Rutashubanyuma
JF-Expert Member
- Sep 24, 2010
- 219,470
- 911,173
During the recently concluded CCM convention, the euphoric mood of victory, inevitability and "business as usual" afflicted CCM stalwarts. Even president Kikwete opined that the opposition was peeking beyond this election into 2015 and CCM should do the same.
Now we know, just like the Obama phenomenon that took the World by storm: Never underestimate the people's power to get what they want. Polls after polls indicated anti-establishment sentiments were running amok but those sniper-shots were wrong to conclude only the immediate CCM MPs were besieged but president Kikwete was above the fray.
It was a wrong prognosis of voters' sentiments. Both in 1995 and 2005, Mkapa and Kikwete were able to hoodwink voters that they were outsiders despite years in government employment. Mkapa portrayed himself as a graft slayer and Kikwete was able to project himself as a "new kid on the block". But now voters have been through that treacherous path before and it is fatuous to play the same old tune again and again because voters now know that CCM vinyl record, its gramophone and its stylus are irretrievably defective. The remedy of that deceit is its full replacement but not enhancing major repairs.
CCM fully knows this election is a referendum on governance but she attempted to upend that political kitsch into judgment upon Dr. Slaa's character and voters seem to snort a 1995 déjà vu. In 1995, CCM knew Mr. Augustine Mrema was a better messenger to carry the banner of anti-graft mojo given his unblemished record in that frontier but a cunning CCM successflly twisted his emblems and history records Mrema lost that election largely as a result of character assasination goaded by anti-reform elements within the ruling party.
No one in CCM top ranks has the imagination to defend CCM record on governance because that remit is flimsy. This time around it is economy stupid that will send CCM packing, once and for all. With the country running into double digits inflation even Mkapa macro-economic achievements have been wiped out ironically by an economist trained president Kikwete! Our magnitude of national debt has tripled in the last five years and we are running into trade deficits of historical proportions and it shocks a few our shilling is facing the scissors.
Under Kikwete we are witnesses to the largest government expansion in history but public services have dwindled proportionately to the enlargement of government size! While government expansion is designed to improve upon regulation but in our case civil servants' emoluments as percentage of government budget have ballooned with little else to blip the envisaged control mechanisms have been ameliorated. All that has been made possible because nepotism and favouritism have now entrenched themselves in hire and fire decisions in the public service.
Our manpower in civil service epitomizes incompetency and everywhere you go whether it is at BOT, local government, central government or in executive agencies, the government is on denial. BOT can easily proclaim the economy is in shipshape while the same governors concede the economic numbers do not egg on their perky reassurances ! Our government is now jovially parading such daylight lies.
When CCM secretary general instructed his electoral aspirants not to account themselves before the electorate via debates I instinctively knew the big writing was on the wall. It was a concession on part of CCM that she touts no performance record to write home about and a recalcitrance to face both the opposition and voters through debates was betiding an interactive dialogue will dim CCM chances of retaining both the presidency and the House.
Clearly, CCM has lost all vestiges of legitimacy to rule because accountability is a two-way traffic and not the other way around. CCM can not go to voters and tell her story without getting feedback from the electorate via lively debates. Now CCM after being foisted into a corner is no longer putting her facetious epics out but is busy chastening Chadema's narratives! CCM promised a mother of all battles but she has now recoiled into a mother of all retreats.
What a frightful change of heart!
Now we know, just like the Obama phenomenon that took the World by storm: Never underestimate the people's power to get what they want. Polls after polls indicated anti-establishment sentiments were running amok but those sniper-shots were wrong to conclude only the immediate CCM MPs were besieged but president Kikwete was above the fray.
It was a wrong prognosis of voters' sentiments. Both in 1995 and 2005, Mkapa and Kikwete were able to hoodwink voters that they were outsiders despite years in government employment. Mkapa portrayed himself as a graft slayer and Kikwete was able to project himself as a "new kid on the block". But now voters have been through that treacherous path before and it is fatuous to play the same old tune again and again because voters now know that CCM vinyl record, its gramophone and its stylus are irretrievably defective. The remedy of that deceit is its full replacement but not enhancing major repairs.
CCM fully knows this election is a referendum on governance but she attempted to upend that political kitsch into judgment upon Dr. Slaa's character and voters seem to snort a 1995 déjà vu. In 1995, CCM knew Mr. Augustine Mrema was a better messenger to carry the banner of anti-graft mojo given his unblemished record in that frontier but a cunning CCM successflly twisted his emblems and history records Mrema lost that election largely as a result of character assasination goaded by anti-reform elements within the ruling party.
No one in CCM top ranks has the imagination to defend CCM record on governance because that remit is flimsy. This time around it is economy stupid that will send CCM packing, once and for all. With the country running into double digits inflation even Mkapa macro-economic achievements have been wiped out ironically by an economist trained president Kikwete! Our magnitude of national debt has tripled in the last five years and we are running into trade deficits of historical proportions and it shocks a few our shilling is facing the scissors.
Under Kikwete we are witnesses to the largest government expansion in history but public services have dwindled proportionately to the enlargement of government size! While government expansion is designed to improve upon regulation but in our case civil servants' emoluments as percentage of government budget have ballooned with little else to blip the envisaged control mechanisms have been ameliorated. All that has been made possible because nepotism and favouritism have now entrenched themselves in hire and fire decisions in the public service.
Our manpower in civil service epitomizes incompetency and everywhere you go whether it is at BOT, local government, central government or in executive agencies, the government is on denial. BOT can easily proclaim the economy is in shipshape while the same governors concede the economic numbers do not egg on their perky reassurances ! Our government is now jovially parading such daylight lies.
When CCM secretary general instructed his electoral aspirants not to account themselves before the electorate via debates I instinctively knew the big writing was on the wall. It was a concession on part of CCM that she touts no performance record to write home about and a recalcitrance to face both the opposition and voters through debates was betiding an interactive dialogue will dim CCM chances of retaining both the presidency and the House.
Clearly, CCM has lost all vestiges of legitimacy to rule because accountability is a two-way traffic and not the other way around. CCM can not go to voters and tell her story without getting feedback from the electorate via lively debates. Now CCM after being foisted into a corner is no longer putting her facetious epics out but is busy chastening Chadema's narratives! CCM promised a mother of all battles but she has now recoiled into a mother of all retreats.
What a frightful change of heart!
