Mag3
Platinum Member
- May 31, 2008
- 13,413
- 23,592
Fellow countrymen when you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because Tanzania is your country. This is your democracy and so make it, protect it and pass it on. Democracy is not a spectator sport, it's a participatory event. If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy. Democracy is never easy, it is messy and it is hard.
A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful. The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting because you have to take orders even before you cast your vote.
There is this cult of ignorance in Tanzania nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. People cannot be free unless they are willing to sacrifice some of their interests to guarantee the freedom of others. The price of democracy is the ongoing pursuit of the common good by all of the people.
Democracy's a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy and never allow it to turn into scare tactics. If you do, it's no longer democracy, it is authoritarianism. The bedrock of democracy is the rule of law and that means having an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.
And lastly the most important thing to always remember, It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful. The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting because you have to take orders even before you cast your vote.
There is this cult of ignorance in Tanzania nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. People cannot be free unless they are willing to sacrifice some of their interests to guarantee the freedom of others. The price of democracy is the ongoing pursuit of the common good by all of the people.
Democracy's a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy and never allow it to turn into scare tactics. If you do, it's no longer democracy, it is authoritarianism. The bedrock of democracy is the rule of law and that means having an independent judiciary, judges who can make decisions independent of the political winds that are blowing.
And lastly the most important thing to always remember, It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.