AS the opposition camp yesterday continued to boycott
parliamentary sessions chaired by deputy speaker Tulia Ackson, local political
observers have underscored the need for a re-conciliatory process aimed at
eventually allowing National Assembly business to run smoothly again.
Opposition legislators yesterday spiced their daily staged
walk-out from the parliamentary debating chamber by covering their mouths with
duct tape in a new style of protest against what they perceive to be Dr
Ackson’s deliberate ploys to completely silence opposition voices inside the
august House.
It was their first use of this particular protest strategy
since they started their boycott about three weeks ago (May 30), evidently
designed to further drum home their message of being denied the opportunity to
exercise their right to freedom of expression as parliamentary representatives
of the common wananchi.
In separate interviews with The Guardian, several local
analysts noted that the opposition boycott meant voters were being dealt
something of a raw deal in parliamentary debates, and called on the government
to seek a compromise with the opposition.
A University of Dar es Salaam lecturer who did not want to
be named said it was important for the government to at least listen to the
opposition camp’s concerns since their new protest style of taping up their
mouths in public portrayed a bad image for the country at an international
level.
The lecturer suggested that the appointed National Assembly
chairpersons take turns presiding over house sessions in place of the deputy
speaker, as a strategy to convince opposition legislators to stop staging
walk-outs and start participating again.
“What is happening now is very damaging for the parliament’s
overall reputation,” he noted.
A mass communication lecturer at St Augustine University of
Tanzania (SAUT), Malagiri Kapoka, said it wasn’t proper for the highest
law-making institution in the land to operate in a one-sided manner as seems to
be the case at present.
According to Kapoka, opposition camp contributions are vital
for all parliamentary debates as they usually cast a different, critical eye on
issues and thus help to paint an alternative picture for watchers.
“…What the opposition MPs are trying to show is that they
don’t have anywhere else to speak,” the SAUT lecturer said in reference to the
taped-mouth protest strategy.
Reverend Aidan Msafiri, a local specialist on moral
theology, ethics and education, said the opposition legislators have an agenda
that needs to be addressed.
“They must have a very important message to convey to the
government…it is only through talking to them that the government will know
what they have to say”, Rev Msafiri noted.
And according to University of Dar es Salaam political
science lecturer Bashiru Ally, the existing parliamentary rules and regulations
are quite sufficient to resolve the matter in an acceptable manner.
“I don’t believe these regulations are so blunt that a
satisfactory solution can’t be found for this kind of situation …the National
Assembly is responsible of resolving its own issues,” Bashiru said.
Speaking outside the parliamentary building in Dodoma
yesterday during the taped-mouth mini-demonstration, the acting leader of the
Official Opposition Camp in Parliament, James Mbatia, said the idea was to
highlight how opposition MPs were being denied space to express themselves
freely in the National Assembly.
Deputy speaker Ackson had turned the House into a platform
for ruling CCM party legislators to carry out a smear campaign against their
opposition counterparts, Mbatia said.
“Before our boycott, (everyone) witnessed how the deputy
speaker was allowing MPs from CCM to mudsling us (opposition) at will inside
the chamber, but at the same time refusing to grant us the same opportunity to
respond in kind. Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped,” the Vunjo MP
(NCCR-Mageuzi) said.
He added that opposition MPs were not ready to continue
being insulted and declared that with effect from yesterday, they will not
cooperate with CCM legislators in any official activity.
“The deputy speaker has divided the House. Denying us the
right to exercise our freedom of expression inside the debating chamber doesn’t
mean we shall keep quite. Our plan is to take our cry to the public,” Mbatia
said.
Despite the opposition camp’s complaints about deputy
speaker Ackson’s competence, CCM legislators and government ministers have been
showering praise on her handling of parliamentary matters – in particular her
hard-line stance against the opposition legislators.
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