Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 836242,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/836242/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 128,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nambale, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Sakwa Bunyasi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I really want to put my views on record in response to this matter. The team has prepared a good Report and the idea of Pan-African Parliament is definitely good. We should increasingly think less about our boundaries and heightening of our sovereignty in Africa. We should think more about collaborative efforts. In this day and age, the purpose of national boundaries is essentially to organise economic wellbeing. Except for regimes that are punitive and locked in ethnic clashes and need to get out of such situations, the purpose of stable nations is to improve on the wellbeing of the nations. People can deal with cultural and ethnic issues and any other pursuits. At the continental level, if we can put more effort into improving the economic component, it will be good for the citizens. One way of doing this is allowing free movement of people. People are the primary resource in Africa. It is not the natural resources that others come to plunder. Our people are the primary resource. Movement helps people to broaden their horizon, identify opportunities, secure their gains and have something for which they stand. Encouraging and allowing people to move freely will, in fact, reduce our tendency to cling around our ethnic groupings and things like that. We will then have business contacts and friends across the continent. We will borrow cultural traits from some people and surrender to others across nations. That will be extremely helpful. We recently had a very explosive debate on issues to do with taxation. Linking development to taxation is important not just in our own nation. We also need to see how others are doing across Africa. States around the world have been having tax-related revolts for a long time. There are serious revolts which bring down governments. When we get such an alternative attempt, like we did, it should not be viewed with a narrow mindset and acrimony. We may have acrimony but we should realise that this is a policy question that affects many nations across the world. Sometimes it reaches a point where citizens can no longer take it. They may rebel. The citizens may demand a review of the taxation laws to widen the tax net and ensure efficient collection of tax revenues as we punish those who do not conform. If you evade paying tax in the United States of America, for example, you will be hunted down as if you are a murderer. In fact, you will lose face to an extent that you can no longer even enjoy your cocktails with people who know that you are a tax evader. The loyalty to this is very important. As we work across nations in various Parliaments, we will begin to appreciate the importance of paying what it takes them to govern us. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}