“Did Ukawa declare a “No going back to CA”? This is what I suspected right from the beginning, do you know why? “Too many cooks will spoil the food”, as a Swahili saying goes. We have too many politicians and self-interest personalities in the composition of the CA that are unnecessary? We do not need too many ministers, MPs, government officials and too many politicians to draft a country’s constitution though we may need a handful of these and the rest should be drawn from members of the public, lawyers, academicians, doctors, intellectuals and other members of the public who are non party affiliates or at least can swear to be so! Solution: Dissolve CA and go back to fix trouble areas that have cropped up in CA and task a new body to draw the constitution using the experience we have learned from CA and Ukawa failures! John Mziray No going back, Ukawa declares BY NELSON KESSY 3rd August 2014 Email Print Registrar of political parties Judge Francis Mutungi The Coalition of Defenders of the People’s Constitution (Ukawa) formally declared yesterday that they will neither participate nor go back to the Constituent Assembly (CA). The decision comes after Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and Ukawa officials failed to resolve their differences surrounding the resumption of the Constituent Assembly, billed to start earl next week. Briefing newsmen yesterday in Dar es Salaam, Ukawa chairman Freeman Mbowe said that from the beginning of negotiations they were aiming to change operations of the CA, to ensure that it is performing its duty according to stipulated rules and regulations. One of its central tasks is to approve the constitutional draft as it was proposed by majority views on the basis of the draft by the Constitutional Review Commission and not otherwise, but CCM was trying to make the constitutional draft as a party constitution, he said. “One amongst the reasons that forced us to get out of the Constituent Assembly is the taking up officially by CCM of views which are opposed to the majority views as presented by the commission,” he further stated. Since the promulgation of the Constitutional Review Commission’s three tier government system, CCM has tended to force views which propose retaining the two tier government system without seeking the views of the people, thus destroying the basis of the constitutional draft, he said. According to Mbowe, one day before the fourth meeting between CCM and Ukawa officials, President Kikwete repeated what he did during the opening of the CA, whereby he said that CA has no mandate of changing the constitutional draft, as its duty is to discuss and approve the constitutional draft. He said that what President Kikwete said in his speech continued misleading the public on the use of standing order no. 33(8) i of the Constitution Assembly concerning its powers, and avoiding to talk about changes made on 25th April 2014 after Ukawa members walked out of CA. “Such changes introduced new regulation number 32 (6) which allows CA to propose a new chapter in the constitutional draft,” Mbowe asserted. “The changes seek to establish a new chapter from CCM in the draft which proposes a two tier government system and altering other chapters, something which is contrary to the majority view on the proposed federal constitution of the country,” he emphasized. For his part, NCCR Mageuzi Chairman James Mbatia said that Ukawa officials are not ready to proceed with discussion alongside CCM members or returning to CA as doing that will betray the people’s views and was a misuse of public funds which could be used for essential needs. “We were supposed to start with political will and then draft the law, but CCM went vice versa. That’s why we failed to reach a resolution of the problem,” Mbatia stated. Article 98 of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania says that Parliament may enact a law for altering any provision of this Constitution in accordance with the following principles: (a) a Bill for an Act to alter any provisions of this Constitution, other than those relating to paragraph (b) of this sub article or any provisions of any law specified in list one of the Second Schedule to this Constitution shall be supported by the votes of not less than two thirds of all the Members of Parliament; and (b) a Bill for an Act to alter any provisions of this Constitution or any provisions of any law relating to any of the matters specified in List two of the Second Schedule to this Constitution shall be passed only if it is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all Members of Parliament from Mainland Tanzania and not less than two-thirds of all Members of Parliament from Tanzania and Zanzibar. On 16th April 2014 Ukawa walked out of CA in protest against what they described as a deliberate move by CCM members to hijack the debate in favour of their party interests. Meanwhile , a section of academic and political experts in the country have expressed being stunned by extremist party politics dominating the constitution writing process, saying the wrangling between CCM and Chadema should be softened enough to proceed with the work, not sticking to their party ideologies. They said that the intended new constitution was for the betterment of the whole of society that should not be tempered with for political gain. Addressing a gathering in Dar es Salaam during the commemoration of African Women’s Day in Dar es Salaam at mid week, a secrion of academics and MPs said some members of the CA were unashamed and bold about party politics, failing to openly express their views in a critical and objective manner only because they fear losing bread from their parties. On the occasion former speaker of the African Parliament, Ambassador Dr Getrude Mongela criticized the Constituent Assembly (CA) over its inept management and leadership method, saying it is the reason that its members were unable to stand in one line and instead they split up into groups. Dr. Mongela said the management in the CA is the proper tool which can bring all members together. CA groups like the Coalition for the People’s Constitution (UKAWA) and Tanzania One are illegal groups, she said, noting that this raises questions of who allowed them to form those illegal constitutional boards in the country. “We sent them in the CA to bring a new constitution for the country and not to form the groups as they did,” she emphasized. Dr. Mongela urged the UKAWA group to return to the assembly because it better to pour water out when you’re in it than to pour it in when you are out. It is unwise to continue complaining while they are outside, she said. In his presentation titled “Where we fail in CA,” Dr. Khoti Kamanga, an international law lecturer from the University of Dar es Salaama, said the CA process has failed since the beginning due to its foundation that resulted from a weak constituting act. The constituting act has a lot of weakness and instead of forming the constituent assembly we have a politicians’ assembly who represented their parties, “and today we harvest what we planted,” he said. CA members should respect the law by placing emphasis of the constitutional review process to the proposed constitutional draft and not their opinions, he said. As most CA remembers are politicians who representing their parties, therefore they are respecting their parties’ ideology rather than the process of making a constitution. He also warned over the system of using the majority as a winner in any topic and also assuming that the majority are the winners regardless of the logic of issues in the topic. “The system will always make the minority fail although sometimes theyhave a strong point,” the don emphasized. Contributing to the discussion, Lilian Liundi from the Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP) said that they were shouted down over the weakness of the CA Act and the assembly has failed today because people were not ready to listen. For her part Hellen Kayanza, CHADEMA representative at the discussion, recommended that the CA process stop and provide room for all weak Acts to be revisited and then forming a new CA which will have less preponderance of politicians. Saumu Rashid, a representative from UDP affirmed that the CA reconciliation committee was supposed to be formed by members who were not in the Assembly so as to bring about fairness in judgment. SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 17:19:32 +0000
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