The Post Editorial also picked up the issue and offered unequivocal support :Lusaka lawyer Dr Roger Chongwe has called on the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) plenary to consider adopting the dual citizenship clause as proposed in the Mung'omba draft report. In an interview ahead of the NCC final sitting mid this month, Chongwe said the idea of dual citizenship had more legal advantages than disadvantages.
He said it was a submission that came from the majority of Zambians and should not be overshadowed by the minority in the NCC.
"I welcome the Mung'omba recommendation for dual citizenship. In fact, it was also reflected in the Mwanakatwe report and this means that the proposal came from the majority Zambians. Legally, all those children born and brought up outside Zambia will be free to assume Zambian citizenship and bring their money here to invest. This will be a clear demonstration of respect for human rights. It will also give us some economic advantage," Chongwe said.
"We have Zambians living in countries like the United States, Australia, South Africa, Canada and many others. Already their children have been legally adopted as nationals of those countries, so why should it be a problem in this country?"
Chongwe said times were changing and it would not help Zambia to dwell on old systems.
"I know that it was opposed by a small group of people last year, among them my late brother Lieutenant General Christon Tembo. Of course as a military man he had his own reasons, but those reasons do not suffice in modern day Zambia. If we claim to have respect for human rights in this country, then we should seriously consider adopting this clause," Dr Chongwe said.
He said the NCC delegates should have adopted the dual citizenship clause instead of recommending for an appointed Vice-President to take over when the President dies.
"There is absolutely nothing wrong with the dual citizenship clause. There should be no unnecessary controversy on this issue because it is straightforward. It is far much more desirable than the nonsense of an appointed Vice-President taking over automatically when the President dies. This is nonsensical and it should be rejected at the plenary. It did not come from people, but it was their own view, which has been supported by their Vice-President [George Kunda]. After all he is also a member of the NCC so I'm made to believe that they hatched it together," Chongwe said.
According to the Mung'omba Constitution Review Commission (CRC) report of 2005, there were more Zambians who submitted in favour of dual citizenship than those who opposed it.
The petitioners submitted that the Constitution should provide for dual citizenship because there was need to encourage Zambians living abroad who had acquired foreign citizenship to retain their Zambian citizenship.
In its report on page 103, the Mung'omba CRC recommends that the Constitution should permit dual citizenship only in respect of Zambian citizenship acquired by birth or descent.
And the Mung'omba Draft Constitution of 2005 states in Part V clause 20 (1): "A citizen, by birth or descent, shall not lose that citizenship by acquiring the citizenship of another country. (2) A citizen, by birth or descent, and who, before commencement of this Constitution, acquired the citizenship of another country and as a result ceased to be a Zambian citizen shall be entitled to apply to the Citizenship Board to regain that citizenship."
Zambia Diaspora Connect welcomes Dr. Chongwe's call to the National Constitutional Conference plenary to consider adopting the dual citizenship clause as proposed in the Mung'omba draft constitution. We are also thankful to The Post Editorial team for putting the case forward so powerfully. The e-conference 2008 report and our presentation to the recently held National Indaba both sets out our full support for dual citizenship.Dual citizenship, By Editor, The Post (subscription), Commentary :
This week, the issue of dual citizenship will be back on top of the National Constitutional Conference's agenda. And this time we hope to see more rationality over this issue because people had time to reflect and meditate deeply. And moreover, we cannot understand why there should be much disquisition over this issue because the Zambian people seem to have made a decision on it. In both the Mwanakatwe and Mung'omba constitution review commissions, the Zambian people supported and recommended dual citizenship. And this being the case, why should this desire, this decision be stopped by a small group of people at the National Constitutional Conference?
We are not in any way unpatriotic by supporting and calling for dual citizenship. Being a Zambian is something that we value more than ever. But we have always placed humankind above homeland. We are internationalists, first and foremost, without ceasing to be patriots. And our people's overwhelming support for dual citizenship is not only a source of pride for us but a greater privilege than ever to be Zambian. We have very great esteem - not for the land, this isn't love of the land - and love for our people who live in this land. And to borrow from Jose Marti, "Love of homeland, mother, isn't ridiculous love of the land or of the grass under our plants; it is invisible hatred of those who oppress it, eternal animosity towards those who attack it."
For us, homeland means the people, and we have tremendous, ever-growing admiration for our people, because our people constantly improve. Sometime back, our people would have never supported or called for the idea of dual citizenship.
Dual citizenship is becoming more common in our increasingly interconnected global economy. Many countries are now seeing the advantages of dual citizenship and are liberalising their citizenship laws - India, the Philippines and Mexico are recent examples.
Dual citizenship has the advantages of broadening our country's economic base by promoting trade and investment between the dual citizens' respective countries.
And it would appear to be a waste of time to prohibit dual citizenship because so many of our people are today dual citizens. But the government doesn't know it and has no means to know and to stop it. So why try to stop the unstoppable?
Of course, opponents of dual citizenship have their arguments. They say it is dangerous for Zambia because it can lead to conflicting dual loyalties. This is not true. This overblown fear is based on two misconceptions: first, that those with dual citizenship represent misplaced loyalties that are bad for Zambia, and second, that their ties to the countries of birth are something new. But in reality, dual citizenship benefits Zambia by helping to promote our country's interests around the globe. It promotes Zambia's understanding of and connections to the world, to our own benefit economically and politically, and removes practical obstacles to naturalisation.
And also in terms of good governance, Zambians with dual citizenship will be more likely to oppose than to support despots in this country. Throughout history, governments generally have been thrilled when their opponents flee into exile. This is because those who leave a land are most likely to be displeased with its existing government. Until recently, the fiercest opponents of dual citizenship and absentee voting have been unpopular ruling governments that feared the paper votes of citizens who already voted with their feet. Emigres often have other reasons for wanting to vote in their homelands that have nothing to do with emotion but everything to do with practical issues - especially if they have left behind family they care about and want to visit and support financially. In many countries, you must be a citizen to own land, work legally, or participate materially in certain kinds of business. We today have many Zambians living in the Diaspora, why should we complicate their lives by denying them the rights and opportunities to be citizens of those countries without the fear of losing their Zambian citizenship?
It is in Zambia's best interest to allow dual citizenship. Political loyalty is far different from nolstagia and the desire to make things better in the land of one's birth, two emotions that we should not discourage. There is clear historical precedent that affection for - and even service to - one's homeland is not incompatible with dual citizenship.
Clearly, dual citizenship does not weaken Zambian loyalty; to the contrary, it strengthens those with dual citizenships' feelings that they are welcome by reassuring them that they will not be punished for loving their homeland any more than a child should be spanked for loving his or her mother. What kind of country would want to make citizens out of those who do not care about the fate of the land of their birth? The old saw that a man should no more have two countries than two wives is based on a false metaphor. The better comparison is between two different kinds of loyalties, to parent and spouse: an individual is bound to one by nature and to the other by choice. One can love both equally strongly, but in different ways.
Let us seek to utilise the advantages of dual citizenship by liberalising our citizenship laws. It's time we realised that dual citizenship has advantages of broadening our country's economic base, fostering trade and investment between the dual citizens' respective countries. One of the benefits of dual citizenship is the ability of dual citizens to influence economic and political decisions in their host countries in favour of their countries of birth and descent, in our case, Zambia.
Suppose you learn that you have, or a member of your family has, dual citizenship or that you might acquire it. Would dual citizenship be good for you? Would it have more advantages than disadvantages? For some people, dual citizenship offers practical advantages - for example, social security or employment. It may also enhance the feeling of belonging because they have strong personal ties to more than one country.
And as Lusaka lawyer Dr Roger Chongwe has correctly observed, dual citizenship is a human rights issue. And if we claim to respect human rights in this country, we cannot at the same time stand in its way by denying our people the right to live meaningfully in other countries without losing their Zambian citizenship. As we have already pointed out, in some countries, it is not possible to live meaningfully, to live a secure and dignified life if you are not a citizen. In some countries, you cannot own property in your own name, run businesses profitably, and so on and so forth if you are not a citizen. Let us not deny our people the right and opportunity to live in other countries meaningfully by denying them dual citizenship.
For these reasons, we urge the National Constitutional Conference to respect and uphold the wishes and desires of the Zambian people over the issue of dual citizenship as expressed in the recommendations of the Mwanakatwe and Mung'omba constitution review commissions.
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3 comments:
This is the sort of clear thinking about national interest that ought to be paramount in any constitutional reform process. The immediate and potential benefits of dual citizenship clearly outweigh the immediate and potential risks to security or sovereignty. I strongly back the inclusion of dual citizenship in the NCCs proposal for constitutional revisions. I am adding my less articulate voice to these two clarion calls for change, in part because after much consideration of my own circumstance, I would not personally avail myself of dual citizenship were it offered. Having the option of dual citizenship would be a good change for Zambia, and for many thousands of her children, however it wouldn't affect me much one way or the other here on the other side of the world. The economic benefits would be significant, while the electoral risk would be quite small given the relatively small numbers and widely divergent politics of potential voters in the Diaspora.
Conservative members of the security lobby may be harder to convince. Old soldiers, those who in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's words, "have faded away," understandably may have associated diasporas with revolutions and invasions, because all too often diaspora populations are participants in such violence, victims and perpetrators alike. Such emotional associations can be misleading however, much like dismissing all metal edged tools as dangerous weapons, and thus missing out on the benefits of scalpels and combine harvesters. The Zambian Diaspora does not in my experience display any of the characteristics of revolutionary exiles bent on capturing power by force or otherwise. The only real consensus opinion that I can detect is that everyone who speaks up wants to help "Back Home" as much as they are able, and most are already doing so in their own fashion and by their own means. ZDC represents a growing number who hope that by pooling resources and efforts across a broad spectrum of specialties and host-nations, more ambitious collective projects can be successfully undertaken to the benefit of a greater number of Zambians. Dual citizenship would enable many individuals to more quickly and efficiently apply their limited personal resources directly in Zambia, and a stronger economy means a stronger, more secure nation.
Yakima,
I repeat what i have said on Cho's blog:The case being sold by pro Dual Citizenship troops to NCC is dubitable and weak. Be it here or those I have heard advocating it, the case is weak to pass through debate stage. Has it taken Dual citizenship for those that lived and educated themselves in the Diaspora such as late Mazoka, Chikwanda, Chigaga, Penza, Aka, RB, and Mung'omba, to mention but a few to contribute to the nation?
Does it have to take Dual citizenship to build your parents a descent retirement home, send orphans to school or develop your property the Ministry of lands gave you? We expect the Diaspora to have a smart case than what we have been reading so far. This case is very weak and will not sale at the citizenship committee of the NCC.
Hope someone is not burning his money tripping or camping hoping to see this hollow proposition pass. Basing the arguments followed so far, it’s a dead shallow case. Retain your citizenship or lose it. You have the option of renewing your permanent residence papers wherever you are now and retain Zambian citizenship if you treasure it. Even in Zambia we do have permanent residents with record of renewing their status for more 43 years now. Not all entrepreneurs in the country are citizens. We do have Jews, Americans, Indians, and Ugandans etc. If you have already renounced Zambian citizenship or plan to do so, it’s a respected choice you have made out of disdain of choice.
Anonymous Poster Who Yet Expects To Be Recognized,
Yes, I have followed your posts (if indeed they are by you) in opposition to dual citizenship on the Zambian Economist blog. I feel that your arguments against are somewhat cogent, albeit unnecessarily hostile in tone, however you have continually failed to make your own case for the counterfactual when asked (i.e. what happens if you do nothing). As I have stated already you will find no vigorous defense on personal grounds from me, however my stated position is based on the lack of demonstrable reason to deny, as outlined in the Mung'omba Constitutional proposal ably represented by Prof. Kyambalesa, what an arguably unscientific majority of Zambians have repeatedly stated is their desire (and a vast majority of members of the Diaspora who have expressed an opinion where I can access it), beyond some vague reference to what is supposedly taught in War Colleges and yet without documentary support from any such institution. Personally, I tend to favour democratic majorities over military generals, however I respect your right to feel otherwise.
Your concluding statement struck me particularly, as I fail to understand how you can both respect and disdain choice in the same sentence, and yet it is a sentiment oft repeated in your writings on the subject. I would encourage you to pick one or the other. I have refrained from explaining the specifics of my own circumstance because I feel it irrelevant to the overall question other than to disclose a lack of ulterior motive on my own part. However, since you have characterized as "shallow" those in the Diaspora who are requesting it (often not for themselves but on behalf of their children, an argument you appear to be deaf to), I will simply explain that my close relatives who are also in this country have medical conditions which in practical terms would preclude them from joining me in a move to Zambia, and therefore I choose to remain here. I am not partisan with respect to Zambian elections, and therefore am not personally interested in voting rights either.
It may interest you to think about why perhaps I have stated my support for this proposal here, on Zambia Diaspora Connect, rather than in one of the other blogs devoted to economic or tribal issues in which the debate is more robust and varied. As a clue, my role in ZDC is in the realm of Human Capital Development, which includes skills transfers from members of the Diaspora to those in Zambia who might benefit from them. Perhaps the personal attitude of such individuals might have a bearing on their desire to volunteer such services rather than charge international market rates for them? I realize that as an autodidact I am the exception rather than the rule in this population, so while there is no public investment in education to be "recovered" from me through such transfers, apparently you do not view the so-called "brain drain" as a serious problem.
Permanent residency may satisfy some, but not others. You apparently have no difficulty writing off those for whom this is an issue, and that is fine for you I would suppose. From my perspective, the only means by which Zambia can achieve parity of capital wealth with economically powerful nations is by maximizing both the absolute amount of productive investment in the population as well as the return rate on that investment. I see no significant costs or risks to extending dual citizenship, whereas I hear many claiming that extension of it would make them more likely to invest their own capital there (human or otherwise, after all, time=money). I am still waiting for a cogent or convincing argument as to the risk, and until I hear one that I find convincing, I will continue to argue that this is a cheap incentive for increasing investment.
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