The current war and corruption in South Sudan should teach something about our leaders because they are corrupt and something should be done about this. It is important for us to learn from our elders’ current mess so that we should not repeat the same mistake in the future.

The young generation are victims of their corruptions and we should consider what we should learn from the current situation. The conclusion that I am trying to voice here was also voiced at Transparency International Hungary’s Atlacco Festival, which was held in occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day. The conference pointed out that “Children are often the biggest victims of corruption: they are the ones who fail to benefit from services targeted at them due to the overarching corrupt practices worldwide. What is even more worrying is that they have all the chances to learn wrong examples, interiorize that this is how the world functions.”

This is what is happening in our country South Sudan. Many of our elders are taking advantage of the system because of their age and position. Their main goals are to enrich themselves, and most of them forget their duties of delivering services to our people. There is no doubt that our young generations are the victims of self-enrichment by our leaders.

Youths should question corruption

One day one of my college friends told me, “Older people are the most corrupted people in the world.” I was at first outraged by his thought and I disagreed with his statement thinking that he was wrong for saying that.  However, I didn’t understand what he was trying to say, why he thought like, and what caused him to think that way. Afterward, I came to realize that sometimes, it’s wrong to just disagree with someone without understanding why did they come to that conclusion.

Today, I don’t really think I would disagree with him after reading the letters that were sent to the seventy five individuals who were accused of embezzling 4 billions dollars and the recent report of millions of dollars disappearing in Northern Bahr El Ghazal state. With these few evidences, I have come to understand that my friend was definitely correct on how older people are the most corrupted people.

Also, Szilvia Gyukó who is the advocacy of director of Unicef one day mentioned the same thing that children are always victims of elder’s actions.  Gyukó narrated, “The first victims of corruption worldwide are they not children? Not only are they the ones who fail to access services, due to a world enmeshed in corruption, but they learn also this is how the world should function.  And so they have no chance to break out of the circle.”

This is very true in the case of the South Sudanese young generation that are being taken advantage by our elders; they are now the victims of war that occurred as a result of misunderstanding and corruption tactics among our leaders in the Juba, which caused last year some of the cabinet to be suspended on charges of being corrupt.

What our generation should learn about our elders is that they are not going to change their corruption tendency. They think that no one should question them because they are elders and if you question them then you are seen as the most bad kid in the village. But it’s our responsibility as citizens to put to an end to this corruption by questioning it.

By questioning corruption, it will make it as a big deal because it will make corruption a serious concern in South Sudan and it should be kicked out of the country. As we know today our country is at war with itself, public trust is at its lowest level, and there is lack of efficiency in public institutions. Our young generation should learn to believe that their input is much needed in order to change this situation. Moreover, educating the young generation is indispensable and they should learn as early as possible the way to recognize corruption and to act against it.

Anti-corruption movement

There is need to have transparency and accountability taught in South Sudanese educational institutions to teach the youth and to guide the country into the rightful passage where there will be no corruptions or tribalism. Doing this would be an extraordinary step because it will teach the young generation to fill the gap and to more be more committed to anti-corruption.

There is also a great need for us to have a powerful college students’ government that will empower students to educate the public about the awfulness of corruption. In addition, educated youth should be empowered to provide legal aid to advise our citizens about legal issues, including the importance and commitment of anti-corruption institutions.

Let’s not think that we have an anti-corruption commission in the one that was appointed by the President Kiir administration. In my opinion, the anti-corruption commission is like an old dog without teeth. Has anyone been held accountable of any wrongdoing among the 75 individuals accused, apart from receiving a letter to return the money? In what land can a thief be the judge of his own case?

‘Impunity of the elderly’

Corruption among our elders and failure to accept this reality is at a serious stage: none of them is holy, as we learned last week about incident of money disappearing in Northern Bahr El Ghazal. At this stage no one knows who is clean and who is not. 

But what one thing we do know is that the Northern Bahr El Ghazal incident of corruptions is closely associated to the governor. Even though the governor has suspended his Secretary-General Hon. Garang Kuot Kuot and the state Ministry of Finance’s Director-General Sabrino Majok Majok, none of these people will be held accountable for their wrongdoing because they are enjoying the impunity of the elderly.

What should our young generation learn from this? We should to learn that corruption is a bad disease that affects elderly leaders – mostly our current South Sudanese leaders. This disease will not help us but it will hurt us in long run. This disease will have a lot of negative impact on us if we don’t treat it now.

By Mulana Deng

The views expressed in ‘Opinion’ articles published by Radio Tamazuj are solely those of the writer. The veracity of any claims made are the responsibility of the author, not Radio Tamazuj. 

Photo: Members of the South Sudan Civil Society Alliance (SSCSA) during a peaceful demonstration calling for the prosecution of corrupt government officials, 13 June 2013 (Gurtong)