Dear Mr. President

Selwa · 2017-04-03T12:26:07+00:00

A letter from Justice, About 50 years ago, under the guidance of Mwalimu Nyerere, our nation birthed a powerful vision. This vision, the Arusha Declaration, was not perfect in any case, and its common criticisms are, at the very least, justified. However, what's hard to dispute are its many important successes. Among them is the fact that, as a matter of principle, the Arusha Declaration emphasized, even in implying, the creation of an egalitarian society. Yes, greed, corruption and inefficiency, among many other vices, were allowed to creep in. Indeed, they caused a sea of troubles in our society, in addition to keeping us in a web of poverty. But if anything, your coming to power, Mr President, was perhaps the last glimmer of hope for the restoration of 1967. The spirit of the Arusha declaration might have been neglected for decades, as I dare to say it was by your predecessor, but its strength has always remained in its formative inclination. I am not surprised that you, Mr President, initially showed so much promise to embody the spirit of a vision that was birthed when you were an 8-year-old rural boy. In religious circles you'd be called a "remnant". You were the one that never got away. A rare species in our continent today, and this is why your praises have been sung in and outside our beloved country. Your words and actions, against corruption and inefficiency; about building a self-sustaining industrial economy; and about expanding access to basic services, promised to roll back the years to 1967 better than we had heard in a long time. However, there has been so much outrage in the country over actions that are perceived to point to the suppression of opposition, freedom of expression and the abuse of power, among others. If to only put emphasis on the latter, events that unfolded in the third week of March left many people, including well-wishers like myself, concerned that Tanzania is hopping onto a dystopian trajectory. Since no writing paints the picture of a dystopian society better than George Orwell's 1984, I humbly urge you to consider his cautionary tale on the dangers of concentrated power, and steer clear from rolling back the years to 1984, instead of 17 years prior. But that's only one side of the story. On the other side, the state is reforming itself under your leadership. We are obviously seeing all your efforts at making the state more efficient. Your stance on corruption has earned you the nickname "bulldozer" and this has even caught the attention of foreign media. It's not been said a lot, but you were (and could still be) on course to become an exemplary African leader in our generation - a Thomas Sankara of sorts, reincarnated. Mr President, I am certain that you are aware of the praise you receive from outside, hence you must also be aware that in recent days, the narrative has been changing. Apart from the somewhat widely reported concerns over authoritarianism, there are also concerns that your policies and directives are stagnating the private sector. Recently, a number of companies, including this paper, have announced their intention to downsize in response to changing market conditions which can be attributed to the reforms you are administering. Mr President, while we want a stronger and more efficient state, we must be careful not to pursue this at the detrimental expense of the private sector. The first point of divergence, in my opinion, is to see the private sector as competition rather than a collaborator in social-economic growth. I would've placed a huge bet that you had very little regard for Bretton Woods Institutions. But I was pleasantly surprised at how you cozied up to the president of the World Bank. In this regard, it's not far-fetched to hope that you paid attention to IMF's warning about the prospects of an economic slump due to your policies. It's hard to disagree with IMF, anyways. Even when we choose to reject their neo-liberal hogwash, Tucta are here to remind you that truly, you are treading upon the private sector, and this is leading to a loss of livelihoods. It is easy to look right through the adverse impact of all this, but if you think about the trickle-down effect the loss of jobs is having on the general population, you'd realize that you need to make peace with the private sector, and make haste while at it. Mr President, allow me to say that "reconciliation" should be the most important word in your vocabulary right now. The private sector absolutely fell in love with you when you had a meeting with them shortly after you took office. I'm not sure they still hold the same sentiments now. Kindly summon them again, and talk about how you can, together, make Tanzanians happy again. Yes Mr President, Tanzanians are unhappy. I beg to pause here for now and address that in the coming week.

Thread starter Selwa
Start date Apr 3, 2017

Selwa

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Dear Mr. President

Selwa

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