QUOTE: “There is no need for preventing MPs from debating DrUlimboka’s fate unless the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) government is part of it.”
MBEYA MP ON CHAMA CHA DEMOKRASIA NA MAENDELEO TICKET JOSEPH MBILINYI
By Patty Magubira
The Citizen Reporter
Dodoma. The kidnapping and torture of the doctors’ association leader, Dr Stephen Ulimboka, stole Parliament show late on Monday and yesterday with Members on the Opposition camp demanding for an opportunity to debate it.
The National Assembly Speaker Anne Makinda had last week prohibited Members of Parliament from debating the doctors’ strike for fear of the House interfering with Judiciary, as the matter was at court.
The government, which promised to issue a statement on the doctors’ strike in the House ‘come what may’, changed its mind after consulting the Judiciary and the Speaker.
But Mbeya MP on Chama cha DemokrasianaMaendeleo ticket Joseph Mbilinyi insisted in the Speaker’s absence on Monday that he was aware of the Medical Association of Tanzania’s case being at court, but not what had befallen DrUlimboka.
MsMakinda has travelled back home following the death of her beloved relative.
“There is no need for preventing MPs from debating DrUlimboka’s fate unless the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) government is part of it,” MrMbilinyi alias Sugu said.
He was interrupted by the National Assembly Chairman, Mr Sylvester Mabumba, Dole MP, who cautioned him: “You will have to prove what you say on the matter, go ahead.”
MrMbilinyi said a strange tradition of running affairs in the country had surfaced citing a series of cases of kidnapping and assaulting including of DrUlimboka and MPs on Chadema ticket, Mr Highness Kiwia, and MrSalvatoryMachemli.
“Today we are witnessing the uprooting of people’s teeth and finger nails using pliers simply because they have a different stand and fight for what they believe is their right,” MrMbilinyi wondered.
He said beating a human being to the extent of impairing his kidneys was not right and unacceptable. “If we remain silent on this, tomorrow they will kidnap Sugu for speaking the truth,” he quipped.
The President’s Office was the right docket to debate and condemn on the strange tradition he likened with atrocities committed by Sudan’s Janjaweed.
President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan was accused of using a group called Janjaweed instead of state organs, he explained.
Neither military nor the police was involved in DrUlimboka and the Chadema MPs’ assault, yet the assailants were armed like Janjaweed, he said.
Such atrocities, according to MrMbilinyi, attract life sentence from the International Criminal Court (ICC). “We have to condemn the trend for the sake of guarding national interests,” he said.
The minister for Investments and Empowerment, Ms Mary Nagu, however, interrupted him asking for the chairman’s guideline on Standing Order number 64 requiring an MP to give researched reports in the House.
“The MP, who has just been contributing, should dwell on matters with which he is certain, lest he misleads the nation,” she said, asking MrMbilinyi to prove the presence of Janjaweed in Tanzania.
After the Chairman insisted that MrMbili should prove the presence of Janajweed in the country, the MP retorted:
“It seems you have missed the point Mr Chairman. The Hansard can prove that I did not say there is Janjaweed in Tanzania, but I rather cited allegations facing President Al-Bashir of using the group for attacking the Darfur people.”
The chairman turned down the Opposition Chief Whip request to clarify on the matter, leading to an uproar in the House.
“Please order, standing order number 72 forbids you to speak without permission from the chair,” the Chairman said as he attempted to silence the MPs.
He insisted that MrMbilinyi should reveal the Janjaweed for the government to crackdown on the group said to kidnap and torture Tanzanians against the Constitution which says every citizen has the right of being protected.
MrMabumba said he heard one of the Opposition MPs bragging in a seminar the other day that they (Opposition MPs) got credit whenever they were kicked out of the House.
“Please don’t argue with me, I will show you the door if you continue arguing. I can even kick out the whole Opposition camp if it does not respect the chair,” he cautioned.
He accused MrMbilinyi of abusing his freedom of debating in the House by reporting on gossip. “You should not have talked of the armed group if you were uncertain of its presence,” the chairman stressed, directing the MP to abandon the topic and proceed with another one.
MrMbilinyi, however, went on concluding his topic by pleading with the House to consider forming a commission to investigate DrUlimboka’s case, arguing that the government could not be trusted in it.
But Special Seats MP Stella Manyanya had, however, revived the agenda when contributing the 2012/13 estimates of the Good Governance ministry in the President’s Office.
MsManyanya, who doubles as Rukwa regional commissioner, accused Chadema of fueling the doctor’s strike and of DrUlimboka turning into Tanzania’s Nazism leader.
Her statements prompted MPs on Opposition camp to frequently ask for the Chairman’s guidelines to no avail.
MrMabumba ordered the House court of arms to kick out Kasulu Urban MP on NCCR-Mageuzi Mosses MossesMachali few minutes before the House activities wound on Monday allegedly for not respecting the chair’s order to sit down.
Ubungo MP JonhMnyika wanted MsManyanya to prove her statement, prompting Iramba East MP MwiguruMchemba citing the Opposition camp speech that day saying it supported the doctors and other professionals in their bids to fight for their rights.
MrMnyika insisted that questions regarding the doctors’ strike would be answered once the Parliamentary Committee on Social Services reported in the House on its intervention in the standoff between the government and health experts early this year.
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