{UAH} CCM has won, but at what cost? - News - thecitizen.co.tz
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CCM has won, but at what cost? - News
In Summary
Through a White Paper in 1998, another body appointed by the President and known as the Judge Kisanga Committee recommended the same thing--that a federal system was necessary and there should be three governments in the union.
Dar es Salaam. The Constituent Assembly was a house divided well before it set out on its mission in February 2014. We knew in advance that, by and large, Chama Cha Mapinduzi would determine the direction of the new constitution. The burning question now is why CCM managed to get what it wanted.
There are several factors that guaranteed CCM victory. In the first instance, the idea of writing new constitution has been a CCM project since the advent of multi-party politics in 1992. CCM's resistance to the radical changes proposed in the draft by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) was backed by the following factors:
• The party had long been in power under the single political party system
• The union policy and the two-tier government system
• The high cost of running three governments under the union
• The history of the union as established by Julius Nyerere
• The political benefits CCM leaders enjoy in the current arrangement
CCM policy on the structure of union
The Presidential Commission to inquire into whether Tanzania should keep the single political system or switch to multi-party democracy, which was led by the late Chief Justice Francis Nyalali, recommended the writing of a new constitution and a change in the union structure from two-tiers to a three-tier government.
But the CCM government instead amended the 1977 constitution to allow multi-party democracy and turned down the idea of a new constitution and a change in the structure of the union. It was the first blow to any hope of a new constitution that would suit a new political and social environment under multi-party democracy. Tanzania has amended the constitution piece by piece from then on but always maintained the status quo as an ideological policy of the party.
Through a White Paper in 1998, another body appointed by the President and known as the Judge Kisanga Committee recommended the same thing--that a federal system was necessary and there should be three governments in the union. The recommendation angered the president then, Mr Benjamin Mkapa, who openly blasted the committee chairperson in the same way a father would admonish his child. This was the second blow against any chance of writing new constitution that would change the structure of the union.
In the meantime, political parties in the opposition continued to press for a new constitution that would achieve that change. But CCM remained adamant and opposed any initiative that either asked for a new constitution or a change in the structure of the union. The 2010 General Election was another opportunity for the opposition parties to make a demand for a new constitution one of the items in their manifesto. But CCM would have none of it. It came, therefore, as a total surprise when President Jakaya Kikwete announced in his New Year speech on 31 December, 2010, that Tanzania was now in need of a new constitution.
The President's decision on the new constitution
CCM and its members took the President's announcement cautiously. Big shots in the government rejected the President's announcement openly, signalling that there was little chance of radical changes in the new constitution--and this came to pass in the Draft Constitution. CCM leaders saw no logic in sticking to the President's good intentions and they worked at making sure that a new constitution would be only new in paper and not content. CCM made sure the constitutional fundamentals that the CRC proposed would not be part of the new constitution. Any political system that has evolved from the single political party system tends to cling to power by all means. History tells us that new constitutions are always seen as a threat to ruling parties that have been in power for many years and consider themselves state political parties.
CCM and Constitutional Fora
Yet more evidence that CCM would reject everything in Warioba's Draft Constitution that the party did not want was the way it was shrewdly strategic in making sure district constitutional fora were dominated by CCM members. This strategy was meant to change the minds of members of the Warioba Commission on the federal system.
The retention of the same proposed structure of union in the second CRC Draft Constitution angered CCM even further and it then decided to direct its efforts to the CA in the fight against CRC's Draft Constitution.
Cost was another area that helped CCM convince the public that Mr Warioba's proposal to bring in a third government--of Tanganyika--into the union. The chief concerns lay in the resources that would be spent on administration, with fears that this would deny poor citizens essential services such as water, education and health. The CRC members did not make any efforts to explain to the people that the cost of running the current two-tier government was almost the same as that of the three-tier government that was proposed in the draft constitution.
The claim that the cost of running current two governments is less than that of three governments is an illusion. If we have an inclusive system of government called Tanzania Mainland that is separate from the union government, this is the same as having a separate government for Tanganyika and the cost is virtually the same.
It is very unfortunate that CRC said in one of its reports that an important feature of a federal structure of union is high costs. The issue is essentially cheap politics because it is only a matter of playing with numbers--suggesting that number three is greater than two. This is a threat to the ordinary citizen struggling daily to make ends meet.
Hiding behind Mwalimu Nyerere
CCM used the history of the union crafted by Nyerere and Karume to claim that retaining the current structure of the union is the only way to honour the founders of the union. Yet Nyerere says in his book "Our Leadership and Destiny of Tanzania" that the structure of union is not ordained by God and can be changed whenever the people want to do so.
Last but not least, we have to contend with greed for political benefits where a member of parliament gets an opportunity to be appointed to a ministerial portfolio, especially if he or she has contributed immensely to a presidential candidate's campaign--and that candidate goes on to become the president.
These are the factors that held CCM together to make sure that, instead of writing a new constitution, they used the opportunity to reproduce sections from the current Constitution and placed them in what is now called the proposed constitution. If it gets an okay from the majority in the referendum, this will be our new constitution.
The author is a Dar es Salaam-based lawyer/journalist. He can be reached at
mwassajingi@yahoo.com, 0756 440 175
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