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Mtera legislator blames media on Mining Committee report debate
2008-07-21 09:02:44
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz, Dodoma
Mtera legislator John Malecela clarified in Parliament on Friday that his advice in the House that discussion of the Mining Committee report be alloted special time was not intended to set a trap for the government.
Malecela, who in his long political career once served as prime minister, issued the clarification while presenting an independent statement regarding reports carried by some sections of the media (not `The Guardian`) that the suggestion was meant to get the government into a technical trap.
He explained that he issued the suggestion honestly, taking into account that such a sensitive report needed a thorough review by lawmakers and adequate time to discuss it in the august House.
``Considering the importance of the Mining Committee report and the fact that the report was not given to the legislators early enough for them to peruse it so that they could give sensible contributions, coupled with the difficult circumstances for Members of Parliament to discuss the budget and the report at the same time for a short time of 15 minutes, I decided to seek your guidance if it was possible to find some other time for discussing it,`` Malecela said.
He said his suggestion, which was accepted wholeheartedly by MPs and got the endorsement of Deputy Speaker Anne Makinda, was intended to protect national interests.
However, he said some sections of the media had interpreted the suggestion wrongly.
``This has been interpreted in a seditious manner it had mislead the public on the good reason I had to enable the Parliament discuss the report in details for the country to get the best policy and law on mining,`` he said.
The report, compiled by a Presidential Committee headed by Mark Bomani, was given to MPs last month when the budget of the Energy and Minerals ministry was tabled and Malecela issued the suggestion on July 8.
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