Ruling CCM losing its power grip in Tanzania

PHOTO: Presdent Jakaya Kiwete ruling CCM's chairperson


February 2, 2011
By Elias Mhegera
ALTHOUGH analysts and many commentators say the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) is losing its power grip, the parity?s old guard are defending it vehemently.


Commenting to The Express exclusively the veteran political scientist currently teaching at the St Augustine University prof Mwesiga Baregu says the divided CCM can no longer thrive politically.


He reminds that in 1995, three years after the re-introduction of the multiparty is when the ruling party started its political downfall journey. This is because while accepting political pluralism as a new game, but a good number of its stalwarts remained conservative and with narrow vision.


An attempt by liberal minded politicians like the late Horace Kolimba to set a new philosophical direction was not received well, regardless the fact that he was once the party?s secretary general. ?Do you remember what happened when the late Kolimba said it has lost vision? They immediately disowned him, he eventually lost life in mysterious circumstances,? remarked Prof Baregu.


He envisage that the faction ridden party as it is now can no longer serve the mass interest as it used to be previously. He defend Kolimba?s assessment that the party needed a lot of transformations after accepting multiparty but the CCM heavyweights did not want to hear his plea.


Baregu says currently CCM is divided in three factions; there is the old guard, some of whom grew within the party serving in different capacities. He acknowledges that some of those are ethical and would like their party to maintain the tenets that its founder Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was enshrining.


He sees the second group as that of the network ?mtandao? which facilitated campaigns of its own kind which eventually saw President Jakaya Kikwete in the State House in 2005. He attributes the debacle going on in the party to the divisions within this camp.
Prof Baregu says within this group there are few who are satisfied because they are well positioned, while some of those who did not get juicy posts within Kikwete?s tenure are not satisfied because deep in their hearts they did not have a serving agenda but that of accumulating properties through their posts.


And lastly he sees a group of the disgruntled members who today make a lot of noisy. Some of those have never benefited any how being the CCM loyalists hence the hatred.

But also there are the youths who see their political future being jeopardized by the current ?weak? leadership hence a deviated stance recently on the Loan Board issue and the payment of Dowans, a ?fictitious power company?.


Another prominent professor in public administration at the University of Dar es Salaam, who preferred anonymity remembering what had befallen Prof Baregu?s after he had sought to renew his work contract, said there are ideological and ethical ridges which put in jeopardy the existence of CCM.


Peter Kuga Mziray the chairman of the African Progressive Party of Tanzania (APPT), and last year?s presidential aspirant in the General Election shares this stance saying that CCM is losing its appeal because almost all parties which brought independence in Africa have been replaced a sign that it delayed in Tanzania.


But the CCM vice chairman Mainland Tanzania Pius Msekwa says all these are false assessments, he needs a whole page in The Express in order to defend his party, he promises to come with something special for our next issue simply because mere comments will not do.


But in the same line is the CCM secretary general, Capt (rtd), Yusuf Makamba who in his an unusual jovial response defends his party that it is not crumbling anyhow, but he admits that after 18 years of their existence the opposition parties have now grown to full maturity a fact which has alerted his party to a large extent.
He vehemently criticizes those who compare his party with the opposition because the latter do not have any tangible history to be proud of. ?Our party (CCM) has a history of bringing independence to this country, it has brought about peace and tranquility to this country, these are some of the unique qualities that the party is proud of? said Makamba.


The party boss said that his party is a product of two parties TANU and ASP, the union of the two countries Zanzibar and Tanzania mainland eventually led to unification of the two parties to form CCM, he boasts that these are unique decisions and exemplary to many other African countries.


When he was asked if what happened when two Cabinet ministers and the CCM youth wing (UVCCM), opposed payments of the Dowans openly was not indiscipline to the CCM leadership he said there are both advantages and disadvantages of such actions.


He says it was due to such acts that some people claim that CCM is in internal strife which is not true. He says the truth of the matter, however is the party is becoming more transparent a culture that will have long term benefits.


But this stance is challenged by Dr Joseph Matumaini a lecturer in mass communication, policy and sociology at the St Augustine University. The don says the CCM debacle indicates that there is a leadership vacuum.


Instead he concurs with Prof Baregu?s stance that the CCM has lost vision and a sense of direction as envisaged by one of its co-founder Mwalimu Nyerere. He reminds that the Father of the Nation had introduced the leadership codes that have been set aside by the current leadership.


He reminds that CCM started its downward journey when it replaced the Arusha Declaration with the Zanzibar Declaration; the don claims that the Socialism and Self-reliance policy was appealing to the ordinary citizenry.


There is a leadership vacuum, President Kikwete has chosen to remain mum where he is supposed to speak loudly, and there is no single powerful politician within the CCM who can say no to the payments to the Dowans Company as Mwalimu Nyerere could have down if he was alive.
END