transition in post-referendum period in 2011.

The way I see it, the government of Southern Sudan might think that it has done all that it could to stop the violence. However, there is a plenty of room to do more. In fact, what the nascent Southern government has been doing so far is to quench fires, without looking deeply into the causes of rampant conflicts and factors that help fuel them so that it comes up with policies, strategies, and preventative measures and systems capable of stopping these conflicts in a sustainable fashion.

In short term, quenching of fires is necessary such as recent measures taken by Gier Chuong , the popular GOSS minister of Internal Affairs following Rumbek clashes between SPLA soldiers and locals in the new year day. These meaures included, among others, closing down of secret detention cells ran by the army, and shifiting responsibility of handling cases of cattle rustling to police.

However, in medium and long term, the government of South Sudan can seek the help of South Sudanese academic community. The government can do so in many ways: funding research into causes of conflicts, forming multidisciplinary task force to advise the government in forming new strategies for preventing and resolving ethnic conflicts, and funding think-tanks to carry out research and conduct strategic policy analysis on behalf of the government. Which way the government chooses to go, at the very least, such approach will help the government to deeply understand the causes of conflict (have the dots in hand) and then be able to interpret how these causes are intertwined (connect up the dots), and then form strategies, and multi-agency systems (with well defined roles) that will be successful in uprooting the tribal, political, and criminal violence in South Sudan.

And since it is certain that we are dealing with a dynamic problem that is going to be mobile and changing shape and form every time we rise to challenge it, one would expect the systems, strategies, and roles of multi-agencies to be the subject of continuous evaluation and improvement – all driven by the philosophy that there is no one solution that is a panacea to all our ethnic conflicts; rather there is going to be a repertoire of tools and solutions applicable to a large array of potential ethnic challenges, some more suited to certain types of conflict than others. For example, the repertoire may include economic, political, social, educational, and security measures that are applied in unison and in a coordinated fashion for them to be effective.

Those tasked with such responsibility would need to be competent and be scientifically and professionally orientated. Thus, unqualified political buddies, cronies, and party diehards need not apply.

The challenges posed by ethnic violence and criminal activity in South Sudan are grave and serious. However, they are not insurmountable as long as there is a political will to take the necessary measures and willingness by the government to put our resources where our mouth is.

A People's Sweet Conspiracy!

2009-12-30T23:44:00.001-08:00

John A. Akec

Pardon?
A people conspiring?
Indeed.

Such a thing exists!
An angry mob feeling despised,
Powerless and without dignity.
Mountains of wrongs unpunished,
Compounded iniquity.
Countless life lost,
No freedom in sight.
The guard robbing the guarded,
People can't manage a sigh.
Bruised and defaced,
Such has been their lot.
With a thousand kicks and beatings,
Left for dead!
Curved and bent,
Such has been their yoke.
Retreating for ever
A people in flight.
Crying in anguish,
Long has been their night.
But look!
Hands waving,
A sign of awakening!
Lips moving,
Uttering condemnation:
of Mountains of wrongs,
and Compounded iniquity.
Lips moving,
Singing songs
of Freedom,
Dignity,
Restoration,
Solidarity,
Oneness,
Destiny,
Accountability
Judgment!
There begins the march,
To dream land.
Where they own:
Power,
Dignity,
Rights,
Freedoms.
Masters of their destiny
Hasten O days,
of People's sweet conspiracy!

South Sudan: Averting joining the list of failed states is a tough job worth trying

2009-12-29T21:48:00.001-08:00

By John A. Akec

Recent report by Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG) cautioned of South Sudan becoming a failed state should South Sudanese vote for independence in the referendum scheduled for January 2011. Insecurity and potential for tribal fragmentation were amongst the reasons cited. South Sudanese political commentators, church leaders, and civil society groups had echoed similar sentiments in the past in one form or another.

However, the current South Sudan President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, disagrees with these commonly expressed sentiments. In a Christmas address to members of Presbyterian Church in Juba, Mr. Mayardit told the congregation: “I don’t think that is true…you are capable of managing yourselves.” And to be sure, comrade Salva Kiir is right. South Sudanese people, like any other people of the world, are capable of managing their own affairs. I could have said the same, if I were in his shoes. Except that, such a statement needs some backing up with more concrete evidence.

For one thing, it is not right if we were to hear of such sentiments and dismiss them out of hand without pausing for a moment to critically examine the reasons behind such pessimistic predictions in regards to the future of our young nation. We can do that without much ado if we firmly believe in prevention as a far better alternative to cure.

And without further ado, I would like us to look at the symptoms of the so-called failed state. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace defines a failed-state as a state that is characterized by a loss of control of its territory or loss of the monopoly on the legitimate use of force.
Some of these characteristics are said to include the lack of ability to make collective decisions, or inability to deliver public services. The warning signs that a state is headed for failure may be manifested in prevalence of black marketeering, the lack of capacity to collect taxes, or repeated episodes of large-scale civil disobedience.
British Department for International Trade defines a failed state as one that “cannot or will not deliver core functions to the majority of its people, including the poor.” These functions include functions necessary for poverty reduction such as territorial control, safety and security, capacity to manage public resources, delivery of basic services, and the ability to protect and support the ways in which the poorest people sustain themselves.
Social indicators of a failed state include: border disputes, lack of clear laws for ownership or occupancy of land, prevalence of environmental hazards, singling out of groups by the state authorities for marginalisation and repression, prevalence of communal violence and existence of unaddressed human right grievances, institutionalized political exclusion, flight or voluntary emigration of intellectuals and political dissidents.

The list of economic indicators encompasses group-based inequality, inequality in provision of education, jobs, and economic status, acute poverty levels, high infant mortality rates, failure of the state to pay salaries of government employees and armed forces or to meet other financial obligations to its citizens, such as pension payments, massive unemployment, and progressive economic decline.

Finally, political indicators include: endemic corruption or profiteering by ruling elites; resistance to transparency, accountability and political representation; widespread loss of popular confidence in state institutions and processes; failure to protect citizens from terrorism and violence and to provide essential services, such as health, education, sanitation, public transportation; use of the state apparatus for agencies that serve the ruling elites, such as the security forces, presidential staff, central bank, diplomatic service, customs and tax collection agencies; abuse of legal system and political power in many ways such as the harassment of the press, politicization of the judiciary, internal use of military for political ends, and public repression of political opponents; emergence of state-sponsored or state-supported private militias employed to terrorize and repress political opponents, suspected "enemies," as well as civilians seen to be sympathetic to the opposition.

As things stand, these indicators fit South Sudan like a glove. I expect the situation to get worst before it gets better. We have so many unresolved tribal conflicts. Whole communities have been single out for political and economic marginalization (even in Warap State, comrade Mayardit’s own backyard, in his full knowledge if not his blessing). We have failed to provide basic services to our citizens such as health, education, and clean drinking water. We have failed to protect citizens from economic and politically motivated criminality. Criminals have got away unscathed with their crimes due to incapacity of the authorities to investigate and detect the sources and perpetrators of crime. For too long, we have resisted enacting land laws to resolve land disputes. We have been reluctant to pass media laws to facilitate democratic transformation and establish free press that will help government and the public expose and fight corruption without fear. There has been high concentration of political power in the hands of unrepresentative few, leading to lack of collective decision-making. There is a wide spread insubordination: ministers refusing to execute presidential and legislative assembly orders (as exemplified in shelving of a number of Bills and refusal to carry out executive orders regarding appointments to some top civil service positions in GOSS). We have not been able to come up with clear vision for economic development. One could go to no end just to state the obvious.

Hence whether or not South Sudan is capable of managing its own affairs in case of a successful independence vote during and leading to 2011 will largely depend on what we (as rulers and the ruled) can collectively do to reverse the trend.

Something somewhere must change. It is a tough job, but a job that worth trying.

The question is what is it? Extraordinary situations demand extraordinary measures and making tough choices. Unfortunately, continuing to live in state of denial is not one of the options. Nor is the slow pace of taking vital political decisions that we have been accustomed to in the last 5 years.

Flashback: What's New in Era of Choice?

2009-12-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

Today, I looked with fresh mind at this article written more tha 3 years ago (and reposted below). I was in Diaspora then when I wrote it (very idealistic, even divorced from reality, perhaps). Or better, probably playing the role of an intellectual as a "creative liar" to borrow from Prof. Abdallah Ali Ibrahim of the Citizen newspaper.

There has been lots of reference to tea-man in my article. Yet, to my great shock now in retrospect, not a single reference to "tea-woman" was made. Sorry. For sure, since I got back home more than 2 years ago, I noticed that the "tea business" is dominated by women in both our capitals (Juba and Khartoum) and probably all over the country. The good thing is that they (the women) do offer better choice than the "tea-men" I knew when I was growing up in my native home town, Gogrial, which has been referenced in this article.

Forget about tea-man. This is about politics. Good politics ought to translate to more choice and plenty of life's sustaining needs such as cheap bread, clean water, good schools, and hospital, and freedom from fear of any sort.

Comrades Salva, Pagan, Yasir, and Malik (the list is very long as there are countless unsung heroes behind the scene) did put a fantastic fight against NCP this and last week. They deserve our applauses. We love them dearly, to bits, that is. What excellent fighters we have in them!

I wish Comrade Salva and his comrades can be as well the "good tea-men" or "tea-women" for that matter to give us better choices.

You see, in Britain they say, Labour is the Party of services. Conservatives is the Party of war. That explained why the Labour party lost elections to Churchill’s party, the Conservatives, when Hitler threatened to invade British Isles. Churchill won the war but lost the elections at the end of war. Labour came back to power, thankfully. They deliverd the NHS, the Britih answer to heallth system. Thus give to each according their ability. SPLM is the Party of war. No match.

Where is the party of Services?

I bet the answer lies within us all. Just a quick thought to share. The article below was my full thought on the the issue of choice. Looking forward to your comments.

John

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Saturday, October 28, 2006

The Era of Choice is here!

By John A. Akec

As school boy in my hometown of Gogrial in early seventies, I recall the time when many South Sudanese entrepreneurs had rushed to open up their own restaurants and teashops under small tukuls. The notion of having your own shop was unheard of then. Business was the preserve of Northern traders (or Jalaba). Little did we know that for the vast majority of Northern traders, the tanks in the army barracks gave them security. That situation changed overnight when Addis Ababa agreement was signed in 1972. The army and their tanks withdrew from the South except in large provincial capitals such as Wau, Juba, and Malakal. Even so, the new barracks were a mixture of brown-eared Northerner and blue-eared Southerners. Also, the police force got fully southrenised.

In short, it was a new order- that of freedom, choice, and opportunity. Many Northern traders packed and headed home. A few well-rooted individuals remained behind. It was an opportunity for the long deprived and marginalized Southerners to open their own businesses. Many of them did. Except that many of them not know how to care for their customers.

The brown-eared trader was out. The dark-eared trader was in. When the "tea-man" was asked: why there is too little sugar? Or why is my cup not filled to brim? The answer that frequently came back was: Take it or leave it! But as more teashops opened up, it became extremely easy to switch one tea-man for another. And quickly, our entrepreneurs learned to listen and do as the customer wanted.

A British entrepreneur Richards Branson, founder and majority shareholder in Virgin Trains says: "Customer complaint is a free market research!"Such civility as putting the customer in the driving seat will not come over night. It takes time. It is always a pain for me when I go out eating in London. When thought I have already made my choice of what to eat from the menu, the waiter comes back with more questions before accepting my order as a done deal: do you want it large, medium, or small? Would you like it with hot, medium, or mild chilli sauce? Would you prefer fried rice or boiled rice, white rice or brown rice? Or is it white bread or brown bread? White coffee or black coffee? It is an endless choice. But the secret is that they want to make good business and know that people have different taste.

Choice, and more of it seems to be what defines the last part of last millennium after the defeat of fascism in Europe. Choice is also very much at the heart of this 21st century culture. The right to choose the government we want. The religion we want. The partner we want. The career we want. The life we want. The newspaper we want. The websites we like. The TV and radio channels we enjoy.We need regard the lack of choice in any environment to be an abnormal situation that people in that environment must overcome.

This needs commitment from all. If we all do not believe in free choice, it is inevitable that somebody, somewhere is going to fiddle with the rules of the game in order to create unlevelled playing field.We can learn a great deal from the tea-man that gained customers as well as one that lost.

One thing is clear: you cannot convince people's hearts to part with their money or their votes by being bad or intimidating. You can only win them over by being nice to them. It does not matter what kind of trade you are in. The rule of free choice will still apply, even behind your back.

Aristotle once explained gravity as the tendency of natural objects to settle in state of rest on earth surface. In the like manner, human nature has the tendency to gravitate towards more freedom and more choice. And as long as this law of nature holds, the future belongs to those who want us to have more choice, not less.

South Sudan Successful Self-Determination Vote is the Gateway to an Enduring and Stable United Sudan

2009-11-14T01:55:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

People turn to benevolent rule as water flows downwards, and as beasts flee to wilderness.- Meng Tzu (372-289 BC)

The recent statement by South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit has concentrated the minds of all stakeholders, be they Sudanese, Sudan neigbhours, or friends of Sudan.
Mayardit in a recent church address in Juba told the congregation that:

“If South Sudanese want to remain as second class citizens, let them vote for unity in the referendum in 2011. And if they want to be free, they should vote for separation.”

In other words, as things stand, unity vote is to lock Southerners into servitude of the oppressive Sudanese state. Secession vote, on the other hand, will be the golden passport out of bondage. Nothing could be clearer. But is it all that straightforward black or white choice? Will we, the South Sudanese, really have the opportunity to express ourselves freely in the long awaited referendum, scheduled to take place in 15-month time? Or are we really chasing after the mirage, trying to get to an oasis through a blazing desert that we see in the horizon but never reach? Or gazing at the clouds in the sky that promise plenty of rain, but never in the end deliver a single drop? Or are we trying to catch a wall that is constantly moving away from us every time we approach closer? Which choice is the best amongst the two options on the card? What are the guarantees that our vote will be respected by the forces that have held us captives since the days immemorial? These are a few questions that stream to our minds.

What then, do we make of Mayardit statement?
Whole radio talk shows were devoted to debating the statement and gauging the reaction of the Sudanese citizens to Kiir’s statement across all political spectra. It has been the hot topic that engaged the Sudanese (and some international) press over the last few weeks. And by accidence or coincidence, a high profile symposium was organised shortly after the statement by Future Trends Foundation (an independent, albeit NCP funded, think-tank) in collaboration with UNIMISS, debated questions that must urgently be addressed regarding post-referendum Sudan – should it emerge as one united country, or as two sovereign states.

In addition to the most informed and constructive exchanges that took place between the participants of Future Trends Foundation/UNIMISS symposium, all sorts of explanations have been put forward in the press to analyse or try to come to terms with Mayardit’s statement. These range from condemnatory, to sympathetic, and through to bizarre if outright derogatory. Some said Kiir has only stated what Sudan constitution upholds. Others accused him of exposing his separatist credentials. Prof. Abdullah Ali Ibrahim in his column Nevertheless in the Citizen newspaper (November 5, 2009 Issue) likened Salva Kiir’s picking up of the reign after the untimely demise of chairman John Garan to Khallifa Abdullahi inheriting the power from Imam Mohamed Ahmed Almahadi: “Both of them replaced a leader that possessed a revolutionary charisma [who died too early] before managing to lay one brick to the state’s mansion.”

And as for the Sudani newspaper’s columnist, Al Haj Warag, during an exchange with this author last Wednesday (November, 11, 2009) at a discussion forum organised by another Khartoum-based think-tank, the idea that South Sudanese will even be allowed by the all-powerful NCP party to freely vote in a referendum is nothing short of simple-mindedness, naivety, and illusion. Mr. Warag, (believing that he was not speaking cheek-in tongue), and as a democrat did maintain that he had no problem with South Sudanese exercising the right to self-determination, but that he found it extremely hard to comprehend that South Sudanese, or the SPLM for that matter, should put their faith in the CPA, knowing that one of the two signatories to CPA is NCP: the masters of deception, and containment. For Warag, CPA is dead and buried, and that the ‘alleged peace” is non-existent.

That said, civility dictates to us to respect other people’s opinion. For what is truth, after all? It is neither here with us nor there with the other side, but somewhere in between and we must strive to catch it.

The bridge we the Sudanese must cross, or rather the bitter cup we must drink
It could be that SPLM (and South Sudanese behind it) were naïve when they agreed to put their destiny in the CPA, wherever that might lead. It takes an enormous courage and unshakeable belief in humanity itself to pin one’s hope on an agreement signed with such an illusive party as the NCP. Most of us would agree that CPA is not a comprehensive peace agreement as its name may suggests, but it is a great step forward in the direction of addressing the chronic political issues that have dodged Sudan since independence.

More than four years into the agreement, it is abundantly clear to all that old habits of the ruling clique will die hard, that age-old mistrust that exists between the parties to the agreement could not be eliminated over night, that it is not surprising for huge economic, social, and cultural differences between the “North” and the South to remain unclosed. That puts us in dilemma: should referendum be pushed back to give more time to build trust, close economic gap, achieve a real democratic transformation, and eventually sweeten up the unity option to the extent of guaranteeing a yes vote in the referendum? For this author, that would be tantamount to renegotiating the CPA, and a step into treacherous path fraught with incalculable risks. The way forward would be to honour the CPA referendum protocol in its entirety, despite the predictable outcome. Namely, more than 90 percent of South Sudanese will vote in favour of self determination. Yet paradoxically still, only after the South peacefully secedes will we have the hope to renegotiate a Sudanese union on new basis. We must let the sheep out of the fence, then persuade them later to re-enter the stable after having tasted the freedom of wandering the pastures alone with no one but good own self to guide through the treacherous valleys, try the beauties as well as the pains of self-reliance, miss the advantages of a shared-house where all have something different and unique to offer, no matter how small or how annoying the room mates may be - or look like. In other words, Southern session is a necessary prelude to voluntary reunion.

I am sure it must look presumptuous of me to put forward what may at first glance appear as lopsided proposition. But for once, all South Sudanese know that this is the only opportunity for them to exercise this right. Missing this opportunity through careless voting or allowing its exercise to be killed through endless procrastinations will be viewed by great majority of South Sudanese as a historical error that will be regretted down the generations. Equally true, any opposition to this right will leave the South with no option but to violently secede, with dire consequences for the whole Sudan.

Back to this proposition, once South is secure in self-determination, which in many ways will satisfy a deep-rooted psychological longing and restore a sense of dignity long lost, it will be possible for all to revisit the possibility of entering into economic union similar to EEC’s with the North or reach confederal arrangements with the rest of the country with a view to eventually reintegrate back in a phased out fashion. This argument applies also to Abyei, Nuba Mountains, and South Blue Nile. It also applies to Darfur to a varying degree.

The eventual fall of Abyei’s Walls [Our Berlin Walls]
Many ideas have been proposed by participants of FTF/UNIMISS symposium for making unity attractive and for creating an environment conducive to good neighbourliness between the two or more states that may emerge in post referendum Sudan. By implementing some of the ideas, such as those argued in Dr. Luka Biong Deng’s paper, the GOSS presidential affairs minister, for example; the Sudanese will not only succeed to create an atmosphere of friendly neigbhourlines in the likely secession of the South, but could also be the basis for building solid foundations on which the two entities could be propelled back into the path of a stable, voluntary, and more enduring union.

And in not too-distant future, the long awaited dream of New Sudan will come to be realized. In the words of a Sahafa newspaper columnist: “Abyei Walls will eventually tumble, as people pour across the divide to embrace each other and move freely across the artificial borders without hindrance or impediment from anyone.”

By the exercise of good leadership by the actors, and by the collective far-sightedness of all the Sudanese people, this vision will come to last. It will not happen by itself, it must be made to happen.

Crimes and Dodgy Deals

2009-08-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

By J.A. Akec
14.04.05

Crimes and dodgy deals,
Politicians dying like flies.
Gold teeth,
Diamond rings,
Dark glasses on,
Merchants of blood's money
Rampant everywhere.

Mobile phones dangling on hips
Silvery watches shining on wrists
Blue coats and red ties dazzling
Digital cameras flashing
Wicket similes flying
Watch out brothers and sisters
The Mafia coming our way!

Widows wailing
Kids crying
The elite rushing
After the black gold rash
Hydrocarbons riches up for a grab
No one gives a damn!

Thousands of refugees suffering
Dying in the ramshackle in desert and bush
Greedy politicians vying for power
Elbowing each other
Who cares?

Hollow sounding slogans
Empty vacuous speeches
No longer mean a thing!
No rain
No harvest
Masses starving in South
The elite enjoying gossips
And quality time in their workshops!

Cronies everywhere
Creeping under tables
Cleaning boots
Begging for crumbs
Pleading for a share of the loot!

The elite agree
Then disagree
Innocent given poison to drink
Crimes and dodgy deals
Politicians dying like flies
Buried in shallow graves
No mark
No name

Sheep confused
Self-seeking shepherds bemused
Gone for cover
Nowhere to be seen
The poor left alone to scream
But with no one to discover

Hydrocarbon riches looted
Before the twilight
Not a trickle will touch our lips

A nation deformed from birth,
Doomed from the beginning
Drifting like a ship without power
Blown by winds in the Arabian seas
The drunken crews
Lay asleep on the deck
Radars off
Ship heading for a rock

So runs the sad tale of a land
The world just discovered
But soon forgotten
To rot in crimes
Dodgy deals
And death
Until none is left
To switch off the Light
As what was once called South Sudan
Disappears in the Heart of Darkness
And all it morals gone missing through the Night.

Shannon Scheme for the Electrification of the Irish Free State: A Showcase in Nation Building and Socio-Economic Development

2009-08-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec*

And God said, "let there be light", and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, … Genesis 1:3-4

Early in the year 2002, the IEEE’s (Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), History Center, New Brunswick, NJ, USA; recognized "The Shannon Hydro - Electric Scheme for the Electrification of the Irish Free State" through its prestigious Milestone Awards. This award is given to international projects regarded to be of great historical, technical, economic, industrial, and social significance.

The Irish Republic, then known as Irish Free State obtained its independence from Britain in 1921 and entered Civil War between 1922 and 1923. On 13th August 1925, the Government of Irish Free State signed contract with Siemens to undertake the construction of a hydroelectric power station on Shannon River (Ardnacrusha, Ireland) to "bring the benefits of electrification to it's citizens by providing a platform for the social, economic and industrial development of the nation".

It was a huge and expensive venture, we are told, by international standards at the time of its construction. The Government had to spend the equivalent of 20% of the whole national budget revenue on the scheme. The Government’s critics dubbed the Scheme the "Mc Gilligan's White Elephant."

Furthermore, the German company, Siemens which won the contract (other companies from US, Britain, and France competed), had to use new straight from research laboratory, hitherto untested technology, such as the use of then newly invented 30meters head Kaplan turbines in its generators. Despite all the challenges, the project was completed successfully and handed over to the Electricity Supply Board of Ireland (ESB) on 24th October,1929. The ESB was founded by a Government ‘s Order on 11th August 1927 (two years before project completion- good planning that is!).

The design submitted by Seimens in just six months asked for the construction of a small dam or weir on the river upstream of the village of O' Briensbridge, five kilometers south of the town of Killaloe. Then a canal was erected from the weir to Ardnacrusha some 12.6 km away where the power station was to be housed. At Ardnacrusha, the canal ends in a 30-meter high dam through which the 6-meter diameter penstocks feed the water to the turbines in the power station just below the dam. The water leaving the power station was to be carried by way of a tailrace 2.4 km long canal back to the River Shannon, about 3 km upstream of Limerick.

The project drew wide international interest, particularly in the USA, Britain, and Germany. Franklin Roosevelt wrote to ESB PR Officer describing the Scheme as "magnificent" and asking for a copy of Electricity (Supply) Act, 1927, as well as the official minutes of the debates in the Irish Parliament. It is reported that when Roosevelt later became the US President from 1933 to 1945, he consulted the information for the Tennessee Valley Project, which he had started in 1933 in the South East of the USA. The Tennessee Valley Project too became a success, and hence Shannon Scheme became a model to be emulated around the world.

At the time of opening, Shannon Scheme supplied 96% of electricity of the Free Irish State. Today, its contribution is 2% of the total national electrical consumption as the demand has increased over the decades and the sources of energy have been diversified and expanded.
The project affected the development in Irish Free State in many ways:

1) It brought in a new know-how, facilitated technology transfer, and contributed to the development of engineering profession in the new nation. Due to the luck expertise at the time, the Government brought in experts from Switzerland, Norway and Sweden to inspect and evaluate the detailed designs submitted by the competing firms. A Canadian was appointed as chief engineer to supervise the electrical and mechanical parts of the project. Assistance was provided by the US, Germany, Holland, and Sweden in project organisation, distribution, and marketing of electricity. The subsequent governments of Irish Free State for decades later repeated the same approach causing the technological gap between Ireland and the rest of the world to be reduced quickly.

2) It impacted social, cultural and artistic life of Irish Free State by providing the first framework on which these aspects were built. For example, the formation of ESB (Electricity Supply Board of Ireland) was the first most successful body. In 2002, the ESB celebrated it 75th Anniversary and still running strong!

3) It led to improvement in the economy of the new nation.

4) It crushed any lingering doubts that the Irish people may have about themselves and boosted their self-confidence as those able to turn long held dreams into a living reality.

5) It led to Seimen’s fame as a world-class no-nonsense engineering company.

W.M. Harland commented in Financial Times (December, 1928) about the project saying:

"For half a century the country under the British regime toyed with the suggestion of harnessing the Shannon. The British are a hardheaded and practical folk, but they jibbed at such a venture. Then the Free State came into being, and ardent untried administrators, remembering that they had always being accused of being dreamers, seized on this chance of showing what they can do. So they flung themselves on the Shannon Scheme, though never forgetting the practical benefits they hoped to realize from it for agricultural and industrial development of the land. The President and his colleagues are the shrewdest of psychologists. They have had thrown on their shoulders the not easy task of breaking what in reality is an enormous inferiority complex and the Shannon Scheme is one and probably the most vital of their methods of doing it. The faith of the Free State in the nation-wide hydro electric venture is as steadfast as a religious belief".

Later in 1940, S. MacEntee, the then Minister for Industry and Commerce stated powerfully his view of the importance of the Irish Free State Electrification Project in these words:

'I think the development of our water power does put us in a position of independence and does give us a national task which has important reactions upon our psychology. I think it is true to say that the fact that we are able, so soon after the unfortunate civil war, to undertake the development of the Shannon scheme had a good effect upon us all. We can all look back and take equal pride in the fact that there were some people who had the courage and the vision to tackle the project at that time.'

In conclusion, I have nothing but admiration for those early politicians of Irish Free State known to many of us today as the Republic of Ireland. We in South Sudan can draw many vital lessons from them.

You can read more about this exciting venture by visiting IEEE History Center at:http://www.ieee.org/organisations/history_center/milstones_program.html

* This article was first posted on SSNET on 19 November 2002

The Demolished Lives of Juba Residents of Line Temirjya

2009-05-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

It was one bright and hot Sunday afternoon in March of this year (2009) in Juba, South Sudan, when I agreed to meet up with a friend in Hai Malakal. The friend was late and I decided to stroll around for exercise as well as search for a shop to top up my cell phone call credit. The walk, coincidentally, took me to the nearby Line Temirjya block - a residential area that was established in 1946 for nurses. It is dominated by grass and mud built huts. I estimate a few hundred families had their homes there. All the names used to describe my discussants are not real.

Line Temirjya broadly means "Nurses Quarter." It is located behind Juba Blood Bank, a short distance south of Juba teaching hospital. It is bordered in the north and north-east by Supiri and Juba Girls Schools, respectively. A large playground separates Line Temirjya and the two schools. A single-carriageway in the west demarcates the residential block from Hai Malakal. Measuring by South Sudan’s standards, Line Temirjya is an old residential block. However, what greeted me on that particular Sunday afternoon was a scene of carnage and devastation, similar to one often left behind in the aftermath of a hurricane or an earthquake. Line Temirjya, as I came to know from clearly devastated residents, was in ruin - demolished two days earlier by Juba town planning authorities.

What captured my attention most as I got closer was the sight of residents sitting in the ruins of their houses and still try to carry on with something like a normal life. There I could see a women frying peanuts in large saucepan under clear sky on firewood and sending white smoke into air; three men working themselves out and sweating intensely under hot sun as they try to recover grass from their demolished house; two little kids playing with mud in what was their home few days earlier; a woman breastfeeding her child at the entrance of partly-chattered roofless house; an apparently stressed young woman sitting on a deckchair and rocking nervously in the sun amid the wreckage; a teenage boy sitting on a broken wall and holding a toddler in his hand, to mention but a few.

Curiously enough, I approached a woman doing some washing and asked her to explain how all this happened and what she felt about it. She called out to the young lady who was sitting on a deckchair a few yards from her, probably struggling to understand my Juba Arabic or English. It turned out the two were originally from Uganda. I introduce myself to the lady and bystanders as a university teacher who is also interested in society and the issues affecting communities. The young lady, Samyia (not her real name), told me she arrived in Juba two years ago to look for work so that she could go back to Uganda and pay her school fees. I asked whether they had enough notice when the demolition machines arrived. No, replied Samyia. "We were told that only those who built their houses in school playground will be destroyed, and were surprised to see the machines approaching and razing down every house", she continued. What the future looks like now that she is virtually homeless, I asked Samyia. "Don’t know", she replied with blank face as her eyes scanned the edge of the demolished village. That encounter left me with the impression that these residents share a similar profile as Samyia or those displaced by war to seek shelter in Juba town. But I was wrong. The majority of them as I came to discover were South Sudanese of all backgrounds. Some, now adults, were born there and lived all their lives in the block.

A middle aged woman, Martha (not her real name), and her husband were Amadis from Nimule who moved to Line Temirjya in 1993 lived close to Smyia. Ayor is a housewife with her husband Malwal ( a private truck driver) are Dinkas from Yirol . Ayor’s mother in-law was a Bari (that is, Malwal’s mother) had always lived in Line Temirjya since 1972. Malwal was out driving his truck to Rumbek when the ‘demolitionists’ arrived at his home back in Juba and left his child, wife, and mother all fending under a tree.

Achol barely said much as she stopped breastfeeding her child when she saw me approaching. All expressed anger and disappointment with government. "The government should to be like [good] father. He may discipline his children but still caters for their needs", said a 22-year old neighbour, Peter. Peter is a Bari and his parents have always lived in the block since his birth. Peter currently studies public and business administration at the University of Juba. At least 13 of his family members have been rendered homeless by the demolition and their luggages were visibly packed at the corner of a room in their demolished house.

Most moving still, I had a chat with a brother-and-sister (Tina (7) and Leon (5)). The two siblings were playing in what was their house front space. I asked little Leon to show me his bed. Leon pointed to a heap of clothes and furniture in the middle of the wreckage, with one of his right-hand fingers pushed in his mouth. I asked Leon whether he goes to school these days, but Tina interrupted to tell me that he used to go to nursery. Their mother, Agnus, was busy baking peanuts in a large pan on an open fire. She sells the peanuts to buy food to feed her family. Her husband, Leme, also a Bari, was born and raised up in Line Temirjya. A friend came to help Leme to recover some of the grass from their demolished house. I asked him what he was going to do with the recovered grass. "Find a space in no-man-land and errect a shelter for my family", retorted the clearly annoyed Leme.

Another resident told me that it is strange that their government should destroy their houses with no alternative arrangements to resettle them or give them any sort of assistance with the move. "It is unthinkable for people to be told just move out with no where to move !", he said angrily.

On the other hand, a local friend and colleague told me two days later that the area now belongs to Juba Blood Bank and that compensation was paid in early 1980s to many residents to quit and resettle elsewhere. I also heard from same friend that some of the residents have received payment from authorities. From my conversation with sample residents, it would appear a great majority had not received any compensation financially or in kind.

Overall, I spent nearly an hour walking across the block and chatting to the residents who sat under trees or under open sky, or sheltering by broken walls as the rainy season approaches with dark clouds hovering menacingly in the horizons of Juba. With no exception, all those I spoke to were disappointed with the government demolition policy and complained about luck of support from anyone, including NGOs.

Eventually, I walked out of camp of suffering, with heavy heart. Like residents of Line Temirjya, I was not impressed by the lack of proper planning to compensate or resettle those adversely affected by demolition.

We, the South Sudanese, have fought an impressive liberation war and paid a high price for the achievement. However, we are yet to demonstrate to our citizens that we have what it takes to win the development war within reasonable time scale. And with the general election approaching next year, the case of homless residents of Line Temirjya in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, is hardly an election vote winner.

The time for the decision-makers in the government of South Sudan to rethink their development strategies by reflecting on the experience of the past 4 years is long overdue.

Why the University Education Still Excites Many People Today?

2009-02-14T05:53:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

With more than 30 universities in Sudan and with talk of declining academic standards and rising level of unemployment amongst university graduates in our country, one is led to believe that university education has lost its glitter and is now next to worthless. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Recently, I was invited to give a keynote speech at an occasion to celebrate the admission of new students from my county to various Sudanese universities. The celebration was organized by my county’s university students association. I decided to steer clear of the usual political stuff that seems to preoccupy most of us at every gathering these days: the future of CPA, elections’ laws, the ICC’s ruling, Darfur, insecurity in the South Sudan, the LRA, the land grabbing in Equatoria by ‘outsiders’, and the like.

Instead, I decided to focus our minds on what it means for these young men and women to be admitted to university. This is the basis of my article.

University Education and Its Importance
The first question I asked myself was why is university education important? Many educationalists argue that university education is the critical parameter in the well being and success of an individual in today’s society. As one academic puts it: "It gives the man [and woman, my italics] the clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, eloquence in expressing them, and force in urging them."

Another academic succinctly expressed the purpose of university education saying: "the aim of university education is to produce a human being who have heart for the people and environment, create a just society, disseminate knowledge, and improve the quality of life."

A UK secondary school head once told parents that: "A-level results determine student’s life expectancy." By that he meant those who go to university are more likely to enjoy a higher standard of living, and hence, a longer life expectancy than those who don’t. In fact, a government funded research in the UK a few years ago revealed that, on average, a graduate earns in a lifetime 400 times more than those who did not go to the university.

A Quick Historical Glance at the Origin of University Education
So intrigued with the exciting outcomes of being a university graduate that we, as students, graduates, and parents, are also bound to ask further questions in order to further and deepen our understanding about university education: What is a university after all? When and where did the idea of university originate? Where are world’s best universities located?

A modern definition of a university is that of an institution that continuously teaches and awards degrees in advanced studies. Another definition describes university as a community of teachers and scholars.

The world’s oldest university that has been continuously operating and granting degrees is University of Karaouine in Morocco. It was established in 858. The first university to be founded in Western world is the University of Bologna in Italy that opened in 1088. The universities of Paris in France (founded in 1150), Oxford (in 1167) and Cambridge in England (in 1209), Salamanca in Spain (in 1218), and Padua in Italy (in 1222) followed next.

In fact, if the definition of university is broadened to include those that offered advanced studies but fell short of offering degrees, Nanjing University in China would be the oldest world’s university as it was established in 285 but did award degrees until many centuries later. All that Nanjing University did before becoming a full-fledged university in modern sense of the word was help students prepare for exams after which those who passed had their names entered into the scholar’s gentry.

By 1500, many European countries had universities established and from there on universities began to spread all over the world. The oldest Sudanese university is Khartoum which was founded in 1902 as Gordon Memorial College. Today, there are more than 30 public and private universities in Sudan.

Some Facts about Today’s Universities Ranking
The THE-QS World Universities Ranking 2008 placed Harvard at the first place of top 10 world’s universities. Yale, Cambridge, Oxford, California Institute of Technology, Imperial College, University College London, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Columbia followed in that order. A closer look at the list reveals that only two countries, namely the US and UK dominated the top 10 between them, compared top 100 where 13 different countries were represented. On the other hand, 33 countries participated in top 200 universities.

Back to Africa, the top 10 are dominated by Egypt (6 universities) and South Africa (4 universities) with following ranking order: Cairo University, Ain Ashams, Cape Town, Pretoria, Stellenbosch, KwaZulu-Natal, Mansoura, German University in Cairo, Helwan, and Asiut.

Amongst the top 100 African universities that are represented, University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) came in 12th place, Makerere (Uganda) ranks 17th, Ilorin (Nigeria) in 32nd place, University of Zimbabwe in 47th place, University of Addis Ababa in 58th place. Three Sudanese universities made it into the list, and they are: University of Khartoum in 34th place, Sudan University of Science and Technology in 42nd place, and Ahfad University for Women in 61st place.

Overall, 24 African countries are represented in the list of top 100 African universities. The participation is distributed as follows: Egypt (24 universities), Algeria (16), South Africa (15), Morocco (7), Kenya (6), Nigeria (5 ), Tunisia (4), Sudan (3), Ghana (2), Tanzania (2), Mauritius (2), Namibia (2), Uganda (1), Botswana (1), Ethiopia (1), Mozambique (1), Senegal (1), Reunion (1), Zimbabwe (1), Burkina Faso (1), Madagascar (1), Zambia (1), Libya (1), and Rwanda (1).

It is to be noted that North Africa alone is represented by 52 universities (distributed among 5 countries), while 19 African countries are represented by 48 universities. All North African countries have been represented. Many sub-Saharan Africa countries did not feature.

What’s more, a look at the GDP distribution in those two regions of Africa will definitely suggest a link to the quality and quantity of their universities as can be said about countries enlisted in top 100 African universities. Hence, this simple analysis does confirm the well sang fact about the African "divide", with sub-Sahara Africa, as usual, trailing behind North Africa in education as well as in other prosperity indicators.

It is also a stark warning to those finance and economic planning ministers of the Sub-Sahara African nations that assign low priority to research and education in their annual budget allocation. Hence, any finance minister who would like to get the balance of payment right without investing in research and educational institutions has forgotten his walking stick. He or she is not going to get anywhere close to the economic goals they are dreaming about anytime soon.

The Challenges Facing the University Education in the New Millennium
The new millennium whose economy is being shaped by new technologies, new means of communications, and new social and economic phenomena such as the Internet, genetic engineering, globalization, the spread of consumerism to new corners of the world, the rise of China and India as new global economic super powers, the threat to Earth’s environment and resources in the form of global warming and dwindling energy and drinking water resources; all put great challenges on today’s universities to equip these young men and women who make it to their gates, with skills, attitudes, and work cultures that will enable them to succeed in the new world they will be joining after graduation.

The new world in which these young men and women will be part of (and is already here) goes by many names: electronic or e-age, e-economy, the knowledge economy, or information society. In this new world, there will few jobs-for-life and many of new graduates will have to operate as independent self-employed knowledge workers or fleas as they are called by the British social thinker, Charles Handy in his book The Elephant and the Flea: Looking Backward to the Future (Hutchinson, London 2001). In e-economy and globalization, the borders between nation states will get blurry, according to Handy and others, paving way to free flow of skilled workforce, talents, intellectual property, and capital. Many graduates will face stiff competition at home from roaming global knowledge workforce that is highly skilled, flexible, and willing to do the jobs they will be aiming for, faster, better, and at lower cost.

That means the new breed of university students will have to be informed about, and get to grip with these new scientific, technological, social, economic, and environmental realities and concerns. The needed skills and knowledge will not be acquired solely by attending lectures or going to the library, but also by being aware of the burning issues of the day that are facing the wider society beyond the safety of lecture hall and campus; and by sharpening their personal, interpersonal, team, and communication skills; and by discovering their hidden talents through the pursuit of hobbies such as sport, music, art, writing, and debating, among others. By so doing, many of them will survive, and survive they will, successfully to be sure.

Sudan: Overtaxed, Over-ticketed, and Overcharged Nation for Scarcely anything in Return

2009-01-12T04:42:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

In Sudan there are many issues that can keep us writing and asking myriad questions at infinitum. One of them is the addiction with collecting taxes and charging citizens for every service they use. And for sometimes, I have been wondering as to why Sudanese pay taxes when they are charged for all services they use or need to access. The service could be as essential as children education or hospital treatment; or as mundane, yet vital, as using a public park, or visiting a loved one in hospital. Universally privatised Sudan economy and tax did not make much sense as good bed-fellows and therefore I have come to suspect that the Sudanese could be the most overtaxed, overcharged, over-ticketed people on Earth, all for nothing in return. Here is why.

A not-so- recent publication has estimated Sudan government’s tax revenues composition at 30% direct tax and 67% of indirect tax. I believe indirect taxes have dramatically risen at the time when education and health services are being privatized. In Britain where I lived for many years, it takes great search to locate a private school in the neighborhood. In Sudan a school means private school. In Britain (a rich country), a private school is only for the very rich. In Sudan (a poor country), a private school is the only likely thing available in the neighborhood. Furthermore, the Sudanese person nowadays pays to see a doctor in public hospital, pays for medical tests, and then pays for prescriptions. No operation is free. To call an ambulance the Sudanese must pay. To visit a hopsitalised relative in public hospital, one must pay SGD 2.00 at the entrance. And oddly enough, doctors are more likely to prescribe more than one drug (an average of 2 or 3) for an illness, which unnecessarily drives up the treatment costs for the patient. And many a poor have asked the inevitable question at the pharmacist’s counter: which drug is the most important among these? Also over-dosed nation? I would think so. And as many pharmacists are attached to health centres, commercial self-interests may be blamed for the tendency to over-sell drugs to patients. The difference between a ‘public’ hospital and private hospital is only measured in costs of treatment; with public hospitals being ‘slightly’ cheaper, not free.

And if the concern about paying for what should have been common and free goods was confined to education and health service, the debate would have beeen straight-forward and political one. But the Sudanese man and woman can hardly use or ask for a service without being asked to pay. To apply to university, there is SGD 125 (US$ 60) application fee. There is airport fee of SDG 35.00 (US $ 17.00) for external air travel and SDG 20 (US $ 10) for internal travel. To leave the country one must pay for an exit visa ($ 50.00 in Juba International Airport).What is it exactly are we paying for? What service when we are paying for parking in Khartoum International Airport? And recently, paying SDG 5.00 (US $ 2.5) for using a trolley at Khartoum International Airport? This is when Juba International Airport still lacks sound or public address (PA) system to convey information to passengers, and instead relies on raw human voice to make announcements? When the tractor still pulls the luggage's trailer in Juba International Airport?

Whats more, I changed my UK driving license into a Sudanese one about a year ago. First, I went and enquired from relevant authorities and was told it would cost about SDG 175.00 plus SDG 25.00 eye-test fees. Not accurate information, as it later turned out. On the day I obtained my driving license, it cost me a staggering SDG 250.00 (or $ 120.00).That included additional (originally undeclared) charges such as UK license translation fee to Arabic, application form fee, stamp duty fees, and photocopying costs.

And most recently I was involved in a minor traffic accident and had to pay SDG 30.00 ($ 15.00) for a copy of police traffic report which insurance companies in Sudan need in order to process claims. Because there was no photocopier in the traffic police office, I was asked to drive half a mile in order to photocopy second party’s insurance document. I told the official later that it would have been more convenient for me if they had their own photocopier in their office. What happens to SGD 30.00 ($ 15.00) being paid by their clients to get traffic report? I asked. I could not receive a single convincing answer from him.

Sometimes I am let to think that our government has become addicted to collecting money from citizens and anybody that steps into our soil. This is when Sudan’s wealth indicators show a GDP of $44 billion. That works out as $88 billion (purchasing power parity. This means a dollar in Sudan is worth twice its value in the US in terms of what one can buy with it), according to Economist Intelligence Unit of The Economist (2008).

While the IMF has been praising the government of Sudan for its impressive economic growths (see the attached GDP growth since 2004), the average Sudanese is still to feel the impact of such economic growth in terms of free services such as free access to hospital treatment and free Universal primary and secondary education for their children, amongst others. Besides, there are a lot of externalities and failures of this laissez-faire economy that would demand an immediate government intervention. The IMF should consider looking at the resulting quality of life's indicators which are not made available by the IMF as they never concern the potential investors.

In summary, taxing people and charging them is pointless unless those concerned with collecting taxes and charges realize that citizens are entitled to some free goods and services and, in case of charged services, they deserve the quality of service that reflects what they are paying. In business jargon: we need better value for money. It is also clear that part of fees need to be reinvested back in whatever service we have been concerned with and paying for in order to improve the quality of service without necessarily raising up the charge. This is not happening in most cases. And that is sad.

I do recognize the importance of tax and charges. But tax for nothing in return ought to be baffling to an average person. All this provides food for thought to Sudanese politicians of all colours and persuasions, especially those politicians who will dare to make a difference in the life of an average Sudanese man and woman.

SPLM: The Wisdom of Celebrating Obama’s Victory or Rather the Lack of it

2008-11-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

By John A. Akec

It was reported that the president of African National Congress (ANC- Sudan) and a former vice president of Sudan, Kongoor Arop, once told an angry gathering of South Sudanese parties opposed to SPLM that: "We cannot fight a woman carrying a baby at her back!."

Here the former Sudan’s vice president was referring to SPLM (Sudan People Libration Movement) as the woman. The baby referred to destiny of South Sudan and other marginalized areas of Sudan. Many South Sudanese, me included, would applaud Mr. Kongoor for his very nationalistic stand. And indeed, it is what SPLM will do in the next three years that will determine whether South Sudan will sink under oppression or attain its freedom (be it as an independent nation or free and prosperous region in a united Sudan). Yet, when the baby-carrying-woman (SPLM) wonders off the save path, there is a cause for concern least the life of the baby be jeopardized by any kind of misadventure.

Often times, innocent political gestures or decisions taken by a ruling party can have significant impact on the political interests of the people it represents. Most recently, the electoral victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential elections has taken the world by storm, all for different reasons. The Kenyan government immediately declared a public day of celebration. SPLM is also preparing to "celebrate" Obama’s victory.

OK, Kenya is rejoicing because Barack Obama’s father is a Kenyan by origin. However, if one might ask: what is SPLM celebrating? Will election of Barack Obama of African linage translate into better South Sudan – US relationships? Will President-elect Obama give better support to CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) than was provided by Republican administration under Bush? Which US administration in history has ever given serious attention or shown such interest to stop Sudan’s bloody wars? What signal is SPLM sending out to the Republicans who stood firmly with them and people of South Sudan until CPA was signed? Which administration has ever opened the door of the White House to the people of South Sudan than the outgoing Bush administration?

For most of us, as far as South Sudan is concerned, the answers to above questions are likely to negative, even pessimistic. The ineffectiveness of the Clinton administration to bring peace in Sudan is a case is well documented (refer to the attached blog article).

President Clinton in most part had maintained a hand-off approach to Sudan conflict. His Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright once said: "Sudan war is not viable." During his time, Al Qaeda was founded and fared. His actions in most parts were nothing but knee-jerk reactions such as missile strike of Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum in August 1998 as retaliation to bombing of two US embassies in East Africa that year. That action did nothing to promote the cause of peace and freedom in Sudan but only added fuel to the fire of anti-Americanism without serving any purpose.

With this abysmal Democratic record in view, the author fears that the coming Obama administration will be nothing but Clinton 2, courtesy of Obama. Besides, celebrating Obama’s victory could be construed by the Republicans as celebrating their defeat. This portrays South Sudanese as ungrateful and opportunistic lot, lacking any moral principle. This is what embracing a new president and shedding no tears for Republican party who did so much for South Sudan would mean.

My article need not be understood as being anti-Democratic party or the election of Barack Obama. It shows that the American people could not be hostages to the racial dogmas of the era gone by that judged a man by the colour of his skin and not by what he can do. It is a fulfillment of the prophetic speech of Martin Luther King at the step of Lincoln Memorial in Washing DC in August 1968 ("I have a Dream") in which he said:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

From this vintage, Obama’s electoral victory is well deserved for his magnetic character that is 100% American, his charisma, and his vision for America and the world. For a common man and woman, this is a victory for humanity that was brought about by the American people who have now silenced every doubting Thomas. Barck Obama is no lesser white than being black. He is foremost a human being regardless of other superficial considerations.

For SPLM party to appear as neutral in US’s political, it makes no sense for the party to "celebrate" Obama’s victory. I would rather suggest we (in South Sudan, SPLM included) hold our breath and fast until we get a clear sign that president-elect Barack Obama is not Clinton 2 and is going to give the same level of attention to and interest in the future of South Sudan and Darfur as the Bush administration did, or better.

And until that happens, it is wiser just to congratulate Obama and not "celebrate" his victory.

John A. Akec

(END)

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Attached related blog article:

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Democrat's Gain in US Mid-Term Elections Could be South Sudan's and Darfur's Loss

By John A. AkecLondon, UKAs a democrat and socialist by inclination, you may think I was going to dance at the news of the recent control of both the Senate and House of Representatives by Democratic majority following the US mid-term elections on November 7, 2006. Nothing could be further from truth. In fact, I am very concerned that the good days of handshake by Sudan opposition leaders with the US president in the Oval Office could soon be numbered.

I have every good reason to mourn the Republican loss in recent mid-term elections. I like their decisive, black-and-white approach to issues. Only a Republican administration could have appointed Sudan US peace Envoy (Senator John Danforth), pass a stronger version of Sudan Peace Act, pressure SPLM and the government of Sudan to conclude Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Kenya in January 2005, call Darfur war a genocide, and push for AU and UN intervention in Darfur.In contrast, countless fellow South Sudanese, author included, witnessed with absolute dismay how our people suffered in wilderness of Clinton era.

The Democratic administration under President Bill Clinton maintained a hand-off approach to Sudan civil war. During that period, Khartoum became the global centre for Islamic fundamentalism, and a training camp for terrorists - all targeting American foreign policy and interests, and declaring Jihad war on marginalized people of Sudan in the South, East, and West. Khartoum’s contempt of the US was manifested in hosting of Osama Bin Laden between 1991 and 1996, playing a role in first attempt to blow up World Trade Centre in New York in February 1993, the assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (a committed US ally in the region) in Addis Ababa on June 25 1995, and the bombing of US embassies in Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar Al Salaam (Tanzania) in June 1998.

As far as the problem of war in Sudan was concerned, the US interest to get involved in ending the war under Democrats did not go further than setting up expert testimonies and hearings within subcommittees for East African Affairs in the State Department. Sudan civil war was never an issue that concerned the Congress to merit a serious debate on the floor of any of two chambers. The efforts by Carter Centre for Peace to mediate between Sudan warring parties were neither effective nor influential to commit the Clinton administration to play a more active role to end genocide in Southern Sudan and bring about a lasting peace.Vain threats and feeble attempts to frighten Khartoum regime with economic sanctions and missile strike on Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in August 1998 as a retaliation for Sudan's role in the bombing of US embassies did nothing but emboldened the Nationalist Islamic Front (NIF) regime in Khartoum to adopt a more hostile and extreme anti-western and anti-American posture, and to invite Bin Laden to pitch his training tents for his followers outside Sudan capital, Khartoum. Moreover Bin Laden was able as to fund commercial enterprises in Sudan that helped greatly to boost his financial muscle that allowed him to expand his Al Qaeda organisation.

Madeleine Albright, who served as the Secretary of State under president Bill Clinton was very reluctant to commit America to bring peace in Sudan. She was famously quoted saying: "Sudan war is not viable." It goes without saying that Secretary Albright did make a number of controversial statements, not just on Sudan political problems, but on many international issues, some of which she later came to regret and describe as "stupid." This was Albright's own word, not this author's.

The lack of interest to get involved to end African ethnically fuelled wars was in stark contrast to the more active role played by the Clinton administration to intervene alongside NATO in ethnic wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina that pitted Muslim Bosniaks and Croats against Christian Orthodox Serbs between 1992 and 1995. The US took a similar stand in war between Serbs and Albanian Muslims in Kosovo between 1996 and 1999. All the efforts eventually led to the break up of Yugoslavia and creation of new independent states.The role of the US under President Bill Clinton to end genocide against Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo, the US involvement to end sectarian violence in Northern Island (the ancestral home of president Clinton) that resulted in signing of Good Friday Agreement in Belfast on April 10, 1998; and his lack of interest to aid the repressed Africans in Sudan are hard to reconcile.

Nowhere is this lack of will to get American hand dirty in Africa apparent than when Clinton ordered withdrawal of US forces in Somalia when 18 US soldiers were killed in an ambush by Somali warlord in October 1993, leaving the country to degenerate into anarchy. Compare that to the number of American servicemen dying in Iraq since 2005 while the US forces continue keep security in that challenging country. What conclusion do you come up with? Was it because Somalia was not viable? Or is it that Bush is made of a different metal? Tell me if you have a reasonable explanation.

Although as a youngster, I grew to view Western conservative governments of all flavours with suspicion and regarded them as anti-immigration, anti-social justice, and anti-black. I was attracted to Western socialist parties because, in theory, they stood for social justice, equal opportunity for all, equitable distribution of national wealth, and global economic fairness. After living in the West for decade and a half, I have seen little evidence to believe that this always the case. Whether in the government, or outside the government, socialist ideals seem to make little difference, if any, when it comes to the kind of geopolitics that has continued to discriminate against Africa. African problems seem to be the last thing on everyone’s mind. Democrats too, are guilty, and very guilty.

The United Nations, being the hotchpotch of sovereign states has been often been bogged down in debilitating divisions amongst its members to be able to intervene in timely fashion to help the repressed groups within states. What goes in the UN is basically that of "you scratch my back, and I will scratch yours. UN has proved not to be an effective world policeman and a restorer of stolen rights.Furthermore, "old" Europe is addicted to constructive engagement that maintains the status quo - good or bad.

In Africa, it is open secret that there is a unanimous consensus that colonial boundaries between sovereign states must be respected at any cost. They must be preserved like Catholic marriages - where divorce is not an option under any circumstances. That whatever evil that goes on within those 'sovereign states' it ought not be anyone's business.All above has left a great gap in the world for a powerful and just arbiter to correct the sins of grave injustices such as cruelty of man to man. It therefore begs a huge moral question whether or not America as the sole superpower should intervene and settle issues of injustice or break a political stalemate such as Sudan wars.

The Republicans administration under president George W. Bush Jr. seems to have done just that. Bush vowed that he was going to fight alongside those who wanted to be free. He used American might to intervene in Iraq. Like the biblical good Samaritan, George W. Bush promised during his first inauguration speech that he would not pass by if he sees a victim of injustice fallen by the way side.And true to his word, President George W. Bush tried his very best to do the right thing and paid the high political price. He bullied the strong to give to the weak.

By sending more Democrats to the Congress, America is signalling to Bush administration to pull out of Iraq and to slow down his interventionist policies elsewhere.It is worth reminding ourselves that United States Congress is comprised of two chambers: the House of Representatives, made up of 435 elected members, and the Senate formed of 100 elected senators. All directly elected. As the result of recent elections, Democrats now control a majority of 229 seats, while the Republicans control 196 seats. In the Senate, Democrats have 51 seats, and the Republicans hold 49. This seems like a small difference, but it is very significant.As prime legislative body, a Democrats controlled Congress has powers to pass new law or block new bills from being passed into law. It also has powers to block presidential decisions on home affairs and can initiate investigation or probe into previous decisions by the White House as it sees fit. Foreign policy is still largely the responsibility of the president and the State Department.

The president is also empowered to veto certain decisions against Congress' will. Hence, all is not lost. It is not as if president George W. Bush, the liberator of people of Iraq, South Sudan, and Darfur, is dead and gone. But, it does mean that our liberator is now highly constrained in what he can or cannot do. It also does mean South Sudanese and people of Darfur will now face very uncertain future and should strive to make the most of Bush’s commitment and sympathy while he is still around. As a democratic country that America is, people's decisions must be respected.

The American people have spoken: no more freebies for the oppressed and marginalized people of the world. Let us therefore accept their decision ungrudgingly. At the same time, let us be ready to face the law of unintended consequences, be it good or bad.

The County Road Rage: Governors Muddle in Business

2008-10-02T00:49:00.000-07:00

"They do not defend the rights of the poor……the priests rule by their own authority…"
Jeremiah 6:28 & 6:30.

By John A. Akec

Prologue
Throughout the two decades of its struggle, SPLM party sold a bright future to the people of Southern Sudan and Sudan in general. Some of the slogans the party has been raising included rooting out all forms of marginalization and inequality in the Sudanese society, protection of the rights of all, good governance, freedom of speech, religious freedom, democracy, and much more. One favourite speech attributed to the SPLM founder, thinker, and Chairman, Dr John Garang De Mabior, used to be: "Oppression has no colour."

Oppression as we know it can take many forms: political, economic, social, cultural, ethnic, military, and so on. Anyone one of these can be as painful as the other. By saying that oppression has no colour, the SPLM chairman in his countless speeches wanted to teach the Sudanese people including South Sudanese that it does not matter who (friend or foe), or what skin colour (white, black, yellow, or brown) your oppressor takes. Anyone and he literally meant anyone who takes away somebody’s or community rights unjustly, or try to marginalize them is an oppressor.

Dr. Peter Nyuot Kok, a law professor and a former Minister of High Education and Scientific Research in the Sudan government of National Unity on SPLM ticket further amplified this point by once saying in a civil society workshop in Kenya that: "Even your [own] father can be your oppressor."

To date, and since the SPLM took over running the affairs of Southern Sudan in July 2005, all those slogans have fallen on the wayside. Instead of putting these truly revolutionary slogans into practice in the running of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) and in states governments, the picture that has been emerging to the lay observer is that of a party that has ditched its script book (party principles, ideology, and advocated policies), and decided to go it alone. The result has been that the party is committing the very deadly sins that were responsible for creating the old Sudan. The very Sudan that SPLM took arms against.

When those who rule in the name of the party are no longer guided by party’s ideology, then we have a picture which Jeremiah saw in Israel long time ago when he expressed the Lord’s anger against Israel’s rulers: "They [the rulers] do not defend the rights of the poor……the priests rule by their own authority [not by word of the Lord in the Torah]."

The parallel with current SPLM government will be self-evident considering a case of bad governance and marginalization in the troubled Warap stateand Western Bhar El Ghazal state, in relation to award of road contracts and all the malpractices that accompanied it.

Thurjok/Awrad, AYAD/Africa Congdai, and Uneven-Handed Governors
Early this year a Company called Thurjok was awarded a contract by the former governor of Warap State to construct a road linking the capital of Gogrial East County, Lietnhom, to Wau in February 2008. Gogrial East is one of most deprived areas of whole of Warap State and does not have all-weather road of any sort. From June to October, the road linking the area to Wau is not drivable. Thurjok International was established in 2005 with shareholders mostly from Gogrial East County. It participated in transportation of displaced people in the North to Warap State. It bought and distributed for free more than 12,000 sacks of sorghum to meet seasonal food shortages in Warap State between 2005 and 2006. The State government promised to reimburse the costs. Yet the company so has not been fully reimbursed to this day.

What’s more, before the company could start the execution of the road project, the new governor of Warap State, Mr. Tor Deng, decided to cancel the contract won by Thurjok, and is in the process of awarding it to AYAD/Africa Congdai, consortium, two other new Southern Sudan based companies. The reason given by governor Tor Deng is that Thurjok has no financial resource to undertake such project. According to my investigation, this has no basis. Like AYAD and Africa Congdai, Thurjok has subcontracted to another Northern-based company called Awrad for Roads and Bridges.

The company favoured by governor Tor, AYAD, was previously awarded contracts to execute a number of road projects in Aweil in Northern Bhar ElGhazal state. And according to the feedback received by this author on the quality of their work, AYAD did a very bad job in Aweil. The company blocked waterways wherever the road crossed them including: natural drainage channels, and seasonal streams. Now the company is being sued in the court of law by Aweil Community leaders for negligence and for being responsible of recent flooding in Aweil that led to loss of life and property. Specifically, it is being asked to pay for damages caused by its poor road engineering work. The muscle behind AYAD/Africa Congdai consortium is a Northern company called Abdalaziz and Sons Co. Otherwise, according to one informed source, the Southern Sudanese shareholders in AYAD were ordinary people when peace agreement was signed. But few of AYAD shareholders are now said to have jumped from rags to riches since GOSS was established.

Changing the Initial Project Plan
After being promised the contract to execute Wau-Lietnhom road, the contractor, AYAD, in cooperation with Warap Ministry of Transport, are now modifying the path of the road. The original road was planned before the Naivasha agreement was signed. It goes from Wau through Panameth, Nyinakpk, Matiel, Malwalwut, Luanyaker, and Lietnhom. The planners wanted to ensure that it passes through many parts of Gogrial East County so that these areas can have easy access to services. The modified road will pass through Warngap, Achong Chong, Manyang, Pankot, and Mayenrual, Luanyaker, and Lietnhom. Of all these named places in the new plan, only Mayenrual, Luanyaker, and Lietnhom fall within Gogrial East County. The others are in North Tonj County.

To put it mildly, great majority of areas of the county will not be served by this new road. The concerns of citizens of Gogrial East (Apuk) are being flatly ignored. Governor Tor Deng is taking away the road the Apuk people of East Gogrial wanted, and is giving them the road they never wanted. It is taking away the fish from people’s mouth, and giving them a stinking scorpion, an utterly improper deed.

Governors getting too close to big business?
Thurjok was given green light to go ahead with road project by Gogrial East Commissioner and former Warap State government. Their subcontractor (Awrad for Roads and Bridges) completed more than 30 km of dual carriageway that is said to have no parallel anywhere in South Sudan. Shortly after the appointment of Tor Deng as Warap state governor, things began the go bad for Thurjok and their subcontractor, Awrad. In collaboration with governor Mark Nyipuoc of Western Bhar El Ghazal state, an army was sent to order at gun-point the workers and security guards of Thujok subcontractor to stop roadwork, dismantle their camps, and vacate all their men and equipment back to Wau town. When governor Mark Nypuoch was asked why he was doing that, he answered that he did not want "these people" to construct roads nor erect camps on his [state] land! Ignoring the fact that the whole purpose for the project was to link Wau and East Gogrial County and that there bound to be some inter-states roadwork and camping.

And as it is turning out, there is self-vested interest to all this. As revealed by a recent Khartoum Monitor interview with governor Mark Nyipuoc (Khartoum Monitor, Vol. 7 Issue No. 1647, September 24, 2008) AYAD has been awarded contracts to construct Wau-Raja road, and internal roads within Wau town. Like governor Tor Deng, it can be construed that governor Mark Nyipuoc would not want any other company beside AYAD to win Wau-Lietnhom road. This is gross favouritism being practiced in day light by two SPLM governors, and there is no one anywhere in the world to tell them to stop the misuse of SPLM authority as well as cease poking their noses too deep into business.

Where is GOSS Ministry of Transportation in this?
According to my investigation, Thurjok has been unable to secure the blessing of the GOSS ministry of transportation. This is primarily due to the report filed by governor Tor Deng, which says Thurjok has no capability to successfully complete the project. Thurjok, on the other hand, tried to convince the GOSS minister of transport, Deng Athorbei, to independently find facts for himself. And accordingly, the minister Deng Athorbei asked for a report from his authorized person in Wau. Paradoxically, the authorized person filed a report that confirmed the claims of governor Tor, despite visiting the company and being shown around. Disappointed by what they called misrepresentation of facts, Thurjok decided to film a video at company headquarters in Wau showing all the construction equipment and recorded interviews with key officials in Warap State at company’s headquarters and on several locations on completed parts of the road. When the video was presented to Minister Deng Athorbei, he was all the more confused, or rather seemed to be. The fight has also reached the desk of president Salva Kiir Mayardit, who was also said to have been confused by contradicting reports from governor Tor Deng and managers of Thurjok International. Therefore, the president of GOSS has been unable to arbitrate. And why should the president of GOSS be a final arbiter in awards of contracts when there is whole government machinery in place?

Concluding Remarks
I have just given a brief background to the controversy surrounding the award of contracts for road construction projects in Warap and Western Bhar EL Ghazal State. Much can be said about malpractices being pursued by the authorities in those states. It suffices to say that there is no fair system of tendering and arbitration in award of contracts in Warap State (I don’t know the situation in other states), which opens way to favouritism and corruption. Second, the trend is now to concentrate road construction business in Warap, Western Bhar El Ghazal, and Northern Bhar El Ghazal (Awiel) in the hands of one company, AYAD/Africa Congdai consortium. This is in contradiction to principle of fairness and "wealth-sharing" ingrained in the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Wealth sharing should be reflected in North-South relationships and in South-South relationships. Anything short of that is marginalization. Here we see that only few select companies are being enriched by being given complete monopoly; while others are being deliberately driven out of business at gun point. Certainly not what SPLM stood for. Third, there is no interest to take into account the views of the main stakeholders (the authorities and citizens of Gogrial East County) as to who should execute their vital project, and what sort of benefits they will derive from the project when completed. Giving the contract away to AYAD/Africa Congdai Consortium and diverting the path of the road from the original plan without their approval, clearly amounts to the total marginalization, even oppression, of people of Gogrial East County by the uneven-handed governor Tor Deng & Co.

Yes, so much has been said by SPLM over years about ending marginalization and fighting all forms of inequalities in our society, truly a noble call. But actions speak louder than words, and SPLM will be judged more by what its government does on the ground and not by fanciful nationalistic slogans, good speeches by its leaders, or the usual clever talk in the medial by SPLM Secretary General, comrade Pagan Amum.

The current SPLM government has two choices, not more: to take a hard look at itself, change course, and administer justice and fairness; or continue to alienate the very people it claims to serve, come what may.

The Wisdom Facor: A Missing Link in South Sudan Politics

2008-08-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

By John A. Akec

Wisdom is not necessarily knowledge. And knowledge is certainly not wisdom. Nor is intelligence equitable to wisdom. Wisdom is the most supreme of all these three highly coveted human traits: wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence.

Not every wise man or wise woman is knowledgeable. But knowledge and intelligence allows the wise man or wise woman to do great things. Things wisdom, knowledge, or intelligence alone cannot achieve. To me intelligence and wisdom are very close cousins. However, they differ in some important ways: Intelligence sees the way with its eyes. Wisdom sees the way with its brain. Intelligence can go astray and boomerangs. Wisdom will never go astray nor boomerang. Intelligence is insecure. Wisdom is secure.

Knowledge is neutral. It is beneficial. It is a good servant to wisdom. You can never have too much knowledge. But when knowledge is too little, it does more harm than good. In fact, we have been told by a respectful host of philosophers and educationalists that little knowledge is dangerous. That is where half-truths fit: dangerous. Hence, is it better to be aware of our ignorance than believe we know much when, in actual fact, we don’t.

In contrast to knowledge, any amount of wisdom is beneficial. It is like a mustard seed. Very small in size (1/20 of an inch) but out of it grows one of the largest trees in the forest. Better to have little wisdom than none at all.

By the way we conduct our affairs in South Sudan, we clearly display how much we need to seek and find wisdom: be we the ruled or the rulers. Without the exercise of wisdom by all concerned (stakeholders), it is impossible for me to imagine how we are going to survive as autonomous region in united Sudan or an independent sovereign state should we secede in 2011.

This wisdom means no matter how evil or wicket we are, we should avoid creating another Somalia in heart of Sudan in one way or another. We should also not think we have "the final solution" for our ethnic and tribal differences. No matter how disguised these "final solutions" may be in form of engineered or sponsored ethnic conflicts or engineered famines. These have failed to render "the final solutions" all the evil dictators have craved for throughout our human history.

Finally, let us avoid anything that will open an account with the ICC which in due course will send a Louis Ockampo in our trail. Wisdom can deliver us from such temptations and tendencies.

Intelligence: Are you listening? Don’t harm others and eventually hurt yourself. Ask wisdom for guidance.

Thinking of Something or Sombody Democratic

2008-07-08T01:01:00.000-07:00

John A. Akec

Anything needs exercising or else it may die. A young child needs to be taught to walk in order to grow. Hands needs exercising to gain manual dexterity. Faith needs to be exercised by praying, preaching, practicing its teaching, and overcoming our besetting sins on a day to day basis through our faith.

South Sudan needs to practice its nascent democracy by people coming out and expressing our opinion on anything that may affect our lives, and by leaders being responsive to people's needs and demands. A wise leader should fear his people opinion like hell itself. Any "bravery" by leaders to yield to their people's yearnings and demands is not "bravery" at all. That is fool's bravery. Because when people's anger pours out nothing will stand on its way. Not the thick and impervious walls of powers. Not the iron gates. Not bullet proof windows. Not tanks and armoury. It is like a hurricane that blows everything away in its path.

A young and wounded democracy like ours is like a broken hip. Once treated, needs exercising and stretching. At first it hurts. And when the patient gets bolder, he or she tries to stretch the legs further to exercise the hip muscles or put more weight on it. They grow in confidence. They get back on their feet sooner than later.

I beileve democracy at first hurts. It is like a new cloth we shy to dress. So we must continue to stretch or wear it until we get used to it and are comfortable in it. If not, intolerance will muchroom in its place. Intolerance begets dictactorship. And dictatorship will grill us in its mighty teeth until we scream.

Who want to invest in nursing a monster that will feed first on the hands that fed it? Silence is the food that feeds dictactorship while harming democracy.

Furthermore, democracy before anything else, improves the quality of decisions being made by government by laying every decision bare and disecting it. It allows the government to know the minds of its people and take their opinions into account.

Let us go "democratic" . Leaders and people alike.

Presidential Affairs Minister Raises Eyebrows with Ground Breaking Proposals for Ending Tribal Conflict in Gogrial in Warap State

2008-06-24T07:05:00.001-07:00

By John A. Akec

What has been raised in public must continue to be discussed in public. This personal mantra applies specifically to statements and speeches by people holding responsible positions in government on issues of sensitive nature.

In that spirit, I would like to comment publicly on some of remarks made by Mr. Lual Achuil Lual, the state minister for presidential affairs in the government of national unity at a memorial service that took place on Friday 21st June 2008.

The memorial occasion which was comprised of prayers, traditional songs and dances, tributes, and speeches was organised by Twic Community in Khartoum to commemorate the 40th day anniversary for the victims of South Sudan Connect’s Beech 1900 plane that crashed near Rumbek in South Sudan on May 2nd 2008. On that very sad morning, 23 passengers including the minister for SPLA affairs in the government of South Sudan (GOSS), Dominic Dim Deng; GOSS presidential advisor for decentralisation, Dr. Justin Yac Arop; and retired army Brigadier, Donato Daw Manyang, among others. Brigadier Donato Daw, from Gogrial East (Apuk), is one of few crash victims who did not originate directly from Twic County.

COMMENTS ON BONA MALWAL SPEECH

Before delving into the eyebrows-raising, if ground-chattering statements by minister Lual Achuil, I would like to say that the service was well organised and well attended. The many tributes paid to the crash victims reflected the worthy contributions made by the deceased to the cause of liberation struggle and South Sudanese life in general. In fact, Twic community throughout the history of the South had and continue to give to the South more than it has managed to take out from it.

The presidential advisor, leader of Twich Community, and Greater Gogrial elder, Bona Malual Madut spoke well and appealed to Twic Community to unite. He also advised sons of Abyei to work for sustainable peace in Abyei by allowing Arab Massieria to be part of Abyei Transitional Administration. "Any administration that does not include Massieria in it, will not bring about sustainable peace, and it is Twich Community that will sustain the backlash", warned Mr Bona Malwal.

Elder Malwal Madut Ring, however, did not comment on the ongoing conflict between Apuk and Aguok clans in Gogrial East and West counties, respectively. That silence left many question marks in the air as to where the Twic Community leader stands. In another memorial service organised by the family of Donato Daw to commemorate his passing on 22nd June 2008 in Kalakal Khartoum, Mr Bona Malwal said he felt it was not appropriate for him to address Apuk-Aguok conflict at a memorial service organised by Twic community. That as far as his comment went without explaining why it would be inappropriate.

Without being too judgemental of Elder Bona Malwal, I would like to say that he has missed a great opportunity to appeal to the Apuk, Aguok, and Kuac communities whose members were present at that memorial service so that they can try harder to end the conflict. Furthermore, his silence would give an impression that elder Malwal Madut was overpowered by his community loss and just couldn’t be bothered about what was happening in Gogrial East and West counties.

In Twic Community’s hour of grief, I will be more inclined to be more forgiving and less judgmental, and to stress to elder Bona Malwal Madut that we, from other Greater Gogrial share his grief. That Twic’s loss is also Greater Gogrial’s loss as much as it is South Sudan’s loss.

COMMENTS ON SPEECH BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF GOSS PRESIDENT

Enter the speech of Presidential Affairs State Minister. H.E. Lual Achuil, who was representing the First Vice President and president of the government of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, said many good things and also many ground shaking, if puzzling things.

The good things included calling for unity amongst Twic community, and condemning the on going "conflict between Aguok and Kuac on one hand, and Apuk on the other" as evil that must stop. It was very honest of him to publicly acknowledge for the first time the involvement of his community, Kuac, in the Apuk-Aguok conflict. Would it not be nice if leaders of any neighbouring communities whose communities are involved directly or indirectly in fuelling the Apuk-Aguok conflict to go public in the way the Kuac Elder, Lual Achuil did? Thank you elder Lual Achuil for setting the precedence. Let us hope that others, if any, will follow suite. This if anything, is a step forward to ending the conflict by placing on the map those involved in the conflict as well as those who are neutral. Part of the solution is for neighbouring communities to stop getting involved in this conflict and instead be a force for peace and reconciliation.

Minister Lual Achul also announced that he and Mr. Mayen Wol Jongkoor, the director of the office of the First Vice President of Sudan in Khartoum, have worked hard so that:
"Anyone who wants to see president Salva Kiir in Khartoum can now see him easily…" and adding: "but I don’t know about the situation in Juba…"

Mr Lual Achuil also paid moving tributes to the victims of plane crash. "It would be hard to replace them," he said. Subtle still, the minister added: "some people must have laughed when they heard that these people died!" without elaborating on who would be rejoicing at the death of so many innocent and important people in a plane crash. Whether this was a wise remark to say at such an occasion is left to individual’s judgement. Yet this was not the end of controversy, but just the beginning.

The call by the minister for presidential affairs and representative of First Vice President and President of South Sudan for unity amongst Twic community took a bit of a twist when elder Laul Achuil pleaded:

"The Twic community should unite first, then unite with Awan community, then Aguok community, followed by unity with Kuac. Then, together, we will go and ask Apuk community ‘what is the matter’?"

By phrasing his appeal for unity in this manner, the minister has made himself vulnerable to criticism. The statement could be interpreted as a call for a broad alliance between Twic, Aguok, Awan, and Kuac against Apuk. The statement also seems to implicitly brand the Apuk community as the warmonger of the pack, without providing evidence to back such a claim. It is extremely unfortunate and unhelpful statement by elder Lual Achuil as it forfeits his earlier statement that described the war between Apuk, Aguok and Kuac as evil. It also portrays him as a warlord in the making. What a message from the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit from his envoy to the people of Warap who are affected by Apuk-Aguok conflict? One Apuk elder called the statement by minister Lual Achuil "a declaration of war on Apuk Community!"

As if this was not enough, minister Lual Achuil surprised his audience by saying that:
"Those who have a hand in this [Apuk versus Aguok and Kuac] conflict will not live with us to taste the first harvest, the maize, this year. I am not a spearman (that is, Dinka equivalent of magic spell caster or Fatwa maker), but I descend from three families with strong spiritual inheritance."

In other words, anyone behind this conflict will die before August, which is the time when the first harvest in South Sudan appears. The minister licked his forefinger and touched his throat with it, a typical Dinka swearing sign.

Interestingly enough, many people in the affected areas have not had any opportunity to cultivate this year, let alone harvesting anything. But the most controversial part of it is that the elder of Kuac is taking us into murky waters of spiritualism, superstition, astrology, and witchcraft.

If not, how are we going to know that those behind this war are dead and buried? Where will they die, and of what causes? What are their names? Will their predicted death be natural or man-made? Can we be sure the right person has been sentenced to death by his gods? Will his ancestral gods be impartial and just to the affected or will they take side with his Kuac community? Would it not be better for our government to pursue well tried traditional and old fashioned, if less controversial criminal investigation methods to determine with ample evidence those feeding the fire of tribal conflict? Is it not better to first bring to books those who abduct innocent people in the area including pregnant women and cut their heads and mutilate their bodies in cold blood as a matter of priority before we can pursue those who encourage them to commit such heinous crimes? Has the well-known justice system and rule rule-of-law collapsed to the extent that we are now invited to resort to dodgy justice system in this day and age?

The remarks by minister Lual Achuil on behalf of President of South Sudan tells a sad tale about some of those entrusted to take the helm of leading our country into a peaceful and prosperous future.

Such utterances by people holding responsible government positions will not strengthen our diminishing trust in our government to live up to our high expectations.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

It is a good thing that the conflict in Warap State between Apuk and Aguok clans is being discussed in public more openly. Such a debate will also reveal attitudes that are unhelpful to ending of the conflict and bringing unity amongst the people of Greater Gogrial that need to be gotten rid of. In my opinion, Greater Gogrial has a great potential to contribute more effectively in the development and peace building of South Sudan and Sudan in general.

I recall a time when three elders from Twic were nominated to compete for one position in National Assembly in early 80s, just after the re-division of South Sudan. They were: Bona Malwal Madut, Justin Yac Arop, and Elia Duang Arop. Eventually the Greater Gogrial elders, intellectuals, and politicians elected by consensus after heated debate the veteran SANU politician, the late Elia Duang Arop.

Those were good days of true unity and unselfish patriotism. Could we today nominate three leaders from one community to one position based on their competence and not their clan? I doubt it although Greater Gogrial today has many more intellectuals and much greater potential. This is because Greater Gogrial communities now live more in clusters of isolated islands than they once were. These communities have also grown too competitive for their own good. To unpack my statement would need another article and hence would like to leave it to another occasion.

To conclude, the sons of Greater Gogrial (Gogrial East and West, and Twic) and Warap State in general need to look back into their glorious past, learn from what was good in it, as they chart their way forward into brighter future in a peaceful, free, united, and prosperous South Sudan within the nation called Sudan.

May God the Almighty be our guide, help, and wisdom in our hour of need.

A Quiet Monologue with SPLM Secretary General, Pagan Amum (Part 2)

2008-06-18T03:41:00.000-07:00

For some of us, telling it as it is, is much easier than any attempts at conjuring up a pleasant but non-existent reality

John A. Akec

BACKGROUND INTRODUCTION TO PART 2

This is my second instalment of a series of articles in which I would like to bring up a number issues to the attention of Secretary General of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement’s (SPLM), Pagan Amum, pertaining to South Sudan.

The first article brought up to Secretary General’s attention what many of us have noted as SPLM’s double standards, even hypocrisy, when it has come out in full force to sensitise the world and mobilise aid for the citizens of Abyei who have been displaced by recent fighting between Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and Sudan Armed Forces (SAF). At the same time the party in form of government of South Sudan (GOSS) has been unable to exert even a fraction of effort, comparatively speaking, to cater for the needs of those displaced by intra tribal conflicts in Warap, Lakes, Eastern Equatoria, and Jonglei, among others.

The situation in East and West Gogrial Counties is particularly desperate where 3-year long conflict has been raging between Apuk and Aguok Dinka sections. The government of South Sudan led by SPLM has been suspected by citizens of the affected counties of official cover up, partiality, and blocking media access to the area and thus preventing the public and the world to know the statistics of those displaced and real scale of the devastation caused by this conflict that has displaced thousands of people from their homes. While the GOSS lack of enthusiasm to conflict has bordered complicity.

The effort to sensitise the world about situation in Abyei and mobilise aid though commendable and essential, it has been difficult to reconcilable with SPLM response to similar situations in Gogrial East and West Counties in Warap State and other areas in South Sudan affected by ethnic and tribal wars.

And if we correctly read the recent speech by SPLM Chairman following the signing of the Roadmap agreement on Abeyi, it suggests that SPLM can cooperate with National Congress party (NCP) to "make Abyei a model of ethnic coexistence," while the same SPLM finds it impossible to help the people of Apuk and Aguok in Warap State, for example, to live peacefully with one another.

To put it differently, SPLM will work hard to make a lamb and lion live side by side in Abyei, while it has been unable so far to help sheep and sheep share a stable in Gogrial East and West in Warap state.

And as much as I rejoice sincerely with the giant steps taken forward in Abyei by the SPLM through the recent signing of a Roadmap Agreement with NCP, I am deeply saddened and troubled by continuing backward march of the Party in many places in South Sudan, as far as security and peaceful coexistence between tribes and groups are concerned. This is a backward march that threatens to sink SPLM popularity.

In this second part of my monologue with Secretary Pagan Amum, I want to touch on issues related to spending of our financial resources on poorly conceived and badly manned institutions. I will mention some of GOSS’ commissions as exemplary cases.

I would like to assure comrade Pagan at the outset that for some of us, telling it ‘as it is’, is much easier than any attempts at conjuring up a pleasant but non-existent reality.

INSTITUTIONS THAT WASTE MONEY – THE GOSS COMMISSIONS

Commissions are very useful institutions for doing great good for the government and the citizens of a country if they are well conceived and manned with people with right skills, expertise, experience, and aptitude.

Commissions are a way to bring transparency and good practice to, and widening public participation in government. But most importantly, I think, commissions are a means for channelling knowledge, expertise advice, and feedback about the impact of policies on the public back to the executive, judiciary, and law-making bodies of a government.

In order to be effective, commissions should be ran as quasi-governmental organisations (QUANGOS) that are government-funded and accountable to the executive and legislative body yet enjoy a large degree of independence from the government. This independence allows commissions to be objective advisors to the executive and other branches of the government by telling truth even if it is painful and not what the government expects to hear. And by their very nature and mandate, commission are distant cousins of research and academic institutions, albeit much more closely grounded in policy-making and daily reality.

Commissions should be staffed with people with right expertise and rich experience in the core areas of mandate and can bring into them transferable skills and experiences. Experienced and veteran politicians with clean and good track record, ex-company executives, and "bright’ and high-flying academics make for good and successful commissioners. There is no shortage of people with such credentials in South Sudan today if any one cares enough to look for them.

Measure the above criteria against what we call GOSS commissions, and you would agree with me, Comrade Pagan, that this has been too tall an order for the SPLM party to match when it formed these commissions.

From what I know about these commissions, GOSS did not prioritise what commission to form and what to delay until later time given our limited resources and the necessity of making a maximum impact on citizens’ lives in as shortest time as possible. It would appear that the commissions were hurriedly formed with help of enthusiastic but myopic SPLM members without wider consultation with those in the know. Some commissions have been given very narrow mandate when it should have been wider. Others were ill-conceived. And yet other important commissions that should have been created have been left out.

The HIV/AID Commission, for example, should have been named and mandated as Health Commission. HIV/AID is a grave health issue among many others. But we know that malaria and water born diseases alone kill more people in a year than all other diseases combined. There are no commissions for environment, energy, communications, and transport. And yet there is a Land Commission. Again with very narrow mandate when it should be more inclusive. What is it supposed to do without putting into consideration sustainability and land use issues which are essentially environmental in nature? At this stage where we are laying foundations to national infrastructure that is very fundamental to our future economic growth and development, protecting environment by pursuit of sustainable development should be top priority at the outset. Further good communications is also essential for economic growth in our increasingly globalised world. Land Commission should have been named and mandated as Land and Environment Commission.

Then we have problem of appointing the right commissioners. Again we have seen many square pegs being placed in round holes. And would appear GOSS Commissions became the targets for employment of relatives, associates, and friends of SPLM commanders with little regard to competence, expertise, and aptitude.

And the result? Not many of these Commissions have published a single worthy report since their day of inception except the Anti-Corruption Commission which has been more visible and vocal than any of GOSS Commissions.

Top of the list of incompetence is the GOSS Human Right Commission. Three yeas after launch, the Commission recently published its first report. Unfortunately, the report said nothing new but talked about Commission mandate and urged MPs to campaign for human rights. It said that that all conflicts in Sudan have been caused by abuse of human rights. This we all know besides being too general to be of any use. That Commission has "started realisation of a long journey of human rights in Southern Sudan", without explaining how. That "The [presidential] Decree gave us [them] obligation to ensure the Establishment of Human Rights in Southern Sudan…." But what has the Commission done so far to achieve this goal is any body's guess.

In short, there was nothing to report except to say that "[the Human Rights] Commission would produce a report on human rights situation in Southern Sudan at the end of the month."
The question is: Why all this fuss when Human Rights Commission should have delivered its first report on this coming big day at the end of next month? This is nothing but self-professed incompetence and waste of public resources, typical of many GOSS Commissions and institutions of governance.

What SPLM should have done in its Second Convention was to evaluate all these Commissions after experience of three years. Here as in many areas of governance the SPLM party has so far been incapable to showcase New Sudan beginning with South Sudan.

I wonder, Camrade Pagan, how feasible it is that the SPLM will take us to New Sudan by following the same methods that created the Old Sudan.

To be continued.