Where are the SPLA veterans?

By Atok Dan

“A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people,” John F. Kennedy.

There is always a need to travel thousand miles beyond our simple perceptions and to meditate beyond our seeing in order to discover somewhere, where our objectives of the revolution went missing and to rediscover why we are so naïve and myopic to the course of our struggles as a nation endowed with greatness not discovered. In this defining moment, there is a need for massive support for our government whenever possible and there is need for massive uprising to up root all possible sources which contravene with original objectives of the Movement we wholeheartedly nursed during those nasty and nostalgic hours of isolation and boredom. And there is a need to redefine ourselves in this trying moment in order to rejuvenate our worn-out ideas for the sake of generation and generations. Having gone to bush at a younger age, am an ambassador of Liberation more than what most politicians think of who am I. In fact, what the marginalized Sudanese in all the peripherals of the country need is more than negative political rhetoric normally made in rallies in the name of winning supports.

In fact, the two years which preceded the uprising of the 1983 were so symbolic and noticeable in such a way that body communication was enough to rely the magnitude of the flaming fire in most Southerners including people from the three areas. What I would want us to remember is that we are not that race with short memories to have forgotten the recent past whom we are still nursing from the wounds incurred, who are indeed myopic to have proved scrambling over the little slide-piece of breed given by the enemy. “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures, said John F. Kennedy.” If that very spirit was persistent in us, corruption, the grandfather of nepotism, tribalism and an uncle to rampant insecurity over this tiny piece of land won’t exist but I think it could be because our memories are too short to recall the yesterdays which brought us to today of remorse and regrets.

I’m intending to talk to my uncles, elder brothers, sisters heading the train driving the marginalized to the promised land that this very government we brought from land of deceits is too corrupt, naïve to accommodate us, too weak to foster hope in the hopeless orphans, widows and the crippled heroes and heroines maimed during the struggle and that you are obliged to adapt some reformations which I know your are potential to achieve but only that you might have been not told. That’s your greatness to drive this nation out of danger is inevitable given that the population is behind you.

my next take to the disgruntled masses is that, there‘s never existed corruption, tribalism, nepotism and many other vices in the government but the few seen are the results of your contributions. Nobody has ever dared to criticize his/her relative because of making the government office as their family dynasty in the name of fairness and patriotism. Judge me wrong if all office managers, drivers of officials and other crucial positions are not occupied by sons/daughters or immediate family members. It is very simple to be corrupt than to be fair. Although there is one mechanism which if employed can seal off all possible avenues of corruption and its relatives in a country brought about through just wish. This mechanism is through democratic means by electing leaders mandated in the name of serving people not themselves anymore. Lastly, we need not to commit mistake done by postcolonial Sudan that people had much trust in their leaders yet only few of those leaders honoured the trust paid to them. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Prof Wangari Maathai said, “Africa needs a revolution in leadership not only from the politicians who govern, but from an active citizenry that places the country above the narrow needs of its own ethnic group or community through collective responsibility over individual gains and common feeling of the continent.” We need our politicians to be active in advocating for positive change not only supporting transparency but must be reflected in their behaviours. Please SPLA veterans, the ball is still rolling in the firearms front as the LRA and other organized gangs still active. Where are you and your gallant spirit to rescue, stand tall against the hijackers of the movement the enemies of your work.


He is an employee of Southern Sudan Radio and can be reached at atokfuture@gmail.com