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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Peter Nyanje
29 September 2011
In a retreat of the Nation Media Group (NMG) editors in Arusha late last year, a presenter asked us if we trust politicians, and I remember a senior editor, Mr Mutuma Mathiu, exclaiming: "Come on!"opinion
No one else said anything, but their faces showed that Mr Mutuma (we are used to addressing him by his first name) had surely represented their thoughts.
Anyway, the presenter was not done. He asked us if we don't trust politicians, how come then, we trust them to lead us? No one answered that question.
Judging from what we have been hearing and seeing in the Igunga by-election campaigns, one should indeed ask him or herself, why do we opt for politicians as our leaders? For, in Igunga we have witnessed very shoddy work by politicians.
One might be tempted to conclude that politicians are made from many kinds of people found on the face of the earth, from liars to hooligans.From Igunga we have been treated with all manner of politics, from cheap politics, stage acting to other kinds of propaganda which should not be associated with mature political parties in the country.
We call them mature because most of them came into being about two decades ago and have enough experience in plural politics, But, going by what our politicians are doing one would be excused to think that in the last 20 years our politicians have learnt very little as far as practising politics is concerned.
For instance, if indeed Chadema torched a house belonging to a CCM ward secretary, why would the perpetrators leave behind incriminating evidence to show that it is Chadema members or supporters who torched the house? On the other hand, if Chadema did not do it as it claims, and it was mechanisation by CCM itself, why would an experienced party like it do such a thing?
I have looked at the pictures of the so called burnt house and my judgement is that the house is very far from being a burnt house. We all know how the remains of burnt houses look like.
There was no indication of smoke on the walls or ashes around the burnt house. Was CCM stage acting to show that Chadema was a bad party?
Be that as it may, CCM claimed later that Chadema has about 30 commandos who were trained in Afghanistan and Libya. The thugs, according to CCM secretary general, were brought to Igunga to instigate chaos.
It is amazing that it was the CCM intelligence which was able to come up with such information that was a big threat to the security of this country and not the proper security organs!
And then came the nasty incident in which the politicians decided to show as that, apart from their superiority in the political arena, they also have firearms. A few days after an MP was spotted with a pistol at a campaign rally, real bullets were fired in an incident which has left those who read papers at a loss on who to believe.Anyway, if CCM knew that Chadema had those commandos stationed in villages around Igunga, why didn't it tip the Police so that they could take appropriate action? Was revealing such information publicly healthy?
While CCM claimed that their female MP was about to be kidnapped by a Chadema leader, for its part, Chadema said the female MP wanted to torch their cars at a hotel parking lot.
Peter Nyanje
29 September 2011
In a retreat of the Nation Media Group (NMG) editors in Arusha late last year, a presenter asked us if we trust politicians, and I remember a senior editor, Mr Mutuma Mathiu, exclaiming: "Come on!"opinion
No one else said anything, but their faces showed that Mr Mutuma (we are used to addressing him by his first name) had surely represented their thoughts.
Anyway, the presenter was not done. He asked us if we don't trust politicians, how come then, we trust them to lead us? No one answered that question.
Judging from what we have been hearing and seeing in the Igunga by-election campaigns, one should indeed ask him or herself, why do we opt for politicians as our leaders? For, in Igunga we have witnessed very shoddy work by politicians.
One might be tempted to conclude that politicians are made from many kinds of people found on the face of the earth, from liars to hooligans.From Igunga we have been treated with all manner of politics, from cheap politics, stage acting to other kinds of propaganda which should not be associated with mature political parties in the country.
We call them mature because most of them came into being about two decades ago and have enough experience in plural politics, But, going by what our politicians are doing one would be excused to think that in the last 20 years our politicians have learnt very little as far as practising politics is concerned.
For instance, if indeed Chadema torched a house belonging to a CCM ward secretary, why would the perpetrators leave behind incriminating evidence to show that it is Chadema members or supporters who torched the house? On the other hand, if Chadema did not do it as it claims, and it was mechanisation by CCM itself, why would an experienced party like it do such a thing?
There was no indication of smoke on the walls or ashes around the burnt house. Was CCM stage acting to show that Chadema was a bad party?
Be that as it may, CCM claimed later that Chadema has about 30 commandos who were trained in Afghanistan and Libya. The thugs, according to CCM secretary general, were brought to Igunga to instigate chaos.
It is amazing that it was the CCM intelligence which was able to come up with such information that was a big threat to the security of this country and not the proper security organs!
And then came the nasty incident in which the politicians decided to show as that, apart from their superiority in the political arena, they also have firearms. A few days after an MP was spotted with a pistol at a campaign rally, real bullets were fired in an incident which has left those who read papers at a loss on who to believe.Anyway, if CCM knew that Chadema had those commandos stationed in villages around Igunga, why didn't it tip the Police so that they could take appropriate action? Was revealing such information publicly healthy?
While CCM claimed that their female MP was about to be kidnapped by a Chadema leader, for its part, Chadema said the female MP wanted to torch their cars at a hotel parking lot.
