Msekwa: Parliament not place to flatter at people’s expense

He told The Citizen that the foundation was in the new regulations that recognised, respected and gave the right to the ruling party and the opposition and those that checked or tamed unnecessary conflicts.

“When I was formulating these regulations, my goal was to show that MPs from the opposition parties were not in Parliament by accident, but had been elected and sent by the people to represent them. We expected, and continue to expect to see the sense of the power of principled arguments and persuasion and not turn the house into a game of flattering one another,” Mr Msekwa said in an interview at his rural home.

“The enthusiasm of the people at that time to listen to the opposition MPs was great, and I gave them that opportunity and it was on the very first day of the parliament session to swear-in the new MPs in the parliament.”

Some 30 years down the line, Mr Msekwa believes that the regulations he enacted at that time created equality among MPs within the legislative body.

He says the rules that were made under his leadership and some more under his successors’ helped to navigate the multiparty system, noting that the rights of the opposition within the country are not voluntary.

“As the first Speaker of the multiparty Parliament after the 1995 polls, I saw it as my responsibility to demonstrate equality by ensuring there was a level playing field for all the MPs,” says Mr Msekwa in a special interview on the marking of 30 years since the restoration of pluralism after the system had been abolished in 1965. On the first day of swearing in members after the 1995 polls, NCCR-Mageuzi MPs, Mr Mabere Marando and Dr Masumbuko Lamwai, who were lawyers by profession, objected to the oath that was being used, saying that it contained words that pledged loyalty to the government.

The two wanted the oath to be changed so that they could swear loyalty to the United Republic of Tanzania and not the government which they were meant to oversee. In the rejected oath, an MP was saying that She or He would be “obedient to the government”, something that Lamwai and Marando said was incorrect. The duo said they were not supposed to obey the government because Parliament is an independent pillar.

After a heated debate, Mr Msekwa finally agreed with their argument and removed the words “obedience to the government” and thus all MPs had to retake the oath.

“For instance Lamwai’s argument was that the main goal of the opposition parties is to win the General Election, remove the ruling party from power and eventually take control of the government. They could therefore not take an oath to be loyal to the government they wanted to remove from power,” recalls Mr Msekwa.

Article 63 (1) of the current Constitution of the United Republic clearly defines the division of responsibilities of those organs, saying “Parliament will be the main organ of the United Republic, which will have the power, on behalf of the people, to supervise and advise the Government of the Republic of the Union and all its organs in the implementation of its responsibilities”.

Mr Msekwa says although he was startled, he saw the logic and instructed Parliament orderlies to remove the word “Government” from the oath of parliamentarians so that it reads “I will be loyal to the United Republic of Tanzania”.

“It only needed leadership wisdom to realise and accept that the argument was fundamental because it is not easy for opposition MPs to take oath by being loyal to the government which they want to remove from power and take control of the state.”

Justice to all teams

Mr Msekwa, who turned 87 on June 9, says the supervisor of the Parliament; be it the Speaker, Deputy Speaker or chairman, he should be guided by principles and focus on doing justice to all Members of Parliament.

“The leader and supervisor of the debates and decisions of the Parliament is as the same as the referee of a football game, he is supposed to be fair to both teams; the side of the Government that includes ministers and MPs from the ruling party and the opposition, which must also follow the rules,” he says. “One-party parliament is different from a multiparty parliament. In a one-party Parliament, MPs come from the party that forms the government.

“But the multiparty parliament has mixed MPs, from the ruling party and those from the opposition; and the rules must recognise the presence of all parties by giving equal rights to all.”

He also talks about the Official Opposition in Parliament, which is not present in the ongoing Parliament.

“The participation of the Official Opposition in parliament must be meaningful and visible; It is not charitable or for criticising. It is necessary, not only for the opposition to participate in the debates and decisions of the parliament, but their participation should be notable.

“This is what drove me to formulate regulations to ensure that every point of the government presented in parliament is answered by the opposition,” he says. He says that the new regulations set the balance of time for arguments and debates between Prime Minister and the Leader of the Official Opposition, government ministers and shadow ministers from the opposition parties. “We did all this to bring balance in the debates between the Government and the Opposition Camp. The foundations we laid down are still being used today. I am proud of that,” says Mr Msekwa.

He says despite the difference in time and current needs, he still believes that the rules of the Parliament that were formulated during his time and those formulated by his successors have quality and foundations that if observed and followed by everyone, there will be no unnecessary disagreements in Parliament; whether between the Speaker’s seat and MPs or the MPs themselves.

One party era

He says that despite the fact that there is a difference between a one-party and a multiparty parliament, the work, duties and responsibilities of the Parliament are still the same before and after Independence, during the one-party era and even now during the multiparty era. “This is why even during the one-party system where our Parliament was formed by Members of Parliament from one party, we still had heated debates to the extent that some MPs were seen as opponents of their own party’s Government.

“The MPs of this type were there and they really pressed the government with arguments,” he says. “Ministers had to organise themselves well to answer their arguments. There were Edward Oyombe Ayila (Tarime and later Rorya MP), Njelu Kasaka, Patrick Quoro and many others,” he added. He advises the current and future leadership of the Parliament as well as all MPs to manage and be guided by the rules in the basic duties and responsibilities of making laws, managing and advising the government on behalf of the people, discussing and passing budgets to enable the government to obtain funds to operate itself and implement development projects.