Thank you very much.
The honourable member has mentioned the hope that he has seen in the eyes and aspirations of our people during our independence in 2011. To be very frank, the common man is still hopeful. It's just that we have fallen into this tragic war that has robbed us, that was imposed on the people. The aspirations of common people in South Sudan is that they want to see a better South Sudan. That better South Sudan was the reason that we have gained our independence from the north because the northerners, during those years, were not allowing us to have that freedom so that we could rule ourselves, govern ourselves in that aspect.
For that reason, the call for a federal system is the aspiration of many South Sudanese. Why do we do that? Because it was within the SPLM policy of taking town to villages that has been there before war and after independence. People want to live in their own homes. They want to grow, they want to work hard and see with their own eyes the growth of what is really important in their life.
With that, I would say that the Canadian government can help us with the issue of federalism, the effective system of governance. How are the resources being distributed in a federal system? Do you give the national government...? Or does the national government take all the resources and then distribute them back to the state and the constituencies that are there?
I remember what Honourable Odwar just said. I remember one of the honourable members made a motion in 2012 in the parliament. That motion was about the dollar. You see our dollar today is very low. Tomorrow it's very high and it affects the salaries of individuals who are receiving small amounts of money because as the dollar goes high the market also goes high. So that honourable member requested parliament to call the central bank so that the central bank president could come and explain why the dollar has not been stable. You see, it was a big issue. The groups that are supporting the fluctuation because they have individual banks to sell the dollar.... Some of them are selling the dollar on the streets, as Honourable Odwar has just mentioned. They have seen that they will be accountable to that, and you cannot believe it. They went to the house of that honourable member and they were threatening him to withdraw his motion and they were also bribing him. They brought money and told him that if it was about the money, they would give him this money but he would have to withdraw his motion from parliament. And the guy refused. Later on, it is unfortunate that this honourable member's elder brother was killed during the war. He was targeted. Somebody called his number and said they were coming, and then he disappeared. When he ran away he left his brother, and his brother was murdered right there.
Our country needs a lot of institutional reforms. Our country needs supervision. Our country also needs a hand to be lifted from where it is to the international or regional standards. For example, now we are talking about humanitarian assistance. Yet, the national budget has approved $500 million for an election that the government has scheduled to take place in June, although now we are hearing that they have cancelled the election but have extended the president's term of office. How do you talk about elections and all this money and yet your people are confined in the camps in the capital city, let alone in the camps that are outside? You see that the government has an issue, and a stable country like Canada can actually help South Sudan to come out from there so that at least we have our independence in reality. We see the system of governance that can take our country forward.
Thank you.