Opinion
Analysis
Govt cannot afford to retract
Last week the President Mkapa pledged the country’s youth to wake up and take
advantage of the economic reforms Tanzania has witnessed in the past decade.
Referring to the coming introduction of free movement of labour in Kenya, Uganda
and Tanzania, the President warned that foreigners might be the only ones
gaining any favours out of the new system, if not Tanzanians become more
self-reliant, develop an entrepreneurial attitude and stop waiting for
employment from the government.
One cannot deny the economic reforms that have taken place. In the past ten
years, the public sector has shrunken and the private sector has grown. A
business climate more favourable to investment and small and medium enterprises
have certainly been established.
With last week’s statement, it sounds as if the government now claims to have
done its part and therefore it is up to the public, the citizens, to do their
part and make the new system work accordingly.
What the government is saying is that: the infrastructure and rules and
regulations are there, so make use of it! If you don’t like it you have to
change your mindset and attitudes, because this is the way things from now on
are going to be run.
Changing someone’s attitudes and behaviours are not an easy task. People have to
be convinced that changing their daily routines will be favourable for them,
people have to be given role models to look up to and most importantly they must
be given the right and sufficient preconditions enabling them to make the
change.
Bearing this in mind, it would be a shame if the government thought it could
quietly but confidently withdraw itself from the task of creating a more
entrepreneurial Tanzania.
Far from it; the government should remain in the forefront, not only in creating
a favourable business climate but in continuously providing education, support
and assistance. That is the job of the government!
The economic reforms carried out by the government will continue to be
meaningless, unless the government is more serious about creating preconditions
among which education on all levels are crucial.
Last week’s statement should have included promises and outlined strategies to
be performed by the government. That would have provided the public with a
greater incentive and encouragement to embark on changes. Cooperation and
dialogue are imperative between the government and the public; the government
cannot afford to retract.
Reason to smile
Since independence in 1961, Tanzania has on a very rare occasion managed to beat
Kenya or Uganda in the sporting arena. Taking popular sports as yardstick,
Tanzania had always had to watch Kenya and Uganda battling for regional top spot
in most of the sporting events the region staged in the four-decade span.
Only in the East African Club Soccer Championship did Tanzania have a glimpse of
hope in the form of Simba and Young Africans, who made notable achievements in
the region’s major championships. Simba won the title nine times, becoming the
only East African club to have done that.
Surprisingly, Kenyan and Congolese players who played for Tanzanian teams in the
just-ended Mbamba Kili Super Cup stunned basketball enthusiasts when they spoke
of the marvels of the event they had just played.
Loo Iyele from Lumpopo Club of Congo and Kenyan Anicet Wafula, both playing for
Vijana City Bulls, said Super Cup League as an event in the main league was a
great motivation to the development of basketball.
Speaking to Kenyan and Congolese in basketball matters means speaking to people
whose countries have better sporting tradition, programmes and commitments than
Tanzania. Congo, whose citizen Mutombo Dikembe is a world star playing in the
American NBA League, is among few African countries well advanced in basketball.
As they explained to The Express, the two international players said they would
suggest to league organisers in their countries to introduce something similar
to Super Cup. It is fairly evident that Kili RBA League and its offshoots,
Mbamba Kili Super Cup and Ladies Kili RBA, have recorded steady progress in
their endeavour to win more ground in and outside the country.
We have been taking it as mere basketball league, while our neighbours think it
is worth emulating. Organisers Dar es Salaam Region Basketball Association
(DARBA)and main sponsors Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL) under Kilimanjaro
Premium Lager have taken the foreigners’ approval quite seriously. Still, the
commendation from foreign players must make us big headed; it should be seen as
encouragement for further development.
It is good for Vijana and Savio to have foreign players brought in to challenge
our players. Let it be a tradition so that the sport can go even further.
CCM unexpected decision welcomed
By Evarist Kagaruki
The National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Central Committee (CC) of
Tanzania’s ruling party, CCM, rarely meet in Zanzibar. And when they do, they
come out with big surprises. Sometimes the surprises are baffling!
In 1991, for example, NEC, under the chairmanship of former President Ali Hassan
Mwinyi, met in the Isles, and to the shock and dismay of many CCM and non-CCM
members alike, passed an earthshaking resolution renouncing and ditching the
Arusha Declaration. By such renunciation, the party gave a carte blanche to
leaders in the country to accumulate wealth – by honest or dirty means – without
fear of being questioned on how they got it!
Much of the political corruption that we can see today, especially during
elections, and through the ostentatious lifestyle of most of our leaders, is a
consequence of the “Zanzibar Resolution” which buried – flesh and bones – the
moral code of conduct that had guided the leadership of this country for more
than two decades, since 1967.
Conscious that many people were indignant about the party’s ideological u-turn ,
senior party theoreticians embarked on a countrywide unholy campaign to try and
delude the public into believing that the Leadership Code was “still alive” but
had only been “amended” to suit the changing political and economic environment
(mageuzi!). Of course the campaign failed even before it had started because
politically-conscious Tanzanians needed no education about the obvious
intentions behind the Zanzibar Resolution!
Again in November 1996, in the wake of the Temeke Parliamentary by-election in
which CCM lost miserably, NEC met in Zanzibar, and, without any prior
consultation with, and consent of, the party members, made certain amazing
changes in the party’s constitution, which many feared could impact negatively
on the country’s democratic process.
I don’t intend to go into the details of the five changes that were effected in
the CCM constitution at the said meeting, but suffice to say that they carried
the impression that they were intended to scuttle the opposition indirectly.
Consider, for instance, the amendment which allowed Regions and District
Commissioners (who hail from CCM) to sit on the party’s regional and district
political committees respectively. There is not much difference from the
previous system during the one-party rule whereby RCs and DCs doubled as party
secretaries in their respective domains.
One does not have to be a political scientist to see that engaging RCs and DCs
(who are essentially government functionaries) in party politics was an indirect
way of weakening the opposition trough government machinery. It means that the
demarcation line between civil servants and party officials whereby the former
are supposed to be above partisan politics now exists only in theory at regional
and district levels!
Very recently, the Central Committee of the ruling party met, again in Zanzibar,
and emerged with yet another surprise, but this time a positive one. According
to press reports, a decision was reached at that meeting to exclude from the
proposed new amendments to the national constitution, a provision which would
have required a presidential candidate to have a degree as one of the requisite
conditions for one to qualify for the presidency.
This is a surprise because no one would have expected this new position from
CCM. It is the opposition who have all along been irked by the “degree
conditionality” and were expected to oppose it vigorously in Parliament. What
might have prompted the party to think differently about this issue this time
round would be interesting to know!
The Chairman of Tanzania Labour Party, and maverick politician, Augustine
Lyatonga Mrema, has been quoted as saying that CCM have changed their mind after
realising that he was in the process of getting a degree in the USA! Some, among
his flock, seem to believe him. Mrema had been maintaining that the “degree
condition” was specifically aimed at barring him from joining the 2005
presidential race, which is why he is pursuing a university degree.
My own assumption is that CCM has backtracked perhaps because the issue faced
strong opposition from within the party itself. Be that as it may, the grand
party has made a very wise decision indeed.