By Jacob K. Lupai
(Gurtong, September 4, 2010)
The title of this article should have read, whenever there are conflicts let there be peace and whenever there is hatred let there be forgiveness and love ahead of 9 January 2011 referendum in Southern Sudan. However, it would have been a very long title.
Statisticians seem to have already calculated the time to the referendum in days, hours, and minutes and even in seconds. This only shows how important the referendum is perceived and how people are getting ready to get on with it in order to move forward. It is evident that southerners see the referendum as a one life time golden opportunity to determine their destiny or fate. This is understandable given the Sudan’s turbulent history in post independence era.
A referendum for Southern Sudan was agreed upon after a very high cost of sacrifices. The outcome of the referendum is expected to be independence to Southern Sudan which probably may be known initially as the Republic of South Sudan until a new name is adopted.
To secure independence the South does not want to enter the referendum as a divided region. Conflicts and politics of revenge are divisive. Enemies take advantage of conflicts and fan flames of hatred among protagonists. For example, the rebellious general who lost the election for the governorship of Jonglei State could fall prey to enemies of the South. The rebellious general could be resourced by enemies to cause havoc with the calculated intention of destroying the expected outcome of the referendum favourable to the South.
There are two options for neutralising the rebellious general. One option is a surgical military operation for an immediate end to the rebellion with terms that will restore peace in the area. The second option is the promotion of dialogue and reconciliation for peace. The second option seems to have been tried but the rebellious general was adamant. The first option seems to be the only one that may be pursued.
However, this option may be problematic. Pushing somebody very hard to the corner may encourage a desperate reaction as when a drowning person will clutch at anything even at a straw in an attempt to survive. In desperation the rebellious general may even seek support from his one time enemies to survive. It won’t therefore be strange when the general is being supplied with weapons and logistics from the North. What is important though is for all efforts to be exerted on the realisation of peace where there are conflicts through whatever means possible with minimum cost to life and property.
The rebellious general had made some demands. One demand was the removal of the governor-elect of Jonglei State. This was, however, an unrealistic demand. The governor-elect was popularly endorsed by the electorate as shown by the result of the election. Other demands of the general could have been taken into consideration in return for the rebel officer also accepting to stop the rebellion. It was unfortunate that civil society organisations seemed to have not played a role in defusing the situation between the government and the rebel.
Conflicts can be resolved by first identifying the core causes of such conflicts. The weakness seen in the lack of an immediate robust response prolonged the rebellion and only encouraged enemies to play out their dirty games in trying to frustrate the South in deciding it destiny through the referendum. Although military strategists may know better, probably a force ten times that of the rebel would have put down the rebellion quicker for peace to prevail when the rebel was threatening to reach Juba.
However, it is not too late to extend feelers of peace to the rebel. Seeking peace is not weakness. Rather it is a mark of confidence in reaching out to those who are causing conflicts to occur to desist from being trouble makers.
Identifying trouble makers who are the sources of conflicts in a community and also identifying the perceived causes of conflicts is a step in resolving conflicts for peace to prevail. We may need to harness the energies of trouble makers for productive uses. Southern universities and institutions of higher learning should be involved. There may be already departments of peace and development in the universities. It is to tap into those departments by using them for research on issues of conflict in communities in order to suggest appropriate solutions that will encourage development for better living standards as an alternative to conflicts.
Hatred is another abstract noun that may cause problems in the referendum. In the last April elections there were accusations and counter-accusations of vote rigging. Those who lost in the elections claimed foul play. Intimidator tactics seemed to have been used against candidates. For example, candidates who stood as independent, representing no party or those who refused to accept the official nominees of their party, were harassed. This was seen through bitter complaints by candidates from other political parties that they were unfairly treated.
Candidates of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for Democratic Change (SPLM-DC) claimed they were targeted for unfair treatment by the ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), in the South. The SPLM-DC is a splinter from the SPLM although it may claim to be an independent party in its own right. It is led by a dubious individual of queer character who according to a high level defector is crafty and a master traitor with a burning ambition to be the ruler of the South.
The said crafty leader and master traitor did not even get more than 3 per cent to the presidency of the South in the last April elections. It is also alleged that he could not even be voted to be the governor of Upper Nile.
It is worth noting that the said crafty leader and master traitor was the one who engineered the SPLM split of 1991 but eventually surrendered shamelessly to the northern dominated government he had fought against in the first place. As expected of such a character, the master traitor later went back to rejoin the SPLM which he had attempted to destroy from within. As part of his nature the master traitor went out again of his way to form yet another political party, the SPLM-DC, and is now out in full swing working very hard indeed not only to surrender himself to the North but also to carry the South along as a permanent colony of the North.
It may not be a wild guess that the SPLM-DC is one of the most disliked political parties in the South. The question to ask is how the South can go to the referendum with such a disliked party that may spoil the broth. After all the SPLM-DC by the look of it, is predominantly a southern party. Despite its poor record in the South some of the members of the SPLM-DC may be for independence. From the tales of the SPLM-DC defectors to the SPLM it may only be the SPLM-DC Chairman who seems confused in his wild chase for the leadership of the South and the absolute control of SPLM-DC as his own private organisation. However, somebody has to be forgiven for insanity.
It may not be a popular culture. Forgiving each other in a mass ceremony may be something that can be tried. A mass gathering of political leaders and members keen on reconciliation in the South could be held by political parties. In the gathering leaders and members could in turn embrace with those where there might have been an exchange of unpalatable words or behaviours against each other followed with handshakes and a party. This may at least create an atmosphere of renewed friendships and relations that might have been broken up partly due to unnecessary misunderstanding. This may be helpful for southerners to move on from conflicts and hatred to peace and, forgiveness and love ahead of the referendum on 9 January 2011.
In conclusion southerners are warriors and capable of a change. Thy fought for nearly 40 years for freedom and also enjoyed living in peace for nearly 15 years. It is possible that southerners can move away from a culture of perpetual conflicts to a culture of peaceful co-existence and from a culture of hatred to a culture of forgiving and loving one another which is now essential ahead of 9 January 2011. We need to try. We also need a culture of equitable regional representation in anything that is supposed to be of southern national interest. Naturally the South will be a divided nation if regional and worse ethnic hegemony is callously encouraged either knowingly or unknowingly. Southerners need to be sensitive unlike the bothers north of the border that have marginalised southerners and at the same time are asking southerners to remain united with them for further marginalisation. Let southerners avoid preaching the type of unity of the brothers north of the border do.
The author can be reached at jklupai@googlemail.com