The Burden of Nationality and the Malnourished Democracy - The Southern Sudan Style

Come April 2010 is a general election in Sudan and Southern Sudan where aspirants will run for Presidency, governorship, and legislative assemblies seats at all government structures.

The challenge looming ahead, and probably awaiting this election in Sudan and particularly in Southern Sudan, is uncoordinated and uninformed results of the best man that could lead the country at all its stages: be it from Counties to the member of parliaments, presidency and governors involved.  Right now there is uncoordinated campaign to get the right man fit to serve people in all thirteen States Blue Nile, Kordofan and Nuba Plateaus included. The only mutter and murmur available are in groups of divided tribesmen or regionally orientated gatherings where people talk of the man that comes from their tribe or state where they speak the same dialects or slang. No personality quality and leadership skill is set as standard in Southern Sudan upcoming election and if was set as a quality though, has just been breached since laws talk through men in charge. People back up friends and relatives, tribesmen, race and multitudes of your militias or strong men in holding guns on your tribal or regional side. Nobody is willing to admit mistakes, weakness and lack well thought programme for the campaign trail such that people elect you as a potential candidate. The potentiality in the southern Sudan today is the tribal backup and regional belonging and indeed is very fatal for such country like southern Sudan where politics means the luxury of the incumbent and the immunity of the relatives in expense of the general public.

As a democratic country southern Sudan is suppose to be going democratic but too much doubt in the sixth sense of uninformed and unorganized politicians and few luxurious supporters who act as decoy to lure the public brought a weakness and timidity and no body dares the democratic way meanwhile our campaign and electoral laws dictate we do the democratic way and let all participants and citizens holding voting cards be entertained democratically and choose the right guy they want.

 While it is that way permissible, the reality now is the opposite. Our democracy is malnourished and needs feeding centers and feeding centers are in real sense been probably the process of sending Member of parliaments (MPs) and governors who will first eat and afford luxurious life for their families and dream of the democracy while holding the government seats until 2013. Sorry though, what would be the campaign for referendum if the campaign for April in 2010 is getting headache and joint pain due to too much democratic malnutrition? Would it feed itself as well?

What is the capacity of democracy in its self explanatory meaning?  I thought it would be about me and not about you as a campaigner or aspirant politician or whatever you call yourself and not to talk your thing but agree if we all fancy it. Democracy coordinates and facilitates and enables things be done in fair play ground. Correct me here; I am not talking about lazy and aggression democracy where defeat is argued with out submission. Democracy gets fed and bountiful when the ‘yes’ node sees ‘no’ and says it ‘NO’ instead of ‘YES’!

Then, why should we make a southern Sudan’s democracy so malnourished like that?

Being a leader must be from the characteristics of a person and his achievement as an individual but not as a group. In countries which have just emerged from a groupthink approach and mob-hysteria some leaders are assumed to be right in single thing but to the way out, fails. This is simply because the approach is based on the groupthink and group achievement approach. This is actually the arena and the placenta of our malnourished democracy. We celebrate military ranks given while in a group and forget to look into the power of mindset and individual capability before the group joins in to help him as a leader for any unit of governance.

Our guiding principle and strengthening factor, thought of to be our education, has turned itself to competition, and in South Sudan as of today, a master’s degree is equated to like being a brigadier general in the army. The same goes for any title holder in a civil office as well. With this confusion of terms and power but responsibility and accountability ignored, democracy has been genuflecting and droopy and may possibly stoop forever and not to be seen again.

Brothers our democracy must not fool people simply because a group of individuals in mob-hysteria support a certain fellow that does not breed hope in coming few weeks time through to referendum 2011. Our democracy must be based on the quality of the leader and his permeable attributes in the playground-The capacity to lead and coordinate national agendas and sensitive issues diplomatically. Not the capacity to intimidate and humiliate.

We the voters are marooned and taken by jumble. We lived in the shambles and unreachable locations for the last five years and still will vote from there. Good enough for the election campaign some vehicles and hugely bellied individuals reached us and talk about democracy and handed us the ‘elect me appeal’. They carry mineral water and talk special lyrics we have not heard. But we know their parents long time ago though we still get along with few relatives in the same village. ---This must not be the disappointment of the voting card holders.

The card holders need genuine change and change comes when people who coordinate it coordinate for the nation. The voters are the victims of the Burden of Nationality. They suffer all the years during the war until peace time. Many could not afford to steal their ankles to neighboring countries and still today have not witnessed the Comprehensive Peace agreement’s share. Even an embryo of a maize seed in their fields. They are just Victims of the politics of Luxury and family enrichment.

The children of the politicians do not study her in southern Sudan. As a result the schools remain below the agreeable poor standards in the world. Who has the big share in the government? The VOTERS!! Yes, the voters!!  When do they own the government? The answer is simple-during the campaign trail and voting day. Then from April 2010 that day until 2013 they will handover to the politicians to make our democracy malnourished again for five years.

The voters have their children in the army serving the government and never get immediate care from their children as they expect government to give them social services. Both voter and his child in the army are all the victims of nationality while their involvement in all government activities is deemed by law their democratic and constitutional rights, at the very understandable point. In some disgrace angle really, the malnourished democracy is too dangerous for the common man who still relies on the politicians to help him get services for his home village.

The southern Sudan upcoming election in 2010 April the Fool’s Day as people call it, may possibly breed a fool’s day in history of the country if not coordinated and thought of well.  This is because the election process as is already being witnessed will be sandwiched with character assassinations, morale decay, gross intimidation, use of brutal languages. All these evil and idiotic acts would actually come up as a result of having a very weak but power hungry politician who looks at the government as a grocery store that has his name attached to it either he acts as a share holder or a board of trustee. Government units and structure have never been owned in democratic countries for that matter. As a young baby getting gift attires and lullabies from neighbours, far distant relatives and godfathers who cherish democracy  and made us at some point stand firmly in cherished democratic norms, supported our country by democratic community, southern Sudan must set an example of free and fair election through election without violence.

It is undeniable that human nature at some point intentionally creates idiotic acts that serve individual interest. But for our cause since we all want freedom from whatsoever forms human beings deem wrong, our democracy must be fed with fresh vegetables and fruits of the nations and get well before it gives birth to the Referendum baby that is more democratic and needs to be the gloomy one rather than malnourished democratic baby.

Our votes must go for the nation and great thinkers who can be corrected, mentored, and punished by the same laws they attest to force. The support we get from Diaspora Southern Sudanese community must be a democratic advice rather than manipulative and ghetto life experience directives where assumptions of the native southerner turns to being galvanized by thoughts of being just alive in democratic countries like USA, Canada , Australia and so on. The Diaspora community has the hands-on opportunity to correct the politicians in the south. But as of now the internet browsers and keyboard hitters seem to be confused and actually dancing the tune of the tribalists and educated as like being uneducated beings.

The standards and the ability of reasoning in the southern Sudan have become too rigid that educated class do not want to safeguard the country from political Sodomy and mismanagement of ethical standards. The native southerners who have not got a version of the contemporary Juba Arabic and English words and can not afford reading bible which is translated to their own lyrics, think that education is the only weapon to get along with all these professional mess. They are at some point true!! But education may mean getting PhD in latrine hygiene or road traffic control. This means high education does not justify the capacity of being a leader. It would just turn like being a fighter but not a nationalist. Just being a citizen but not a nationalist as well. The leadership role must be a character witnessed by average citizens and the person in question must be praised by his expert power, personality power and not much on his physical power.

The geography of this rich country has got the well known cultures and traditional leaders and the really must be repeated by educated class. The country is a map .PERIOD.  Whether you fall inside or in the north, south or west, or wherever in the part of the country. There are always leaders and they must be recognized and empowered to help achieve the vision of the country. Closeness to the power corridors must not quality individuals without ethics to become leaders.

So brothers, let us be so vigilante and wholehearted and get along with better future rather than being busy with our bad images all over the world for our acts of malnourished democracy. If we fail our democratic election code of conduct and constitutional forces on us, our friends and fans of democratic game will be disappointed and we ourselves will be heartless and merciless to our innocent civilians who perish on daily basis in the assumed democratic country, Southern Sudan.

Have a fair and free election and support your leader in 2010 since you vote him or her in to lead.

Mr. Puro Cham is an Alumni of InterAction Leadership Africa Program
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