Radio Show On Radio Pacis In Arua

A new thing in our Education for Peace programme is a weekly radio talk show on Radio Pacis in Arua from 7-8 PM. Last night's theme was human rights and power sharing. Besides me, who have promised to keep quite, there we re six men in the studio; Gilbert who presents in English, Andrew in Kakwa, Henry in Madi, Alex in Juba Arabic,  and a fifth person (which name I never caught) presented in Acholi - and finally there was the moderator, Kenyi Emmanuel.

And now you might ask yourself if that isn't an awfull lot of people for one hour, when the presenter on top promises listerners that they can call in with their questions. Partly through the programme, I realise that my wish for imposing Danish didactic is about to explode, but I still keep quite. The problem is here as on many other occasions; people read aloud, they don't leave time for dialogue or questions, and they are hesitant to take a critical standpoint.

Like in this case the presenters all read and read aloud from the papers about all the human rights we all are entitled to, embarking on the fact that now they also work for the Southern Sudanese as a result of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). But to my knowledge this is far from reality (Sudanese bloggers from inside Sudan - you may correct me?!).

Before the radio show I asked out of curiousity how the Sudanese around here reckoned the recent incident in Malakal where clashes between North and Southern Sudanese armed forces killed several 100 people. The answers I got were vague, but finally concluding 'that well, shit (my word) happens, the Sudanese are used to this, and it is to be expected'. An answer I regard as being very down to the point.

My problem is the fact that the people explaining the difficult words in the CPA to the masses have sort of taken the role of promoting peace so strongly that they loose the distance to being critical. It is a very fine balance - we are all for peace and for repatriation, but I fear that we fail to facilitate space for a more sincere debate of the realities. In spite the CPA promises a system which will cater for democracy, human rights and eventually peace, Sudan is in transition and because it is there on paper, it isn't nessecarily there in practice. That is the reality people face, and I would like to be talking more about that than what might be in the future.

In general this idea with the radio shows is a real good idea, and it has only started, it needs some adjustment, and then I am sure it can work real well. But I believe it takes a lot of reflexion and criticism to present different perspectives. It is not only my Sudanese colleagues, I myself tend to get too positive sometimes, too, forgetting the loop holes. Psychologically, you need to believe for yourself that things are moving in a positive direction, practically regarding the donors you need to prove to them that their money has an impact - thus the positive approach.