nngu007
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 2, 2010
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By JENERALI ULIMWENGU
Posted Sunday, May 22 2011 at 10:47
So, some people planned an opposition party but are still in CCM. So what?
The Tanzanian political class is not necessarily reeling from the revelations, nor does it particularly care, but the new episode in our soap opera starring all sorts of comical politicians is getting some attention.
It started with an uppity young man, who, having been chucked out of the ruling partys youth wing, somehow managed to get himself appointed district governor by the President.
It did not matter to President Kikwete that his youth organ had recommended that the said young man be expelled from CCM wholesale.
When, a few months later, recently, the ageing and tired party went through the motions of cleansing itself they called it sloughing, like a snake does the young man got lucky again, for this time he was elevated to the post of spokesman of the party, meaning he was now boss of those who had kicked him out of the junior league.
Then the young man went on a rampage, crisscrossing the country on a tour of speeches in which he poured litres of venom on those he perceived to be enemies of the party, those who had given the party the bad name of corruption that had turned the Tanzanian people against their rulers.
A particular target was the erstwhile prime minister, Edward Lowassa, who resigned a few years ago in the wake of an economic scandal. Here was, apparently, an inspired young man out to kill the dragon of graft and save his much maligned party from collapse.
But somewhere he must have crossed a line and rubbed the opposition Chadema the wrong way. Chadema, remember, has been giving CCM more than a run for its money.
Now, through one of its recent converts who till late last year was a CCM legislator, it has struck back at the impetuous youth, accusing him of hypocrisy and duplicity.
The specific charge is that this zealous young person with a big mouth was last year at the centre of a move to register a party to oppose CCM and Kikwete, who he considered to be so corrupt as to be beyond local repair.
A few eyebrows rose and fell, but no serious person thought the accusation was necessarily outlandish.
What was interesting, though, was the young mans response: It is futile to talk about who was behind the attempted registration of a now dead party; rather, you tell us who or what killed that party. Bizarre statement, if you ask me.
Matters did not end there, for the CCM-turned-Chadema politician has been Wikileaking some more, this time alleging that a former speaker, who last year was through extraordinary subterfuge denied another term in the chair because he had annoyed the party by allegedly siding with its parliamentary enemies, had also been a founder member of the said dead party.
Another bizarre response: I am political capital; I have value, so everyone would like to have me on their side... I am presidential material, etc.
As I suggested at the outset, few people are paying this saga too much mind, seeing as we are now used to empty grandstanding by people who never meant a thing they said.
The public has been jaded by phonies and flip-flops who parade as leaders when all they care for is how much they can steal from the people and the nation
In this environment, if someone had planned to leave his party and form another but changed their mind simply because they were given a little ugali, so what? Who is not in it for the ugali?
There is so much that is said by our politicians that is bogus that you wonder how they can be so stupid as to think that the people are still taking them seriously.
It is totally to no avail that accusations will be made about people changing loyalties: what loyalties, when the principal loyalty is to self, an adequately demonstrated truth?
In Shakespearean parlance, a politician is a liar and a rogue.
That need not be the case, but the way our political tribe behaves one may be excused for thinking the Bard lived here, observing our political
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