Will Federal System Solves our Problem?
By Daniel Machar Dhieu, Juba
If you ask most people in South Sudan about Federalism as a new system to be installed in the country; you may found many people still resistant to the idea of accommodating national administration through federal system as ruling tactic in their country. They see federalism in general as ethnic in particular, is a dirty word and a deserved bad policy in co-existing of the people in the nation. In Western Europe, the French are hostile to federalism. Those who live in the world first and longest enduring federation like federalism but tend to be against using it to give self-government to other people but they deleted the system from their government. They consciously drew the internal boundaries of their own federation to avoid this.
Today, when many international experts recommend federalism for other countries, such as Iraq, it is also a non-ethnic model they usually have in mind: a federation in which internal boundaries intersect with rather than coincide with ethnic and national boundaries.
The opposition to ethnic or multi-national federalism is connected to the belief that it does not work with nature many tribes in South Sudan. It is thought that giving self-government to territorially concentrated distinct peoples and ethnic-linguistic groups will simply create hatred among the people and this will result in the break-up or breakdown of the country into many sections.
The Critics of multi-national federalism is true to point out some challenges, in particular is affecting the unity of the people in the nation. But does the evidence also indicate, as some critics suggest, that multi-national federalism will not work in any circumstances? Simply, the answer is greatly no. Critics point to evidence of failure, but there are also important success chapters. See the Most of the world’s existence federal states are Canada and Switzerland; effectively give self-government to their principal ethnic or national communities.
The success of Canada, which has longstanding issues with its own secessionist movement, in keeping ethnic conflict in check is noteworthy, and even more so in Switzerland, whose ethnic-based federalist system has successfully managed conflicts between four different ethnic groups for centuries.
In South Sudan, federalism System will provides positives changes to our nationalists and hopefully it may turn our country into good governance. The system will attributes the powers to all stakeholders of this nation and render enough security to the entire population to normally operate their businesses without fear and death threat in the nation. Federal type of government is more productive to experience and meaningful to rule the people.
The important thing our people should understand enough or correctly preach to our people is that. Federal policy does not differentiate or segregate people or identify people tribe by tribe it always allows people to stay wherever they are the fact that you are a citizen of that particular nation.
According, to world modern federal system it does not matter of your region or tribe. The system should provide or deliver service to the people of this nation in-order to develop this nation in shortest time and grant all the aspect to the people. Critics of ethnic federalism would be on stronger ground if they could show any of the federal failures could have been democratically governed as unitary states. However, there is evidence to support federalism in South Sudan.
There is clear justification for federalism, or decentralization, is based on the combination of shared rule and self-rule: federalism offers the potential to retain the territorial integrity of the state while providing some form of self-governance for disaffected groups. Thus, a growing literature has emphasized the merits of federalism as peace preserving.
Federalism is a strong manifestation of the right to internal self-determination of specific communities in a multi-ethnic or multi-national state. A federal structure of the state has the potential capacity to accommodate the legitimate aspirations of all ethnic, linguistic or religious communities for self-government and protection of their distinct cultural and religious identities, while at the same time offer equal participation by all communities and by all citizens in the political and economic affairs of the country as a whole.
Thus, federalism is considered as a political structure that facilitates both unity and diversity in the nation: The federal idea, in short, is generally conceived as a compromise, address by the image of moral valid of citizenship and bridge between unity and diversity, and sovereignty, the national and regional. It is a system that allows for a balance between the preservation of the powers, the self-consciousness, and the influence of territorially concentrated social groups, on the one hand, and desires for a strong country-wide community on the other part.
Federalism is considered as a means to live with cultural diversity in the country. The federal political order allows giving space to the expression of different identities or diversities within a country. It is a political order that allows for the peaceful coexistence of people of varying cultures within one country. It is as well as packable device for nation building as for the preservation and the protection of sub-national political communities. From the point of view of the individual, federalism requires the establishment of multiple loyalties and it facilitates the expression of several identities.
The installation or introductions of federal systems in South Sudan also differ with regard to their formation. Federalism is considered as a principle realized in highly different institutional arrangements and political arena. In fact, there is a wide range of federal types and no federal system can be simply adopted and introduced in another state because each institutional design has to consider the specific ethnic composition of a country, the existing identities, and the political working structure.
Finally, it must be clearly and firmly stated that it is absolutely right to work under federal government in South Sudan for good delivery of services to the people of this nation. In other word, South Sudan will simply implement the statement made by Late Dr. John Garang De Mabior Atem of “taking town to people” by adopting this system the will flow smoothly
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