Monday 3 January 2011

Pressure to continue on new constitution in Tanzania

Dar es Salaam. President Jakaya Kikwete should not be prejudged following his New Year announcement that he intends to set up a commission to review the Constitution, a State House official said yesterday.
“Some people are criticising the President as if he has already formed the commission. This is prejudgment that should not be entertained,” said Premmy Kibanga, assistant director of communications in the President’s office.

Reacting to comments by some politicians and activists who expressed worry that the upcoming constitutional review commission might end up doing a patchy work on the constitution instead of overhauling it, Ms Kibanga said they did not get the president’s message clearly.
“The President did not say he has already formed a commission.

He said he will form a constitution review commission, and this is where confusion arises because some people are just criticising as if the commission is already formed,” she explained. One of the political parties, Civic United Front (CUF) on Sunday announced that it would reject the constitution review commission if it focuses on areas to be amended instead of seeking public views for writing a new document.

According to CUF’s acting deputy secretary general for Mainland, Mr Julius Mtatiro, the President has failed to clearly state whether he firmly stood for a total rewrite of the Constitution or he preferred mere amendments to the existing one. Commenting on CUF’s stance about the constitution, TUCTA Acting Secretary General, Mr Nicholas Mgaya told The Citizen that workers would as well reject the commission.

According to Mr Mgaya, Tucta wants to see the government getting all stakeholders from different walks of life involved in the exercise by contributing their views on a new constitution that would serve the nation’s needs and aspirations rather than making amendments to the current one.

“We need a new constitution that will take care of all anxieties of the people and, therefore, workers and their associations must be given the opportunity to take part in the compilation of the new constitution,” said Mr Mgaya.
Drawing on Kenya’s recent experience in collecting public views for the country’s constitution, Mr Mgaya said the supreme law book identified the role of workers associations, media and other common interest groups.

Meanwhile, a day after CUF urged President Kikwete to fire Justice and Constitution Affairs minister Celina Kombani and Attorney General Fredrick Werema, Ms Kombani asserted that she would not yield to pressure to bow out of office.

On Sunday CUF acting deputy secretary general, Mr Mtatiro asked the president to sack the two officials on account of their remarks regarding public calls for a new constitution.
Ms Kombani and Mr Werema reportedly hinted that the government would only work on amendments to the constitution instead of a complete overhaul of the country’s mother law document. The minister had argued that no budgetary allocation for the process of re-writing the Constitution.

In addition, Judge Werema recently remarked that there was no need for re-writing the constitution, but there was room for stakeholders to come together with the government to make amendments to the current document.
On Friday, however, President Kikwete announced the formation of a commission that would review the constitution and seek public views on what should be changed or improved. The commission, President Kikwete said, will be headed by a prominent lawyer and will comprise other members from both Zanzibar and the Mainland representing people of different levels and interests.

But when referred to her statement yesterday and asked if she considered quitting her office in view of what she had said, Ms Kombani responded that resignation was not in her mind. She insisted that her previous comments were based basing on a personal rather than government position.

“I have nothing to say about the issue but if you ask me if I consider resigning, my answer will be an absolute ‘no’ and I don’t even think that President Kikwete will sack me,” Ms Kombani said yesterday over a telephone interview. When contacted for his opinion on the CUF call, Mr Werema refused to comment saying that he was out of office.
“I don’t need any disturbance from anyone as I am on my leave…I don’t need to hear anything regarding that issue (calls for him to step down),” Mr Werema said over the phone.

But Mr Werema was recently quoted by this paper insisting that he would not heed calls to resign over the controversy that was sparked by his stance on the thorny issues of Dowans compensation and the rage on constitutional review.
He was also unapologetic over his remarks that the country could do with necessary constitutional amendments instead of overhauling the whole of it.

Mr Werema then told this paper that those who were criticising him were ignorant of his work as Attorney General and had little knowledge of the aspects of the two issues being raised.
“Those who want me to resign do not reason because everyone has a right to their opinion. I have given my views on the constitution and anyone with opposing ones has a right to air them,” said Mr Werema.

He added that he knew what he was doing as the government’s chief legal advisor. “I have given such statements with a wide knowledge over legal matters as the country’s Attorney General,” said Mr Werema who was a Judge of the High Court before his appointment early last year.

On the persistent calls for his resignation, he said: “Let them continue pushing for what they want, I am at my home village enjoying my leave.” He said only those with shallow minds would want him out for speaking out his mind.
According to CUF, the stand by taken by both Mr Werema and Ms Kombani indicated that President Kikwete’s government was not committed to forming a new constitution since government officials could not speak the same language.

“It does not come to mind when the President’s advisors on legal issues decide to announce their personal stand on the big issue like this, otherwise that convinces us to believe this government is not intending to listen to the people,” said Mr Mtatiro.
He added: “CUF advises President Kikwete to fire the AG and Minister Kombani because they will tarnish his government’s image in and outside the country. These people have already shown a negative attitude against majority Tanzanians who want a new constitution.”

Mr Werema’s and Ms Kombani’s stand on the calls for a new constitution also drew criticism from different sections of the society. In a cross range of interview politicians, members of civil societies, lawyers and academics rejected Judge Werema’s remarks observing that he had no power to oppose the people’s will.

Most of his critics described his remarks as “unfortunate” and said that he had demonstrated disdain for the public. They charged that the public and those in government could not tolerate his statement if they cared about issues that are people-centered.

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