It appears that the issue of dual citizenship is taking centre stage in the current constitution making process with erstwhile army commander and Vice President Christon Tembo and Immigration Department Chief Ndiyoyi Mutiti expressing security concerns if the provision is included in the new constitution.
One would understand the background Lieutenant-General Christon Tembo is coming from as head of the Zambia Army at the height of not only the one party state but at the time when Zambia faced apartheid South Africa as an enemy.
At that time, the country housed freedom fighters whom it had to protect by any means as they risked being smoked out, if that is the phrase, by the white South African soldiers.
Politically, the African continent was very unstable then with coups and counter coups being the norm and as a result undemocratic leaders of the time shut out of power not only citizens within the country but more importantly the “enemy” was seen to be one with foreign connections.
The government at the time thought that denying people dual citizenship was the solution. Unfortunately, it is this mindset that has been carried forward when the political state in Zambia in particular and Africa in general, has changed.
In the case of Mutiti, her fear for someone with dual citizenship committing a crime in one country and running away to another just shows “thought ossification” in the Zambian civil service. She should know about Interpol which does a great job of tracking criminals around the world.
Ms Mutiti should suggest to government to sign extradition treaties with countries where there would be a prevalence of dual citizenship for ease of tracking down criminals who would try to hide in other countries.
It appears General Tembo, Ms Mutiti and other politicians and civil servants do not understand the concept of globalisation even as they use it at public forums.
The World Bank describes globalisation as an inevitable phenomenon in human history that has been bringing the world closer through the exchange of goods and products, information, knowledge and culture.
“But over the last few decades, the pace of this global integration has become much faster and dramatic because of unprecedented advancement in technology, communications, science, transport and industry,” the World Bank states on one of its websites.
With the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICTs), some of the things an old soldier of General Tembo’s mould would hold dear, like the personnel and material capacity of his army, can easily be found with the click of the button on a computer.
A simple search on Google Earth would easily give one the coordinates of sensitive infrastructure of a country. As such, General Tembo’s fears become not only unfounded, but unreasonable.
Globalisation, ICTs and Google Earth aside, one wonders how developed countries which otherwise would have a lot to lose by allowing dual citizenship, sensibly grant dual citizenship while poorer countries always think about security and crime as a way of denying those wishing to acquire dual citizenship.
In most cases, there is a genuine reason for one wanting dual citizenship rather than the thought of committing a crime in one country and running off to another.
Like others have argued, there are children of Zambians born outside the country who only know Zambia in name but have more in common with the country of their birth. These children, for atavistic reasons, want to hold on to the citizenship of their parents while also enjoying the citizenship of their countries of birth.
NCC members debating the issue of dual citizenship should not be swayed by “has been” politicians and civil servants whose understanding of globalisation and ICTs is minimal and have unfounded fear as to why this should not be included in the constitution.
What the NCC members should bear in mind is that Zambia stands to gain once dual citizenship is allowed because such citizens will easily be moving resources between countries.
Friday, 20 June 2008
Dual Citizenship - Part 2 : On security and globalisation....
Gershom Ndhlovu reflects on dual citizenship, an ex-general's concern and Zambia in a globalised world :
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ReplyDeleteone wonders how developed countries which otherwise would have a lot to lose by allowing dual citizenship, sensibly grant dual citizenship while poorer countries always think about security and crime as a way of denying those wishing to acquire dual citizenship
There are about 70 countries that prohibit dual citizenship, some more strictly than others. And even more that discourage it.
AD Andorra
AE the United Arab Emirates
AM Armenia
AO Angola
AZ Azerbaijan
BE Belgium
BH Bahrain
BI Burundi
BN Brunei Darussalam
BS the Bahamas
BT Bhutan
BW Botswana
CD the Democratic Republic of the Congo
CG the Republic of the Congo
CM Cameroon
CN the People's Republic of China
CU Cuba
DJ Djibouti
DK Denmark
DZ Algeria
EE Estonia
ET Ethiopia
FM the Federated States of Micronesia
GA Gabon
GM the Gambia
GN Guinea
GQ Equatorial Guinea
GW Guinea-Bissau
GY Guyana
ID Indonesia
IN India
IQ Iraq
JP Japan
KE Kenya
KG Kyrgyzstan
KI Kiribati
KR the Republic of Korea
KW Kuwait
KZ Kazakhstan
LA the Lao People's Democratic Republic
LR Liberia
LS Lesotho
LY the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
MC Monaco
MH the Marshall Islands
MM Myanmar
MW Malawi
MY Malaysia
MZ Mozambique
NE Niger
NP Nepal
NR Nauru
OM Oman
PG Papua New Guinea
PW Palau
QA Qatar
RW Rwanda
SA Saudi Arabia
SB the Solomon Islands
SD Sudan
SG Singapore
SL Sierra Leone
ST Sao Tome and Principe
SZ Swaziland
TM Turkmenistan
TZ the United Republic of Tanzania
UA Ukraine
UG Uganda
UZ Uzbekistan
VE Venezuela
VU Vanuatu
YE Yemen
ZM Zambia
ZW Zimbabwe
Add to that the countries that prohibit it in general but allow it in exceptionnal situation:
AF Afghanistan
AR Argentina
AT Austria
BA Bosnia and Herzegovina
BO Bolivia
CL Chile
CZ the Czech Republic
DE Germany
DO the Dominican Republic
EC Ecuador
ES Spain
FJ Fiji
GT Guatemala
HT Haiti
IR the Islamic Republic of Iran
IS Iceland
KP the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
LK Sri Lanka
LT Lithuania
LU Luxembourg
LV Latvia
MD the Republic of Moldova
MG Madagascar
MR Mauritania
NA Namibia
NI Nicaragua
NL the Netherlands
NO Norway
PA Panama
SC Seychelles
SI Slovenia
TH Thailand
TO Tonga
VN Viet Nam
WS Samoa
Not only this is more than half of the world in general but
there's a lot of develloped countries in that list, almost half of OECD is there (Japan, germany, Spain, Norway, Korea...). And some would have been part of that list a few years ago (like Sweden that eased up its stringent laws in 2001).
And the fact that India and China are able to use the potential of their diaspora while banning dual-citizenship should also say something.
But yeah, that sentence was wrong.