Makol Bona Malwal

To say that the new state of South Sudan, a country with over 80 percent of its population illiterate and more than 50 percent living below the poverty-line, is facing huge challenges in kick-starting her economic development is no exaggeration.

Reversing more than half a century of neglect, suffering and civil war should be our top priority now. In addition to the heartbreaking human toll taken over the years, we are also left with a combustible internal political scene.

South Sudan was conceived on the myth that we are one people with one common destiny. We are now discovering that regional and tribal differences are not dissolving and that South Sudanese think and act very differently from one another.