By Peter Pal Chuol
The recent retaliatory attacks and looting of innocent Sudanese’s shops by a few South Sudanese was unfortunate and condemnable.
Not condoning the atrocities committed against our people by the Sudanese Armed Forces that were not criminal, but because, the Sudanese in our country are refugees and traders who have no control over what SAF does or does not do.
Enough of that since our government responded by protecting their lives and properties. Government, kudos!
The reason I am writing this article is because of an unfortunate, worrying and dangerous observation I have made over the past few days the Sudanese shops have been closed. I know, I am and will not be the first South Sudanese who have seen this dangerous trend. In the few days Sudanese shops have remained closed, our people have struggled to find the basics food and non-food items alongside other essential services provided by the Sudanese traders, why? Because Sudanese traders control almost all our markets, and their influence on our is far-reaching.
Over the past few days, every time I stepped out to go buy something, the picture I got was like the government has declared a holiday, almost every shop is closed. Goodness me, the number of shops that were closed is mindboggling. From retails and wholesale shops, garages, restaurants, jewelry shops, boutiques petrol stations, clinic and groceries shops, all were closed. Space will not be enough to mention the businesses that are foreign- owned, especially the Sudanese-owned businesses, God knows how many.
I don’t want to assume that the government is not aware of this, but I can with certainty affirmed that it is not willing to act on this. This country will fully be held at ransom someday. I know it almost happened in recent times. I mean, who is not aware of foreign traders demanding that the security of Juba- Nimule highway by taken up and man by foreign troops?
Who is not aware that top government officials flew to Nimule roughly two years ago to negotiate with mere foreign traders with unrealistic demands that undermine our sovereignty? Who is not aware that our water is supplied and sold to us very expensively by foreign water tank drivers? It is not a secret that the electricity we consume is sold to us expensively and there is absolutely nothing that we can do about that. In this country, what the foreign traders say is what goes. We are dramatically helpless at their hands. Late last year, the truck and fuel tanker drivers demanded that check points must be removed otherwise, they will not enter South Sudan, guess what, there are fewer check points along Juba- Nimule Highway these days. This is a good thing though!
It is dangerous to live in a country where your market is dominated by foreign traders. Small-scale and skilled labor businesses are dominated by Ugandans, the capital labor like the hotel, tourism, flight and banking industries dominated by Kenyans and Ethiopians, water and electricity sectors are dominated by Eritreans and Ethiopians, food chains supply dominated by Ugandans and Kenyans, restaurants are and clothing businesses dominated by Sudanese, fuel supply and construction materials dominated by Somalis, construction sector, I don’t know dominated by who, but I know it is definitely not South Sudanese.
The Chinese, Lebanese, Turks, Indians, Egyptians, Sudanese, Kenyans, Congolese, Ugandans, Eritreans and the rest have made their marks in South Sudan. The common and its South Sudanese and their government eat, live and breathe foreign items. For how long will this continue? I am afraid we are slowly losing our country to foreign control especially it market sectors, and that is dangerous. It will reach a time when the foreign hand will be too strong to remove.
I don’t want to suggest to the government what to do, but I want to warn that one day, I don’t want to imagine the Somalis refusing to supply fuel, the Ugandans refusing to supply their sub-standard food items, the Eritrean drivers refusing to supply us our water as they did in recent times, the Sudanese closing their businesses like we are experiencing now, that day, we will have a rude awakening.
Lastly, I want to say, I am not against any foreign businesses in South Sudan, on the contrary I strongly believe in healthy trade ties and cooperation, but when that comes with exploitation and trade imbalance, then there is a problem.
The writer is a former Anti- Corruption Commission Chairperson in Jonglei State.