Three govt/two govt fracas sucking all the air out of our political conversation

Twaweza launched a report this week on the findings from what they claim to be a statistically robust survey of Tanzanians’ views on the current draft of the new constitution.

I attended because, well, Judge Warioba was going to be there. Also, I was curious to find out what my fellow citizens were saying.

The judge has been catching some grief of late about his Commission and its role in the “how many governments should Tanzania have” fracas that is currently sucking all the air and common sense out of our political dialogue.

This has bothered me because we all know that this Constitution Commission thing was going to be a horribly difficult, fraught and thankless job.

At one point during the conference, I observed that he was left sitting quiet and alone at his high table. Rail-thin in his patterned kitenge shirt, unobtrusive, so softspoken that without a microphone a crowd of ten can easily muffle his voice so you have to be really attentive to hear him in a room.

He was watching the backs of the press crowded around the young aspirants to power.

Like the mango tree at the centre of the village square, republican nationalists seek to provide refuge from sunburn to beggar, king, thief and saint alike.

No matter what a mango tree’s agenda is, the shade comes for free and if you happen to be so drunk as to urinate in public on its sturdy roots, well, no harm done. In an era when any trifling blowhard with money can get elected, I find myself increasingly hungry for quietude and all it entails.

The current Constituent Assembly has dragged us all down to a point where we’re starting to teach each other our national language, and when Tanzanians start lecturing each other on the correct use of Kiswahili, you know the gloves are coming off in the struggle for legitimacy.

Because that’s what it is at the end of the day.

According to our social contract, legitimacy in Tanzania is still dependent on being able to secure the elusive Will of the People and appearing to serve it so as to graduate to authority.

And so the press and the rest of the room had turned its back on Judge Warioba and his like the better to listen to Hamisi Kigwangalla (CCM-Nzega) as he went about his job of casting doubt upon Twaweza’s findings, those of the Constitutional Reform Commission headed by the good judge, and of the preceeding Nyalali and Kisanga Commissions while he was at it.

The party errand boy did as determined a job of it as he could in a room full of civil society, journalists, donors, independently minded citizens and fellow PhD holders, cracking the odd joke along the way.

His fellow politician Julius Mtatiro (CUF deputy secretary general) made his displeasure known as our infrastructure problems had impeded his ability to make it to the meeting on time.

After apportioning blame to the ruling party, he joined his colleague down the path of conversational hijack. What the people of Tanzania think about this constitution disappeared as the two danced back and forth over the Union question.

For what it’s worth, only 2 per cent of Zanzibaris and 4 per cent of Tanganyikans are in favour of dissolving the Union, according to Twaweza’s findings.

So that’s that. The rest of what we think that is being ignored by the political class you can read at leisure, should you get hold of a copy of any number of opinion surveys.

What this little constitutional foray of ours has done is highlight some truths about our democratic practice. First and foremost: The people we put in charge of conducting our business need a quality jack-up.

Far be it from me to tell my fellow citizens which way to vote when it comes to parties, but at this point I think we could agree to literally fine each other for the selection of bad quality legislators.

Because: Why not? Let’s hold each other to account. If the politicians do not respect our native intelligence and ability to detect bull manure when we see it, their arrogance should cost them dearly. After all 91 per cent of us agree that five years is too long to be subjected to a “mistake” committed at the polls.

Constituencies that burden the entire state with a substandard legislator should be fined until they either recall their unwanted baggage and neutralise it.

In spite of ourselves, we have found our way to a modicum of functionality in our democracy, so we may as well enjoy it.

Happy 50th Union Day to us, and may we keep our public servants suppressed until they grow up to become republicans. By which I mean growing up into the village mango tree that is indiscriminate in offering its shelter.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report, http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com. E-mail: [email protected]