BY FATMA A. KARUME
As we were catching up with
some local gossip on the telephone, the only sensible way to communicategiven
Dar es Salaam’s horrendous traffic congestion, a female friend of mine informed
me of her absolute sadness over the death of her friend’s father.
Taken aback by her reaction, I stated, “I did not think that you were that
close to the deceased”. Her calm and wistful response was “Not really, but you
know the last time I met him, he said such wonderful things about my father.” It
goes without saying that my friend adores her father and knowing her father I
can attest that the feeling is mutual. She is no different from all the girls
who have loving and doting fathers. We love to hear good things about our
fathers.
Until his retirement, my friend’s father was a businessman and I very much
doubt that she has ever experienced picking up a paper and reading an article
penned by someone like me with a negative opinion about her father, which he
wishes to air publicly; or listening to the speech of a member of the opposition
aimed at annihilating any political credibility that her father may have; or
worse still listening to the speech of a member of her father’s party throwing
verbal missiles at her father in order to gain political mileage.
But, as the daughter of a prominent politician in Tanzania,I have experienced
all of this and more. I am not writing because I want any body’s sympathy, for I
understand fully that public criticism is part and parcel of a politician’s
life, and actually I think it should be encouraged, hence the reason I took up
the pen. What I take umbrage to are lies but even these I have lived through.
There is an essential prerequisite to being the daughter of a politician and
that is a thick skin. Without a thick skin, I am afraid to say, politician’s
daughters would all be quivering psychological messes. Over the years, mine has
metamorphosed and become as thick as the hide of an old elephant.
A week or so ago, CCM concluded its 8thCongress with much fanfare. Khadija
Kopa, a taarab guru, serenaded the 2400 or so delegates, their wives and
supporters all dressed in the green and yellow CCM colours and packed in a
conference hall in Dodoma. There was a lot of CCM flag waving, dancing and
general merry making interspersed with the serious business of choosing the new
CCM office bearers from the Chairman of the party to 20 members of the National
Executive Committee. The 8thCCM Congress also marked the end of
AmaniAbeidKarume’s 10 years tenure as the Vice Chairman of CCM for Zanzibar. For
those who are not aware, other than being the past president of Zanzibar, I like
to think tongue in cheek that AmaniAbeidKarume is more famous for being my
father.
On the evening of 14 November 2012, I switched on the television with the
specific intent of watching AmaniAbeid Karume bid CCM his farewell as the
outgoing Vice Chairman for Zanzibar. If truthis to be known I wanted to hear him
thank my mother who has stood by him solidly for 44 years.
So I listened to Abraham Kinana’s pronouncement of the CCM resolutions;
watched the delegates including my mother dancing to Khadija Kopa; listened to
Pius Msekwa’s goodbye speech and finally Amani Karume stepped onto the podium
and commenced his speech.
Karume’s farewell speech has been the most discussed and analysed speech of
the 8th CCM Congress. So it is not my intention here to analyse or discuss the
speech, as I am in the privileged position of knowing exactly what he meant,
neither is it my intention here to defend his speech, for there have been
hundreds of lines written and thousands of words spoken in support of his
speech.
I seek here to analyse what I consider to be the root of the negative
reaction that his speech caused in some members of CCM Zanzibar.
As I sat listening to his speech and knowing him as well as I do, I knew he
was unable to conceal the happiness he felt at what he considers to be the
successful conclusion of more than 10 years of service to CCM, but it was also
his moment of public reflection and presentation of his parting wish list. There
was nothing controversial in what he stated, for he discussed the history of
CCM, the Government of National Unity in Zanzibar, the Constitutional Review
Process; the responsibility of governance and good governance; and his pleasure
at seeing young faces emerging in the CCM hierarchy.
In a nutshell, on the history of CCM, Karume reminded the nation that CCM is
an amalgamation of two parties—the Afro Shirazi Party from Zanzibar and TANU
from Tanganyika that decided to merge and consequently the ideals of its
predecessors should not be forgotten, in particular ASP’s foundation policy
aimed at observing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; eradicating all
forms of racial discrimination etc…
In relation to the Government of National Unity, Karume observed that this
was a choice that was made by the people of Zanzibar by a 64% majority vote in a
referendum, which led to an amendment of the Constitution of Zanzibar and
therefore CCM must respect this choice.
With regard to the on-going Constitutional Review Process, he asked members
of his party to allow people to express their views freely in particular on the
question of the nature of the Union between Zanzibar and Tanganyika, and this
freedom can only be exercised where authorities showed restraint.And finally, he
counselled CCM that it needs to win the hearts and minds of the people, if it is
to remain relevant, and this requires governance by law and humility and not
through intimidation.
Frankly, I am not going to apologise for stating publicly thatAmani Karume is
a man after my own heart especially given the fact that after all this he
remembered to thank my mother. Having alerted you about my relationship with
Amani Karume and the particular soft spot that he holds in my heart, I have
discharged my duty and as we say, “caveat emptor”.
However, I was astounded with the venom with, which some members of his own
party reacted to his speech. For those who follow the news will know that some
CCM members were so angered by this speech that they decided to tear
downKarume’s poster in Michenzani, Zanzibar.
Why should some groups within CCM in Zanzibar be so incensed by words which
did nothing more than explain that the party’s mandate to govern comes from the
people, and it is these people who must be respected as well as be allowed to
express their views openly? I fear that this is an unfortunate consequence of
the misunderstood history of CCM and our country.
On the part of Zanzibar, CCM’s predecessor the Afro-Shirazi Party came into
power after a revolution and until the Constitutional Amendment of 1992, CCM’s
mandate to govern Tanzania was protected by the Constitution. CCM may not have
had a Godly given right to govern, but in a non-secular state, such as the
United Republic of Tanzania, a Constitutional right was as close to a God given
right as CCM could get. Before the amendment, article 3(1) of the Constitution
of the United Republic of Tanzania used to read as follows:
“The United Republic is a democratic and socialist state which has one
political party”.
No prizes for guessing, which party the “one political party” referred to in
the Constitution was.
My view is that amongst some members of CCM Zanzibar, there is an unfortunate
disconnect between reality and their personal beliefs and wishes.
This disconnect is emphasised by the now common site in CCM Zanzibar meetings
of a group of about 50 or so ladies dressed in CCM colours who are always
strategically seated by the organisers in the very front of the audience and who
are then prompted like marionettes by someone to start chanting “Commando!!!
Commando!!! Commando!!”.
This chant may deceive the uninitiated into believing that these ladies are
die-hard supporters of Salmin Amour the CCM President of Zanzibar 1990-2000 who
referred to himself as “Commando”, had no patience for the opposition,CUF, and
made his impatience categorically clear by imprisoning without trial, some 20
high profile CUF members.
Of course those in the know understand the message, which the puppet masters
are sending very clearly indeed. The puppet masters want a CCM Zanzibar with a
“Commando” at the helm, who will handle all ‘enemies’ with the iron fist they so
deserve. There are those lurking in the dark recesses of the radical wings of
the party who still believe that they have an absolute right to govern because
they saved Zanzibar from the Sultan and the constitutional amendments seem to
have left them bewildered and rather lost in this world of competitive politics
where Tanzanians get to choose which party should govern them. Well at the risk
of bursting theirodd bubble those who saved Zanzibar from the clutches of the
Sultan are either dead or too old and they certainly did not lead a revolution
so that some opportunistic upstarts could forever entrench themselves on the
Sultan’s empty thrown.
After every five years we require all political parties to put their best
candidates forward and parade them before us in a bizarre beauty contest which
is the hallmark of democracies the world over, and we get to pick to which
beauty we hand the crown.
Lest the winner makes himself too comfortable at Ikulu either in Zanzibar or
Dar es Salaam, we require him to parade himself before us five years later, when
we can overlook him and proceed to pick someone else to wear the coveted crown
and take the prize money.
If he is fortunate to win and wear the crown twice, as a matter of principle
we must discard him at the conclusion of his 2nd term in office with a nice
pension in hand of course and we move on to the next beauty. Could it be that
the radicals in CCM are very aware of their inadequacies and fear that in a
political beauty context, no voter will find them attractive?
To make matters more complicated, in the case of Zanzibar, the winner of the
crown and the first runner up are obliged to share the prize money. Zanzibaris
now expect the winner to cooperate and work hand-in-hand with his competitor.
This of course requires the two previous opponents to show each other mutual
respect both during the campaign trail and after the elections and to put the
interests of Zanzibar first.
A fitting punishment I say, meted out in a referendum approving a Government
of National Unity by 64 percent of the voting population who were clearly far
too tired of the divisive politics used and abused by both CCM and CUF in
Zanzibar and the tiresome and predictable cries of foul play every time we came
out of an election.
Unfortunately, there are some Zanzibar CCM members who are suffering from
amnesia and have conveniently forgotten the various constitutional amendments
leading to the GNU; there are others who are so unused to being restrained in
this manner and are restlessly champing at the bit, impatient to see the end of
whatever this mass of confusion they blame AmaniAbeidKarume for allowing to take
root; and there are those who have accepted the wishes of Zanzibaris and to the
radicals the latter are traitors of whatever abhorrent cause they adhere to.
In a recent CCM meeting in Zanzibar, CCM radicals used abusive and racially
inflammatory language reminiscent of the language used pre-revolution against
none other than moderate CCM members, oblivious of the fact that the revolution
was the result of race inequalities and eagerly opening past wounds in an
uncouth and clumsy attempt at gaining political mileage.
As a Zanzibari of both African and Arab descent, whose Arab great grandfather
was murdered in prison immediately after the revolution for nothing more than
his political beliefs and whose African grandfather was assassinated 8 years
after the revolution again for nothing more than his political beliefs, I am not
impressed. This is a game of high stakes, which can only result in blood
loss.
It is time for the radicals within CCM Zanzibar to grow up, and realise that
this is not a school playground where the bully gets everyone’s lunch money.
Forty-eight years after the revolution, Zanzibar has changed irreversibly.
The majority of Zanzibaris are under 40 years old. They did not live the
revolution nor the divisive racial politics that led to the revolution in
Zanzibar. Our politics cannot and should not remain in the past but our history
should be used to inform us of where we were so that we may know where we need
to go and we may learn to avoid malignant politics.
As CCM Zanzibar is being pulled by a radical wing that is becoming more
prominent, so CUF is taking up the centre ground in the politics of Zanzibar. If
CCM Zanzibar wants to reclaim the beauty crown in 2015, it must reform itself
and fight for the centre ground because it is the votes of moderateZanzibaris
that will make the next president of Zanzibar.
Ms. Karume was called to the Bar in the Middle Temple and is an advocate of
the High Courts of Tanzania and Zanzibar. She is presently Litigation Partner
with IMMMA Advocates in Dar es Salaam.