REGIONALISM A
SURE BLOCK TO ETHNIC DOMINATIONS
By:
Deng Vanang
The all Equatorians conference which
took place in Nyakuron cultural center in Juba a week ago undeservedly drew
more jeers than cheers across the Southern Sudan autonomous region. Some
critics have been quick to label it as retrogressive and against much needed
co-existence and unity that come with subsequent economic development in a
region already submerged under vicious ethnic killings, cattle rustlings and
bloody land graft incidents. Their crude logic follows natural thinking
pattern that any unity between certain groups of people is always made
against others. Others this unity may be forged against are definitely none
other than people who fall outside Equatoria geo-political realm. With a
degree of certainty these are UpperNileans and Bhar e-lgazalans. The critics
went on to conjure up scare mongering memories of the 1980s kokora or
re-division that expelled non-Equatorians out of Equatoria which also plays
host to the traditional regional capital city of Juba. And that the recent
conference is not anything less than fresh agitation or dress rehearsal for
more sinister regional renaissance, they blatantly concluded.
However, I the writer of this piece
see the motives behind this conference quite differently and therefore, beg
to differ that there is nothing wrong
about people with common identity coming together to reflect on
issues so dear to their destiny in the larger community of Southern Sudan.
Much of this fact is known to any keen observer on Southern Sudan affairs
that our beloved region has never been a homogenous society. It is rather
heterogeneous and one which is inhabited by a glomeration of ethnic and
regional groups bounded together by common threat posed by Arabs aggression.
For we have strikingly different stereotypes: ranging from physical features
sub-cultures to languages. And our only common identity worth talking of may
be black African skin, Christianity and enemy language, the pidgin Arabic
which also takes regional tones. However, it may be high time to forge a
common identity now that we are soon going to be independent if we so wish,
but let’s not pretend that South Sudan has similar identity prone to threat
of what is being maliciously regarded as rising regionalism. This is nothing
new. Otherwise many historical facts explain this reality called
heterogeneity. So to start with, in 19th century when external
boundaries were being demarcated, the British colonialists were about to
curve out Equatoria from South Sudan and annex it to East Africa they
thought was culturally and demographically related to. Again in 1982 most
Equatorians ganged up against what they refer to as Jienge domination in
veiled reference to all Nilotic ethnic groups outside their own region.
Third event was pre-CPA regional conferences that mushroomed in 2003. The
main theme screaming loudly on the flip charts of those conferences was
reconciliation to broker differences as brought forth by inter-factional
conflicts following 1991 coup attempt and in particular regional interests
in the soon to be formed post war government in Southern Sudan after the
signing of historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the CPA. And finally, if
we dare ask ourselves why is regionalism the way to go now, we should not
look for answer any further than the current trends taking shape in
the hierarchies of Southern Sudan political parties which indicate that
regionalism has sub-consciously gained entry into our national psyche
without formally reaching out to one another in consultation. For any
registered mainstream political party hierarchy has its Chairperson, deputy
and Secretary-General from the three distinct geo-political divisions of our
motherland. And this spontaneous order has already formed part of our
political culture that normally differentiates one country’s body politics
from another since it is what our people willfully want in order to fend off
any perceived domination of one region by another. The present composition
of political party leadership more or less mirrors its future leadership
structures once in government. Here the SPLM offers us the best example.
Cast a look at its hierarchy at both party and government levels. It is far
from a coincident, but thoughtfully intended to be regionally representative
to appease both minds and hearts of regional constituencies as represented
by three top leaders who are none other than President/Chairman Salva Kiir
Mayardit, Vice President/Ist deputy Chairman Dr. Riek Machar Teny and
Speaker/2nd deputy James Wani Iga and respectively hailing from
Bhar El-gazal, UpperNile and Equatoria.
Regionalism faster kills
ethnicity and narrows down to nationalism
It is factual that regionalism is a
radical departure from archaic ethnic tendencies to wider perspective. Since
ethnic entities in particular region begin to be ethnically blind and
resolve their internal differences as they look outwardly to other regions
that pose threat to their common regional interests. In regionalism a step
to nationalism begins. In regionalism we find ourselves in the comfort zone
free from fatal ethnic insecurities as worries shift to external boundaries.
With regionalism all the enemies in the name of ethnic bigots hovering in
our midst, beside us and above are pushed to the safer distance. And no
longer are there enemies from within that make our lives difficult as we all
look out in one or two directions at who could be enemies ready to pounce on
us.
Regionalism too encourages an
atmosphere of peace through the establishment of federal system of
government whereby all organs of federal republic such as Legislature,
Executive and Judiciary are manned by a number of staff equitably selected
from the concerned regions. While states and counties are left to manage
their own human and material resources without unnecessary external
interference except the national borders where national customs officers
collect imports and exports duties coupled with the national defense that
safeguard against any foreign invasion. The civil defense forces like
police, prisons, wild life and fire brigades as integral parts of public
service are devolved to state and county authorities toward off any
regional, ethnic and clan domination. This stop gap measure may be preserved
based on mutual agreement till people are seamlessly mixed with cultivated
sense of nationalism through intermarriages and high intensity urbanization
process that work to convince them that time for ethnicity and regionalism
is well passed their age as basis of power distribution and wealth sharing
survival mechanism. This is where social contract comes in when the
government should not impose and neither should it preach superficial
policies that do not resonate well with the interests of the people it
governs. It is what good governance as an ingredient of participatory
democracy is all about by government responding to popular views emanating
from the grass roots and not top-down decisions made from the heights of
ivory towers. To achieve that, ruling elites climb down from their ivory
towers to reach out to representatives of all sections of the society and
ask them how they should be governed. Their prompt responses to government
consultations are what can be compiled into social contract or what is
literally referred to as an agreement between the rulers and the governed.
This social contract is also what is nowadays popularly regarded as
constitution, which the people of Greater Equatoria through their leaders or
representatives have done exactly when they converged in Nyakuron Cultural
Center in Southern Sudan capital city of Juba last week.
Deng Vanang, E-mail:dvanang@yahoo.com
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