Guest post by Aikande Kwayu
Waitara and Polepole, from The Citizen, July 29
Ongoing party politics in Tanzania show that restrictions over civic space – freedom of assembly, etc – are not adequate to ensconce the rulers’ appetite for power. Many other supplementary tyrannical actions seem to be necessary. One of these appears to be defections of councillors, Members of Parliament and village chairmen from opposition parties to the ruling party, CCM.
The costs of the subsequent bi-elections have been enormous, not only money-wise but also lives. A young university girl was shot dead in the campaigns during the February 2018 bi-elections in Kinondoni District in which the very MP who defected was re-running for the seat with the CCM ticket. The violent nature of those bi-elections’ campaigns has also created fear, lack of trust to electoral process and a sense of “us vs. them” among the citizens. Sadly, lessons were not learnt. The impact of the February 2018 bi-elections did not scare some people who you would think they’d have the nation at their hearts. Personal interests seem to override national consensus. It’s fair to wonder if we are systematically breaking apart the foundations built for many years – to create a national consciousness – that Tanzania has proudly boasted over for a long time.
CCM, since its inception as TANU, had been integral in building this national consciousness. As a result, CCM as an institution was acting and been perceived as a national institution. It has been a kind of a national movement and a system that had been credited to hold the nation together. In 1992 CCM, standing and rising above all odds for the sake of national consciousness, swam well over the ‘third wave of democratization’ by allowing and overseeing the constitutional amendments that opened door for multiparty system. Of course to maintain its power position in the context of growing opposition parties as well as trends in neighboring countries whereby ruling and former single parties were losing powers to new opposition parties, CCM kept an enormous chunk of state machinery under its control to aide its power hold. To a large extent and relatively, CCM did it in a smart way without causing much hurt to Tanzanians who decided to have an opposing view towards enhancing checks and balances to the running of the country. The decade that started in 2000 saw the growth of opposition parties. The political battlefields were being gradually leveled. CCM went beyond the use of hard powers and deployed soft powers – such as image rebranding – to win minds and souls of Tanzanians.
However, tables have turned. CCM has been receiving in-office defectors from opposition parties then allowing them to run for the same positions they lost out of their defection without due nomination process within the party. After the February 2018 elections that went bad, one would think that CCM would “discourage” such defections. Hardly 6 months later, the trend has re-emerged. The party Publicity Officer welcomes the defectors with much joy his face non-verbally covered with a malicious sense of “we are the victors” against “you weakened others.”
Now, the question remains: Is CCM gripping its power or diminishing itself as a key national institution?
And with that question, come many other sub-questions?
- Does CCM have to get this cheap? I mean does it have to diminish its own institutional arrangements such as candidate nomination process and award the defectors a free candidate/running ticket?
- Has CCM got so desperate to the point of being a polarizing institution rather than being a uniting force of the nation?
- What kind of the precedence is being set within party structural framework? Has CCM forgot its mechanism of rising to power through its set-up such as Halaiki, UVCCM and other party agencies that guide selection and elections to offices?
I think the recent move to “encourage” defectors combined with other efforts to weaken the opposition by reducing their constitutional space weakens CCM. CCM is not only tarnishing its image but it is decaying its own institutions that give it legitimacy beyond electoral ballots.
There are those who argue that the opposition is weak and that’s why CCM is able to do these naughty moves. It is similar to blaming a girl who has been raped instead of punishing those who raped her. It is no different from saying “the girl was raped because she was not dressing in a descent manner”.
Two snacks for thought:
- If the opposition were that weak, why would CCM get so desperate and use all unconstitutional means to keep holding the power to the point of being on legitimacy overdraft?
- How do you expect the opposition not to be vulnerable in such an unlevelled playing field?
One other emerging argument I disagree with is that which advocates for a sliding back to a single party system so as to avoid such hurts. This is a wrong argument because when CCM is left to go back to a one party, it will be more tyrannical even within its own framework. This article shows how CCM has already destroyed some of its internal checks and balances. In light of that, it would be wiser for sober CCM members to understand that the presence of opposition parties helps to check and counter personal powers within the party structures.
To end, I think CCM has got to revisit itself and think through its identity. These cheap politics are not only destroying CCM, they are hurting its institutions and it is incrementally killing our national consciousness.