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The article sharply distinguishes between democracy and multiparty system and argues that while the later may be necessary it is not sufficient to constitute democratic politics. The article argues for a protracted democratisation process of entering multiparty system so as to ensure that the multiparty system is based on a national consensus which would underlie a new constitutional order. Since then we have had two general elections and the recent tragic events all of which show that we are dangerously slipping into narrow nationlaism and parochialism. Several weeks ago President Mwinyi said that the Government was intending to form a commission which would monitor the views of the people in the current debate on oneparty vs. multiparty. However, he said, the Government would welcome any suggestion on a different method of concluding the debate. It is in the light of this invitation that I humbly offer my views. Origin and Content of the Debate The method that we eventually adopt to arrive at a decision on the various issues raised by the debate depends partly on the position we take on the origin and the content of the current debate. Examination of various contributions which have been made so far reveal at least two broad positions. The first position sees the number of parties whether oneparty or multiparty as the central issue in the existing debate. It probably also holds that the immediate origins of the debate lie in two sources: changes in Eastern Europe on the one hand, and the pressures from Western Europe to adopt a multiparty system, on the other. Those who explicitly or impliedly subscribe to this position, whether in favour of oneparty or multiparty, use the experiences and theories of the oneparty Eastern and the multiparty Western Europe as their points of departure and reference as well as in justification and rationalisation of their views. The second position holds that the central issue in the debate is the question of democracy and that the party system is only an aspect of democracy. Furthermore, the debate on democracy has been an on going process within our country albeit with ups and downs. The most recent example of such a debate was the constitutional debate of 1983/84. This position therefore tends to belittle the changes in Eastern Europe as having little to do with the current debate in Tanzania. |
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