{UAH} Daily Monitor Oped: My Take On South Sudan. It's Corruption!

Daily Monitor Oped: South Sudan, Its Corruption!

South Sudan is a country in turmoil and bleeding once again from a conflict that has caught everyone by surprise. Indeed one wouldn't have expected a scuffle between soldiers of the presidential guard to spark off a series of unfortunate events of this magnitude and leading to almost a thousand killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

But for those who, like me, have been to both Sudan and South Sudan and worked there for several years during the initial nation building process of the South, war was the one thing that nobody could rule out conclusively.

I was then working with the United Nations Mission In Sudan as a volunteer in the Public Information Office. We were then starting up a major broadcasting project, Radio Miraya, which is currently the biggest source of independent news and information covering the whole of South Sudan.

Our main mission was primarily to provide information and a platform for debate on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 and what was in it for Southern Sudan.

Of course we would also provide other important information for IDP's, education, health, freedom of expression, governance and human rights in partnership with other humanitarian agencies and also the then young government of South Sudan.

But in the back of everyone's mind, we were always thinking of the possibility of an all-out war with Khartoum at any time. We also had the continuous tribal conflicts to worry about even though they never got deserved international attention. Add to that the former armed groups who still have weapons and a grudge against the government. And finally a conflict, like today's, originating from within the ruling party and government establishment itself.

South Sudan is a new country that is ever on the brink of bleeding again. Yet it is a country whose people have been traumatized by years of conflict. And when we say traumatized, it is far more complicated and devastating than say the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that we read about from American soldiers returning from Afghanistan or Iraq.

These people, whether civilians or soldiers, have seen and had to bear some of the worst raw atrocities one can imagine during the decades of conflict with Khartoum.

Wether refugees or those that stayed behind, whether fighters or civilians struggling to survive on meager means. Enduring the hardships of living in the crossfire of combatants. Travelling distances that cover whole countries in order to remain alive.

However, as the nation celebrated it's independence from the north in 2011 and the steady oil revenue was flowing in the coffers, so did the problems of nation building.

First we have the dominant class of those who fought for the liberation of South Sudan. This group, mainly formed of military generals and officers with tribal alliances, had somehow hijacked the nation since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005.

Their main argument has been that they fought for the peace everyone is enjoying, and if they hadn't done so, Southern Sudanese would still be slaves in conflict.

They have made it seem as if the whole country owes them their existence and so they are entitled to whatever they want, when they want it.

Of course this mentality has led to gross human rights violations and abuse particularly by SPLA officers (South Sudan's national army formed from the SPLM, South Sudan Liberation Movement, the ruling party).

What complicates matters even more is that the country is awash with light weapons, particularly the AK 47, hand guns and the RPG grenade launcher from the days of war.

People have kept these weapons for their own protection in the event that war broke out, but have used them against each other in minor civil conflicts to get revenge or get their way.

We are looking at a nation of mass illiteracy where the gun is all powerful. So under such circumstances, the administration of the government and upholding the rule of law are the first to suffer from this shortfall in skills and the continued proliferation of weapons.

Because whatever projects are decided upon, implementation encounters so many untold hindrances including in monitoring, keeping records, financial discipline and processing requests.

It is disheartening to see so many Southern Sudanese rush to the capitals of Uganda and Kenya to purchase high-powered vehicles, houses and other niceties when one knows that the money used was most likely picked from the coffers of the different ministries and state governments without any form of accountability.

Look around in the capital Juba and you will be hard pressed to find any business owned by Southern Sudanese that is making all the dollars that we see them with in Kampala and Nairobi.

Corruption has become a normal way of living so much so that President Salva Kiir recently had to sack his entire cabinet over the matter. One can only imagine to what extent the regional governments are infested by this epidemic if the situation is that bad at central government level.

Of course such decisive action by the president also comes with it's own political repercussions. Some of which we see today in the form of arrests of former senior government officials who have their own tribal affiliations and followings.

But the truth is, many of them have been proved to be incompetent and have defrauded the government of millions of dollars in funds meant for infrastructure development, education, health, agriculture and poverty alleviation.

There has been an effort to educate government officials and bring in young technocrats to manage administration of government institutions. Many Southern Sudanese, young and older, civilians and former military, have for the last decade been studying and earning degrees in Ugandan and Kenyan universities.

Some Southern Sudanese are even sending their children further abroad to Europe and the US with the hope that they will return competent and able to help rebuild their country. But the problem of corruption combined with the traumas of war and the rampant poverty across the country, are going to be a difficult hurdle to overcome anytime soon.

What has maintained some semblance of unity in South Sudan is two fold: The death of Dr. John Garang who is seen as the Nelson Mandela of South Sudan, and then the war against Sudan (Khartoum).

When their is clear tension against Khartoum, all the Southerners are united and ready to defend their freedom together.

Currently the issue of the oil rich region of Abyei, where they are yet to determine if they remain with the South or be part of northern Sudan, has been a rallying point for Southerners.

But now that Southern Sudanese are looking at each other and wondering more about who is actually benefiting most from their current regime, tribalism is the first word on everyone's mouth.

Some have called it Dinkocracy in reference to the Dinka tribe that holds most positions in the ruling party, the army and the government. I have heard of "the politics of cowboy hats" when discussing President Salva Kiirs' style of governance.

But what everyone knows, foreign experts, business community and Southerners alike, is that the country has always been fractured primarily along tribal lines, but also across the different regions which are gaining more and more informal autonomy with their governments and almost separate SPLA's (the national army).

What that means is that the central government doesn't have total administrative control over the country and regularly has to contend with the states governors on sometimes even minor issues.

Governors of the different states act like demi-gods in their respective territories. With their own ministries and administration. They clash regularly with central government on anything from decision making rights, vehicles, funding and mere interference.

During my time in Western Bahr El Ghazal state, the governor had approximately 15 UN vehicles parked in his compound. Vehicles that he had withheld following traffic incidents and which he seemed to be having ulterior plans for rather than processing the matter through police and/or the judiciary.

It is only after the UN Special Representative raised a formal complaint to Juba authorities, that the governor finally and reluctantly released the vehicles.

That is the kind of governance that is wide spread all over the country and at all levels. If they can do such to the United Nations, imagine what they do to the business community and individual citizens who find themselves in foul of the law over normal minor issues.

I remember travelling by bus once in 2006 and we had to stop at approximately 5 different road blocks with each taxing the driver before letting the vehicle continue.

The strategy was simple. A tree trunk would be thrown in the middle of the road and the soldiers would spend the day waiting for any vehicle that would approach. Then they would stand up and demand illegal taxes. Money that they would use for their next alcoholic beverage and whatever other necessity they had.

Today this form of illegal taxation has been gradually eliminated but only after a lot of complaints and constant pressure from neighboring governments whose citizens do business with South Sudan.

Southern Sudan central government had also made efforts to actually pay soldiers a salary. But the point of the matter is that South Sudan isn't out of the woods and will not be so for many years to come.

As efforts for peace continue, we must bear in mind the long term requirements for stability and prosperity.

The future is always with the younger generation. And it is only when the new generation is increasingly included in the administration of the country that their will be hope for a better future.

A generation that is educated, able to discuss without necessarily drawing guns, one that respects and upholds free speech, human rights, the rights of women, equal opportunity for all and democracy.

A generation that will build the institutions that fortify good governance and therefore that allow South Sudan to become a respected pillar in its own right in the region and in the community of democratic nations.

A generation free from the shackles of militarism and conflict. Free from remorse and anger of revenge on past enemies or tribal rivals. Free from any debt except the one they owe their own country.

Full unedited article here

Hussein Juruga Lumumba Amin

Kampala, Uganda