MAKING A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL: THE MAKAMBA / KINANA LETTER THAT WENT VIRAL IN THE MEDIA PLATFORMS

                                                                                                                                        

 That letter which was addressed to me,   in which the duo   claimed  that “these unfounded allegations pose a danger to the party’s unity, solidarity, and tranquility”, generated  the emergence of  a lively public debate, with some participants seriously suggesting that “these developments bespeak of the simmering disquiet in the ruling party, portraying a level of desperation of a team which may be unsettled, or not fully in command”. (see THE CITIZEN of 1st July 2019, at page 4).

 I have made this matter the subject of today’s article, in order to express my own take on this; which is that the duo’s claim of that these allegations “pose a danger to the party’s unity, solidarity, and tranquility”, is manifestly exaggerated, or far-fetched.  It is rather like ‘making a mountain out of a molehill.  With due respect, I disagree with the above stated views.  

 I am of the settled view, that there is NO such danger; as will be elaborated in my analytical comments in the paragraphs  below,  which are based entirely  on  Mwalimu  Nyerere’s  valuable  teachings.

  Mwalimu Nyerere’s teachings.

During his life time, Mwalimu Nyerere was a proficient producer of learning materials. For example, in his book titled TUJISAHIHISHE, that was published in May 1962; he focuses   on what he describes as “Makosa”, meaning ‘grave mistakes’;  which must be avoided by the leaders.   It was intended to be a helpful ‘guide on proper leadership conduct’ to the new party and Government leaders, of the newly independent  nation of Tanganyika. But they are still as valid today as they were then.

 He listed many such mistakes, but for the purposes of this discussion, we have selected only the following few, which  are the most relevant,  and applicable,  to the instant case. 

  (i) “Kosa moja  kubwa,  ni  kugawa watu katika makundi, yaani  kundi linaloitwa  ‘letu’, na kundi  linaloitwa  ‘lao’.  He further elaborates that this ‘divisive strategy ‘produces antagonistic groups within the party, that tend to undermine each other,  and thereby  create  serious  cracks  in  the party’s   solidarity  and cohesion.

As our readers will remember, this is the basic complaint which has been raised by the duo of the retired CCM Secretaries General  against one Cyprian  Musiba,  namely  that his “unfounded allegations pose a danger to the party’s unity, solidarity, and tranquility”.  

 (ii) “Kosa lingine, ni kuyafanya mawazo yao (viongozi),  na matakwa ya nafsi zao, kuwa eti  ni mawazo na   matakwa ya  raia  wote”.

(iii) (paraphrased from the original, longer version): “Kosa lingine, ni kwamba mambo yakienda mrama,   badala ya kutafuta ukweli halisi wa chanzo cha tatizo hilo,  tunatafuta watu wa kulaumu..   Lakini yafaa zaidi kufikia  lawama kama hizo  baada ya kufanya uchunguzi wa kutafuta ukweli.   

Majibu yasiyotokana na ukweli wa chanzo cha tatizo, unaweza kutufanya tutumie dawa isiyokuwa sahihi katika kuondoa tatizo hilo”

As can be seen, these statements (which I call teachings), are wholly applicable to the issues which have been raised by the two retired senior CCM officials; ndugu mzee Yusuf  Makamba, and ndugu  mzee Abdulrahman  Kinana; as will presently  be shown.

 My own analysis of the impact of the Makamba/ Kinana  complaints.

There are two principal issues that I am addressing here. The  first  is the  contention by the duo, that Cyprian  Musiba’s “ unfounded allegations (against them) pose a danger to the party’s unity, solidarity, and tranquility”; and the other is  the duo’s  appeal to the BARAZA la Viongozi Wakuu Wastaafu wa CCM, to intervene in their favour, “as best we can”.

With regard to the first issue, I respectfully dispute the duo’s submission quoted above. This disagreement   is premised on two considerations:

 (a) That this  apparent  conflict  is  only  a  minor “ war between brothers”  (in the sense that both parties  owe their  allegiance to CCM).  It cannot possibly lead to such disastrous results as are envisaged in the duo’s contention.  As the well-known Kiswahili adage goes, “Ndugu wawili  wakipigana, shika  jembe  ukalime”. CCM definitely has the capability to resolve this minor conflict. 

   (b)  That, even if the duo’s contention that Musiba’s allegations result in “posing a danger to the party’s unity and solidarity” turns out to be true, it  cannot cause much serious damage to the party, as  it will be   given  a   quick  ‘nib  in the  bud’,  to prevent any serious harm being caused to the party.  

The long history of our party shows that we have been faced with this  problem  (of emerging  antagonistic groups within our party) more than once before;  but  the good news is that  we have always been able to overcome such problems  successfully,  and peacefully.  This demonstrates clearly  that  CCM’s has the capacity  to ‘drop  its oxygen masks’ whenever   there is a shortage of oxygen supply, and  that  “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” .  

This reminds me of  the very  serious   troubles   that  faced CCM  during the Fourth phase Government of President  Kikwete, which  was haunted by a series of damaging scandals  that  eventually  ignited massive ‘people’s  collective anger’  against the party ; and led to a serious reduction of  CCM’s victory in the next following Presidential elections  which were  held in 2010  down to 61.17%,  from  an unprecedented  high  of  80,25%  obtained in 2005.   

It all started with the “Richmond scandal”  which, literally, “ split the CCM members of Parliament right down the middle”, into the “Mafisadi” group  on one side, and the “ anti-Mafisadi”  group on the other; a situation  which eventually   led to the forced resignation of Prime Minister Edward Lowassa in February 2008.  This ‘Richmond scandal’ was followed, in quick succession, by other, and even more damaging scandals consisting of accusations directed at some leading CCM personalities, relating to money which, allegedly, had been stolen from the External Payment Account (EPA) of the Bank of Tanzania.   Such serious  accusations, plus  the apparent lack of willingness  on the part of the Government to take action against the named persons;  naturally generated wide-spread  dissatisfaction and  anger among many Tanzanians, and hugely contributed to the loss of confidence in the ruling party, which was accused of “deliberately protecting  their  mafisadi  cadres  within its ranks”!

An objective comparison of those events with what is contained in the Makamba / Kinana letter, will reveal  that the duo’s   perceived  ‘ danger  of  damaging the party’s unity, solidarity and tranquility” is, in  reality,  actually  non-existent, and   misconceived;  apart from  being  grossly  exaggerated.                                                          The need to establish the truth of the matter. 

In his TUJISAHIHISHE treatise, Mwalimu Nyerere says thus: “yafaa zaidi tufikie maamuzi yetu   baada ya kufanya  uchunguzi wa  kutafuta kweli. Ili kutufanya tusitumie dawa ambayo siyo sahihi kwa kuondoa  tatizo lililopo.” 

This statement also applies to the Makamba / Kinana issue.  Such serious allegations as were made by Cyprian Musiba, would certainly   constituted a serious act of provocation to any innocent person.    This is what underscores   the  need  for  making a thorough investigation, so as  to determine  the truth of this matter; and in particular, to  determine  the (hidden)  motives  of  the players  concerned   on both sides  of  this conflict; in order to establish whether there is any  attempt “to  protect some  personal interests,  by presenting them as those of  the all the people”!

For example, the duo has blamed CCM “for keeping quiet and taking no action” regarding this matter. However, in fact, the victims themselves had, initially, also  kept  quiet about it.                                                                                                               

It has been said that “there are two sides to every coin”.  It is thus quite possible, that the CCM authorities thought that if  these allegations  were  mere  fabrications,  the victims concerned  would  have taken appropriate steps  to  challenge them publicly;  which, unfortunately,  did not happen. Thus, because of the well-known theory that “silence means consent”; it would surely be unreasonable to blame CCM authorities for ‘keeping quiet’,  since the complainants themselves had similarly kept quiet  about  it.                                                                                                                     

But in any case, it seems most unlikely that the alleged ‘failure by CCM to take action” alone can, in reality, create the requisite amount of ‘intensive public anger’ against the ruling party, to the extent of causing a split into warring groups within CCM.    Our resilient party will no doubt   be able to devise effective internal strategies to deal with this problem, as it has successfully done in the past.                        

Furthermore, Mwalimu Nyerere also said thus in his treatise: “Kosa lingine ni (kwa viongozi) kuyafanya mawazo yao, na matakwa ya nafsi zao, kuwa eti ni mawazo ya raia wote.” Thus, In view of  these disturbing  revelations;  the party  may  need  to investigate Cyprian Musiba’s motives, as well as the complainants’ motives, in order to determine the truth regarding the possibility of any one side, or perhaps both sides, attempting to  protect  their own personal  interests,  by  (falsely)  presenting them as ‘the interests of the party’.

My response to the Makamba / Kinana petition.

With regard to the second issue (of the duo’s appeal to our BARAZA to give a  ‘sympathetic’ hearing  to  their  urgent  appeal  to  intervene,  ‘as best we can)’;  I promptly delivered my written responses to  the duo.    And because their letter to me was made available to the media, I considered it appropriate that I should do likewise, and availed my replies to the same media outlets.

 Essentially, what I did in my replies was simply to draw their attention to those provisions of the party Constitution which effectively constrain our BARAZA   from acting on their request, and in the manner that they themselves suggested, namely that “Wazee  watumie busara zao  kulishughulika  jambo hili”.   “Busara” is, of course, God’s precious gift to human beings, which is commonly believed to accumulate in line with a person’s age.  It is for that reason that all the Wazee persons   are culturally and traditionally given high respect, and generally   honoured, for their ‘accumulated wisdom’.   

However, ‘Baraza la Viongozi Wakuu wastaafu wa CCM’, is a constitutional organ, formally established by the CCM Constitution, and given specific jurisdiction.  In that connection,   I drew their attention to the fact that  this   BARAZA  has no jurisdiction  whatsoever, neither ‘original jurisdiction’  to hear such complaints, which is the sole responsibility of  the other organs of the party;  nor ‘appellate jurisdiction’ to  determine an appeal against the party,  which they  accuse  of  having “failed to take action”.

Thus, attempting to undertake a duty that the party Constitution has not expressly allocated to it, would clearly constitute a blatant breach of that Constitution, an unlawful act   which the former highly respected, top national Government leaders, cannot possibly entertain.                                                                  

 Consequently, dangled “busara za wazee” can neither lawfully be relied on, nor accepted,  as a reasonable defense for such  breach.   Hence, as the Biblical parable says: “the soul may be willing, but the body is weak”.

Since every person is constitutionally entitled to his opinion, other people will, understandably, have a totally different view.  No problem with that.  It also reminds me of god old Shakespeare’s saying in Hamlet, III. 1: “Be thou as chaste as ice,  as pure  as  snow, thou shall not escape calumny”.    

piomsekwa@gmail.com  /  0754767576.

Source: Daily News and Cde Msekwa himself.