Magufuli CCM speech draws strong reaction

Dar es Salaam. Political analysts and opposition figures have reacted strongly to President John Magufuli’s first speech as CCM national chairman, with some saying it exhibited lack of understanding of some basic principles of multiparty democracy.

Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, they said, however, that they expect that in his new designation, Dr Magufuli will see the need to unban political rallies.

This is because, they reasoned, they don’t see how the ruling party would engage members and non-members in rallies and other political activities without allowing the Opposition to do the same.

Prof Kitila Mkumbo from the University of Dar es Salaam told The Citizen that the government should unban rallies and let political parties exercise their rights.

He said all political parties should be allowed to hold public events, which are essential in building them.

“Political parties need publicity and the only way they popularise themselves is through holding rallies. As a party leader, he has no power to stop political parties from doing their politics, and of course, CCM will need to do it as well,” he said.

President Magufuli, said Prof Mkumbo, banned political rallies from the point of view of a government leader but upon becoming CCM chairman, he would most likely acquire a new point of view in favour of political activities.

A political science lecturer at Ruaha Catholic University (Rucu), Prof Gaudence Mpangala, said it was wrong for Dr Magufuli to announce in his Dodoma speech on Saturday that all civil servants would have to be accountable to CCM.

“Civil servants are not under the ruling party. President Magufuli’s statement was technically wrong. CCM should ensure its Manifesto is implemented, but it must not be by way of monitoring performances of civil servants,” he argued.

Prof Mpangala admitted, however, that he was impressed by other aspects of the speech and said he believes the new chairman is going to bring crucial change within CCM and the government.

“During his tenure we expect the removal of unnecessary posts, shifting of country’s headquarters to Dodoma as well as the ending of corruption within CCM,” he said.  

Iringa Urban MP, the Reverend Peter Msigwa, said the new chairman needs to differentiate between his role as CCM chairman and Tanzania President.

“I can say that President Magufuli is becoming more mature as president. In the beginning, he expressed signs of serious lack of experience, I hope things will keep improving in time,” the Rev Msigwa said, adding: “I agree with some issues from his speech, such as separation of responsibilities; it isn’t right to overload someone with multiple tasks…I always support constructive thoughts.”   

He, however, challenged President Magufuli’s statement to the effect that CCM leaders are the bosses of all public servants in their respective areas, saying that the task to supervise the central government is constitutionally bestowed to Parliament and for local government bestowed to councillors.

“What he said was against the Constitution; CCM should oversee the performances of their MPs in various posts, but civil servants should be independent,” he said and added: “With him as a national party chairman, we expect to see political parties being allowed to undertake their activities.”

For his part, the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo) party leader, Mr Zitto Kabwe, said he was shocked when the President said he would liquidate party dissenters. 

“Very shocking for the Head of State to threaten members of his party, which shows us that he will try to take Tanzania to the route Russian President (Vladimir) Putin took his country when he was building what is called sovereign democracy such as strengthening single party dominance,” said Mr Kabwe, adding: 

“However, Tanzania isn’t used to that and the people will oppose that vehemently. I also think opposition parties need to change and be more policy oriented in dealing with the current regime,” said Mr Kabwe who is also the Kigoma Urban MP.

Political analyst and CUF member Julius Mtatiro said the speech managed to touch some important issues though some were partially handled.

“It was good to hear about his commitment to make Dodoma the country’s capital city in the real sense of the word before 2021, get rid of unnecessary sections within the party and the move to fight corruption…I would like to commend him for that,” Mr Mtatiro said.

And then, said the political commentator, the national chairman position should be separated from the presidency, for that would make the President more objective as Head of State.

He added: “On the other hand, the speech was not well prepared and delivered, so some of his statements brought confusion and puzzling to some of us…and Dr Magufuli was wrong in telling CCM members they are the bosses of all civil servants.”

The University of Dar es Salaam, Political Science lecture, Dr Benson Bana, commended the speech, saying he was optimistic all campaign pledges would me met is due course.

He said that by having Dr Magufuli as President and CCM national chairman, wananchi should expect to see rapid implementation of the ruling party Election Manifesto.

“Personally I have no doubt that the country shall move on at very high speed…the man is committed to improve living standards of everyone,” he said.

Furthermore, Dr Bana expects to see a reformed CCM that has support from the grassroots, signified by retention of Mr Abdulrahman Kinana as the secretary general as well as his secretariat.

He said that Dr Magufuli has so far tried to ensure democracy goes in tandem with the level of Tanzania’s development, for without it economic development is useless.

“Democracy has got to be respected, there are a lot of accusations, but in the real sense, we’ve to be fair…personally I don’t see any where the President has constrained democracy,” said the political science don.

Commenting on CCM member’s supremacy over civil servants, Dr Bana said the statement was wrongly interpreted.

“When you are employed as a public servant, you are not carrying out your own agenda… What you do is to fulfill the ruling party Manifesto,” he said.