By
Frederick Fussi, May 17 Dar es Salaam.
I’m of an opinion that
Tanzanian’s political co-existence is characterized by autocracy of the ruling
Party CCM. This autocracy emanated from few people’s interest into the system
whose political power appears legitimately granted to them through elections.
The Current debate of
the Constituency Assembly has proven my opinion. Before even approached the house, the ruling
party had already issued a party standing regarding the CRC second draft of the
new constitution.
The issue I address here
is neither the goodness nor the badness of the CRC second draft of the new constitution
but the political will of the ruling party on the issue. The ruling party
expressed the political will for the land to device its new constitution but
the will remain too autocratic.
The ruling party
standing on the issue of number of governments is a clear autocratic decision
ever made in Tanzanian democracy where there is co-existence of other political
parties. The issue of number of governments
as originally presented into CRC second draft of the new constitution was an
opinion of citizen and not politicians.
Could the CRC decide to
take a side from political parties opinions over the number of governments,
without doubt the ruling party with 5 million national membership coverage
could have succeed to have in place the existing system of two tier government,
whilst more than 30 million people in the land would have been ignored and
denied their rights by the CRC to participate in constitution making.
This existing political
autocracy denies marginalized voices to be heard, and to effectively
participate in decision-making process. Taking an example of each financial year
budget planning. Constructive criticism offered by the opposition camp through
parliamentary debates gives a narrow room for their recommendations to be taken
aboard for improvement of existing national priorities.
Therefore in aggregate,
this tendency of unnecessary political autocracy impedes our development, due
to inadequate accommodation of alternative views into national plans annual,
and budget being one of them.
The political autocracy
has become a culture that slows down the development pace, differences in
political ideologies should not be a reason of not accommodating constructive criticism.
Changing the culture of political autocracy requires a generational attitude
change initiative. Changing a culture
cannot be an overnight initiative, it requires time and more learning. The
ruling party needs to be open to learning, young people into the ruling party
have a role of changing the game to bring that change. More than half of adults
and old people in the ruling party today shall not be alive in the next 50
years, what shall be our situation then, if we are not learning to change right
now? This is exactly the right time to begin our generational change. And learning
shall obvious remain an act of sowing a seed that the next generation must
reap.
