By Theem Isaac Machar Akot
“A poor workman quarrels with his tools,” goes an English saying. Being a politician in South Sudan has become too simple.
You just join a party of your choice—make wrong decisions, cry a lot, and call America afterwards for interventions and assistance. It is called political immaturity—delinquency, in other words. They are too much into holding others accountable for their wrongdoings. Imagine blaming the outsiders for the country’s crisis without proper reasons just to evade punishment by law.
The portrayal of the country’s image is worthless. They have shamed us enough by changing the greatness of the nation from rich to a hunger-strike country. From a peaceful and everyone’s dream home to a chaotic nation. And at worst, their behavior shows this country can’t survive without foreign aid, especially from the U.S. We act as though we were created yesterday, while the Americans existed thousands of years ago.
Dear crying politicians, the days of dependency on foreign aid are over. In layman’s terms, South Sudan doesn’t need America, the UK, Norway, or any outside world. The US and other superpowers had vitally played their roles in the liberation struggle. Meanwhile, the national population, including the politicians, is divided into two categories: the category that thinks the nation survives on the West’s assistance and the category that blames the presence of the Western world in our affairs as the root cause of our crisis. I, however, prove the two categories wrong.
Admittedly, the West stood with us until the last day to see us independent. While, importantly, independence alone is more than anything else. We now speak in our voice as an independent state recognized worldwide—due to the unwavering support of the Westerners. Not only did the West stand with us to see our self-determination become a reality, but they also brought us quality education. They, too, have tried so much to bring a democratic system, and here is how things fall apart. However, all these contributions are enough for us to expect more again from them and shouldn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated.
We should, however, be responsible for all the predicaments—by swallowing the mischief and accepting the truth. We reasonably have to accept the responsibility of creating the tumult because the nation is founded on a wobbly surface of political propaganda. We all want to lead just to get rich. Whereas the national reform agenda has been left far enough. Emphatically, the country lacks faithful politicians whose ideologies incredibly bring citizens together.
One of the factors making Westerners a bad omen is because they have fallen on deaf ears and are gradually cutting ties with us. Again, we are interested in getting aid from them instead of learning problem-solving mechanisms. Besides, the West becomes a problem when the nationals grant them an intrusion. In other words, they double down on your weakness. Hence, he/she who blames or expects them to solve their problem is under the influence of one’s imagination.
Finally, the possible solutions to our problems are with us: acknowledgement of our maladroit handling of our affairs, acceptance of holding ourselves accountable for our wrongdoings minus expecting the Westerners’ involvement, and eradication of political misrepresentation. Misrepresentation of the national duty is when the country calls you for its duty; the call becomes as Godly as the call of Abraham , who left his own cradle land, his extended family, and, specifically, his parents. Only to fulfill God’s wish of finding unseen land. Similarly, anyone who is on a national call should forget about being a tribe man and become a national asset. For it is said in the Bible, “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Similarly, the adoption of patriotism, nationalism, democracy, and socialism is the beginning of nation-building.
Have a blessed day!
The writer is a third-year student at the University Of Juba School Of Education.