Africa-Press – South-Sudan. A simple and harmless question by a journalist to a senior government official this week has left the government with an egg on the face – not to say the tattered image in the eyes of the international community.
The reputation of the Republic of South Sudan is in the spotlight after Juba was asked by the world superpower – America, to explain her position on the death of a British-American journalist killed in 2017. The response given, in the glare of the media, could spoil the already fragile relationship between the government and the United States.
The unwarranted reference to the late American journalist – Christopher Allen, as a ‘white rebel’, reminds us of the few occasions that the government, or those in leadership positions, have been forced to come out to explain their own words to the public.
The tongue, the holy books remind us, is a small, but powerful organ of the body capable of giving or taking away life. “A brother who has been insulted is harder to win back than a walled city, and arguments separate people like the barred gates of a palace,” read Proverbs 3. 18:19.
The Quran says this on the power of the tongue: “Have we not made for him two eyes, and a tongue and two lips? (90:8-9-). So, whoever wishes to speak should reflect before saying anything. If any benefit is found, then let him speak. Otherwise, let him remain silent.”
A word may earn one the greatest respect. It can also make one a scoundrel.
There are documented utterances by a section of our leaders that have betrayed the very fabric of our democracy – the very reason why people took up arms to fight for liberation.
Here is a country where a leader once warned citizens that they will be shot dead if they dare stage a peaceful protest. He later retracted his statement. This is the very country where a senior leader once called a press conference and claimed that country’s oil had been pre-sold. He too retracted the statement days later.
But while the state has somehow found a way of fighting off the ‘wild fire’ started by adults, the top leadership should know that such reckless comments have the potential to bring the government to its knees and spoil the image of the country, that other leaders of moral standing have built.
Instead of the government using the already meagre resources to ‘fight off the fire’, lit by a slippery tongue, it is high time the state came up with a simple rule book, for state officials to follow before speaking in public.
Alternatively, the leaders should publicly declare their stance and make a disclaimer that they are speaking on their capacity as private citizens to avoid dragging the whole nation into the mud.
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