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Why Tanzanians need national IDs...
2007-03-07 08:59:00
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz
The history of national identity cards in Africa, including Tanzania, is tainted with humiliation and suppression.
The colonial powers used them, as a tool of oppression to control the movements of people within their colonies.
In other corners of the world, some people have resisted them throughout and a vivid case in point could be the United Kingdom, where records show their use has only been a temporary wartime measure.
In neighbouring Kenya and Uganda, however, they are an accepted fact of life.
The idea to introduce (or re-introduce-they were in use during the colonial era, weren`t they?) national identity cards in the country emerged once again a couple of years ago and I guess, the nation and its people are eagerly waiting for them, are they?
Launching national identity cards, which has been in the offing for some time is a very expensive exercise, which is estimated to cost the government a whopping billions of shillings.
It should be remembered that if everyone has to have an identity card, they would also have to produce it when asked to do so by those in authority.
National IDs are very crucial for boosting individual and national security and we need them much as we do need water and blood for our health and survival.
Identity cards can greatly help to combat crime and fraud.
If the police have the ability to check rapidly the identities of the many people near a crime scene their investigation will be both swifter and more effective.
Much fraud rests upon the assumption of false identity, which will become much harder if a standard identity card is demanded.
Tanzania being such a big country, allows a criminal to run for instance from Mwanza to Mbeya and stay comfortably there for the rest of his or her life having changed his/her identity.
With IDs police would only have to take fingerprints and find out who he or she is.
But on the other hand their introduction is a reactionary measure.
It removes one of the most important rights of any man or woman, the right to be left alone by the state.
The use of identity cards can allow the state to keep an eye on the movements of its populace.
Issuing identity cards for specific purposes like driving licences or bankcards is permissible because these are limited and fundamentally deliberate.
In the past our ancestors lived in small communities where all and sundry knew their neighbours.
Today we generally live in large depersonalized metropolitan areas, which require us to deal daily with many people we have never met before.
The need to establish that people are who they claim is for that reason very great; identity cards meet this need and provide further precautions in a modern society.
With the introduction of identity cards people should be prepared for what some of us call `inconvenience` to carry the card all the time as failure to produce a card when asked could land perfectly innocent people in trouble with the authorities.
In the process of demanding identity cards the police can harass people and provide an excuse for more intrusive searches, which the law would not otherwise allow.
Police are also likely to assume anyone near a crime scene whose card identifies them, as having a criminal record must be involved in the offence.
The innocent lose nothing from having to carry a simple card and their safety is in fact improved and on top of that they would no longer have to produce a variety of different documents in any transaction requiring proof of identity.
They also gain from the increased security identity cards bring to their society.
Modern technology can allow cards to be developed which include mapping of unique biometric features of their owner, like fingerprints, retinal scans, and so on, making forging very difficult and a stolen card useless.
IDs can also be used for preventing illegal immigrants from disappearing easily into society.
Once they are introduced, it will be necessary to develop new methods of checking illegal migration, which is closely linked with international organized crime syndicates.
After a long wait, I think time has come for the project to come to life once again.
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