By William Ajang

September 5, 2012 —One quality of leadership (and a soldier for that matter) is to take a calculated bold step, regardless of its repercussions. That is exactly what our president did on 3rd June 2012, that surprised you and me. Even though 2months had passed and no dime had been return to our emptied treasury, let us all congratulate and support him. I assumed he is scheming next moves – do you play chess game?

You said yes? Good, that’s how politics play out. There are important steps His Excellency can still explore and that is the purpose of this article. 1st) Not all the receivers of the 75 mails are suspects, some of them are as innocent as Jesus Christ. Possibly there are other individuals still out there who didn’t received letters but had mouthful with our cash. So after this wider advertisement, a shortlist is crucial to filter out thieves from gentlemen. 2nd) H. E. can seek assistance from foreign countries. In most of the civilised countries corruption is eradicated like a folio, so whoever hid money there is likely to be exposed. That can be easily executed by his two DGs of security organs. We may get hundreds of millions to mitigate current austerity. 3rd) There was a mockery exercise called asset declaration done months ago by Anti Corruption Commission and we are yet to hear whose assets had been repossessed by government. No citizen of sovereign country who was poor yesterday and the next day he is found building five-stars hotel! The source (s) of money must be clarified in order to protect national security. The safest way to differentiate thieves from those who might had risked national security is through this. I will give you fourth before the end of article, so please continue!

Corruption should be treated as a crime against the nation and should not be allow to grow roots. Of course fighting corruption is a riskiest business, just like fighting marijuana or cocaine but it is a war worth fighting for. It require few words and a lot of actions. A country where leaders want to be rich while their co-patriots are mired in abject poverty is not healthy society. Mr. Greg Mills from South Africa who is an economist by profession, the Author of the well-researched book “Why Africa is poor” sum up the debate in one phrase. The answer is; ‘the main reason why Africans are poor is because their leaders have made this choice”. There is sparkle different from being ‘broke’ and being ‘poor’, the former is temporary while the later is permanent. Even countries without natural resources can be broke at certain point but they can never be poor if their leaders opted for prosperity of his subjects. Singapore and Rwanda being such examples. The deterrent come to force when there is mechanism for reward and punishment – reward to epitome good Civil Servants and punishment against the crooks. In this particular anecdote, I want to give this short story.

A Russian dissident, Mr. Josef Krushnykov was found guilty of treason against Czar’s regime. It wasn’t the first time Mr. Krushnykov was involved in a coup d’état, it was his third. So soon after the verdict he was sentenced to be hang and Czar happily signed it. But something puzzling happened, the hangmen tightened the noose around Mr. Krushnykov’s neck and pulled the stool away.

When Mr. Krushnykov hanged loose, the rope reared and the lucky-man landed, he survived. Because in those ancient days such incidents were associated with superpower. So the survival of Mr. Krushnykov was perceived to be some kind of divine intervention. But alas! Mr. Krushnykov said something stupid again that would eventually cost him his life. The hangmen went back to Czar to seek his advice. After narrating the whole episode, Czar meditated and finally asked “what did Mr. Krushnykov said after he landed a life”, the hangmen laughed and said; he stood up and told small crowds that were watching the execution “you see what I have been telling you all along, that this government cannot do anything qualitative, even the ropes to hang convicts was thus poor”! An outrageous Czar entered his bedroom and emerged with sisal ropes that he had bought for his new wooden bed. He handed it over to the hangmen and ordered them “go and try this”! This time Mr. Krushnykov was not that lucky, neither was he right that the government made poor quality ropes.

Here is the 4th) we need to hang at least few corrupt officials who are proved guilty as charged. You cannot tell me nobody is guilty or else you must explain the whereabouts our $4b. Such an action - I bet a cow - will deters corruption practices because our thieves are third-world-parvenus who value wealth much more than dignity. In fact they are not thieves, they are kleptomaniacs!

Finally. Now that our economic is in ICU, isn’t it time to make use of our economists’ brain such as those worked in World Bank, Africa Development Bank, IMF – even newly Economics Graduates are much more better than static experience from ancient Khartoum banks. Those ancient economists wouldn’t even download information from website! The inflation had to be stabilise, trade and commerce need to be tackle, agriculture schemes, et cetera et cetera. It is a proven reality the market often react positively following government’s good policy or positive action. In any case our advisors do not like South Sudanese Economists for some reasons, then we can look for a foreigner. In fact Mr. Straus Khan, the former IMF boss, is idle nowadays. I know now you are laughing for my ludicrous because Mr Khan is a reputed womaniser. Well.. our ladies don’t speak French and Mr. Khan’s English is terrible, so by the time he recruit a translator, our economy shall have improved and by then we can happily send him back to Paris. Now Mr. President, do you have a sisal twine?

Author is reachable at awilliamchan@yahoo.com