nngu007
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 2, 2010
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Mobhare Matinyi
15 April 2011
This week, the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) vindicated political pundits, who have been arguing that the party can't bring anything new or substantial.
Indeed, what CCM did in Dodoma was merely to endorse the choreography that often precedes the fall of a long-time political party.
Sadly, the truth is that for CCM to win the 2015 election, apart from massive rigging and bribes, the party will have to use excessive force and instigate hatred among Tanzanians.
It's shocking to observe that CCM is forcing the nation to go back to where other African countries are struggling to run away from. CCM is building a political sultanate of buddies and children of former politicians, as if Tanzanians do not see what is happening.
African leaders from Kenya to Uganda in the east; Zimbabwe to Malawi in the south; Gabon to Equatorial Guinea in the centre; Togo to Senegal in the west; and from Egypt to Libya in the north, all of them, rotate the realms of powers among their family members and cronies. Thanks to the recent popular revolt for ending that worthless game in the north.
No wonder that Africa continues to be the poorest continent with the oldest leaders and the highest number of politicians who inherit power. These "lucky and brilliant" children could care less about their people. It is purely cronyism and nepotism until Africa is finished.
A beneficiary of this flawed system will challenge critics to compare Tanzania to the aforementioned countries insisting that ours isn't a dictatorship. It's true that Tanzania is not a dictatorship, but it does depend on how one assesses its newly cultivated political culture.
Currently, Tanzanians are extremely worried about the sudden rise of what scholars refer to as kleptocracy, that is, a system of governance in which corruption provides personal gains politically and economically at the expense of the masses.
But how do you arrive at a kleptocracy? There are many avenues, but CCM has taken the path of the lack of ideology, decay of moral principles, disregard for national values, and loss of direction, coupled with intellectual bankruptcy. For obvious reasons, these weaknesses have grown faster in the past five years.
Initially, Tanzania under the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, cherished a pragmatic principle that respected human dignity, which in turn allowed anyone to venture into politics. In fact, this is the reason why some of our current leaders got where they are today despite their mediocrity.
Unfortunately, after Mwalimu's era, the next generations of leaders subconsciously established an oligarchy, a system in which power rests with a handful of people through dirty deals, wealth, family ties, etc. It started slowly but today it's becoming a norm rather than an anomaly with bizarre reasons being given out constantly.
In African countries such as Tanzania, the real political power belongs to one person, Monsieur le Président, which often becomes a recipe for oligarchy, particularly, when the same person leads the dominant governing party.
Since Tanzania is still developing, corrupt practices in politics are the quickest and easiest way of making money. Corrupt business people and politicians work as one family.
These folks will protect their political power and wealth at any cost. When rule, not leadership, is by the wealthy and the powerful, you get plutarchy. That's the kind of Tanzania CCM is building today - a hopeless country where all that matters is who you are and how deep your pockets are.
In essence CCM didn't go to Dodoma for ecdysis, the act of molting an outer layer; otherwise, how do you appoint a son to the position that his father held some years ago? Or for that matter a son into a new secretariat after firing his dad's? The list is remarkably long. CCM may have appointed a wonderful new secretary general, Mr Wilson Mukama, but the whole system around him will frustrate this credible technocrat to the point of no return.
CCM seems to believe that Tanzanians are naïve, that they are going to be complacent anyway, but if one assesses the 2010 General Election in its entirety, one will certainly appreciate the understanding of Tanzanians. It's disheartening for CCM to behave like this at the expense of the nation's future.
Look at what happened to UNIP in Zambia in 1992 and Kanu in Kenya in 2002. President Kenneth Kaunda had his family and cronies in the leadership ranks, while President Daniel arap Moi chose his fellow tribesmen and the son of his predecessor. They both drowned in the waters of history.
Yes, all political parties come and go, but the departure of a political party shouldn't destabilise a country. Tanzania needs to stay on top as a model of stability in Africa.
15 April 2011
This week, the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) vindicated political pundits, who have been arguing that the party can't bring anything new or substantial.
Indeed, what CCM did in Dodoma was merely to endorse the choreography that often precedes the fall of a long-time political party.
Sadly, the truth is that for CCM to win the 2015 election, apart from massive rigging and bribes, the party will have to use excessive force and instigate hatred among Tanzanians.
It's shocking to observe that CCM is forcing the nation to go back to where other African countries are struggling to run away from. CCM is building a political sultanate of buddies and children of former politicians, as if Tanzanians do not see what is happening.
African leaders from Kenya to Uganda in the east; Zimbabwe to Malawi in the south; Gabon to Equatorial Guinea in the centre; Togo to Senegal in the west; and from Egypt to Libya in the north, all of them, rotate the realms of powers among their family members and cronies. Thanks to the recent popular revolt for ending that worthless game in the north.
No wonder that Africa continues to be the poorest continent with the oldest leaders and the highest number of politicians who inherit power. These "lucky and brilliant" children could care less about their people. It is purely cronyism and nepotism until Africa is finished.
A beneficiary of this flawed system will challenge critics to compare Tanzania to the aforementioned countries insisting that ours isn't a dictatorship. It's true that Tanzania is not a dictatorship, but it does depend on how one assesses its newly cultivated political culture.
Currently, Tanzanians are extremely worried about the sudden rise of what scholars refer to as kleptocracy, that is, a system of governance in which corruption provides personal gains politically and economically at the expense of the masses.
But how do you arrive at a kleptocracy? There are many avenues, but CCM has taken the path of the lack of ideology, decay of moral principles, disregard for national values, and loss of direction, coupled with intellectual bankruptcy. For obvious reasons, these weaknesses have grown faster in the past five years.
Initially, Tanzania under the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, cherished a pragmatic principle that respected human dignity, which in turn allowed anyone to venture into politics. In fact, this is the reason why some of our current leaders got where they are today despite their mediocrity.
Unfortunately, after Mwalimu's era, the next generations of leaders subconsciously established an oligarchy, a system in which power rests with a handful of people through dirty deals, wealth, family ties, etc. It started slowly but today it's becoming a norm rather than an anomaly with bizarre reasons being given out constantly.
In African countries such as Tanzania, the real political power belongs to one person, Monsieur le Président, which often becomes a recipe for oligarchy, particularly, when the same person leads the dominant governing party.
Since Tanzania is still developing, corrupt practices in politics are the quickest and easiest way of making money. Corrupt business people and politicians work as one family.
These folks will protect their political power and wealth at any cost. When rule, not leadership, is by the wealthy and the powerful, you get plutarchy. That's the kind of Tanzania CCM is building today - a hopeless country where all that matters is who you are and how deep your pockets are.
In essence CCM didn't go to Dodoma for ecdysis, the act of molting an outer layer; otherwise, how do you appoint a son to the position that his father held some years ago? Or for that matter a son into a new secretariat after firing his dad's? The list is remarkably long. CCM may have appointed a wonderful new secretary general, Mr Wilson Mukama, but the whole system around him will frustrate this credible technocrat to the point of no return.
CCM seems to believe that Tanzanians are naïve, that they are going to be complacent anyway, but if one assesses the 2010 General Election in its entirety, one will certainly appreciate the understanding of Tanzanians. It's disheartening for CCM to behave like this at the expense of the nation's future.
Look at what happened to UNIP in Zambia in 1992 and Kanu in Kenya in 2002. President Kenneth Kaunda had his family and cronies in the leadership ranks, while President Daniel arap Moi chose his fellow tribesmen and the son of his predecessor. They both drowned in the waters of history.
Yes, all political parties come and go, but the departure of a political party shouldn't destabilise a country. Tanzania needs to stay on top as a model of stability in Africa.
