Mzee Mwanakijiji
Platinum Member
- Mar 10, 2006
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(picha toka blogu ya Zanzibar Daima)
I have been looking for some words to adequately describe our political situation in the country; I have found none that are good enough. Indeed, I have tried in so many rational ways to find some forms of logical explanations of why our beloved nation is in such a political conundrum, Im sorry to report that I have found none that is logical and convincing enough. My friends may be there are no adequate words or logical explanations of why there is a crisis in leadership in Tanzania. May be the simplest answer is sufficient enough.
What we are witnessing in the make up of our political leadership is purely the absence of effective, able, willing and dedicated individuals who are ready to give up everything for the sake of their nation. Im talking about Tanzanians who are courageous to lead and able to defend their positions through persuasion rather than intimidation or the threat of force against those who oppose them or those who disagree with them. We are missing at the detriment of the welfare of our people leaders who are visionaries; those who know the needs of our people and are willing to stake their honor, status, and all to lead us into the best of our future! A future of prosperity, equality and equal access to opportunity to create and sustain an affluent livelihood for each Tanzanian.
What we have now in the country could be summed up us leadership defaulted. That is, the people who were elected or picked to provide some form of leadership in the country have betrayed the oaths that they have taken, and they have chosen to be followers of events and situations in the country instead of taking the helm of leadership to show the people which way to go and how to get there.
The recent events that have cemented rapture between the government and the workers of this country confirm without any ambiguity that the political leadership in the country is not able to fend off well crafted arguments without opting to the threat of force or reprisals of sorts.
For four years now we have witnessed CCMs government under President Kikwete failing to provide a clear and convincing leadership on matters of gross national importance. Examples can be shown on how the Kikwetes government dealt (or still dealing) with the issues of corruption in public service as well as how it has miserably failed to courageously deal with incompetence among a number of public officials.
The CCM government formerly under Mkapa and now under Kikwete has failed to provide a prompt and swift actions against public officials implicated in over 20 major scandals that have resulted in the loss of about 11 Billion USD in the past ten years! This is a fact just as the planets revolve around the sun!
I could say more on this but suffice it to say that, what we have in the country right now is simply leadership denied, dream defaulted! Yes, just as Mkapa turned out to be a caricature of leadership so has Kikwete become the comedy of the same!
We have in our collective hands a choice; a choice of whether we would continue to elect the same failed leaders, with the same ideology of incompetence and philosophy of failure and expecting success in our foreseeable future. It is a choice for each one of us to make just as well as for all of us to make. If we were to return the same people, from the same political party, who hold the same political views simply because now they have a new manifesto in their hands; the same manifesto written by the same very people who wrote the last one and hoping that some how the results in the next five years would be different then the problems will make itself more clear and obvious for everyone to behold! It will shine in front of our naked eyes as bright as the sun shines on a beautiful summer day.
WE THE PEOPLE are the problem! We are the ones who elect these so called leaders a.k.a our rulers; we are the ones who attend their political rallies with our faces darkened by hardships of the day looking hopeful for no apparent reason but mere superstitious ones! We are the one who encourage them by cheering their vain promises as if somewhere this failed bunch of rulers would find a way out of our plight simply by giving more appealing promises! We are the ones who continue to pray that somehow the Heavens would change the corrupt regime and that may be heaven would lead them to see the misery of our people and make them care!
My friends, I have bad news for you! corrupt public officials never change! They can not change, they will not change! A corrupt political party can not change at least not in its own volition. No where on earth a political party deep in corruption has ever brought itself out of the unforgiving abyss of corruption! For corruption once entangled in a political system, enshrined in its laws and embedded in the mindsets of the people becomes so dense and destructive just as the pull of gravity in a black hole! Nothing can escape from it; not even light! A corrupt political system will suck in everything that get close to it or try to be brave enough to try to reform it!
Thanks heaven! though powerful as it may a corrupt political system in Tanzania is not a black hole; it can be caused to collapse on its own weight. We have seen this happening in Poland as well as in Ukraine; we have seen it happening in Mexico as well as in Malaysia and Indonesia; Yes! we have seen it collapsing in Taiwan as well as in Japan! Only when forces outside this system are methodically and strategically applied that is when such a system would start to crack.
In the past four years we have tried to create these forces and applied them meticulously to this corrupt system as we attempted to cause it to fall; we saw some cracks but thats all we have seen. The system is not falling and the giant is still standing even more vengeful and angrier than before.
Im more worried today that after so much we have done in the past four years we have found ourselves lacking clear leadership in our movement for change in the nation. Those whom we expected to provide leadership and push for political reform have backed down and instead they have chosen intellectual ways to argue for reform instead of using political and civil tools to effect it. They do don't understand (or choose not to) that no corrupt regime has been defeated by intellectual or academic exchanges! Their attempts are such of those who would try to convince a pride of lions from hunting for preys. Im arguing that although we do indeed have a lot of intellectuals at our disposal we are lacking political vision and leadership to effect political reform that we so much long for.
We are caught then in a situation whose outcome is unpredictable though somewhat expectable and probable; with lack of leadership in the government and in the weak movement for change the possibility is that the same failed leaders would return again to power, easily. If that is the case, do we have to support the same people whom have already failed hoping that they would find some courage within them to rise against all odds and lead the charge towards change no matter the price?
Or, should we hope and encourage a new line of leadership unconventional and visionaries at best? Should we look for these leaders even outside the most expected places such as outside the current political formations in the country or abroad? Should we support these leaders once we recognize them or should we wait until we are comfortable enough of their leadership? How would we recognize them if they are not affiliated with any party right now?
Should we on the other hand envision a political movement such as that of Tea Party or other recent movements such as the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon or the Orange Revolution in Ukraine? or, should we just continue unceasingly to pray that somehow, somewhere, some gods of political outcomes will have mercy on us and provide us with good and quality leadership no matter how long we have to wait for that god to do so? Or should we take the charge to build our own leadership knowing that there is a price to pay for that, even the ultimate price?
For now however, Kikwete has proven to be a failed Leader and under him and his political party the nations dream and ambitions have continued to be defaulted. Looking at the current alternatives the situation is becoming more dire with the passing of each new day! Where lays our hope?
IS IT TOO LATE?
