Mwiba
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- Oct 23, 2007
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Unforced errors: Unending debate on Zanzibar statehood
2008-07-19 09:10:15
By Ani Jozen
Mainland and Isles authorities (the former also pass as Union authorities) were back on a favourite pastime, of finding out whether Zanzibar was a state or it is not.
On the basis of the terms of the debate as the principal protagonists took the floor, for instance Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda in the National Assembly, it would appear that no ground has been covered on that issue.
Why is there a dialogue of the deaf where one side cannot hear what the other side is saying?
When for instance premier Pinda asks the two attorneys general to meet and clear the air over the issue, what chances of comprehension of each other was he expecting - and is there need for clarity on the matter?
Everyone knows that the two sides have varying sentiments about the union, which have been expressed from time to time with various intensities.
Is it not clear as yet that holding these sentiments is part of democracy, that is, its local expression, as constitutionality?
The problem about determining the statehood of Zanzibar does not arise from the constitutional blueprint as the latter has everything either side needs for reference.
Premier Pinda for instance sought to put the matter clearly on the basis of Article 1 of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, and made no reference to the fact that the Zanzibar Government is also constituted by an enabling Constitution.
In other words, even if the Zanzibar Government is pegged to the Union, it is constituted by a separate act, other instance of public will.
In other words, by virtue of having its own constitution, the Zanzibar Government is constituted by the general will of the people of Zanzibar rather than by the general will of the citizens of the United Republic of Tanzania.
The Union is not what constitutes the statehood of Zanzibar but it is an aspect of its statehood; it is, as it were, a hat that it wears at the moment, and for the foreseeable future, as Pinda`s state attorneys would rush to insist.
Yet constitutional intentionality is not however, its own guarantee but politics.
Put differently, what assures that Zanzibar will continue being a part of the United Republic of Tanzania is not Article 1 of the Union Constitution but Zanzibar politics, in the sense that it is by continual adhesion to the Union of the Isles general will that loyalty to the Union is ensured.
Since the Government of Zanzibar had to be constituted in a formal act of expression of popular will that is limited to Zanzibar, it means the Union can cease to exist when such will is demonstrably given. One cannot constitute a House of Representatives and ``legislate`` that it cannot vote against the Union; the issue is percentage.
There is an old rule of politics and warfare which was taken up by Marxist revolutionaries in the 20th century, for instance Mao Zedong and Amilcar Cabral.
The rule says ``tell no lies, claim no easy victories,`` and it seems that the Union government ``revolutionaries`` need to be reminded of this rule, so that they can clearly comprehend, or otherwise mentally adapt, to constitutional reality linking Zanzibar and the Mainland.
Saying that Zanzibar is not a state is close to saying that Zanzibar was at some point absorbed into the Union.
Making that kind of affirmation, or insinuating anything to that effect, is close to ``claiming easy victories,`` if one should adopt that formula above the more appropriate one, that it is close to ``telling lies.``
At the time of drawing up the Articles of Union, a situation existed where absorption could have taken place, on the basis of affirmations by Mwalimu Nyerere later, that Sheikh Karume was willing or enthusiastic about fully uniting the two parts.
But Mwalimu worried that Zanzibaris would later come to demand their lost sovereignty, and that would lead to an ill-adapted Union.
On the basis of Mwalimu`s affirmation alone, it is clear that what is then embedded in the Articles of Union is a state where two states unite, and only Tanganyika loses its status as a state, as it is fully absorbed into the Union, while Zanzibar retains its statehood.
So, trying to make `statehood` means the same thing as `sovereignty` is merely a play on words, which tries to ignore reality, that Zanzibar is a fully fledged constitutional state, and has never been absorbed into the Union.
It has a working arrangement with it, modeled on the colonial `protectorate` ties it used to have with Britain�
Admittedly, no one who was listening to Pinda in the National Assembly is unaware of these realities, but the point still resurfaces and is made a rallying cry that Zanzibar is not a state (or a country, whatever).
There is an effort, in these affirmations, of easing the path for Union authorities in their daily handling of issues with Zanzibar, where they are at times compelled to negotiate, painstakingly, every inch of the way.
For instance the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) had to get massive state backing and the inclination of the Isles authorities to place the Isles taxation structures in a manner that conforms to TRA prerogatives, to close the `Z`bar route.`
Since there are quite a number of areas in which the Union takes higher profile than Zanzibar particularity or its internal administration, it is by and large possible to think of Zanzibar, generally as having transferred executive authority to the Union, save for a few internal or local matters.
Yet that frame is faulty because it is not from a fully constituted Union that some local matters were left out for the Zanzibar Government, but from a fully constituted Zanzibar state that some general matters were given to the Union government.
Who gives whom authority is important to sort out, and here it is Zanzibar which transfers issues, not the converse.
That means the rule about Zanzibar statehood includes all the big issues or Union matters, that the Union Government oversees them only because a fully constituted state or government in the Isles agrees that this should be the case.
By its nature, such authority can be withdrawn, by an equally important constitutive act, say by a two thirds majority vote by the House of Representatives that Zanzibar ends the relationship and fully assumes its sovereignty.
Such a move would merely lead to abrogating Article 1 of the Union Constitution and another article about the name, or reaffirm it nonetheless, that despite ending the Union, the name shall remain Tanzania.
Msiombe WaZanzibari wakafika kuitumia hiyo ,maana baada ya kuona hayo yaliyopigiwa mstari ndipo nikajua kwa nini Spika wa zanzibar aliamrisha mjadala huo ufungwe haraka na kufika kuzuia hoja zilizotaka kuwakilishwa na wawakilishi wawili wate wakipinga Zanzibar kuitwa kijiji ,yaani kama aliota na kuwapiga stop lakini leo mazungumzo yangelikuwa mengine labda Kikwete angelikwisha kubadilika roho na kupeleka jeshi kwenda kuwakamata wawakilishi wa CUF na CCM ,nimuonavyo Kikwete alianza kuitumikia Tanzania kama Mtumishi wa Mungu akiwa na cheo cha Raisi sasa nina wasi wasi kuwa cheo chake kinaweza kupanda na kufikia utme au kikapanda zaidi akajiona amekuwa Malaika na kuna hatari kwa jinsi anavyoyumbishwa akajibandika cheo kikubwa zaidi japo asijiite ,nampa pole sana Pinda haya mambo ya Zanzibar yanaweza kumweka na kumwangusha bora ayaepuke kama Dr.Shein na Salimu Ahmed wao ni WaZanzibari waliofikia vyeo vya juu kama au kuliko vyake lakini mambo ya kwao wanakuogopa hata kukutaja ,hivi mmewahi kumsikia Salim au Shein kutaja habari na migongano ya Zanzibar mnalotakiwa ni kutoa ulinzi imara bila ya upendeleo siku za Uchaguzi Mkuu ili mupate kuwa na Muungano imara na wa kweli ,lakini haya mambu ya kupeleka vifaru maguruneti na siku hizi mnapeleka magari ya maji ya pilipili basi Mtaishi ndani ya Muungano wenye wasiwasi na usiokuwa hata siku moja siku zote utakuwa kama mtoto mchanga mara kanya susualini ,mala kakojoa kwenye basi mara kaangua kilio wakati mpo sinema ni matatizo tu kama tunavyoona,kila kukicha na sasa dunia nzima imeshapata habari kuwa tanzania Bara inataka kuimeza Zanzibar mnalo la kuwajibu ?
