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In Dodoma, they run with the hares and hunt with the hounds
FRIDAY AUGUST 13 2021
People queue at the Kimara Bus Station in Dar es Salaam. Tanzania is suffering in so many areas because of this chameleon-like quality of some of the people put in charge of the nation’s affairs, and the cost can be so high in some cases. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
Summary
- Tanzania is suffering in so many areas because of this chameleon-like quality of some of the people put in charge of the nation’s affairs, and the cost can be so high in some cases.
- These are costs that are usually not quantified forcefully enough, because they are not borne by individuals who would feel the pinch directly but are rather outsourced to the non-personal status of the “public.”
By JENERALI ULIMWENGU
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I remember a meeting I attended with a couple of ministers and members of civil society to thrash out a few issues setting us apart during the opening years of Jakaya Kikwete’s presidency.
One of the ministers had been a leader of a non-governmental organisation but now was in the government delegation, with quite a changed position on some key questions on which her previous militancy had been noted.
When someone in attendance expressed their surprise at the new stance of the official, she answered, very matter-of-factly, “Then I was an activist, but now I’m in government”. It was clear that what she had espoused as an activist was totally different now that she was a minister.
This is the unfortunate reality of many of our people who can be characterised as “turncoats,” who hold beliefs according to the position or post they hold, either in government or in a non-governmental office.
That is to say, when in a civil society organisation you hold a strong view backing a non-governmental organisation, and when you are appointed as minister you hold another, possibly diametrically opposed to the one you had held just before that.
Running with the hares
Thus, you may find yourself running with the hares one day and hunting with the hounds the next day, or even doing the two simultaneously. The two-faced demeanour some of these people carry about them does not have to wait till they move from one office to another, but changes according to who they are talking to in the same day.
The duplicity engendered by this kind of behaviour creates a great many cases of schizophrenics, with divided personalities so contradictory in one person that it is sometimes hard to know whether they are coming or going.
Tanzania is suffering in so many areas because of this chameleon-like quality of some of the people put in charge of the nation’s affairs, and the cost can be so high in some cases.
These are costs that are usually not quantified forcefully enough, because they are not borne by individuals who would feel the pinch directly but are rather outsourced to the non-personal status of the “public.”
Live wire
We could take a few cases to illustrate this point. If you told someone under your care to touch a live wire without insulation and they got electrocuted in the process, you may be prosecuted for, and probably convicted of, manslaughter or involuntary homicide.But if you make a general declaration addressed to millions of Tanzanians to the effect that the coronavirus has been banished from our country, and people contract the virus and die, you are not held responsible for these deaths, for some incomprehensible reason.
And yet you should be held liable, at least if the people affected by your actions and words are people under your care, such as when you have influence over them.
In certain cases, a leader to his or her people is like a parent to his or her children, and these latter are usually beholden to the former.
Recognised figure
So, although any adult who commits an offence is personally liable for their acts, still, the words or instructions of a recognised figure of authority does carry weight that must be recognised.Such responsibility becomes even more important in ignorant communities and societies and where correct information is hard to access and where those in authority are held to be more knowledgeable that the common person, even if in reality they are just as ignorant as the last peasant in the hamlet.
Back to our minister who no longer held the views she had held as an activist, one would be allowed to wonder where such people came from.
In terms of the fiduciary relationship I alluded to above, as a leader of an organisation with strong convictions, such a leader affects the thinking of the people under her leadership, and sometimes such influence can have harsh consequences on those who act on them.
In repressive societies, where people go to jail, or get killed, because of their convictions, expressed or suspected, civil society leaders leave indelible marks on their followers.
What happens to the psyche of those who are told one thing one day and the very opposite once their leader has morphed in status?
The erosion in confidence that takes place when one particular leader at a particular level of authority reneges does not limit itself to that particular level or area alone, or to that particular type of leadership alone, but is rather generalised, because generalisations are bound to be made.
The general creed that has gone around the world and down the ages that politicians are scoundrels who should never be trusted must have acquired currency because of the behaviour of a few politicians who have now given the dog a bad name, and are preparing the gallows.
Jenerali Ulimwengu is now on YouTube via jeneralionline tv. E-mail: jenerali@gmail.com
