Federal Government Can solve our Problems in South Sudan
By Daniel Machar Dhieu
There have been persistent and prolific publications and utterances on Federalism by some leaders of South Sudan Federal Alliance that are quite misleading. On the outset, I would like to state that I, personally, strongly support the adoption of a Federal system for South Sudan. This support is based on objective considerations.
It is, among others, based on the following reasons:
- The history of state formation in South Sudan; where many autonomously functioning political entities (generally ethnically based) of varying levels of sophistication were forcefully merged into one country by colonialism. The merged political entities had widely varying aspirations and cultures that were merely repressed rather than integrated. This has continued to be a fundamental basis for social-political disharmony and turmoil in the country. Ethnicity has been the base of dictatorships that exploit and marginalize others. Federalism would promote harmony and unity without uniformity.
- Federalism can mitigate the tyranny due to concentration of power and resources in a central government.
- It offers States (Regional) governments the freedom to espouse different development policies; allowing a comparison of the outcomes.
- States/ Regions are more viable planning and implementing units than present counties. Present counties would remain as lower State administrations.
- Areas that are not desirous or able to form State/ Regional governments can continue to be centrally administered in the central government.
In our country all members of parliament always focusing on fight against corruption, abuse of Human Rights, or electoral malpractices are only dealing with the consequences rather than causes of autocratic rule.
I found that, the real cause is having concentration of power in the President foot; who is the Head of State, Head of Government, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces; who controls the budget processes, and has power to appoint most people in government.
It has been similarly asserted that the humiliating poverty, decay of social services and infrastructure. Are results of the centralized system of government introduced by British colonialism in united Sudan? It is asserted that the remedy to these problems is to treat the cause by changing the system of government to federalism.
Whereas it’s appropriate to have federalism in South Sudan for reasons given earlier, it’s wrong to suggest that federalism is a panacea for poverty eradication or democratic and good governance.
It may be recalled, indeed, that the Federal arrangement of 1970s was not able to immunize our country against the turmoil that engulfed us many years before and after independence. In order to attain a sustainably democratic and good government, this engenders human development in the country.
Let us support the Federal System of government in our country South Sudan for appropriate and true reasons. Federalism is not, in and of itself, a solution to all political problems.
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