It is now official.
Members of the Constituent Assembly (CA) drawn from CCM and those with a
leaning towards it will defend the ruling party’s stand on the Union
structure.
Party’s head of Ideology and Publicity Nape Nnauye
told reporters yesterday that CCM members will go to the CA with one
stand – to defend its two-tier government policy as opposed to the
proposal by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) that the country
adopts a three-tier government system.
The move may be interpreted as a direct
contradiction to President Jakaya Kiwete’s recent calling in Mbeya
counselling members of the CA to be neutral and put national interests
first.
Mr Nnauye announced the ruling party’s stance
following a meeting of the Central Committee (CC) in the morning
yesterday, which was interestingly attended by, among others, President
Jakaya Kikwete, and the Zanzibar President, Dr Ali Mohamed Shein.
President Kikwete is CCM’s national chairman.
The party later hosted a day-long seminar for all
its members of Parliament and those from the Zanzibar House of
Representatives to groom them on different matters ahead of the CA
meeting that starts today. Elsewhere debate on the union structure raged
as various groups and individuals came out to air their views. Other
people, however, feared the political obsession with on the union matter
could impede other critical areas of the Supreme Law.
In Dar es Salaam, academicians under the Eastern
and Southern African Universities Research Programme (ESAURP) said the
debate on which way to go was not informed with concrete evidence.
Speaking at the forum dubbed ‘A 100 Academics
search for Katiba Bora-Tanzania’, the deputy vice chancellor at St
Augustine University of Tanzania (Saut), Rev Dr Thadeus Mukamwa, said it
would have been helpful had the Judge Warioba-led CRC highlighted the
pros and cons of the different federation structures.
“Other than the proposal for a three-tier
government, the Commission did not tell us the causes of the prevailing
union problems. We will need to do more as academicians to establish the
real aspirations of Tanzanians,” Rev Mukamwa said.
A member of the private sector at the Dar es
Salaam forum, Ms Mary Kalikawe warned of the danger that politicians
could hijack the CA process at the detriment of other vital Provisions
and Articles. “There are more politicians than experts in the assembly
and this may be a problem from the onset,” she said.
However, the acting Chief Secretary, Dr Florence
Turuka, told academicians that the Dodoma process provided an
opportunity to take stock of the proposals by the Commission and how
best they could work for the interest of the nation.
And in Zanzibar, a former attorney general, Mr
Hamid Mbwezeleni, also weighed in cautioning against anyone impeding on
other people or groups’ views. He said as far as he was concerned, the
document by the Commission’s proposal was not final and could be changed
drastically in Dodoma.
Mr Mbwezeleni -- who served under former President
Salmin Amour -- agreed that the public deserved to know the full
advantages of all types of governments before being convinced to settle
for either. He said the danger is that the composition of the CA may
affect the final document if parties continue to front sectarian
interests.
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