Talk:Saving South Sudan

Discussion of the proposed UTSS Constitution in General

Comments, suggestions about the proposed Constitution of the United Tribes of South Sudan, in general, should go in this first section.

To comment about a specific part of the Constitution, you can study the entries below to see how to contribute, or study the article Contributing to specific parts of the proposed UTSS Constitution.

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Discussion of Specific Portions

Preview #11 Freedom of Religion & Speech

(11) to protect freedom of religion, which means there can be no federal law, passed by Congress, forcing anyone to attend, give to, agree with, or pay taxes to, any religious organization.

Nor any law that limits the free expression by any citizen or government official of any religious view, but especially these principles found exclusively in Christianity: abhorrence of slavery, of torture, of war (except in self defense), of less than equal protection of the laws for the most vulnerable (women, children, orphans, immigrants), of bribes, and of sexual violence.

However, federal laws may restrict speech – even religious speech – which persuasively calls people to commit crimes as defined by the laws of Congress, (which represent the majority of South Sudanese voters), on communication platforms which cross tribal boundaries.

Discussion

1. 11 says what the First Amendment to the U.S. constitution was originally understood to mean.

There was a problem in early America that is like the problem in South Sudan today with Christian and Moslem tribes trying to live side by side under the same laws. In Christian tribes today, slavery and many things done to women are crimes, and it is a crime to even promote them, while in Moslem tribes they are religious obligations which they can’t avoid promoting when they read their scriptures in public! How can they live together in peace?

From 1789 to 1860, the Southern states held slaves – some captured from Sudan by Moslems – which was a serious crime in the laws of the Northern States. Both sides stood on the same Scriptures! So the division then should have been much easier to resolve than the division today. But the division was supported by violently different claims about those same Scriptures.

Then there was war. Four years. The war that produced the most casualties of any war in U.S. history, 750,000, and the only war in world history fought by free men, to free slaves.

The war didn’t stop when the troops went home. The bullets stopped, but the lawyers started. In the United States, the 13th Amendment was enacted in 1866 to outlaw slavery except for conviction for a crime, so the Southern states simply passed laws against what everybody does, that applied only to blacks. Blacks “violated” these “laws”, and then were “sentenced” to slavery.

So the 14th Amendment was enacted in 1868 that made states give everybody “equal protection of the laws”. There could be no laws that applied more to blacks than to others. This was the first time, since the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1789, that the federal laws and courts had jurisdiction over what states do within their own borders.

Although it is very good that slavery was finally outlawed throughout the United States, jurisdiction over the internal affairs of states has been evil.

For example, based on that same “equal protection of the laws” clause of our 14th Amendment, our Supreme Court has ordered all states to allow mothers to kill their unborn babies, for the past 44 years. And now courts are using it to force states to certify sodomite (homosexual) “marriage”.

It took a bloody civil war, and the irregular passage of Constitutional Amendments without letting Southern Congressmen even vote, to finally outlaw slavery in Christian America. It may be much more difficult for the UTSS to force Moslem tribes to give up slavery and subjugation of women, where those crimes are embedded and honored in their religion!

So this will be a choice faced by South Sudanese: do you want a government that will force all tribes to give all their citizens “equal protection of the laws”, the way the 14th Amendment does for the U.S.? Do you want to force all tribes to apply its laws equally to all people? Or do you want the federal government to let such tribes alone, to live by whatever religious values they choose?

In other words, do you want to outlaw Sharia?

In other words, where you have a Moslem tribe, do you want to make it a condition of joining the UTSS, that they outlaw slavery and subjugation of women, and all the rest of their Qu’ran-honored crimes? So that if they refuse, they may not join the UTSS but will become their own sovereign nation, like a Native American tribe, within South Sudan’s borders?

Federal jurisdiction over the equality of laws within tribes will place a considerable burden on federal courts.

Unless the UTSS Constitution clearly asserts such jursidiction, Federal laws will have no jurisdiction over laws any Tribe may make concerning activity within its borders. Congress may pass only federal laws.

For example, a Moslem tribe may choose to retain slavery. However, if its slaves were captured from across its borders, federal laws have jurisdiction. If people are held by a tribe who never wanted to be members of the tribe, and who have not been lawfully convicted of any crime, that is kidnapping across a tribal border and a federal matter.

Perhaps there is value in permitting evil to continue among those who choose it, as a reminder to the rest of the land how ugly it is. But a federal Congress with jurisdiction over “man stealing” across borders, may establish extradition agreements to free people forced by a tribe to join it, or to be Moslems.

As for visitors to a tribe, they are subject to its laws while visiting, just as visitors to another U.S. State, or to any other country, are subject to its laws while visiting. It is only a small problem in the U.S., where the variation is not nearly so dramatic as between Christian and Moslem laws. The federal government may certainly issue warning bulletins for tourists.

Governor Abbot of Texas wants to pass a Constitutional Amendment to “1. Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one State.” That’s what the U.S. Constitution did, before 1868. Its collision with “equal protection of the laws” may need more discussion of how they can operate side by side in America.

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1-1 The House

The Legislature of the United Tribes of Southern Sudan, consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives, is the only body authorized by this Constitution to create laws. Adapted from Article 1, Section 1, U.S. Constitution

Discussion

In other words, neither the President nor the Supreme Court can pass laws. The President can veto laws, thus forcing Congress to pass them by a 2/3 majority rather than just a “simple” majority (over 50%). But the President can’t pass a law. Today, our president’s cabinet writes “administrative laws” authorizing bureaucrats to swarm across America writing rules, levying fines, and seizing property, and our Supreme Court sometimes overturns laws and writes new ones, but these powers are not in our Constitution.

Here is a choice for Sudanese: should the UTSS legislature be called “Congress”? How about “Parliament”, or simply “Legislature” – meaning the body that legislates, or passes laws?

“Parliament” means where the executive, the Prime Minister, is elected by the legislature from its own members; in a “Congress”, the President is independent and is elected directly by the people. There are a few other differences.

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1-1-1 Composition and Election of Members

(Article 1, Section 1, Clause 1) Members of the House of Representatives will be elected every two years, from each tribe, by the adults of that tribe, by secret ballot. Candidates must be as qualified as leaders of their Tribal Council. The President has no legal power to appoint Representatives, remove Representatives, or to influence elections by any exercise of law. Adapted from Article 1, Section 1, Clause 1, U.S. Constitution

Discussion

Tribes, or States? A choice to consider is whether the subdivisions of the South Sudan government should be tribes, or the current system of 32 “states”, increased recently from the 10 created by the 2011 Constitution.

When you tell people where you are from, do you say “I am from ____ state” or “I am from ____ tribe”?

What authority settles issues within a tribe or between tribes: the state governor, or the tribal council?

What political subdivision has been constant for generations, with boundaries everyone has known for years: tribes, or states?

Divisions by tribes are natural, fixed, and familiar. Self government within tribes is centuries-old habit. Tribes may be a more stable foundation of government than the new “states” whose number changes about every two years, led by governors not elected by the people they govern but appointed by someone from another tribe.

This will be a choice for South Sudanese. Perhaps states will continue to be the choice. Meanwhile these proposals will proceed as if Tribes will prove the preferred subdivision.

What others say about the importance of tribal authority:

The Brookings Institute recommends: “Integrate traditional institutions into conflict resolutjion mechanisms. Ethnic groups in South Sudan, like in other parts of Africa, have long employed traditional institutions (e.g., village or tribal councils) to resolve conflicts. As part of the nation-building project, South Sudan should carefully examine these traditional institutions and incorporate them into its constitutionally mandated legal and judicial institutions in ways that are consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other international treaties and conventions.”

Sudan: Behind the defiance, a whirr of diplomacy - May 7th 2009 - Violence in south Sudan - Old problems in the new south - Southern Sudan is becoming bloodier than Darfur - Jun 2nd 2009 Middle East and Africa “Tribal councils come together to make what we Dinka term “the good decision.” 

When conflicts arise or situations present themselves, the people, led by their chiefs and their elders, will sit in a circle to discuss what needs to be done. This is the traditional way, and it apparently has worked over many, many generations.” Seed of South Sudan: Memoir of a ‘Lost Boy’ Refugee by Majok Marier and Estelle Ford-Williamson, pub. McFarland, p. 168,

These sorts of tribal fights over access to the best grazing lands have been at the heart of many of Sudan's bloody wars. Up to the 1980s, such conflict was well managed by local inter-tribal councils. Such forums used to resolve how far the nomadic tribes, or pastoralists, would be allowed to bring their cattle through the lands of settled farmers. The marauding herds would cause a lot of damage as they passed through the farmers' fields; but inter-tribal councils worked out the compensation that the nomads had to pay to the farmers as a result.

This system, however, broke down in the 1980s after the terrible drought and famine of the early 1980s, during which some nomadic tribes lost as much as 80% of their livestock. Furthermore, many of the Arab tribes were now armed, for their own political purposes, by the Islamist politicians in the central government in Khartoum. This made the young nomads much less inclined to use old peaceful arbitration methods; now the armed nomads could just shoot their way through.

But it is dispiriting that these clashes still happen, and on the scale of the past few weeks. In recent years the UN and international NGOs have tried to revive the old tribal arbitration systems, even demarcating the seasonal migration routes with clearly marked poles. Yet still the fighting continues, in the south, in the centre and in Darfur.

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1-1-3 Apportionment of Members and Taxes

(Article 1, Section 1, Clause 3) The populations of the Tribes will determine how many Representatives they have in Congress, and how much tax each Tribe owes directly to the UTSS. Adapted from Article 1, Section 1, Clause 3, U.S. Constitution (That clause from the U.S. Constitution matches from here through the end of the following chart.)

Refugees in the Bush and in refugee camps, who do not pay taxes to the Tribes, and do not participate in elections, will not be counted as part of the populations of the Tribes.

The Census, which shall record only the NUMBER of eligible voters – not names, addresses, or children – shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United Tribes, and every 10 years afterwards, as Congress directs by law.

There will be one Representative for every forty thousand population, using rounding to establish the number. Until the first census is conducted, the following chart shows the Representatives allowed each tribe. Representatives of tribes numbering less than 10,000 will have 1/2 vote and 3/4 the expense account of other representatives; representatives of tribes numbering less than 5,000 will have 1/4 vote and 1/2 the expense account. Their tribes may make up the differences, and their representative will have the same right to speak as others, or may combine with other small tribes to reach a total 10,000 population and elect someone to represent them.

Discussion

Originally the U.S. federal government did not collect taxes from individuals; thus the federal government had no reason or excuse to keep everybody's name and address, or to track the movements of every citizen. “Direct Taxes” meant taxes paid directly by states to the federal government.

In the fiscal year 2015-2016 the GRSS collected a PIT, Personal Income Tax, of 1.138 billion SSP, or $69 million USD, less than 10% of its total revenue. There are several reasons to abolish this tax, just as it was in America before our 16th Amendment created our personal income tax.

Income Tax creates a government record of every individual, making it easy for tyrants to find and identify its victims. There is no good reason for a national government to track all its citizens. There are many bad reasons. See Revelation 13 and 14, and compare Numbers 1 with 1 Chronicles 1 and 2 Samuel 24. Or see “Why the ‘Mark of the Beast’ Matters” or “E-verify too close to the Mark of the Beast for comfort” or “E-verify’s Fatal Problems”.

It forces individuals to spend considerable time counting money which would be better spent making money.

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1-1-3b Apportionment of Members and Taxes

(Article 1, Section 1, Clause 3) ...The Census, which shall record only the NUMBER of eligible voters – not names, addresses, or children – shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United Tribes, and every 10 years afterwards, as Congress directs by law.

Discussion: 

Although the U.S. Constitution doesn't specifically limit the amount of information which census workers can record, it was understood then that a government able to monitor its citizens is a tyranny, so the first Census recorded only last names and how many in each county had that same name. Exodus 30:12-16 attaches grave importance to conducting a Census so it is not only accurate, but so that not even names are recorded: every citizen gives a fixed sum of money, and only the money is counted. In each region, every citizen walks through a line and drops his money, too quickly for any scribe to record his name.

His chief is there, who will know if anyone is missing. The federal government doesn’t need to know. The chief is motivated to get everyone there because the more people they count, the more representatives the tribe has in Congress; but the chief is not motivated to get more representatives by emptying his own purse into the pot to create fictitious voters, because the sum of money required to significantly increase his power would make him poor.

God placed so much emphasis on this system that He said the money actually constituted “a ransom for his soul, that there be no plague among them”. A “ransom” is something which buys freedom for someone in captivity, and certainly this system “buys” safety from dictators.

It was more of a burden on the poor than on the rich, because everyone paid the same amount – it equaled about a week’s salary. But the poor benefited more than the rich, because tyrants pick on the poor more readily than on the rich.

Perhaps, back then, as it would probably be done today, those who really had nothing to pay were given the payment by friends or even by their chiefs.

In The Sudan today, it is unlikely that any census done any other way will be accurate, because people will not come out of the Bush to give their names, lest their political enemies find them and kill them. But they will give something of value, if they have it, if they remain known only by their own chiefs, in order to give their own people representation.

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1-1-3c Apportionment of Members and Taxes

This discussion is of the Chart showing populations and names of tribes, and how many representatives and senators that should give them:

Discussion:

The challenge of this paragraph is to come up with a formula that won’t fill our meeting hall with 10,000 Congressmen. The United States presently has 425 Congressmen meeting in a single hall. As U.S. population has grown, the population required to authorize one Congressmen has been raised, so that now states have one Congressman per about 600,000 population.

In the U.S., even the smallest state has one full Congressman and two Senators. But no state ever had fewer than 20,000 people. [In 1770, Georgia had the smallest population: only 23,000, not counting slaves. New states were not admitted until their population reached 60,000.] One practical problem with giving a tribe with fewer than 1,000 people a full Congressman, is that larger tribes will be tempted to split, in order to get more representation and more expense accounts! That trick could give very small tribes equal representation with very large tribes!

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1-2-5 Speaker, other Officers, Impeachment

(Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5) The House of Representatives shall choose its own officers. Only the House has authority to initiate an “impeachment”, which means to charge the President, a federal judge, a Senator, a Representative, or a department head, for noncriminal offenses. The House cannot convict, but only “impeach”; it is the Senate which must then hold trial, with the power to convict and remove from office. Adapted from Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution UTSSdiscussion 1-2-5

Discussion

When Bill Clinton was impeached, people said impeachment should only be for criminal offenses. But this paragraph proves otherwise. It says only the House of Representatives can Impeach. Well, if impeachments were only for criminal offenses, that wouldn't be true, because as we saw in 1999, not even Presidents are immune from prosecution, in ordinary courts, for felonies. But the purpose of impeachment is to remove a politician from office for actions which are not quite crimes, but are scandalous enough to tarnish the work of Congress.)

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1-3-2 Classification of Senators; Vacancies

(Article 1, Section 3, Clause 2) Senators shall be chosen by the Tribal Councils of the tribes they represent, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. No part of the federal government has any legal authority over any part of the selection of any Senator. Adapted from Article 1, Section 3, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution (That section of the U.S. Constitution corresponds to this and the next paragraph.)

Discussion

An equal voice. There are 78 tribes total. 35 have at least 40,000 population. 13 have between 10,000 and 40,000. 29 have fewer than 10,000. The population of one is unknown.

The U.S. Constitution provides two senators for each state, which means 100 Senators for our current 50 states. This gives an equal voice to every state, regardless of size, in the Senate, while the House gives an equal voice to every voter.

This was reasonable in the U.S. because there were never any really tiny states. In 1770, Georgia had the smallest population: only 23,000, not counting slaves. New states were not admitted until their population reached 60,000.

But will Sudanese choose strict equality with tribes with as few as 300 souls? If so that will make the above paragraph simpler; 2 senators per tribe. (The U.S. wanted two rather than one, so that if one got sick the state would still be represented.) The above is suggested in case Sudanese choose to give small tribes a more equal voice, but not a perfectly equal voice, with their numerous neighbors.

Appointment by Tribal Councils. A later Amendment caused U.S. Senators to be elected by the people directly. But American experience throws doubt on whether that was a better idea. We see how the candidate, in order to become known to that many more people, requires that much more money for transportation, literature, and other communication, which means he is more vulnerable to bribes. And it is more likely that he will receive campaign funding from outside his state.

In the original system, people elected their own state legislators, who were local men they knew; and their legislators had a better opportunity to get to know, and to discern, who would best represent their state in Washington. Not only did they have more opportunity, but they had far more interest in voting wisely than the average citizen. In South Sudan, the Tribal Councils know the candidates well, without the necessity of an expensive campaign.

A candidate can more easily confuse millions of citizens who barely know him, than a few dozen sharp leaders who know him intimately. One wins support of millions with his wealth; one wins support of a few wise men with his reputation.

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1-6-1 Compensation and legal protection

(Article 1, Section 6, Paragraph 1) ...During sessions, and while traveling to and from sessions, they shall be immune from arrest for any crime except disturbing the peace, or any felony [serious crime]. (While at home they may be arrested and prosecuted for minor as well as for major crimes, just like anyone else.) They may not be interrogated, by any other government official, for any position they take during a session. They may be arrested for treason (for fighting, helping, or encouraging enemies of all the Tribes) but must be released if the House does not vote within 10 days to pursue impeachment proceedings.

Discussion

The less stable a government is, the easiest it is for a president to falsely accuse a leader of “treason”, and to then imprison him indefinitely. A 10 day limit is suggested to discourage this.

If there were no immunity in the U.S. Constitution, it would be easy to falsely charge a Congressman with, say, “spitting on the sidewalk”, and get him arrested just in time for an important vote.

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