STARLINK OPPOSITION IN TANZANIA LINKED TO POLITICAL SUPPRESSION.
The Minister in charge of communication, Nape Nnauye, has raised issues that are irrelevant to justify why Starlink go-slow is in the conveyor belt.
He says starlink is reticent on having an office in TZ and that what they are doing with data they collect remain arcane and henceforth stumbling blocks!
All of the social media platforms now in play in TZ do not satisfactorily address the reservations the minister is guilefully grappling with: local office and data security amounting to existential threats to national security. Laugh not please this is not satire but realpolitik in application.
Look at Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, websites, tik tok etc etc have no offices in TZ, and data security is neither here nor there.
THE REAL REASON CCM GOVERNMENT ABHOR STARLINK SERVICES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
1) Lack of control. Remember, 2020 elections CCM government slowed down Internet speed, culminating into most social interactive platforms inaccessible unless the victim deploys an app called VPN.. The motive was to starve local users to share their experiences and views over a bangled election. With STARLINK services handled by satellites, CCM fears it has no say and may not be able to determine how voters will react once the nuts and bolts of massively rigged elections come to surface.
After 2015 elections, censorship was imposed upon parliamentary proceedings, of all places, after the few opposition MPs were pummelling CCM MPs despite brandishing almost an almost ironclad majority. Losing policy debates at the glare of cameras prompted the CCM government to do the impossible: Ban Live parliamentary debates. Interestingly, the minister who deprived citizens of the right to be informed by their national TV was no other but Nape Nnauye, of all people, and he is at it once again!
In the running of 2010 elections, TBC1 engineered live coverage of election campaigns, and CCM aspirants were faring poorly. In a twinkling of an eye, such vital debates were shelved, and the TBC1 boss was shown the door after CCM MPs complained in parliament.
In a criminal indictment of the whistleblower online site JamiiForums founders, the CCM regime alleged that JamiiForums had violated digital laws that require them to use ip addresses of .tz but were using that of .com. Abundantly clear, CCM was nervous about the use of .com instead of .tz had locked them out from imposing temporary bans or permanent closure against JamiiForums for recalcitrance to curb dissent. The criminal complaint was eventually dismissed for lack of merits.
All these instances elaborate CCM intense dislike of transparency and accountability, the very virtues Starlink espouse. Henceforth, the CCM regime and Starlink are not seeing eye to eye, and delays are obviously CCM last line of defence without antagonising the general public....
CCM falsely suspects Starlink could provide dissidents with a launchpad that could be repurposed into a rallying avenue for the opposition to challenge CCM sway on power.
2) Shareholding of some of local Internet companies has a whiff of political connections, such companies will be potentially major losers once starlink in full swing in TZ. But the apprehension may be highly overblown knowing the cost of owning and maintaining starlink services are out of reach of many TZ. So, the majority of Internet surfers will cling to local services despite choked speed, erratic coverage and exorbitant user rates.
Fibre optic has faced intentional neglect, and nobody these days yap about it anymore. It is not a natural death but a man-made imposed death. Optic fibre was a spanner thrown in the path of domestic Internet services, of which some politicians are making a killing without investing anything tangible except showboating a veneer of influence peddlers.
3) How do you squeeze taxes? Many potential users of starlink may opt to pay for such services using overseas bank accounts or related payment systems punching a huge hole in Exchequer tax collection. Policymakers may want assurances from starlink how such loopholes to cashcows are gonna be plugged. Tax evasion is a worry to this regime.
4) Of significant importance is why we are not investing to launch our own communication satellite that will provide Internet services at a pittance ushering in a new dawn in digital revolution. Such a policy move will resolve all the issues our cunning minister is embroiled in. We will cease being cash cows of foreign multinationals, boosting employment opportunities, tax collections and technological advances in alien countries, stamping cyber data insecurities, and taking charge of our own digital destiny. Angola is a leader in this, a gratitude of Russian philanthropy. We need to rummage our own psyche what is stopping us from reclaiming our lost hopes once quested of a nation striving to be self reliant.