The Legal and Human Right Centre (LHRC) said that it is in favour of one sovereign union government.
LHRC Director of Advocacy and Reforms, Mr Harold Sungusia
The centre was contributing ideas to help the the ongoing process of writing the country’s new constitution.
The LHRC Director of Advocacy and Reforms, Mr Harold Sungusia, said the centre’s stand is in favour of the Articles of Union of 1964. He noted that the ultimate goal of the Articles of the Union signed in 1964 by the Founders of the Union, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume was to achieve one sovereign nation.
“If we dwell on proposing two or three governments we will be moving backward, because we are supposed to come to a time when we will have one sovereign state as per the Article of Union of 1964,” he said. Mr Sungusia noted that the LHRC sees no option to one government, adding that any other move would weaken the Union leading to its disintegration.
Earlier, a LHRC Researcher, Mr Pasience Mlowe, who was presenting the Centre’s Bi-Annual Human Rights Report, said that politicians have been influencing public views in the process. He added that the act is threatening the nation’s future.
“It is wrong to assume that all Tanzanians are supporters of political parties whereas in fact less than half of the population is members of political parties,” he said.
Mr Mlowe said that there was evidence that politicians have gone to the extent of writing down memos for their supporters to read while giving their views. Ambassador Ali Abeid Karume was on Sunday quoted as saying that the three-government structure proposed in the Draft Constitution will break the existing Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
Speaking at a press conference at Dunga in Central District, South Unguja Region, Karume expressed disagreement with politicians who support the structure.
He was of the view that they exposed their low level knowledge on international matters. “The major principal of the agreement based cooperation is the cooperation itself and not the constitutional Union guided by the law as is the case for the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union, which is recognised by the United Nations,” noted Karume.
By ABDULWAKIL SAIBOKO, Tanzania Daily News