A recent article in the Citizen on Sunday made a startling announcement: It seems that two promising young politicians have been collaborating across party lines to advance their mutual interests! The shock, the disbelief, the sheer gall of it all!
The parliamentarians in question — Zitto Kabwe (Chadema, Kigoma North) and January Makamba (CCM, Bumbuli) — have finally been caught doing something that contemporary Tanzanian politicians seem to find abhorrent: Playing the bipartisan game.
Mr Kabwe and Mr Makamba might have been thrust into the limelight, but they are just the most effectively marketed examples of a trend that goes beyond them.
Behind closed doors, collaboration between leaders interested in actual governance does happen, with more frequency than they care to admit.
And it is a good thing that we have sat up and noticed.
If there has been one overwhelming disappointment in our tentative explorations of multiparty politics, it has been CCM’s retreat into petty griping.
I, for one, was thoroughly unimpressed by ruling party MPs who were reported to be displeased by the active role taken by opposition in suggesting a few improvements here and there.
What short-sighted meanness is this? The Constitution, our “mother law” as we like to call it in Kiswahili, belongs to every single Tanzanian, CCM or not, taxpaying or not, criminal or not, immigrant or native.
Opposition would hardly be worth the over-inflated sitting allowance if they didn’t throw a spanner into CCM’s works from time to time.
That’s their job, to keep things sharp, and they are doing it well and to the benefit of Tanzanians.
More CCM MPs should jump on the collaboration bandwagon before Tanzanians notice that the Grand Old Party has abandoned their best interests.
I am thankful to see this handful of leaders of my political generation rise above the immature squabbles of partisan obsessions.
It is refreshing to see a new brand of politics emerge, one where individuals are not afraid to commit to dreams far grander than the mere accumulation of wealth, concubines and illegally procured assets to fund obscene retirement schemes.
We have been sadly lacking in the kind of grand ambition that pushes people to pursue statesmanship, but finally the page is turning.
If this Fourth Administration feels unnaturally long, that’s because it is incubating some pretty exciting change.
Things have already come a long way if the smarter politicians are willing to cross party lines in support of sensible projects.
Some commentators have raised the concern that this new class of politicians is too high-end, well beyond the ken of the “average” Tanzanian.
That their interests are those of the dreaded bourgeoisie, and as such this unholy alliance of ambitious young men will result in even more kleptocracy and neglect of the poor.
A distinct danger, to be sure. However, thanks to our socialist past and humble beginnings, there hasn’t been a generation of heirs until rather recently. Just about every one of our grand corrupters and super-kleptocrats has come from modest beginnings.
Much as I hate to contradict my fellow armchair socialists, let’s just admit that there is no more nobility in poverty than there is in riches — in leadership, it all comes down to character.
And if we’re really truthful, it isn’t class that is the problem, it is quality.
MPs who are creating new political circumstances are outshining their lazier colleagues.
Our anti-intellectual culture has saddled us with far more incompetent legislators than we can afford.
Populism is well and good, but surely the least we should demand from our public servants is that they cope, mentally, with the demands of their jobs.
It really is time to start weeding out the hopeless, the clueless, the derelicts and the deviants from our public sector. Let them at least be in the minority.
Mr Kabwe and Mr Makamba, those magic twins, belong to ideologically polar parties.
And yet they hold surprisingly similar views, have adopted similar publicity styles, are simultaneously interested in similar topics in Bunge and have a common penchant for soft-power ties.
Both men also burn with an ambition that is impossible to conceal.
Wonderful as it has been watching their political careers develop, what will happen when it comes time for them to face each other head-on in the battle to win Tanzania’s most coveted Grand Prize: The Presidency?
The aftermath of that encounter is going to be a wonderful — and instructive — test of just how far collaboration for the greater good can really go.
Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report, http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com.
