Citizens should lower their expectations on effective representation and service delivery by the newly-appointed Members of Parliament (MPs), a leader of a civil society coalition has said.
President Salva Kiir nominated nearly 500 legislators in the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly, a number that is more than the constituencies and seats in parliament.
But according to the Deputy Chairperson of the South Sudan Civil Society Alliance, Sheikh Vitale Aligo Samson (pictured), majority of the nominees are green in legislative duties, hence, lots of expectations may go unmet.
“We do not expect much from this parliament; most of them are people who do not know the legislative duties. They will only be interested in protecting the agendas of their parties,” Vitale said, as he urged citizens to pin hope on the upcoming elections.
“Citizens must wait for the elections to choose representatives who can address the issues of the homeland and the citizens,” he added, as he went on to hint that the soon-to-be sworn in lawmakers were not elected and hence unaccountable to citizens.
However, Vitale called on the lawmakers to take a positive path and be different from their predecessors, at least for good reasons. The deputy chair placed emphasis on protection and promotion of citizens’ constitutional rights.
Oversight duty
Vitale also challenged the incoming legislators to pile more pressure on the government to ensure that outstanding provisions of the agreement like security arrangements, and graduation of trained unified forces are done.
“Parliament should seek to form a unified national army, in addition to making reforms and reorganising the regular forces, defining their duties, and removing the army from populated areas to avoid any friction,” Vitale said.
As intercommunal tensions reign supreme in most parts of the country, Vitale said it was the role of parliamentary representatives to assess the root cause of conflict and present it to the national government.
Vitale reiterated the necessity of carrying out economic reforms, which included throwing out the “free market” policy and replacing it with the “market control” system.
He said, “The free market policy is an American system, and most often this system succeeds in countries where resources are diversified and their economy is prosperous. It cannot be applied in the country. Market control policy must be adopted to control prices and prevent the greed of merchants.”
Land reforms
Meanwhile, Vitale also stressed the need to reform and reprogram the system of paying salaries for state employees in order to meet their daily needs, especially education and health workers.
He also urged the parliamentary appointees to redefine and draft laws on ownership and management of land, which constitutes an obstacle to allowing investors to find investment lands that can contribute to advancing development in the country after the intransigence of societies.
Vitale said, “There is no law called community ownership of land. Land is always known to belong to the state and it manages the land. The idea of the late Dr. John Garang was a tactic at that time to prevent Arabs from trespassing on the lands of Southern Sudanese communities. Garang’s idea was wrongly understood. That idea must be redefined by Parliament for citizens.”
He also called for the necessity of demarcating borders with neighboring countries to prevent the continuous encroachments from neighboring countries (Kenya, Uganda, Central Africa, Congo, Sudan, and Ethiopia).
Vitale recently described the parliament as a compromised setup, because the current members were not elected but rather came with partisan choices stipulated in the agreement. In his observation, the legislators would not address the issues of citizens and protect their rights because most of them are completely absent from the duties and legislative roles.