Peace prevails where rights are observed

By Frederick Fussi

Election fraud, which is as old as democracy itself, comes in many forms and so do efforts to curb them.

Empirical evidence dating back to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King’s era shows that nonviolent resistance is among effective means of rooting out injustice.

Nonviolent techniques applied elsewhere have proved to be an ultimate solution for not only election fraud, but also other belated basic rights where other means have failed.

Police  allegedly hitting an innocent journalist Mwangosi

One local politician concluded recently, albeit not officially, that this country’s cherished ‘peace and tranquility are the fruit of rights’. Wherever basic rights are denied, according to him, peace never prevails.

The existing peace and tranquility in this country reflects how people voted in power were accountable to the electorate and provide basic rights.

The growing nonviolent protests and disregard for law is evidence that leaders infringe on the rights of the people.

Those in power appear arrogant, as they enjoy benefits that come with the posts including lucrative salaries, allowances, gratuity and health insurance.

They forget their obligation to meet demands of other people including civil servants with peanut monthly wages which are not guaranteed.

This was the case during the Tsar Nicholas’ absolute reign in Russia between 1901 and 1951 when the regime denied industrial labourers of their rightful wages.

Workers from different factories in Russia, for instance, enlisted their demands in May 1903 including increased the eight-hour day wage, maternity leave and the freedoms of speech and assembly.

The demands for improved perks among medical doctors and teachers lead analysts to wonder if the government accords due priority to the two professions which directly deal with the human life.

Save for Tanzania where allocations for the sector kept on dwindling year after year, increasing health and education budgets is an obligation elsewhere.

Public declining spending on health and education in recent years has been rapidly declined, according to Policy Forum and Hakielimu.

Funds allocated for the two key sectors had decreased from 20 per cent to 17 per cent of the national Budget during the 2008/09 fiscal year.

Going by the national Budget trend in the last five years, the health and education sectors’ estimates will keep on nose diving each year.

Massive failures in the results of last year’s Form Four national examinations reflect ignored rights of students and teachers. Over 65 per cent of the finalists failed the examinations.

As a song of a renowned artiste Mbaraka Mwenshehe says ‘money is a heart’s lubricant’, a Member of Parliament taking home about Sh2 million a month at the moment should be more satisfied and have a peace mind than a teacher posted in the rural areas.

Field Force Unit ready for anti-riot mission

Although the teachers’ attempt to strike was foiled last year, they somehow managed through their nonviolent approach to express their lack of peace of mind resulting from meagre wages and belated payment of their allowances.

When the government uses what it terms as ‘reasonable power’ to tame nonviolent boycotts and demonstrations against civil servants, it also spoils the morale at workplaces and sets the mood for violence to break out.

The best way for the government to quell nonviolent conflicts involving teachers, health workers and students would be employing diplomacy instead of force.

As long as the rights delayed are the rights denied, the lasting solution for nonviolent conflicts would be meeting the civil servants’ realistic and achievable demands.

This article was also published in the most read news paper in Tanzania, The Citizen on Wednesday  6 March 2013. Click here to view it

Let’s get our ethics right first, then we’ll talk about Katiba

By Frederick Fussi

Chairperson of the Commission for New Constitution Judge. J.Warioba

Dar es Salaam. 

A leading scholarly and political argument as to why Tanzanians need a new Constitution is that, when the current Mother Law was created, most people did not participate in the process of writing it. The perspective of people’s participation has dominated most debates.

The need for a new Mother Law and the leading argument for its discourse ended up demanding massive people’s participation in the process. Democratically, this is correct. However, technically this view is wrong.

It is wrong because the weakness of lack of popular people’s participation cannot override the issue of shortfalls in the Mother Law itself, particularly in the area of autonomous power of the president to make decisions like appointment of key officials such as the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) and Commissioner of Public Leadership Ethics Secretariat.

A Tanzanian Citizen

 For democratic purposes, it’s appropriate and relevant to have a new Constitution that provides fundamental guidelines for governing the country’s affairs. The new Constitution should guarantee an independent electoral commission that would oversee free and fair elections, among other things.

The pressing issue of ethics in public leadership is crucial for a democratic country. Tanzania should have ensured an effective framework for public leadership ethics before embarking on the exercise of writing a new Constitution.

What is being done now is  vice versa, we have started with the new Constitution and nothing substantial has been done yet on adopting public leadership ethics.

This raises doubts whether the new Constitution will work effectively because good governance is crucial to effectiveness of any law.

A constitution is merely a law, while ethics go beyond the premise of legislation. You may have very good laws, but lack of appropriate personal values can be a problem in putting statutes to effect. I will give an example on compliance with laws versus a person who observes ethics and a person who doesn’t.

Complying with the law is not a matter of the law itself; it’s a matter of an official responsibly observing ethics by upholding principles of natural justice.

Unethical individual would not comply with laws. For instance, procurement in a municipal council would end up unjustly benefiting officials who oversee the tendering process.

In his 2010 annual report of financial statements by local government authorities, the CAG commented, “My general statement is that, the status of compliance with the Public Procurement Legislations learned from the transactions tested as part of my audits is still not satisfactory as far as the legal requirements are concerned.”

Therefore, compliance with laws requires ethical people. The magnitude and impact of our unethical problem has been widely realised that’s why there is an urgent need to address it in the new Constitution. 

In a recent study done by Twaweza, it was reported that in Dar es Salaam, one out of five residents pay bribes when seeking healthcare services in public facilities.

Soliciting or receiving bribes has become common among Tanzanians. This unethical tendency is one of the national catastrophes, yet it doesn’t feature among serious matters in most debates in the process of making the new Constitution. 

In its 2012 East Africa Bribery Index, Transparency International (TI) identified ten prominent service rendering sectors which are leading in bribery.

The sectors include, police, judiciary, city and local councils, land services, medical services, regional administration, educational institutions, registry and licensing services, utilities (water, electricity and postal services), and tax services.

The police and the judiciary ranked as the most bribery institutions in the country. However, it is important to highlight that the Police Force score was almost twice as much higher than that of the Judiciary.

This article was also published in the most read news paper in Tanzania, The Citizen on Sunday 3 march 2013. Click here to view it

The author is the executive secretary of Tanzania Youth Vision Association [TYVA].