By Pius Msekwa.
On
Tuesday last week, 5th 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:
It
all started with Mwalimu Nyerere’s acceptance speech on 22nd
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 2nd 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.
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