A new sovereign nation-state, South Sudan was born.
CNN reported the historic event, Saturday that the South Sudanese people are finally liberated from the north, ending decades of civil war which took away the lives of almost 2 million people. They emotionally wept and explicitly celebrated their independence, cheering, dancing and whistling down the streets, while some chanted “we are free at last!” with the South Sudanese Flag draped in his shoulders while there was also a man on his knees and kisses the ground, this was such a glorious day for the South Sudanese people. During the momentous day, the new born nation’s flag of red white and green was raised over the capital city of the world’s newly-born nation, Juba. Amid all the people’s celebration, they also paid tribute to all those who spared their lives and died for their country’s independence. The residents gave tribute to all members of the family who died within the course of the decades of civil war. It was indeed a glorious yet an emotional day for the South Sudanese people.
The sovereignty of South Sudan then legitimately broke Africa’s largest nation, in terms of land area into two. This was the overwhelming result of the referendum which was conducted last January 2011 significantly approved by the Sudanese voters ending the decades of civil conflict. This referendum was part of the 2005 peace deal which was negotiated by the then United States president, George W. Bush, but despite the said negotiations with the justified intervention of America, the clash between the forces of the north and south Sudan still was relentless.
The newly-born nation is under the leadership of their president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, who was a former rebel. He remarked that his people cannot forget all the years and decades but must now forgive and move forward. He also promised his people that they would never be marginalized again. Al Bashir, stood up to his former enemies and congratulated them on the liberation. While he believed, that a united Sudan was the best option, he however supported the vision of the South Sudanese people.
In the midst of celebrations of triumph and liberation of the South Sudanese people from decades of bloody dispute between them and the north of Sudan, United States President Barack O’bama issued a statement in Washington D.C. regarding and recognizing South Sudan’s sovereignty.
“Today is a reminder that after the darkness of war, the light of a new dawn is possible," Obama said. "A proud flag flies over Juba and the map of the world has been redrawn."
As South Sudan has gained the sovereignty and the independence they desired long before, it doesn’t spare them at all from the challenges and the existing situation in their nation. Many believed that this would also entail a continued difficult and a long journey to take. Many challenges await them. South Sudan is still among the world’s poorest nation, a region of the Sudan nation that hasn’t changed much over the past years. The infrastructure is still lacking in the region which is deemed to be the same of the size of the America’s state of Texas. There are little paved roads posing a difficulty in mobility and transportation. Most villages of the country still have no electric and/or supply of running water. Most people relied on stagnant water resulting to cause a myriad of diseases.
According to the United Nations, the new nation-state also sits at the bottom of most of the HDI or human development indices categories. South Sudan has the highest maternal mortality and female illiteracy rates implying that the country still also lacks health support institutions and education.
The new countries, the North and South Sudan are merely set to divorce only by name. They have yet to settle and reached the agreement of the distribution and shares of the precious resources of the once Sudan nation-state. They have also yet to agree on the territorial, at least the terrestrial and fluvial boundaries and as well as the status of their respective citizens has yet to be settled.
The birth of South Sudan is within the span of time where Empire is materializing before our very eyes according to Hardt and Negri. South Sudan is then born at the time of globalization, at the new era or safe to say a return to the very era of being ‘nomads’, wanderers in a sense that we return to being mobile, fluid and flexible from being fixed and settled in respective sovereign nation-states. South Sudan was born at a post-civil condition where the boundaries and the demarcations between the social institutions of the civil society and even between nation-states are slowly collapsing. As Gilles Deleuze would posit this condition, we live in a society as if it were a snake with infinite undulations.
Diagnosing this issue in the same line of thinking with Hardt and Negri and the framework of the preface of their work Empire, even if the South Sudanese nation-state has gained the sovereignty the yearned for decades already, this sovereignty is not at all absolute. In fact, no country is absolutely sovereign at the time of Empire. The sovereignty they have in their hands is that which is already declining. However, it does not necessarily mean that the sovereignty as such of their nation-state has diminished. Rather, the decline in sovereignty is merely taking a new form, a new phase, a new shape, composed of a network of national and supranational organisms unified under a single rule. This is the new global form of sovereignty, which Hardt and Negri posits as Empire. This was the very sovereignty the nation-state, South Sudan has acquired in its liberation from the north – a sovereignty that has taken a new shape, an innovative form of global sovereignty recognized as Empire. This new nation-state that has been born would no longer have the autonomy to control and regulate the economic affairs of capitalist multinational corporations as political sovereignty has as well declined.
Even if the South Sudan nation-state has declared independence from the North, and the two clashing parties have yet to agree on the territorial boundaries, at the time of globalization and Empire, there would be no boundaries and territories as such. Hardt and Negri’s conceptualization of Empire is characterized by a lack or even an absence of territorial boundaries, that Empire’s rule has no limits. Thus, for the case of the South Sudan nation-state, surely they were liberated from the North, but certainly they would not be able to liberate themselves from globalization and they cannot even escape the rule of Empire – which admits no territorial boundaries that can serve as parameters of its reign. The said nation-state would not be able to escape the new form of sovereignty and regime that efficiently include the whole spatial totality of the “civilized” world. Even if South Sudan has gained the independence, it doesn’t provide any guarantee at all that they would be free from the rule of Empire. This global regime admits not even temporal boundaries.
Thus, South Sudan is still governed, governed not in the European imperialist sense during the age of colonization, but governed by Empire in the post-modern, post-civil and globalized conditions.
Certainly, the world would be recognizing the South Sudanese people, but this would entirely remain as a construction of their situation – being liberated from the North Sudan which has been their nemesis the past decades. Regardless of their liberation from the North, South Sudan is still not sovereign and independent. It is however in another form. They’re still global citizens submitting and governed by Empire. Certainly they would be engaging in foreign affairs with other nation-states, they would be having negotiations with the North regarding the distribution of wealth and natural resources and certainly they cannot as well escape the “Mcdonaldization” and “Coca-colalization” of their society – that is very much capitalist and very much American.
The civil war that had occurred for the past decades between the North and the South Sudan has caused and spared millions of lives due to the relentless violence and bloody disputes. This is Empire in its very essence – that its practice is recurrently bathed in blood, ironically a medium dedicated for peace. As the prominent Roman historian Tacitus would say, “They make slaughter and they call it peace.” For the past decades in Sudan, this has been the case and it has just been recently punctuated.
It is very observable that the celebration of the South Sudanese people wasn’t merely limited to themselves, but external factors as well had something to say about the momentous occasion. Besides the United Nations, one striking superpower that has come up with a statement even during Bush’s administration was of course, the global police, the United States of America.
The United States has been intervening with the peace negotiations between the North and South Sudan. The apparent instance was the 2005 peace deal brokered by the George W. Bush administration, which evidently manifest’s the American government’s intervention. As theorized by Hardt and Negri in chapter 1 – world order of their work Empire, the United States may have been raising the alarm AGAIN in any sense and any instance possible during the course of the disputes and civil war in Sudan in order for their intervention regarding the conflict would be justified. This civil war between the North and South Sudan until its conclusion may have been dictated and constructed by America, playing the role of the global police. The decades of relentless violence and bloody disputes are the means and are justified by what Empire holds as a universal value – world peace.
In summary, the birth of South Sudan at the time of Empire may have attached implications. One, the newest nation-state merely gained independence from Sudan but is not absolutely sovereign and free from the governance of Empire. Second, at the time of globalization, they cannot exist on their own. They may still be encompassed by external factors such as Capitalism, the civil society – such as Red Cross and UNICEF, etc. Third, South Sudanese are global citizens as well. Fourth, even if the South Sudan would certainly sooner or later admit a territorial boundary as a state, still they wouldn’t be spared from the subsumption to a higher universality called Empire. And lastly, the United States as one of the world’s superpower at the time of Empire is the one that acts as the global police. Their interventions in issues, wars, disputes of foreign nation-states are justified when they raise the alarm. Their engagement in war is merely justified by the universal concept of Empire called world peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment