Nivlark
JF-Expert Member
- Jul 19, 2013
- 385
- 293
Heaven knows where
we are going, but
Magufuli knows he
can walk on water
By Jenerali Ulimwengu
Posted Saturday, June 25 2016 at 21:25
In the increasingly constipated
political atmosphere ushered in by
the excessive populism of President John
Pombe Magufuli, Tanzanians are
learning to swim with the tide and to
roll with the punches, without
necessarily knowing where they are
headed.
It kind of reminds one of the old songs
by the Osibisa group, “We are going/
Heaven knows where we are going.”
With all the good deeds the new
president has enacted, and with all the
great declarations he has uttered,
Magufuli has earned so many plaudits
that there is a real and present danger
he may have started to believe he can
walk on water.
It’s alright to force people who should be
paying taxes to pay them, and to punish
those who are found to be criminally
culpable, and to get rid of the corrupt,
lax and inept, and to plug holes through
which the national exchequer is
haemorrhaging.
Still, one would like the action taken to
be taken in a manner that is legal,
transparent, universally applicable and
predictable. It will be a sad day indeed
when we sacrifice legality and
transparency to the expediency of
achieving short-term gains that may not
be sustainable going forward.
We all know something about the MBWA
style of government, Management by
Walking About, which people in this
country practised many years ago, but
whose measures -- though hailed by a
gullible populace at the time -- have left
no positive legacy.
There is no substitute for robust systems
and tested implementation strategies and
processes, all anchored in a
philosophical outlook that mobilises
popular support and voluntary
adherence. But that, I admit, may look
like a tall order, involving hours and
hours of reflection and consensus
building.
The easier way is for whoever happens
to be at the top of the food chain to get
up in the morning and, depending on
what their dreams were last night, give
orders for this or that to be done, this
one or that other one to be hired or
fired. That is easy but costly in the long
run, not least because it lends itself to
perennial fresh starts.
Politics is king in all matters pertaining
to governance, and all who aspire to
governing others must be versed in the
art of politics, which -- when practiced
by those who understand what it means –
boils down to the ability to marshal
ideas against other ideas, to pit
arguments against other arguments, and
by a process of distillation, to extract the
best for a given society for the given
moment.
For the moment, I say, because today’s
heresy may become tomorrow’s dogma
in the ever-dynamic interface between
ideas and philosophies.
Otherwise, after killing Corpenicus, the
Catholic Church would have gone on to
kill Galileo as well. Much earlier, after
Socrates had been made to drink the
hemlock, the Athenians should have gone
on to wipe out the whole tribe of
troublemaking questioners. And, much
closer to us, Madiba should have died a
terrorist.
Tied to what I’m saying is an idea I’ve
heard so many times before but which
has made a new appearance with advent
of Magufuli. University students are
being told that they went to college to
study and not to engage in politics,
which to me, is, honestly, hogwash. If
you do not do politics at university, then
maybe you should be barred from
entering politics forever.
University is that space when you are
coming of age, and your mind is going
through the pressure cooker of new and
exciting learning that may have been
denied to you in lower learning
institutions. Even in those schools,
progressive teachers introduce their boys
and girls to elementary critical thinking,
guiding them in techniques of
argumentation and disputation.
That’s where true politicians are born.
To me, anyone who discovers politics
after they left university is either a fake
looking for a job in the political
industry, or he is the champion of late
bloomers.
To the students who may be confused by
what our rulers are telling them, I say,
do politics if politics is your thing, and
don’t listen to all the statements
designed to turn you into unquestioning
zombies doing their bidding. Do politics
as if your life depended on it, because it
actually does.
Jenerali Ulimwengu Jenerali Ulimwengu is
chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema
newspaper and an advocate of the High
Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail:
ulimwengu@jenerali.com
we are going, but
Magufuli knows he
can walk on water
By Jenerali Ulimwengu
Posted Saturday, June 25 2016 at 21:25
In the increasingly constipated
political atmosphere ushered in by
the excessive populism of President John
Pombe Magufuli, Tanzanians are
learning to swim with the tide and to
roll with the punches, without
necessarily knowing where they are
headed.
It kind of reminds one of the old songs
by the Osibisa group, “We are going/
Heaven knows where we are going.”
With all the good deeds the new
president has enacted, and with all the
great declarations he has uttered,
Magufuli has earned so many plaudits
that there is a real and present danger
he may have started to believe he can
walk on water.
It’s alright to force people who should be
paying taxes to pay them, and to punish
those who are found to be criminally
culpable, and to get rid of the corrupt,
lax and inept, and to plug holes through
which the national exchequer is
haemorrhaging.
Still, one would like the action taken to
be taken in a manner that is legal,
transparent, universally applicable and
predictable. It will be a sad day indeed
when we sacrifice legality and
transparency to the expediency of
achieving short-term gains that may not
be sustainable going forward.
We all know something about the MBWA
style of government, Management by
Walking About, which people in this
country practised many years ago, but
whose measures -- though hailed by a
gullible populace at the time -- have left
no positive legacy.
There is no substitute for robust systems
and tested implementation strategies and
processes, all anchored in a
philosophical outlook that mobilises
popular support and voluntary
adherence. But that, I admit, may look
like a tall order, involving hours and
hours of reflection and consensus
building.
The easier way is for whoever happens
to be at the top of the food chain to get
up in the morning and, depending on
what their dreams were last night, give
orders for this or that to be done, this
one or that other one to be hired or
fired. That is easy but costly in the long
run, not least because it lends itself to
perennial fresh starts.
Politics is king in all matters pertaining
to governance, and all who aspire to
governing others must be versed in the
art of politics, which -- when practiced
by those who understand what it means –
boils down to the ability to marshal
ideas against other ideas, to pit
arguments against other arguments, and
by a process of distillation, to extract the
best for a given society for the given
moment.
For the moment, I say, because today’s
heresy may become tomorrow’s dogma
in the ever-dynamic interface between
ideas and philosophies.
Otherwise, after killing Corpenicus, the
Catholic Church would have gone on to
kill Galileo as well. Much earlier, after
Socrates had been made to drink the
hemlock, the Athenians should have gone
on to wipe out the whole tribe of
troublemaking questioners. And, much
closer to us, Madiba should have died a
terrorist.
Tied to what I’m saying is an idea I’ve
heard so many times before but which
has made a new appearance with advent
of Magufuli. University students are
being told that they went to college to
study and not to engage in politics,
which to me, is, honestly, hogwash. If
you do not do politics at university, then
maybe you should be barred from
entering politics forever.
University is that space when you are
coming of age, and your mind is going
through the pressure cooker of new and
exciting learning that may have been
denied to you in lower learning
institutions. Even in those schools,
progressive teachers introduce their boys
and girls to elementary critical thinking,
guiding them in techniques of
argumentation and disputation.
That’s where true politicians are born.
To me, anyone who discovers politics
after they left university is either a fake
looking for a job in the political
industry, or he is the champion of late
bloomers.
To the students who may be confused by
what our rulers are telling them, I say,
do politics if politics is your thing, and
don’t listen to all the statements
designed to turn you into unquestioning
zombies doing their bidding. Do politics
as if your life depended on it, because it
actually does.
Jenerali Ulimwengu Jenerali Ulimwengu is
chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema
newspaper and an advocate of the High
Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail:
ulimwengu@jenerali.com
