Dodoma. Constituent Assembly (CA) member David
Kafulila was yesterday the toast of the day, impressing friend and foe
alike, enthusing the august House with a presentation of at least four
strong arguments to counter the CCM-backed proposal for a two-government
Union structure.
Mr Kafulila, who spoke calmly, choosing his words
carefully, tore up the points that had been raised by the
pro-two-government proponents, like the questioning of whether the
17,000 people sampled by Constitutional Review Commission (CRC)
reflected the demand of majority of Tanzanians on the three-tier
government.
Mr Kafulila spent the thirty minutes allocated to
him lecturing fellow MCAs on the need for a three-government structure,
saying the current system had failed to tackle challenges of the Union
created 50 years ago.
Constituent Assembly member David Kafulia speaks in Dodoma yesterday
He built up his case against the alleged high cost
of running a three-government system, the disregard of the people’s
views as collected by the CRC, the essence of compromise as a basis of
writing of the new Mother Law and CCM’s arguments with regard to
honouring the advice of the founders of the Union.
Looking confident and informed, Mr Kafulila, who
is also the MP for Kigoma South, received rounds of applause from the
opposition camp as he carefully punched holes on President Kikwete’s
criticism of CRC document and the three- tier government.
He spoke just few minutes after vice chairwoman
of his committee Assumpta Mshama tabled before the Assembly, their
report that represented the views of the majority and those of the
minority sides respectively.
Mr Kafulila who was presenting views of the
minority side of his committee said it was time for the country to adopt
a-three-government Union structure because all the previous committees
that gave their reports proposed that the best option if the country was
to see an end to Union problems was to do away with the current
structure.
He added that the structure proposed in the Second
Draft represented people’s views and not the views the Judge (rtd)
Joseph Warioba-led commission, as it was claimed by a section of members
from the ruling CCM.
“Both the Office of the President, The Office of
Vice President and that of the Prime Minister proposed before the
Warioba commission that the country needed a three-government Union. We
wonder why the ruling party MCAs are now trying to disown this
proposal,’’ he added.
He said the minority side in his committee
proposed a federal democratic government because the current structure
cannot solve problems bedevilling Tanzanians.
The NCCR-Mageuzi legislator further spent time
explaining how a three-tier-government could actually help in cutting
down the cost of running the Union government.
Amid applause from a wide cross-section of the
House, Mr Kafulila said it was not true that the Union government could
not sustain its business because it had no sufficient sources of income,
insisting that even money from the customs duty alone would be enough.
“Currently, customs duty contributes 40 per cent of the total
revenue in this country amounting to Sh3.6 trillion. This can help the
Union government to run its business, not to mention of exercise duty
and other forms of taxation,’’ he said.
He also allayed fears by some people who have been
claiming that the contribution of Zanzibar would be too small in the
Union government because of its size. According to Mr Kafulila, in any
Union government, it is never possible for all parties to contribute
equally.
Mr Kafulila further criticised those who have been
downplaying the statistics that were presented in the CA by Judge
Warioba, arguing that such people had poor knowledge of research
methodology.
“There are those who are saying 17,000 people who
gave views in the Warioba commission cannot represent the views of more
than 45 million Tanzanians. These people do not know the meaning of
sampling in a research,’’ he said.
He said Tanzanians should put a demarcation between a person conducting survey and one who is conducting a population census.
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN.
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN.
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