Governance in independent Republic of South Sudan By Jacob K. Lupai, SOUTH SUDAN
AUG. 9/2011, SSN; In The Citizen Newspaper of Wednesday July 20, 2011, Vol. 6, Issue No. 180, the President of Republic of south Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, in the lead headline vows to form a lean cabinet. The President was also quoted as saying the formation of the cabinet will be on the basis of capabilities and the President couldn’t have been clearer when he said, “We want to start our nation on clear foundation through giving the jobs to those who will perform”. In an apparent reference to a decentralized system the President said the state governments should take the lion’s share in the Republic of South Sudan. This is obviously one step in the right direction in accelerating socio-economic development for a high standard of living and in promoting unity. The President of Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit has a vision of a nation built on a solid foundation of peaceful co-existence and prosperity for all, and a nation united with itself. Indeed the political leadership of South Sudan is in agreement on the vision. The challenge now is how to make the vision a reality. One way forward is to stop playing politics by not offering lip service and the other is of being pragmatic. People have heard a lot of niceties more than enough before. Now is the time for action after attaining independence in 190 years of struggle. Talents and capabilities are found in all the states and regions of the Republic of South Sudan. The challenge is how to identify those people with such talents and capabilities for informed equitable assignments. The leadership and indeed the people of South Sudan agree that corruption and tribalism are some of the main challenges in nation building because the unity of people may be compromised. In the absence of a rigorous and robust system corruption and tribalism will be rampant. A robust system consists of people of revolutionary thinking, are honest, dedicated to the common good, principled and above all respectful of the rule of law. In addressing people on Saturday 30 July 2011 at Dr John Garang Mausoleum on Martyrs Day, the President of Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, said, “You must be honest for yourself before being honest to the nation and therefore we cannot give a room to useless people who cannot be productive to this nation and they will not fit to be in the next government”. On the same occasion of Martyrs Day Madame Rebecca Nyandeng Advisor to the President on Gender and widow of late Dr John Garang de Mabior urged the people of South Sudan to be united so that the dream of the new nation will be true but said if people continue working on tribal lines then this new country will not develop. On development Madame Nyandeng urged people to embark on agriculture saying, “We should not always be fed by our neighboring countries but rather let us work hard to develop the sector so as to reduce the shortage of food commodities in the markets”. On his part in commemorating the Martyrs Day the Vice President, Dr Riek Machar said, “If the system and structures of government are weak corruption will strive”. Sharing the same podium on Martyrs Day Joseph Lagu, Advisor to the President on Special Affairs urged people top keep peace and freedom in the new country and for people to work hard in development of the agriculture sector. The four leaders who apparently come from the three greater regions of the Republic of South Sudan are in agreement on the way forward. The formation of the government should reflect what the President and the Vice said. The government must be of capable people and a government that is strong and tough on mismanagement. A strong government will also take head-on any tribalistic tendencies in promoting development, peace and unity. On development the two advisors, Madame Rebecca Nyandeng and Joseph Lagu, have said it all. No country will develop without the development of the agricultural sector for self-reliance in food production. Although officially agriculture has been sung as the backbone of the economy, in practical terms it has been starved of resources. For example, barely 2 per cent of the total budget is devoted to the agricultural sector. For agricultural development to take off with tangible results the budget should be 10-25 per cent of the total budget. For good governance the people of Republic of South Sudan may need to be very careful in choosing the system of government that promotes development and unity. Most often due to lack of confidence people may choose a system that only protects immediate vested interest at the expense of long term stability and unity. It was interesting when the members of the South Sudan Legislative Assembly (MPs) were said to have been divided into two camps, decentralization and federal system. The proponents of federal system were said to be initially in the majority. However, in between something dramatically happened when MPs hurriedly switched sides that the proponents of decentralized system automatically became the majority and so carried the day. It is most probable that intimidation and offer of favours might have played a part. However, what is interesting though is how a decentralized or federal system was defined. Were the two systems poles apart according to others imagination at the time? According to a dictionary a decentralized system is transfer of powers from a central to a local authority which is in other words to reorganize a centralized institution on the basis of greater local autonomy. On the other hand a federal system is a system of government in which several states form a unity but remain independent in internal affairs. This precisely means that a system of government in which the individual states of a country have control over their own affairs but are controlled by a central government for national decisions. >From the definitions of the two systems it can be seen that the difference between a decentralized and federal system seems to be little because in either case power is not concentrated in the central government. However, in South Sudan decentralization seems to mean centralization as the central government, for example, deploys police to the states instead of the states recruiting and deploying their own police force as apart of internal affairs in a local autonomy. It was possible that people might have been either confused or simply did not understand the meaning of decentralization. In the previous Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan of 2005, decentralization had been provided as the basis of governance. Article 39(1) states that “Governance in Southern Sudan shall promote democratic principles and political pluralism, and shall be guided by the principles of decentralization and devolution of power to the people through the appropriate levels of government where they can best manage and direct their affairs”. Did that mean the central government was to deploy police to the states? The central government in Khartoum did not deploy police to the states. In conclusion, those who preach unity but deliberately work against a truly decentralized system are nothing but a liability to development and unity. This is because a centralized system is likely to promote hegemony of those who erroneously believe they should always be in the forefront as unquestionably patriotic as the Arabs did. It is worth reminding ourselves that the 99.53 per cent vote for independence was brought about by all the people of South Sudan who are also entitled to enjoy the fruit of independence like anybody else. It is only that we sometimes worry unnecessarily about unity. The 99.53 per cent voter for independence shows clearly that the people of South Sudan will not be divided. We should instead worry about the system of government we adopt because that will determine the extent to which such a system will promote unity in the Republic of South Sudan. It will also depend on how we tackle tribalism and insecurity. The author can be reached at [email protected] COMMENTS, PLEASE CLICK HERE Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author(s) and do not represent those of the website. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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