By Tor Madira Machier,
Opinion.
Sept 14, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — Federalism has been misuderstood by those in the government and also by the civil population, but the real thing is, Federalism is a system of governance that splits the powers between the central authority and that of state governments.
Many people have discribed the federal system of governance as kokora but the truth is that kokora is far different from federalism. Kokora is not a system of governance but was used by equotorian particularist as a policy to protect other ethnic groups to bring chaos to their region during the then sudanese civil war when southern sudan was divided into three autonomous regions.
On the 9th of july while addressing a small crowd and group of people marking the celebration of the country’s third independence anniversary, Mr kiir stated that if the federalism is adopted as the system governance , citizens from other south sudanese regions wil be expelled from the greater Equotoria. But this is a very big ly by the president and it confuses the innocent people from greater Bahr El Ghazal and put to question his understanding towards federalism.
Under federalism, South Sudan will still be a one nation but with different sovereign states and the people will still move freely.
The law that entitle a citizen to move freely is also guaranteed in the federal constitution of South sudan and not to be regulated by a state authority. The state government is not entitle to the expulsion other state citizens.
The defence and foreign regulation will also remains under the central authority.
citting the huge number of different ethnic groups in the country , the option for south sudan to be stable is to make sure that federalisn is adopted as the systen of governance in the country. Therefore, South Sudan will only achieves peace if federalism is maintained as the governance sysytem in the country. If the ten states which exists in the country are farther divided into many sovereign states under federal system as proposed by the SPLM IO, how would it be peacefull for south sudanese to govern themselves peacefully ! Tribal hostilities should easily be combatted and any hatred that exist between tribes will be brought to end very easily.
South Sudanese can take the example of the old united Sudan, we were humiliated, discrimination in respect to colour, religion and culture but since we established our self as a sovereign nation , the hatred that existed between us and the northerners disappeared. But the only difference is that it was a ultimate seperation from a sovereign state to form a sovereign state and this is just a division of powers within a sovereign nation among many sovereign states within the nation. Now we only left with two pending issues with the north which are the borders demarcation and the issue of Abyei and these two issues will be solved through international law which is very quiet simple.
If it happens that federal system is adopted as the system of governance in the country the unity and the different diversities of our people which exists in the country will be protected and peace will once engulf the country.
Salva Kiir Fears Exclusion From Natural Resources.
But in responds to call for federalism, Salva Kiir fears the exclusion of his Jieng community from national resources, but it will not deny them the access to natural and other resources existing in the country. In a federally governed countries, any state contribute 40% or any agreed upon butget to the national government and this pecentage to the national government will be used to fund and develop states with scare resources and therefore any state state lacking natural resources is entitle to developmental funds.
I believes the only natural resource available in South Sudan is not the oil and all the states of South Sudan are rich from natural resources. Oil is not the only important among others but there are also more important resources available across the Republis of South Sudan than the oil and these includes agrucultural land water, wild life, strong men that provides cheap labor force among others and these are all available in every state in south sudan. In Bahr el Ghazal region in particular uranium is available apart from other natural resources. So if exploited can contributes to the development of the nation.
Tor Madira Machier is a South Sudanese student living in Egypt, he can be reached at : tormadira2013@gmail.com or +201024930577
