Ongoing CA meeting, a missed opportunity

Dingswayo · 2014-09-13T12:28:47+00:00

The current meeting of the Constituent Assembly (CA) in Dodoma has spent billions in taxpayers money but with virtually nothing to brag about, we can confidently state. The only thing that CA members may brag about is the financial gain they have so far reaped. Undoubtedly, the CA has left the nation fragmented instead of uniting it, and this will cost us dearly in future. When President Jakaya Kikwete announced to the nation for the first time that he plans to lead Tanzanians in writing the new constitution to last for another fifty years, some people celebrated. Others asked whether the Head of State meant it or it was just a move that aimed at satisfying opposition parties that have yelled for the new mother law since the inception of multiparty democracy in 1992. Now, this week President Kikwete having met senior officials of political parties constituting the Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD), it became evident that the chances of getting a new Constitution are no longer existent. As a nation we dont need to start a witch-hunt against one another searching for the specific individual who exactly brought us to this stalemate. Analysts believe that the error committed from the onset of this process was the broad inclusion of politicians, particularly basing this exercise on members of Parliament and members of the House of Representatives as the main body in the Constituent Assembly. By including MPs and Reps into the CA we gave them the rope to hang themselves as such groups have vested interests in the Constitution they were assigned to write before taking it to the public for a vote, that is, a referendum. What happened later is a story that we dont need to repeat because everyone knows it, and surely most of us have been following the changing face of events in Dodoma. However, the question that lingers in the minds of every person is the rationale of the agreement reached between President Kikwete and TCD that the same content of the second draft rejected by some political parties that command a substantial number of Tanzanians should be taken to the public for referendum next year. Given the fact that already billions of shillings have been spent by CA without approaching anticipated outcomes, should we continue with the referendum next year, a process that would see more billions being spent or start the process afresh? And if we agree to start the process afresh, dont we see the pressing need to leave politicians out of the CA and instead find another modality that would help get neutral members into the assembly? If we dont think critically how to go about this process in the next year or thereabouts, future generations will be amused at our incompetence on the job, fraught with instability in the years ahead. Some of us would not wish to let things slide in that direction while we can still do something about it. SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

Thread starter Dingswayo
Start date Sep 13, 2014

Dingswayo

JF-Expert Member

Sep 13, 2014

Winston Mtanzania

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Ongoing CA meeting, a missed opportunity

Dingswayo

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Winston Mtanzania

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