Zak Malang
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 30, 2008
- 5,404
- 234
Wanajamvi:
Nimeonelea ni vyema mkasoma makala hii iliyotoka katika gazeti la The African la leo na nafikiri ni mojawapo ya makala nzuri za mwandishi Hilal Sued.
Namkumbuka mwandishi huyu tangu zama za Family Mirror katika miaka ya 90 ambaye makala zake pamoja zile za Stanley Kamana (RIP), Prof Issa Shivji na Anthony Ngaiza ndizo zilikuwa za mwanzo kabisa katika kuwafumbua macho wananchi wakati wa kipindi kile cha ujio wa vyama vingi.
Msisitizo wangu ni sehemu nilizo-highlight. Ni hakika kabisa alichokisema Lukuvi ni pumba tupu kwani amani, bila misingi madhubuti ya haki, ni kitu kisichowezekana, hata ukiimba ‘amani' hadi sauti ikakukauka, hata ikiwa misikitini na makanisani. Haki huzaa na kuendeleza amani.
--------------
Lukuvi, show us the ‘strong pillars' of justice that prop up our peace
By Hilal K. sued
I have decided to make my headline this week a poser somewhat, well aware that there would be no concrete response – examples of the ‘strong pillars' I am referring to.
Winston Churchill, British World War 11 Prime Minister once said: "The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong."
It's a stark dilemma for mankind and provides valid depiction of what could be happening at the moment – the disappearance of a just world. It's also a grim reminder that justice is inseparable to peace – as it is always its proud creation.
For the fallible mankind it is a difficult objective to attain, its inputs are hard to slot in because in its majestic equality, justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind. Is the CCM government embracing that? I say NO.
Martin Luther King Jr, the American civil rights activist likened justice to "light" and "love" when he said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
In other words there is no virtue as truly great and godlike as justice. And when we talk about individual nations and their systems of governance, justice is a hub from which other virtues spread out, the most important of which are peace and tranquility.
Granted, you can have peace without justice, but that peace is deceptive, and essentially perilous. Such kind of peace is the one that is ranted by politicians at rostrums or eulogized via sermons in places of worship – all aim to push agendas of certain groups of people.
This ‘peace' is bogus as it is not built upon robust concrete foundations, with justice as its principal cornerstone. And this is the message heard from Parliament last week though from a chaotic setting.
It was when the august House became a scene of altercation, both verbal and physical among various participants. At times order in the House was cast to the four winds as speakers shouted at one another, arguing, among other things over some points of order ("mwongozo").
My personal appraisal of the situation is that our Parliament has reached a very crucial milestone in its history – it's trying to unpeel itself for a new beginning. In other words some members are pushing it to discard its former traditional role of rubberstamping whatever the Government wants or says, and adopt a new one – listening to what the electorate wants or says. That is my observation; all other talk is just that – talk.
In fact the new breed of MPs in the House (though few in number but noisy) are set to go down the country's history books as the ones who brought the second liberation of the country -- right from the legislative chamber.
But traditions die hard and therefore the metamorphosis has to encounter bitter opposition. The few who have had it too good for too long are not ready to give up easily.
Many of these hardly bother to what happens to the poverty blighting the majority of wananchi. Some of these leaders are so sated by the daintiness provided by the gravy train they are travelling in that they even elect to take a nap during deliberations in the House. Yes – I'm talking about CCM MPs, in particular their ministers.
And if they are not doing this, they boo at whatever an opposition MP says that appears to hit the nail squarely on its head. I sometimes get amazed at the Speakers' blatant bias -- why he/she finds this kind of behaviour from CCM MPs tolerable but becomes fast to admonish or even throw out opposition MPs on flimsy issues arising from the ‘mwongozo' fixation.
As already stated the majority of the establishment's heavyweights do not want the status quo changed. One of them is William Lukuvi, the minister in PM's Office, who must have fascinated many wananchi over his definition of ‘peace' and ‘justice.'
On Thursday William Lukuvi asked for "mwongozo" from the Deputy Speaker. It was promptly given and used the opportunity to blast the earlier speech given by Godbless Lema, Opposition's Shadow Minister on budgetary estimates of the Home Affairs Ministry.
I have no immediate qualms with the House Deputy Speaker for promptly acceding to Lukuvi's ‘mwongozo' which he (Lukuvi) instead used to castigate Lema's speech. I'm reserving that for another day.
However I was jolted by Lukuvi's sense of confidence and finality on what he said. Momentarily he became prosecutor and magistrate all rolled in one and issued a verdict that Lema's speech was full of incitement that is designed to breach the country's peace.
He went further – that over the years this country's current peace has been built from strong foundations of justice and therefore "we cannot allow some people to breach it."
As stated earlier such words are being uttered every now and then at rostrums by government leaders and politicians from the ruling party – CCM. They are just that – words.
How is he to be reminded that the principles of justice that held Tanzania's peace collapsed with Mwalimu Julius Nyerere's administration? Can't he see that the country is managed by the happy-go-lucky disciples who only pay lip service to the wananchi's plight and instead embrace the so called moneyed ‘investors?'
Imagine this: After any rostrum rave about the peace found in the country, just try to take the speech giver aside and engage him to a serious argument by demanding him to show you the foundations that prop up the peace he was talking about. You will draw blank.
Lema's speech was full of facts and examples on why the country's peace lacks robust prop ups. It was one of the finest to be given in the House as far as I can recall, as it had nothing in it that was untrue. It was audacious and to the point – calling a spade by its very name. No doubt that is why CCM people did not like – calling a spade a spade.
It came at the opportune time – directed to the people who are entrusted with the keeping of law and order – the police, whose 2011/12 budget estimates had been presented. In recent months, the police force has occupied front page headlines due to its trigger-happy cops.
In his speech Lema said according a report filed by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), a total of 21 people were gunned down by the police in the five months of this year. The LHRC report also said a total of 52 people were killed in similar fashion in 2010.
Surely these incidents cannot just be swept under the carpet as the CCM government would like to so that it continues to rant about peace. The LHRC report has not been contested by the Government, including Mr Lukuvi, as untrue or inciting.
Lema correctly invoked Elie Wiesel's quote, the Jewish philosopher who said even though people may be powerless to prevent injustice, but can they even be powerless to protest the vice?
Right now, newspapers are saturated with headlines about the ejection of MPs from the legislative chamber, and not Lema's finest, down-to-earth speech in the House. Probably that is what the ruling party had been gunning for in the face of the authenticity of the situation given in the speech.
Personally, I count this as another attempt by the establishment to sweep its ills under the carpet, instead of taking up the challenge. For if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear."
ends
Nimeonelea ni vyema mkasoma makala hii iliyotoka katika gazeti la The African la leo na nafikiri ni mojawapo ya makala nzuri za mwandishi Hilal Sued.
Namkumbuka mwandishi huyu tangu zama za Family Mirror katika miaka ya 90 ambaye makala zake pamoja zile za Stanley Kamana (RIP), Prof Issa Shivji na Anthony Ngaiza ndizo zilikuwa za mwanzo kabisa katika kuwafumbua macho wananchi wakati wa kipindi kile cha ujio wa vyama vingi.
Msisitizo wangu ni sehemu nilizo-highlight. Ni hakika kabisa alichokisema Lukuvi ni pumba tupu kwani amani, bila misingi madhubuti ya haki, ni kitu kisichowezekana, hata ukiimba ‘amani' hadi sauti ikakukauka, hata ikiwa misikitini na makanisani. Haki huzaa na kuendeleza amani.
--------------
Lukuvi, show us the ‘strong pillars' of justice that prop up our peace
By Hilal K. sued
I have decided to make my headline this week a poser somewhat, well aware that there would be no concrete response – examples of the ‘strong pillars' I am referring to.
Winston Churchill, British World War 11 Prime Minister once said: "The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong."
It's a stark dilemma for mankind and provides valid depiction of what could be happening at the moment – the disappearance of a just world. It's also a grim reminder that justice is inseparable to peace – as it is always its proud creation.
For the fallible mankind it is a difficult objective to attain, its inputs are hard to slot in because in its majestic equality, justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind. Is the CCM government embracing that? I say NO.
Martin Luther King Jr, the American civil rights activist likened justice to "light" and "love" when he said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
In other words there is no virtue as truly great and godlike as justice. And when we talk about individual nations and their systems of governance, justice is a hub from which other virtues spread out, the most important of which are peace and tranquility.
Granted, you can have peace without justice, but that peace is deceptive, and essentially perilous. Such kind of peace is the one that is ranted by politicians at rostrums or eulogized via sermons in places of worship – all aim to push agendas of certain groups of people.
This ‘peace' is bogus as it is not built upon robust concrete foundations, with justice as its principal cornerstone. And this is the message heard from Parliament last week though from a chaotic setting.
It was when the august House became a scene of altercation, both verbal and physical among various participants. At times order in the House was cast to the four winds as speakers shouted at one another, arguing, among other things over some points of order ("mwongozo").
My personal appraisal of the situation is that our Parliament has reached a very crucial milestone in its history – it's trying to unpeel itself for a new beginning. In other words some members are pushing it to discard its former traditional role of rubberstamping whatever the Government wants or says, and adopt a new one – listening to what the electorate wants or says. That is my observation; all other talk is just that – talk.
In fact the new breed of MPs in the House (though few in number but noisy) are set to go down the country's history books as the ones who brought the second liberation of the country -- right from the legislative chamber.
But traditions die hard and therefore the metamorphosis has to encounter bitter opposition. The few who have had it too good for too long are not ready to give up easily.
Many of these hardly bother to what happens to the poverty blighting the majority of wananchi. Some of these leaders are so sated by the daintiness provided by the gravy train they are travelling in that they even elect to take a nap during deliberations in the House. Yes – I'm talking about CCM MPs, in particular their ministers.
And if they are not doing this, they boo at whatever an opposition MP says that appears to hit the nail squarely on its head. I sometimes get amazed at the Speakers' blatant bias -- why he/she finds this kind of behaviour from CCM MPs tolerable but becomes fast to admonish or even throw out opposition MPs on flimsy issues arising from the ‘mwongozo' fixation.
As already stated the majority of the establishment's heavyweights do not want the status quo changed. One of them is William Lukuvi, the minister in PM's Office, who must have fascinated many wananchi over his definition of ‘peace' and ‘justice.'
On Thursday William Lukuvi asked for "mwongozo" from the Deputy Speaker. It was promptly given and used the opportunity to blast the earlier speech given by Godbless Lema, Opposition's Shadow Minister on budgetary estimates of the Home Affairs Ministry.
I have no immediate qualms with the House Deputy Speaker for promptly acceding to Lukuvi's ‘mwongozo' which he (Lukuvi) instead used to castigate Lema's speech. I'm reserving that for another day.
However I was jolted by Lukuvi's sense of confidence and finality on what he said. Momentarily he became prosecutor and magistrate all rolled in one and issued a verdict that Lema's speech was full of incitement that is designed to breach the country's peace.
He went further – that over the years this country's current peace has been built from strong foundations of justice and therefore "we cannot allow some people to breach it."
As stated earlier such words are being uttered every now and then at rostrums by government leaders and politicians from the ruling party – CCM. They are just that – words.
How is he to be reminded that the principles of justice that held Tanzania's peace collapsed with Mwalimu Julius Nyerere's administration? Can't he see that the country is managed by the happy-go-lucky disciples who only pay lip service to the wananchi's plight and instead embrace the so called moneyed ‘investors?'
Imagine this: After any rostrum rave about the peace found in the country, just try to take the speech giver aside and engage him to a serious argument by demanding him to show you the foundations that prop up the peace he was talking about. You will draw blank.
Lema's speech was full of facts and examples on why the country's peace lacks robust prop ups. It was one of the finest to be given in the House as far as I can recall, as it had nothing in it that was untrue. It was audacious and to the point – calling a spade by its very name. No doubt that is why CCM people did not like – calling a spade a spade.
It came at the opportune time – directed to the people who are entrusted with the keeping of law and order – the police, whose 2011/12 budget estimates had been presented. In recent months, the police force has occupied front page headlines due to its trigger-happy cops.
In his speech Lema said according a report filed by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), a total of 21 people were gunned down by the police in the five months of this year. The LHRC report also said a total of 52 people were killed in similar fashion in 2010.
Surely these incidents cannot just be swept under the carpet as the CCM government would like to so that it continues to rant about peace. The LHRC report has not been contested by the Government, including Mr Lukuvi, as untrue or inciting.
Lema correctly invoked Elie Wiesel's quote, the Jewish philosopher who said even though people may be powerless to prevent injustice, but can they even be powerless to protest the vice?
Right now, newspapers are saturated with headlines about the ejection of MPs from the legislative chamber, and not Lema's finest, down-to-earth speech in the House. Probably that is what the ruling party had been gunning for in the face of the authenticity of the situation given in the speech.
Personally, I count this as another attempt by the establishment to sweep its ills under the carpet, instead of taking up the challenge. For if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear."
ends
