October 18, 2011
By Elias Mhegera,
Board Member Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-TAN)
Before discussing the challenges and opportunities that human rights defenders are facing in Tanzania we must understand first our working environment.
We are in a hegemonic system whereby there is an enormous concentration of power to the centre; namely the power elites. These are determinants of so many affairs in this country; politics has become the central theme of human lives.
Politics is a tool for ascendancy and accumulation of wealth which is entirely within the hands of the minority at the expense of the majority poor
A big number of business executives are involved in politics directly of indirectly and vice versa, meaning that a big number of political heavy weights are as well involved in big businesses.
In a situation where these two elements are closely intertwined then we can deservingly claim that what we have is the business of politics whereby profit rather that service, is the ultimate goal.
It happens that a big number of the violators of human rights are either business executives or politicians. For instance land grabbing is a serious problem which to a large extent involves these two groups.
Thus human rights defenders being activists who are always in the full alert, tends to be misconstrued as agents of some opposition parties. For that matter the power oligarchy always counts the human rights activists as a political force aiming to remove the ruling party from its long term power clout.
It therefore follows that several times the HRDs in Tanzania gets the same treatment that politicians belonging to the opposition parties are accustomed to. So under such circumstances even the citizenry at large might perceive them as trouble makers.
The element of coercion and threats still persist as it vividly happened last year during the General Election when the Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) and an independent news paper were threatened of being deregistered and banned subsequently.
Law enforces are not yet empowered to know the difference between active politics and activism, to them activism is just an extrapolation of the opposition parties albeit hidden in the form of activism.
So in summary the main challenges are as follows;
• Perceptions of the power elite, and of the ordinary citizenry.
• Scarcity of resources, both human and material.
• Lack of trust from people who can influence positive changes in our communities.
• Lack of awareness of even of what are human rights, or which kind of rights human beings are entitled to.
• Stubbornness and unwillingness of some functionaries to accept changes.
On the side of opportunities there are also reasons for jubilation, this is because of recent human rights activists have been imposing a significant impact in the working of the Government and even reaction from the civil society, academia and religious leaders.
The summary of these opportunities are as follows;
• Tanzania is undergoing tremendous social transformations.
• This coalition in the making is just a witness to this zeal whereby the CSOs, media, and other stakeholders converge to discuss pertinent issues in the human rights regime and the protection of the HRDs.
• It is also imperative here to say that where we are heading the journey will be supportive since we have realized the importance of maximum cooperation amongst ourselves.
• Recent examples are the reaction by President Jakaya Kikwete to send back to a leave Mr David Jairo the permanent secretary Ministry of Energy and Minerals after he was allegedly implicated in bribing some top officials in his ministry. The president’s reaction stems from the fact that he new that this saga has many followers and interested parties.
• The formation of a Coalition is indeed an opportunity for the HRDs to air their views in a single voice.
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