“Rome feet Kissing” Does Not Substitute but Complement Peace processes; A Response to Dr. Peter Adwok’s statement.

By Amb. Reath Muoch Tang,

Hon. Reath Muoch Tang, former member of South Sudan National Legislative Assembly, former SPLM IO Representative to Washington DC, United States, and current Deputy chairperson of National Committee for Culture, Youths and Sports of the SPLM in Opposition(Photo credit: profile/SSNN)

Hon. Reath Muoch Tang, former member of South Sudan National Legislative Assembly, former SPLM IO Representative to Washington DC, United States, and current Deputy chairperson of National Committee for Culture, Youths and Sports of the SPLM in Opposition(Photo credit: profile/SSNN)

April 16, 2019(SSNN) — The power of humility, dignity and respect for humanity that was spiritually bestowed on the South Sudanese leaders recently in the Vatican by the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, Pope Francis, renewed hopes for peace and stability in the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan. “The kissing of the feet” of South Sudanese leaders, as it is famously now known, has drawn attentions to prospects for peace, especially the implementation of the current peace agreement(R-ARCiSS), and reconciliation and healing of the country as local and international media, intellectuals, politicians and churches chant their approaches and recommendations on how to achieve what has been impossible for the last five(5) years, if not 50 years, but one particular outcry from none other than Professor Peter Adwok Nyaba stood out. Among many feasible roadmaps, this is what Dr. Adwok had to say:

“The easy part … the spiritual retreat.. is over. The most difficult part … translating the vows and promises to listen to the voice of the people … now begins. For me, the task is not only for the four whose feet the Holy Father kissed, but for all of us, South Sudanese in our different social formations. I begin with the second and third row leaders, the ethnic councils of elders and associations, particularly the Jieng Council of Elders and the Naadh Elders including the Digital Warriors, to make public apologies, individually or collectively, to the people of South Sudan and to disband immediately. Let the people of South Sudan associated and organize across ethnic and provincial lines on the basis of ideas and political programmer. This will enable and accelerate the processes of reconciliation and forgiveness. This will encourage the first row political leaders to withdraw their swords into their cases and we begin an era of peace, social harmony, security and development in this Easter season.”

In brief, this statement, or let’s formerly call it an approach, is not only naive and vague; it missed the essential part of what would be a reasonable approach or a roadmap in our ethno-political predicament. The two famous approaches that have worked for centuries, if not millenniums, are bottom-up and top-down approaches. The search for peace and stability in South Sudan must stem either from the top leadership to the grassroots or from the grassroots to the top leadership. We agree that South Sudan’s problem is complex and it has not spared any segment of our population, and therefore there must be other issues in-between the grassroots and the top leadership that is wrangling over power but Dr. Adwok’s empirical solution that starts in the middle of nowhere without a clear roadmap and direction is not only misleading but faltering.

Assume that the groups Dr. Adwok listed above exist and were to listen to his humble call, how would the second and third row leaders unite and reconcile the country if the top leadership and the grassroots continue to fight? What direction would you choose over the other to disseminate peace and stability from the middle when the other end would be running loose? This approach is not plausible, you cannot put off a fire from the middle of the roof and hope to save the peripheries, but this is not the only issue to Dr. Adwok’s statement. Professor Adwok is rewriting a known history and this is not surprising to some of us, especially the intellectuals and politicians. Adwok does not differentiate a Nuer from a Dinka when it comes to who to blame for South Sudan’s crises.

Introducing the “Naadh Elders” To Endorse The Jieng Councils of Elders

Dr. Adwok has on numerous occasions blamed the Nuer nation as a collective entity for war and other mischiefs but lumping a well documented, controversial and ill-fetched Jieng Council of Elders(JCE) with any community in South Sudan is not only an attempt to rewrite the history but a direct endorsement of the tribal policies of the Jieng Council of Elders that have raged this country into abyss. The agenda of the Jieng Council of Elders, which is now being implemented through the 32 tribal states, displacement and destruction of property and infrastructure of non-Dinka areas, does not distinguish between a Nuer’s, Chollo’s or Fertite’s fundamental rights and freedoms, which are supposed to be equally protected by South Sudan’s legal system, now and also in the future. As evidently documented, it is Salva Kiir, Daniel Awet Akot, Kuol Manyang Juuk and other members of the JCE that are exclusively claiming power and ownership of any pride or achievements that we all sacrificed for but here you are “fairly” blaming the victims and the oppressors, all alike in the name of “peace”?. This is not acceptable!

Secondly, the Naadh, as a community, does not have an organized Council of Elders like that of the Jieng Council of Elders, who dictates presidential decisions in J1 or at the national level. The Jieng Council of Elders, as we all know, are not regular elders that just happened to be from the Dinka tribe but a tribal political organization that is composed of elderly Dinka politicians, military generals and intellectuals, who are not only trying to dictate important decisions at the national level but a self-proclaimed political party that substitutes the ruling party and presidency. As you well narrated in your famous articles in December 2013, it is through the influence of the Jieng Council of Elders, especially those of Paul Malong, that president Kiir managed to recruit and train Mathiang-Anyoor without approval from the top leadership of both the SPLA and SPLM. In addition, it was confirmed by the African Union Commission of Inquiry and Human Rights Watch that the Mathiang Anyoor were led by retired and active generals, who are well known members of the JCE, before and after December 15, 2013. Therefore, your latest attempt to blame a non-existing or non-influential “Naadh Elders” alongside the JCE to level the ground for peace and stability amounts to rewriting the same history you have been recounting for years and have written books about. We cannot achieve peace by backtracking from the truth!

On the other hand, the argument here should not be misconstrued with an anecdote that the Naadh, as a community or any other community in South Sudan, is free from blame for the mess that is destroying our beautiful country but that the other 63 tribes do not have tribal political organizations similar to the “Jieng Council of Elders”, and therefore it is absurd and wrong to refuse to blame the Jieng Council of Elders in its current tribal political identity. It is no longer a secret that it is the Jieng Council of Elders, who engineered the conflict and used the powers of their son, Salva Kiir Mayardit, in 2013 to destroy our country for no any other reason other than to enshrine “Dinka Domination”. It is very unfortunate that our good professor, Dr. Nyaba, has now succumbed to that cheap trap of the Jieng Council of Elders, which he resisted with all his might to an extent that he could flee Juba through a charter that was meant to transport a dead body and a mourning crowd.

What If a Naadh Council of Elders Exist?

Out curiosity or for the sake of fairness, let’s assume that a tribal political entity similar to the Jieng Council of Elders, call it the Naadh Council of Elders, exist among the Naath; would the Nuer or such council of elders be blamed or asked to apologize when the Jieng Council of Elders or any other Council of Elders is required to do so? What sense would it make to hold a victim, whose community has been massacred or displaced, accountable for having been incarnated? A Council of Elders, who either lives and operates in UNMISS camps or refugee camps does not hold a relevant power in the theater of war and for such it can’t be held accountable for crimes committed by those who exploit national resources to impose their interests at the expense of others.

In addition, the narrative of the “two big tribes” that always seems to overshadow the existence of other tribes when it comes to “who to blame” is too basic for a veteran and educator in the shoes of Dr. Peter Adwok Nyaba. This is what the minority tribes need to let go for South Sudan to realize peace and stability. It suffices to believe that if the sixty two(62) other tribes did not sit on the fence or divide themselves behind the Dinka and Nuer in December 2013, the conflict would have been put off in a matter of weeks or months, and we would not be calling on some Council of Elders today to apologize to restore peace and reconcile the country. To have a genuine peace in South Sudan we must be mindful about the fact that there are other ethnic groups in this country. Thus, we should not focus only on the two big tribes but rather on our diversity. None of our tribes own South Sudan. Any perspective that promotes the narrative of two big tribes must be discouraged or else such inferior mindsets will only encourage self-proclaimed individuals or groups like the Jieng Council of Elders to breed their ideologies and self-promotion at expense of others. We must nip such ideologies in the bud and work collectively without tribal prejudice to build a nation that respects the diversity and cultural heritage of every tribe.

In conclusion, peace is a basic human need. Without peace, we cannot build or achieve anything. We all need peace to prosper either at individual capacity, at a community level or as a nation; however, peace cannot be achieved at the expense of the victims or through unfair and unjust accommodations of illicit tribal beliefs. Peace comes with justice; peace come by telling the truth and by genuinely identifying the root causes of the problem. We cannot treat the symptoms and expect to cure the disease. South Sudanese need to face their problem with honesty, confess and then vow to never repeat it. These are what will ensure forgiveness, national reconciliation and healing; and without ambiguity, these need a top-down approach to be achieved. There’s no shortcut to peace, the top leaders must humble themselves and kiss the feet of the less deserving citizens, who are suffering across the country or in the refugee camps, just like the Pope humbled himself and kissed their feet. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that the “Rome feet Kissing” does not substitute but it complements the processes that need to be implemented in order to achieve a lasting peace in the country; therefore, it is premature to call for public apologies without due processes!!

~ edited by Deng Elijah*

Reath Muoch Tang is a Former member of South Sudan National Legislative Assembly, former SPLM IO Representative to Washington DC, United States, and current Deputy chairperson of National Committee for Culture, Youths and Sports of the SPLM in Opposition. This analysis does not represented the views or positions of any organization I serve or any organized institution of the community represented in this article. For more information and discussion, you can reached me directly through this email  reathtang@gmail.com or through my social media network. 

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