Tanzania’s Parliament told to go beyond ideological affiliations
By Elias Mhegera – The Tanzanian Parliament’s performance needs to be improved and go beyond ideological affiliations if it was to serve better the interest of the majority Tanzanians.
Prof Abdallah Saffari
This is a conclusion that one could make after listening to the recent debate that Shout-Africa.com had registered its’ presence. The debate was organized by two organizations namely the Tanzania Development Initiative Program (TADIP), and Global Platform Tanzania early this month in Dar es Salaam.
During the opening remarks, Costantine Deus Shirati TADIP’s executive secretary said that his organization decided to convene such a debate after realizing that it has far reaching consequences in terms of people’s trust to their representatives, the members of parliament.
Manyoni East MP, CCM, John Chiligati
Presenting the paper in this session was Pasience Mlowe a lawyer-cum-researcher from the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), he acknowledges the main weakness as partly being caused by the dominance of parliamentarians from the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi which in a way controls affairs in the august House.
Giving statistics of the MPs he says currently the 10th Parliament has a composition from the following political parties; CCM -259, CHADEMA – 48, CUF – 36, NCCR-Mageuzi – 5, TLP – 1 and UDP – 1 and The Attorney General (Ex-officio) – 1
“This composition alone can tell something about the performance even if we were not to go onto details,” he remarks. Further, Mlowe says there is lack of seriousness which tends to allow a lot of promises from the Government without due performance.
Moreover he reminds that during the recent past there were allegations that some MPs were bribed by the local government officials so as to conceal some vital information namely; the district development director (DED) and the Local Government Accounting Committee.
Deputy Speaker Job Ndugai
He elaborates further that there is tendency to allow ideological affiliations to override serious national interests during some of the Bunge sessions as it is known in the Kiswahili national language. “The uproar yes is not necessarily for serious national interest. It is merely a sign of acquiesce towards one’s party.” He reminds.
Moreover, he notes that there is a tendency for the executive to override authority of the legislature. One example to explain that is the fact that currently the Government has gone to the extent of implementing investments in oil, gas and uranium without prior authorization of the Parliament.
He refers to the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania of 1977, Article 63 (3) (c) which stipulates that the Government is answerable to the Parliament. He cites an example of the Bill on Constitutional Review Act, 2011 which was amended three times before its application.
Speaker Ms Anne Makinda
But the most important thing to note is that many of the amendments were initiated from the State House, and in this way sidelining the Parliament. He cites other weaknesses of the 10th parliament under review as being poor attendance and favouritism.
Reacting to these assertions in a separate encounter is the Manyoni East MP, CCM, John Chiligati, who denies all of the above assertions from the presenter. In the question of ideology he says MPs are never divided whenever there are matters of mutual concern, “actually this is where we are always united regardless of our ideological differences,” he defends.
The seasoned politician and former Cabinet Minister argues that on the question of Oil and Gas the Ministry of Energy and Minerals has already issued a statement that there is a policy in place but it needs to be reviewed and updated in order to match with current developments in the area and mining sector in general.
On the question of commotions which occurred in Mtwara at the end of last year he challenges that there was no substantial reasons for people to go amok simply because they did not how they were going to benefit from the oil and gas mining projects.
“In this particular issue I doubt whether the issue was lack of policy or involvement of the people, I think there was something hidden, I cannot understand why people should set ablaze the house of a CCM politician Ms Anna Abdallah or of a town council building in Mikindani, it is sad to revisit these nasty incidents but that is my opinion,” he concluded.
But the National Convention for Construction and Reform, Secretary General, Sam Ruhuza has a different opinion a different opinion he says that the number of CCM-MPs could have been of importance if the party had taken serious the social evils and matters of national interest seriously.
He reminds that all pertinent matters in the Parliament have been emanating from the Opposition legislators. “It is them who have queried on corruption, poor remunerations of teachers and doctors to the recent poor performance in secondary schools,” he remarks.
But his party chairman and presidential appointee MP, James Mbatia says he needs enough time to analyse and comment on these issues. He was attending one of the parliamentary committees’ sessions. He reminds that he had tabled the debate on poor performance in education after a close follow-up.
Prof Abdallah Saffari a prominent Dar es Salaam based lawyer warns that politicians should avoid trespassing the Parliament because this might have serious repercussions after their careers. “Today former Zambian President Rupia Banda is facing charges after having underestimated the legislature.
He counsels that Tanzanian Government treats the legislature with respect because it is the one which provides guidelines in the performance of the Government and its institutions.
Conclusions at the TADIP discussions indicated that citizens are not happy with the performance of the current Speaker of the National Assembly Ms Anne Makinda.
This stance is supported again by Prof Saffari who says that he has been following debates in the media outlets and public forums and he has realised that generally people do not approve the performance of Anne Makinda nor of his deputy Job Ndugai.
Other matters which were given due importance ranges from electoral corruption which at times pave room for incompetent people to win during General Elections, and that there is a need to establish a mechanism which can either check the MPs during their tenure and make them more accountable or else remove them altogether.
