THISDAY CORRESPONDENT
Dar es Salaam
GROUPS seem to be emerging within the ranks of journalists, and perhaps
among the various newspaper groups, as all quarters of political society
seek to find their place, or meniscus, in the new situation emerging
following the recent collapse of the Edward Lowassa premiership. Despite
seemingly impeccable reasons and logic of what now seems to be a
pre-agreed parliamentary decision, the outcome isnt that easy to
normalize. The reason is far less the premiership of Mr Lowassa or senior
cabinet ministers either compelled to resign or dropped in the wake of an
extensive reshuffle, but a problem first of aspiration and direction,
apart from the reshuffle.
While the incoming premiership and cabinet of ministers have been well
received among the public, where a streak of hysteria still rules
concerning Richmond, and an expert team has lately added fuel to the fire
on the mining contracts, all isnt well. The reason is that there is a
vast departure from a rather familiar CCM, that which came up after the
Zanzibar Declaration and then the multiparty system, the CCM that was
fairly removed from the older populism, of the leadership code. The new
premier even promises that his parents will remain in an old house, and
publicly says if he takes a bribe God should take him; is it a CCM of 2005
enthusiasm - or other?
The second reason for a start of parting of the ways in CCM, in spirit
rather than in letter, as no one moves out of CCM and remains in
Parliament, is the saga relating to the Bank of Tanzania payments, as well
as other transactions tied to the 2005 polls. While it was one thing for
the media and other quarters, especially the opposition, to see in those
activities as fraud, embezzlement and criminality, no one expected that
the ruling party would push itself into a box where it joins this
language. The reason, to that extent, is that it is trying to avoid having
to tell the whys and hows.
If this clamour about the central bank and other payments comes from the
media and opposition parties, and the CCM legislators remain united
because they know what actually happened, it isnt destabilizing. For what
can destabilize the country isnt a huge number of facts appearing in the
newspapers, or photographs with the retired president as chairman of some
looters committee or something, but if the CCM MPs start speaking in that
direction. Is it a rebellion, or lack of knowledge?
There are two possible answers to that question, one that each MP is
trying to ensure that he or she retains popular support at home, and in
the wake of vast booing of cabinet ministers in the regions after the
Chadema team went around sowing hate and macabre stories of looting, an
opportunistic streak crept in. It was not possible for them to remain
united behind premier Lowassa when the whole country seemed to be crying
for his head, and in the absence of a proper economic explanation of
Richmond terms, it was enough that he helped them, he loves them, so he
goes. When that aspect was sealed, how does loyalty return about the BoT?
That is why it is possible there is something of a crisis of identity
among CCM MPs, as to where their loyalties are, now that loyalty to the
party leadership is no longer congruent with loyalty to the people, that
is, the voters. And as political animals, the way Greek philosopher
Aristotle defined man that is, among all animals, he is supremely
interested in affairs of the community, not just rough survival like other
animals they vote with their feet. They may know the truth about
Richmond, or the Buzwagi issue and the BoT payments, but then it might
cost them votes in 2010.
Noticeably, the president has also started taking a line of action that
resembles that of his MPs, for precisely the same reason, that he also has
to court for votes in 2010. And the clearest way of going about it was to
adopt the populist views of the parliamentary committee on the Richmond
contract, that leaders shouldnt be doing business anymore than lecturers
should take up consultancies. Either way, they lose concentration in the
core issue they are employed to do, solving problems.
Chances are therefore that a new dynamic opens up in CCM which leads to a
sort of split, in spirit if not in fact, not about the resignation of
Edward Lowassa or lack of loyalty to his replacement, but on issues of
policy and party outlook. Suppose the new premier actually starts wielding
the big stick to rein in district councils about their members doing
business, and let it be known that in 2010 most businessmen will be
screened out, are there no chances of countering those moves? In what way
shall it be expressed, whether it is within CCM or start thinking of a new
big party?
The reason for such a hypothesis is evidently that it isnt a matter of
joining say Chadema for some or the Civic United Front for others, but
redefining the policy vocation of the ruling party. One wonders how far
the president is himself that comfortable under the skin, for in
traditional CCM language even 30 acres of his famous pineapple farm are
rather a bit too much. Dont they take so much of his time paying
labourers, checking the product, perhaps inspecting the drainage?
In other words, nothing has changed in the composition of the ruling party
from the time the Richmond saga started and the present, but due to a
faulty presentation of the issue from the start, it has driven CCM into
committing class suicide. In what manner can the CCM of the 2005 elections
start implementing a policy where business and politics are separated? And
in terms of state loyalties, shall this view of things lead Parliament to
take up BoT payments, forming the same sort of probe team as with Richmond
and presumably with the same results? Is this the price that CCM MPs think
is necessary to pay to retain their seats in 2010? And if it is clear that
all this was authorized and not the acts of the BoT governor as some
rather idle mode of thinking rests comfortably it knows the villain, what
follows?
That is why there is need for some serious work in the party secretariat,
or with the party chairman, to give a seminar to CCM MPs or the total
leadership, including NEC, to look at the facts of the issues squarely and
soberly. Having agreed to take up the proper structure of issues, they
should also look into why the mood among the voters changed so rapidly as
to boo cabinet ministers everywhere they went. One reason was the secrecy
of all these issues; another clearly is conditions of life.