New Constitution

jannua · 2011-11-13T01:37:52+00:00

I have been following political, social & Economic situation in Tanzania for some time now, It is sad that the country look like is at the point of no return and there is clear lack of leadership and patriotism. When you look at much of the newspaper a lot of news is written as jokes, issues are not discussed and we have focused more on personalities. We are now in the process as we have been promised of getting a new constitution (or old one with new patches). It is sad that the ruling elite are taking this process as another political game where they need to score points without realising that without a good functioning constitutional we will not achieve the level of development we are aspiring to get. Looking back There will be many debates about how good or bad the previous government in Tanzania have been, but in this article I will not focus much on that although they are few points: 1st Phase - Mwalimu built the foundations of the nation , he had clear vision where and what kind of Tanzania he want. No matter how much we debate his failures or achievement he set the foundations of our country. 2nd Phase - Mzee Mwinyi managed to lay the foundations of Freedom of Speech, it was at this phase of government when a lot of independent newspaper start to flourish and although most were harsh on him ( weather he deserve or not) he did not threaten there existence. 3rd Phase – Mkapa managed to build and stabilise our economy paving the way for future development. History has shown us that we have had good leaders and some bad leaders in the past, we cannot put our lives to ransom and depend on the fate of the dice as to which leader we will get next and that is where we need a good constitution which will make sure that if one day we have a crazy person in Ikulu our constitutional will be able to deal with that person or administration without resorting into arms. So what kind of Constitution we need? *We need agreement with our country which will ensure that we have effective, 3 arms of government (Administrative, Judicial & Parliament) with proper check of power between these three arms of government so that if we have a crazy person who accidentally we vote in power and realise later then the parliament can impeach him and the independent judicial will be there to uphold the constitution and justice. We need a constitutional which will pave the way and protect the role of independent press as well as Non government Organisations, These 2 do play a big part in ensuring that there is less stuff up in the 3 other arms of government. We need a secular constitution where people will be recognised based on merits and not religion, origin or sexuality, the constitution which provide that no one will benefit or be disadvantaged because of the 3 things mentioned earlier We need a constitution which will set independent Election commission, Independent Corruption Commission (to investigate corruption in all other levels except police) and Separate Independent Police Commission which will monitor & investigate corruption in Police force. We need constitution which will protect individual rights to legal engage and participate in economic and social activities and ensure that government decisions are not made to disadvantages those who choose to run their own enterprises within the laws. A constitution which set the standard of every one being accountable and equal under the law, a small corruption will be treated as equal as big one and our leaders will be accountable for their mistake and when applicable taken to court. Is it time to have Majimbo? I have lost count of how many regions Tanzania have so far, and we keep creating new ones with the excuse of to bring development closer to wananchi ( I wonder if this is true) I think we need to decentralised more our system of government in different way, we can divide the country into several Kanda or Majimbo which are not necessary based on religion or tribal. This Majimbo will elect their governor and parliament who will be responsible for them. Majimbo will be given some power to enact laws specific to the Jimbo just like how municipal do now. They will correct rates and taxes specific to the Jimbo (same as municipal do now) They will have Police force, with power only applicable to specific Jimbo (This will be separate from Tanzania Police which will have power over Tanzania with a need to collaborate with Jimbo Police) The Tanzania/Tanganyika government will retain power over foreing affairs, custom, Army and some Taxes as it is now. Where there is conflict between Jimbo and Main Tanzania government, the Main Tanzania law will prevail but Jimbo have option of take the matter to High Court of Tanzania. Jimbo will have its own judicial system which will be below the High Court of Tanzania and Court of Appeal of Tanzania. Residence of Jimbo will not be determined by kabila, it will be based on where a particular person lives, so if you live in Dar and you are Msukuma you belong to Dar Jimbo where you will vote, be able to stand in an election and be subjected to the laws of that Jimbo as well as the Main government laws applicable. This means residence will change based on your permanent residence at that time, so if you then move to Mbeya Jimbo, you will update your detail and vote there. This also mean to stand in election you will need a permane place in Jimbo or in other words you will have to live there not living in Dar and want to be ledear or MP of Tanga/Arusha Jimbo. Elections to Jimbo could be held every 4 years and the central government every 5 as it is now. Why change of system? The current system does not give leaders incentive to be creative and work towards their people, RC and DC are not answerable to wananchi of the area, they answer to someone who sits in Ikulu. It is in our human nature to be competitive, Jimbos will be competing to do well in comparison to other Jimbo's and elected leaders have incentive to be creative and solve issues in their localities. Someone might ask what if Some Jimbo are richer than others in terms of mineral etc? Well same application as today, they will be Tax by central government which will then be distributed to Jimbos based on needs, at the same time Jimbo's will be able to levy some taxes and use that in development of their regions. I t can be a certain percentage of royalties goes to Jimbo and rest to Central government. Corruption Every day we hear about another corruption scandal and the next one is bigger than the previous one, how do we deal with this? Many Tanzanians have either taken or given bribes, with lots of excuses given either valid or not , some reasons given are greed, low income and other have to give bribes because they need service and they can't get without ‘kitu kidogo" While we should have strong laws against corruption at the same time we need to think of rewarding better workers especially lower income /middle, the top elite have good salary and big pension when they retire so they are only motivated by greed and the law should take its course. They are lots of rumours about previous governments corruptions, (2nd & 3rd) if we have proof let's take them to court and if we want to pardon them that is different issue, but we can't succeed in this fight without dealing with that. Do we need a Truth commission? A pardon period? I don't have answers to many questions and I will not claim that what I have put here is the answer or correct, but I do believe that they are a lot of Tanzanian who have very good idea about the way forward but they don't like politics which is now destroying our country. As a country we need a debate, we need to talk about issues and not personalities, we are in deep shit and if we are not serious we will be left behind by all our neighbours while we are fighting about stupid things like ukabila & udini. Where are the visionary voices? Shall we continue killing each other because of Politics? New Constitution

Thread starter jannua
Start date Nov 13, 2011

jannua

Member

Nov 13, 2011

jannua

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Jan 29, 2013

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