HAPPY BIRTHDAY CCM AT 42, AND STILL GOING STRONG!

    

By Pius Msekwa.

     On Tuesday last week, 5^th February, 2019; the ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), attained the age of 42 years. This article is addressed to this veteran party, its leaders and members, in order to express the traditional salutation of HAPPY BIRTHDAY CCM.  It has been said that “memory is history recorded in our brain”. However, one Samuel Johnson, that famous British lexicographer (1709 – 84); is on record as having said the following:                                                

There is a wicked inclination in most people, to suppose that an old man is decayed in his intellects  . . . And that his memory is going”.  At 42 years, CCM is just about half my age since, by the grace of God, I will be celebrating my 84^th birthday this coming June, 2019.  But even if the said  words by Samuel Johnson  had been  addressed to me personally, I  would still have found an escape route, by taking  refuge in the Kiswahili saying  that “Akili  ni nywele, kila mtu ana zake”. Thus, while some old peoples’ memories may indeed be going, or even gone; but thanks to our creator; not all old persons are the same.                                                                                                Hence in my case, because I had the great good fortune of being a key player, not only in its hectic preparations, but also in  being the master of ceremony at the relevant CCM birthday celebrations which were held at Amani Stadium in Zanzibar on that day;  I may perhaps be allowed to take a little trip down memory lane,  to recall the background events which led to that historic day itself, the 5^th day of February, 1977. 

        It all started with Mwalimu Nyerere’s acceptance speech on 22^nd September, 1975, delivered at a joint ‘Electoral Conference’ comprising of delegates from both TANU and ASP, which had just nominated him as Presidential candidate for that year’s Presidential elections.  It is in the course of that speech, that Mwalimu Nyerere made the following proposal:  “Our country is, legally and constitutionally, a One-party State.  But in reality, we have two parties. I believe that this is a constitutional anomaly, which is a very serious matter; and it is my sincere belief that we should now give serious consideration to this matter, and find a way of removing this anomaly. I am convinced that we will greatly strengthen the unity of our people, and also give ourselves greater capacity for carrying our revolution forward, if we now agree to merge our two parties, in order to form one strong revolutionary party, which will lead our revolutionary nation”.  

          My key role in the preparations for the birth of the proposed new party, started with my temporary appointment as the Secretary to a joint 20 – person TANU/ASP Commission, which was put in place on 2^nd October, 1976, and given the task of “making all the preparations necessary for the formation of the new party resulting from the anticipated merger of TANU and ASP”. Eventually at the conclusion of that task, and presumably as a result of ‘a job well done’ in carrying out my duties and responsibilities in that capacity,  I was  amply  rewarded with a new  appointment, that of ‘founder’ Executive Secretary General of the new party, Chama cha Mapinduzi. 

My assessment of CCM at the age of 42.

      As posted in the heading of this article, my take is that “CCM still going strong’; particularly in the implementation of its declared mission, and vision.  Indeed, any political party’s mission and vision are the two crucial elements which determine the party’s strength.  In specific terms, these elements will normally include: (i) the party’s ideology; (ii) Its policies and programmes; and (iii) Its organizational structure.  CCM’s mission and vision are clearly stated in the relevant articles of its Constitution.                       

          My submission is that the party’s continued strength over the past 42 years, lies principally in its successful implementation of its mission and vision, particularly its policies and programmes. And this is what has been the main source of its appeal to the majority of the Tanzanian electorate, as evidenced by its continued great success in all the past multi party general elections.  

          The party’s other source of strength lies in its organizational structure; which is based on continuous recruitment of new members, mostly from among the younger generation; and, even more importantly, in its recruitment of new party leaders at all levels of the party hierarchy; through the process of party elections which are held regularly, without fail, after every five years; and every ten years in the case of the national party Chairman. Strict adherence to these procedures has been a great and significant asset that has contributed hugely to the party’s strength and sustenance.

The manifest challenges facing CCM.

            But successes normally go hand in hand with challenges. Basing themselves on the old cliché that  “the young may die, but the old must die;   some critical observers have sometimes asserted that CCM’s longevity is what will lead to its downfall from power, allegedly because “people will eventually get tired of it”!  However, in my humble, considered opinion, this is not a valid proposition. It is not valid because, whereas  human beings die basically due to biological causes, which lead to the human heart ceasing to function;  Organizations can only die due to human errors, committed by the relevant stake holders.  But I prefer to describe such errors as “self-inflicted injuries”.

The challenge of CCM’s self-inflicted injuries.

            The dictionary definition of the word ‘self-inflicted injury” is that it is “an injury which one inflicts deliberately upon himself”. The word “deliberately” is a key word in this definition. It means that the resultant injury must have been deliberately inflicted upon the injured through his own deliberate negligence.  Thus, as a veteran ‘mzee wa Chama’ myself, who has all along been in its ‘corridors of power’, I can venture to testify positively, to the contention that CCM has sometimes been a victim of its own ‘self-inflicted injuries’. The following examples may serve to illustrate this point:

 (i) The dismal performance during the 2010 Presidential elections.

            The results of the 2010 presidential elections manifestly showed that CCM’s support among the voting population had sharply declined to unprecedented low levels. This event led to a major re-branding of the party, popularly referred to as “kujivua gamba”.  These results had provided a loud and clear “wake-up call” to the party which, commendably, lost no time in responding to this call, by embarking on a serious internal evaluation exercise,  in order to determine the true causes of this sharp decline in its popularity among the electorate.  This exercise revealed, that the major sources for this loss of support were the following:  

(a) the damaging scandals which were closely associated with the party’s leaders. These included the “Richmond scandal”, which effectively rocked parliament, with the CCM MPs being divided into two antagonistic groups which identified themselves as the ‘mafisadi’ group on one side; and the ‘anti-mafisadi’ group on the other.  The Richmond scandal was rapidly followed by another, equally damaging scandal, known as the “EPA scandal”.  This scandal consisted of serious accusations being directed at certain prominent CCM leaders, who were alleged to have illegally obtained huge sums of money from the External Payments Account (EPA) of the Central Bank (BOT).  Such accusations naturally raised anger among the community, and thus contributed to the loss of public trust in the ruling party.

(ii) The ideological challenges: the failure to implement Ujamaa.

       The dictionary definition of the word “ideology” is given as follows: “A set of ideas or beliefs that form the basis of an economic or political theory, or are held by a particular group, or person”.                      

        The dismal failure to implement the Party’s Ujamaa ideology, has certainly been one of the major challenges to the strength and reputation of Chama cha Mapinduzi. It is my humble submission that the lack of faith in the efficacy of Ujamaa as a viable economic system, is what largely accounts for the failure by CCM to implement its stated ideology.                                         However, there are certain cogent and compelling reasons, which can be attributed to this failure; some of which are listed below:

(i)  Attempting to build socialism without committed socialists. It is clearly stated in the Arusha Declaration document itself, (Part II (d)), that “Socialism cannot just establish itself, because it is, in fact, a question of faith.  Hence, it can only be established, and maintained, by people who have complete faith in the efficacy of this system”. In the case of Ujamaa, it can be asserted that the party was attempting to build socialism where there were no committed socialist! And in my opinion, the absence of committed socialists was facilitated by the following factors, namely: -   (a) the negative anti-ujamaa attitudes which were created. Unfortunately, certain unexpected misfortunes occurred, which created totally negative anti-ujamaa attitudes among the people, particularly among the majority rural population; where they  were caused mostly  by  many  inept,  and reckless administration officials, who literally used ‘brutal force’ in forcing people to relocate  to what were designated as “Ujamaa villages”, during the relevant ‘operation’ in 1973/74; whereby large numbers of village people were literally  ‘rounded’  up at their established homes and  herded off together with their belongings, to  distant bare sites which were to be their new residential areas,  where they were just abandoned and left  to fend for themselves; their previous homes having been  destroyed, as a strategy  to prevent them from returning there.  Such brutality necessarily created a lot of ill feelings, frustration and collective anger, among the affected people, who therefore decided that if this was the Ujamaa they were being told about, they would have none of it!                  

          Furthermore, there was also the negative influence which was being inflicted on the people by an active “anti-ujamaa” lobby; which actively engaged itself in spreading the negative message that “Ujamaa ni umasikini” (ujamaa produces poverty), basing their hostile propaganda on the prohibitions imposed on leaders not to engage themselves in any ‘capitalist economic activities”, for example by owning houses for rent. In many cases, the seeds of anger against ujamaa had been sown on fertile ground, resulting in significant loss of faith in the ujamaa ideology as a viable economic or political theory.

        (b) The failure of the ujamaa industrial sector to deliver.                                                

The other factor which contributed to the loss of faith in the efficacy of the Ujamaa ideology; is the miserable failure of the much touted Ujamaa industrial sector; which, unfortunately, failed to produce enough goods and services to satisfy the needs of the people. This resulted in extreme shortages of all the essential items required for people’s daily consumption, to the extent that  in the early 1980s, people had to join long, endless ques, in order to be able to purchase any item whatsoever, from the few  designated  shops which had the necessary stock.                              Some of our readers (of the older generation) will probably remember,  that Mwalimu Nyerere had announced his intention to retire from the Presidency in 1980, but later changed his mind and agreed to ‘soldier on’ for another five years.  The said economic problems, which caused immense suffering among the people, were the sole reason that persuaded him to change his mind. This is because, as he put it himself, he did not want to appear to be the proverbial “captain who abandoned ship in the middle of a storm”.   

      The fact that CCM has been able to overcome all these nagging problems in 2010, and yet continued to win the 2015 general elections so handsomely, is a clear manifestation of its solid internal strength.   And, given the obvious fact of the outstanding performance, and service delivery, by its current national Chairman, President John Magufuli; CCM is assured of even greater successes at next year’s general elections.

piomsekwa@gmail.com  / 0754767576.

Source: Daily News and for the courtesy of Cde Msekwa himself.