Opinion | Stephen Buay should start his war in Juba, not in unity state

By Gattiek Gatkuoth Wichar

OPINION – General Stephen Buay Rolnyang is a well-known solider and a respected army commander in Unity state and South Sudan in general who served in the rank and file of the SPLA for many decades. However over the past six days he decided to defect to South Sudan United Front (SSUF) under the leadership of Gen. Paul Malong Awan, former South Sudan army Chief of General Staff who later on rewarded General Stephen Buay for the position of Secretary of Defense in his armed movement.

According to political philosophers politic is a double edged game depending on how one exercises it. Sometime you may die while you’re still alive in politics and sometime you may live while you are already dead so the metaphor here is relevant to the case of Gen. Buay Rolnyang who has finally managed to liberate himself from military humiliation in Juba.

Buay has realized that if he continues in that embodiment of military humiliation under SSPDF then he would die while still breathing therefore he had to close his eyes to take that bold decision and pledged his military and political allegiance to Gen. Paul Malong for him to restore and gain military momentum.

Before I comment on his defection allow me to narrate a story of father who lived in a small apartment with his son. The father had an old rusting golden watch and decided to give it to his son and asked him to sell it to any one of the shops beneath them, the son took the watch and went to a nearby shop to sell the watch as father told him. There at the shop he was told to take only five pounds as amount tantamount to value of the rusting watch because the watch is too old, when he heard that he returned back to his dad and his dad told him to go to next shop he went to next shop and the same amount was said and then returned to his dad gain and his dad told him to continue going from shop to shop.

He went to several shops who paid the same amount until he reached the shop where he was given more dollars for his watch because the final buyer knew that the watch is a gold and original despite the fact that it is rusted so the son finally returned back to his dad with big smile on his face and told him that finally it is brought with more unimaginable money.

His dad told him “listen my son if you find someone who doesn’t know your worth or doesn’t value you just pull away instantly from such a person, life is all about being in an atmosphere where you are highly respected and regarded as human with full of dignity.

I think Gen. Buay Rolnyang applied this philosophy, he understood that being in a situation where you’re not allowed to see yourself in a mirror has never been tolerated because what would come into your mind is none rather than to think of breaking such mirror that you are not allowed to look yourself with. Therefore, the reason as to why I decided to write an article on Gen. Gordon Buay’s move is because of an exclusive interview where Stephen Buay was interviewed by Sudans Post in which he assured the interviewer that he decided to defect and he will of course take an armed rebellion against administration of Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit stressing that he will also start fighting government in Unity state because according to what he said it is where his support based also by adding that he has decided to start engaging government in Unity state because his main target is the oil in Unity and Paloich in Upper Nile which are the areas from which South Sudan government generated 90% to 98% of its day to day national revenue.

However my point is that the problem in South Sudan doesn’t need Gen. Buay or any agent of change who wishes to see better South Sudan to start fighting regime neither in Bentiu nor in Malakal as Gen. Buay thinks but the paradox box is the capital, Juba. Gen. Buay should fight in center because it is where all problems are engineered instead of going anywhere.

The government now has sophisticated weapons and enough money to use in fighting Gen. Buay and in the end it is only innocent young people who going to pay the price of that war. It is not bad idea that you can fight to liberate your people and country but you can’t fight for cause that will end in vanity at the end at least you fight to score national and sustainable goal which can last forever and this never happened if we keeps beating the bush around.

Unity state, Upper Nile, and Jonglei state are the most war affected areas in the Republic of South Sudan and for this reason they cannot withstand any another destruction again since everything is plundered into ashes there. If any politician or military man has got to change President Kiir let him start war in Juba because if Salva Kiir could be changed through fighting at states he would have been toppled long time ago.

This is because starting in 2013, Unity state, Upper Nile and Jonglei had fallen under the control of opposition forces and yet nothing worked so far. War at state levels kills only youth, children and women who are innocents and therefore General Stephen Buay should look for another haven such as Juba where Kiir is based to start his war against the junta in power.

The author is a political activist and is based in Cairo, Egypt. He can be reached via: gattiekwichar@gmail.com.

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