Political watchdog.

[Mkasika]

I must say that am keen visitors to this forum and I like reading what JF Members are saying. Some folks in here like Mzee Mwanakijiji raise very interesting political issues that if they are well formulated can shape destinies for the Tanzanian public at large. It is apparent that our nation lies far much behind the development ladder despite the fact that we attained Independent more than five decades ago. We have seen different government regimes coming and going but have they lived up to their promises?

I would say, it is the high time we wake up from our slumber land and challenge and demand for our rights. Our authoritarians are day in day our taking us for a ride. The current political system in Tanzania can not achieve anything targible for the common man/woman. It really fascinates me how public offices slots attracts a huge number of contenders. Does it mean we have so many leaders within us? Or there is a hunger for something in the ruling elites that acts as the driving force?

On my own perspective, I would suggest a formation of an institution that would genuinely act as political watchdog. The so formed political watchdog would be tasked mainly in providing the much need civic education to the Tanzanian society. People needs to know their rights as we all know that knowledge is power and power is strength. It is upon knowing our rights that we can be able to keep our government on its toes and stop this culture of legislators raping our hard earned resources.

 

[Eric Cartman]

You're not being specific, broadly speaking political watchdogs include opposition political parties, organizations that represent interest groups, the media, communities can also be that (the ongoing gas dispute in Mtwara is community arguing on what they see wrong in the gas policy), even you can be a political watchdog just as the forum you posted your idea is one.

The problem is the main scrutineers not doing a good job of it, that is the opposition parties, organizations representing interest groups and the media. Those three representative groups are supposed to be populated with professionals who are able to monitor the effects of government movements (including policies) and react to them according to their members or followers; needs and its their duty to inform on what is wrong with the decision or policy also how it could be bettered if they were given the opportunity to govern of influence.

For instance:
1....a political party is supposed to be concerned with the way we are governed and if rules are followed by the government, it has representatives who are supposed to constantly check the expenditures of the government, our laws and rights are not being abused by power and are being protected (in short always checking the gov is not doing anything outside the constitution requirement or else reporting them to the right body). Also they have to remind us if we are getting a better deal from the current party and constantly scrutinizing were bad policies exist and offer an alternative route by explaining in details how they would go about doing it better and making sure people understand their needs should be met or else advising to vote them out next round. (I don't think the oppositions are doing enough of that yet).

2. Interest groups reps; these are the weakest of all watchdogs in Tanzania. I have never come across a piece of writing that came from an organization arguing on a policy that would affect any interest group and counter argue it on how it would hinder the development of their representatives. And Tanzania is full of bad taxation policies, unthoughtful policies and investment programmes by the current government that produce negative effects to many.

But when have you ever heard a concern raised from people representing businesses, farmers, students, Transportation's (haulage), etc: considering the rate of loans is high, there is high level of imported goods, the industry is not growing etc, when it comes to farmers there is the concern of them being allocated buyers, not being able to see their goods being utilized to a large extent in their macro economy (due to bad policies on industry by the government) and thus reduces their ability to produce more on the vast land that is still unused. Transportation there is the issue of bad roads in trying to reach to certain areas of the nation, the never ending poor quality of fuel being sold at the pumps, little business due to the stagnant industry etc.

Every where there are problems and not all political parties are going to be aware of them and most of these rep. organizations are toothless and do not lobby on the behalf of their reps nor report of their problems into the media for their voices to be heard and aired. That is say you do not expect them to influence government decisions anytime soon for their members to get improved deals when the government draws up new policies.

3.....The media; that is just rubbish in terms of offering a perspective, it is just populated with a bunch of fools with laptops and access to their work being printed. Nothing to invoke any curious mind in most pieces written or discussed on TV's.

The point i am making is that there are existing watchdogs but they do not do their job effectively to educate the society and cause enough problems to the government or even make them think during their decision making processes, no wonder they do not see the need of having experts in most sectors even where clearly is necessary.

 

[kui]

Word!.....will b back