If it takes time for a country having five Vice Presidents and President to produce possible solutions to curb the economic crises and other well-being parameters such as peace implementation and humanitarian assistance to flood-affected victims, then it is considered as the competition of ideas and people who produce them, which could exactly be “too many cooks spoil the broth”.
Besides, peace implementation is thought to play a key role in augmenting the economic crises as the president is handcuffed not to decide alone in fear of being charged with peace violation, and if taken to the presidency for further analysis where a concrete solution is always expected to come out, then it is overcooked and each of the decision-makers wants to grasp, own and announce it so as to win the public trust.
The overall causation is the counteraction of one another as each of them comes from a different political background. So why are the innocent citizens suffering from the results of unimplemented decisions? It is not that crises are not tabled, discussed and given unanimous solutions that could stunt them from growing uncontrollably, but they are discussed for the sake of discussion and end in deadlock or left undecided.
The cause of the ongoing crises was simply an unanalyzed statement of currency change which pressurized those who keep money in houses because of a lack of trust for the banks to rush to markets to exchange their money with the dollar at any rate desirable for the seller. A few buyers bought them cheaply on the first day and on the second day when it became noticed that dollars are “wantful”, each seller tried rising the rate higher and higher but still accepted which gave them the thought that whatever rate the dollar may reach, it could still be bought.
This news did not remain in the black market alone rather it ran faster like fire in summer grass to other unnamed markets, leading to the increase in prices of all commodities, including South Sudan-made products such as charcoal, drinking water, vegetables, polythene bags, among others. One very unique culture of South Sudanese which is soon going to backfire on them is their pretense to reveal hunger and cry out for help, and because of that, they are the only Africans who endure harsh conditions that any other people cannot. That is why hunger has caught South Sudan by its collar and does not want to leave it so easily.
If it were not the partial involvement of government in crisis-causing issues so that it muchly benefits from where most of the citizens lose, then which market is not controlled by the government that economic crises are only thought to arise from? A Dinka saying goes “A hunter never leaves an animal and spears its shadow”, meaning let us not leave the exact cause of economic crises and beat around the bush, frankly speaking, the cause is the black market.
Any time the dollar rate rises in the black market is the same time the prices shoot up in other markets, and this is ignored, and people go upstairs looking for sleeping causes whose edges are still blunt to injure the economy so terribly that it gives an alarm. If I am not wrong, then the First Vice President on his swearing-in ceremony claimed that the dollar rate reduced immediately following his reception at Juba International Airport which, according to him, became his first achievement while in Juba.
Now if I may ask, what then goes wrong that this tremendous achievement is not kept in place? Has he won back so many supporters in this short time that things promised to deal with should not be cared for much? Are achievements he has done very many that they have secured him a big number of voters because now the only route to the presidency is through elections?
The last question is, why can’t the presidency, without considering political differences, sit and produce a patriotic solution that can relieve the suffering of South Sudanese from all sorts of unrest? For God’s sake, because all of you are strong church goers, feel pity and join hands to ameliorate the deteriorating economic crisis.
The author is a medical student, University of Juba.