Our article of last week, terminated at the point when I was discussing my reminiscences of my second tenure in the Speaker’s office which commenced in 1990; when I was elected Deputy Speaker, and later as Speaker of the National Assembly until 2005. But, because of strict limitations of editorial space, some important aspects were not covered, a deficiency which will be partly remedied in today’s article.
One of my published books is titled “The Story of the Tanzania Parliament” (Nyambari Nyangwine Publishers, Dar es Salaam, 2013); in which I have also told part of the story of my experiences during that period; but even that still does not cover the whole range of experiences which I gained there from; that could usefully be shared with others; particularly in the leadership area of decision-making.
The main function of any Speaker, is to preside over the proceedings of Parliament; a function which is commonly compared with that of a referee, or that official who controls the game in some of the sports; whose primary responsibility is to ensure that the rules of the game are strictly observed by the players; and who has adequate power and authority to punish anyone who dares violate those rules.
But the books of authority on Parliamentary practice and procedure, also provide that in carrying out his responsibilities, the Speaker is also expected “to maintain the high standards of dignity and impartiality which that office demands”; and also “ to act wisely and firmly, preferably with a small dose of humour, when tempers in the House are on edge”.
These are some of the basic tenets that I constantly endeavoured to observe, throughout the 15-years of my tenancy of the Speaker’s Chair.
The Speaker’s Rulings.
Decisions which are made by the Speaker (or any other person presiding) from the dignity of Speaker’s Chair, are called “Speaker’s Rulings”. They carry the same legal status as ‘Court Rulings”, in the sense that they can indeed be challenged, but only through special procedures that are laid down for that purpose. (on Monday of last week, I received telephone calls from some journalists who were seemingly challenging Speaker Job Ndugai’s recent ruling relating to certain CHADEMA MPs. But being mindful of this fact, I restrained myself accordingly from making any comments).
My extraordinary good leadership fortune.
In last week’s article, I referred to what is said in the Books of Authority on the subject of ‘leadership’ regarding how people become leaders; namely that there are those “who stumble into leadership because of the times they live in, or the circumstances in which they find themselves”; and I wholeheartedly placed myself in this category; simply because I happened to be there in Parliament just at the right time; when great and fundamental political transformation and reconstruction changes were taking place in our country; in which Parliament had a big historical role to play, in legislating for these fundamental, non-recurring, major historical changes.
In this article, will refer specifically to the Parliament’s most core functions of Constitution-making and Constitutional amendment, wherein I found myself in the happy position of being a very close eye-witness of these historic processes in the earlier ones, but a very active player in the case of the current Constitution. The relevant Constitutions are:
(i)the Tanganyika Independence Constitution of 1961;
(ii) the Tanganyika Republican Constitution, 1962;
(iii) the interim Constitution of the United Republic, 1964;
(iv) the ‘One-party’ Constitution, 1965, and finally (v) the (permanent) Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1977.
I will assume that the importance of the country’s Constitution needs no greater emphasis, or even more detailed elaboration, beyond what is said in the paragraph which follows below.
The raison d’etre for having a country’s Constitution.
A country’s Constitution is the basic, or fundamental law, of every country. It is what lays down the country’s governance Organs, namely the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary; and describes their separate functions. It also provides for the distribution of powers among them, as well as the working relationships between them.
The need for “Constitutions” arises from the fact that, in order for human beings to be able to provide for their material needs more easily, and to develop their cultural aspirations more richly; they need to associate closely with each other. But once this association is achieved, the resulting community needs to be organized in some definite way, by providing for specific leadership organs which will generally coordinate the work of its members, and reconcile their often conflicting interests. This is true even of social clubs, associations, cooperative enterprises, and other registered groups.
But the wider association of people within a nation state, or country, also needs to be similarly organized. This is what explains the need for every country to have its own Constitution.
Constitution-making in Tanganyika/Tanzania.
In this context, the expression “Constitution-making” includes its associated process of “Constitutional amendments” which, in our case, has been an on-going process. Thus, over the years since independence, the country’s Parliament has enacted the variety of Constitutions listed above; plus not less than fourteen amendments to the permanent 1977 Constitution, since its enactment on 25th April, 1977.
The paragraphs that follow below, are intended to throw some light on how the exercise was conducted in each of the relevant cases. But the process of constitutional amendments only started with the Interim Union Constitution of 1965, for the simple reason that the Tanganyika independence and Republican Constitutions were so short-lived, that they attracted no amendments whatsoever! We will start with Constitution-making, and come back to the Constitutional amendments a little later
The Tanganyika Independence Constitution, 1961.
I was a close witness of only the commencement part of the process of making this Constitution, which was the Constitutional conference that was held in Dares Salaam from 27th to 29th March, 1961; (which I had been assigned to service as an official from the Speaker’s Office). But even at that conference, it is only the proposals for the contents of the proposed independence Constitution that were discussed and agreed upon. The remainder of the process for enacting this Constitution, took place in the British Parliament in London. This was the common practice which the British colonial Government applied to all their Territories at the time when they were being granted independence. Thus, it was premised on a ‘standard model Constitution’ based on the constitutional structure of the United Kingdom. This made it fundamentally defective in a significant number of areas.
The Tanganyika Republican Constitution, 1962.
I was again only a close witness in the making of this Constitution, when the relevant Bill was presented to Parliament for its enactment.
The Republican Constitution was completely “homemade”, and largely benefitted from the application of the principle of “peoples’ participation in decision making”; in the sense that the Government first prepared and published its proposals for the envisaged Constitution in May 1962, which were published in ‘Government White Paper no, 1 of 1962’, titled “Proposals of the Tanganyika Government for a Republic”. (The term “white Paper” was a reflection of the British Government practice of so naming all ‘discussion papers’ issued by the Government).
This white Paper was crafted in simple, non-legal language, in order to make the proposals easy for everybody to understand; and members of the public were invited to submit their views and comments on those proposals.
It is only after the peoples’ views had been collected and analysed, that the Government introduced, on 23rd November, 1962, the “Bill for an Act to declare the Constitution of Tanganyika” in the National Assembly, which had first converted itself into a “Constituent Assembly” for that purpose. In his speech introducing that Bill, Prime Minister Rashidi Kawawa disclosed that: “although the Government White Paper referred to the making of amendments to the existing Constitution, we have thought it best to substitute a completely new and self-contained document, to mark such a fundamental change”.
The Interim Constitution of the United Republic.
My involvement in the making of this Constitution was again only during the final stages, when the “Acts of Union were brought to Parliament for ratification. This interim Constitution was initially declared in the “Articles of Union”; whose relevant articles read as follows:-
(iii) During the interim period, the Constitution of the United Republic shall be the Constitution of Tanganyika, so modified as to provide for: -
a separate Executive and Legislature for Zanzibar, from time to time constituted in accordance with the existing laws of Zanzibar, and having exclusive authority within Zanzibar for matters other than those reserved to the Parliament and the Executive of the United Republic;
(b) the appointment of two Vice-Presidents, one of whom (being a person normally resident in Zanzibar) shall be the Head of the aforesaid Executive in and for Zanzibar, and shall be the principal assistant of the President of the United Republic in the discharge of his executive functions in relation to Zanzibar.
(c) the representation of Zanzibar in the Parliament of the United Republic.
(d) such other matters as may be expedient or desirable, to give effect to the United Republic, and to these articles.”
The “articles of Union” also provided that “the first President of the United Republic shall be Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere”; and that within a period of one year, “the President of the United Republic, in agreement with the Vice-President who is also the Head of the Executive in Zanzibar, shall appoint a Commission to make proposals for a (permanent) Constitution of the United Republic”. However, before the end of that year, the two Principals agreed to postpone that exercise to a later date.
The ‘one-party’ Constitution, 1965.
My involvement in the making of this Constitution was again peripheral, commencing only when the Bill for its enactment was submitted to Parliament at the end of a lengthy process of “peoples’ participation”; which was applied also in the making of this Constitution, for the same purpose of ensuring that the contents of this Constitution would reflect the widest consensus of peoples’ views and preferences. For that purpose, President Nyerere had, in January 1964, appointed a Commission to undertake that task, of obtaining the views of the people throughout the country, and subsequently, to making its recommendations for “a suitable constitutional framework, which would guarantee the proper functioning of democratic principles within a one-party state”.
After the Commission had completed its work and submitted its final Report to the President; the Government again issued a ‘White Paper”, which was submitted to Parliament for consideration at its April 1965 session. And thereafter, the Government prepared the “Interim Constitution of Tanzania Bill” which was submitted to the Union Parliament on 5th July 1965. The “Interim One-party Constitution” of the United Republic, was enacted on 10th July, 1965. The next in line was the making of the (permanent) current “Constitution of the United Republic”.
This was the Constitution in whose making I participated most directly; right from when the idea of its making was conceived by the CCM National Executive Committee, and through its implementation up to the stage when the draft proposals were handed over to the Government for its enactment by Parliament. (Will be continued next week).
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.
Source: Daily News and Cde Msekwa Himself.
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