Dear President Samia, after having assessed your performance for months now, I am about to make a rounded conclusion about your SWOTS.
However, before doing that I should prefer to pose a polite question to you, if you allow:
Do you really know the location of Achilles' Heel in the body of your predecessor's government which you inherited?
If yes, how prepared are you in getting rid of it?
Very few will doubt the claim that, by whatever standard one may use, President Magufuli was a dictator, and like all dictators he had strengths and weaknesses.
Dictatorships often appear invulnerable for many reasons.
Intelligence agencies, police, military forces, prisons, concentration camps, and execution squads are controlled by a powerful few.
A country’s finances, natural resources, and production capacities are often arbitrarily plundered by dictators and used to support the dictators’ will.
In comparison, democratic opposition forces often appear extremely weak, ineffective, and powerless.
That perception of invulnerability against powerlessness makes effective opposition unlikely.
That is not the whole story, however.
A myth from Classical Greece illustrates well the vulnerability of the supposedly invulnerable.
Against the warrior Achilles, no blow would injure and no sword would penetrate his skin.
When still a baby, Achilles’ mother had supposedly dipped him into the waters of the magical river Styx, resulting in the protection of his body from
all dangers.
There was, however, a problem. Since the baby was held by his heel so that he would not be washed away, the magical water had not covered that small part of his body.
When Achilles was a grown man he appeared to all to be invulnerable to the enemies’ weapons.
However, in the battle against Troy, instructed by one who knew the weakness, an enemy soldier aimed his arrow at Achilles’ unprotected heel, the one spot where he could be injured.
The strike proved fatal. Still today, the phrase “Achilles’ heel” refers to the vulnerable part of a person, a plan, or an institution at which if attacked there is no protection.
The same principle applies to ruthless dictatorships.
They, too, can be conquered, but most quickly and with least cost if their weaknesses can be identified and the attack concentrated on them.
The fifth phase government had many weaknesses that made it unpopular to rational voters. In a word, its Achilles' Heel was INJUSTICE to the innocent many.
Now, I can restate my question: Do you Mama Samia, the successor of President Magufuli, know Magufuli's weaknesses, and if yes, how much do you care to avoid them as you take off and aspire to become a successful president?
