| Recalling Arusha Declaration with deep nostalgia | Send to a friend |
| Friday, 09 December 2011 16:25 |
 As part of implementing the Arusha Declaration, the villagisation programme was carried out from 1973 to 1976. The idea was to transform the pattern of rural settlement by putting the rural population into collectives rather than dispersed family smallholdings. The new villages were to become the basis of a socialist system of production, with the ultimate aim of making Tanzania self-sufficient. The Arusha Declaration said it was particularly important that we understand the connection between freedom, development and discipline, because the national policy of creating socialist villages in the rural areas depended upon it. It emphasised that development had to go on in the rural areas and this required people who were politicised and mobilised. The Arusha Declaration also underscored that what we need to develop is people, not things, for people can only develop themselves. It said development villages would be created by the people themselves and led by those who lived and worked in them. They could not be created or governed from outside. Thus Mwalimu Nyerere made it abundantly clear that no one could be forced into Ujamaa village and no official or leader at any level could tell villagers what they should do together or individually. The Arusha Declaration was originally written by Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania. But the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) helped establish the ideology of Ujamaa, which served as the guiding principle of the declaration. TANU leaders At the time, TANU leaders were mostly junior civil servants, teachers, farmers and traders, so they welcomed the Arusha Declaration. In reality, there were few leaders who had amassed wealth enough to challenge the document, which stated that leaders had to be workers or peasants. This was the leadership code aimed at promoting equality among Tanzania citizens. It was an attempt to prevent leaders from constituting themselves into a privileged and exploitative class. Thus the Arusha Declaration sought to reduce the income inequality among citizens and shift development efforts towards rural areas. While aiming at a self-sustaining economy, the Arusha Declaration also looked at reforming the education system. The three significant changes that it made were putting more emphasis on primary education rather than secondary education, promoting practical knowledge rather than book knowledge and gearing education more towards agricultural skills. Despite its vision for a better world, the Arusha Declaration led to the emergence of a bureaucratic petty bourgeois class based within the public sector. And so that declaration was subsequently dumped in favour of what was infamously known as the Zanzibar Declaration, which opened the door to a neo-liberal economy with all its trappings. Some decades later, there is today a strong undercurrent calling for the revival of the values and principles of the Arusha Declaration, if not in its entirety then at least by taking its salient features that are relevant. Special emphasis is laid on the leadership ethics and code which formed the basics of the Arusha Declaration. It is argued that the Declaration remains relevant today because social evils like corruption are by-products of undermining and ignoring the Arusha Declaration, which served as the county’s political, social and economic compass. Thus, whereas the declaration emphasised work as the source of legitimate earning, politicians and state officials have today turned corruption and embezzlement into income-generating activities. It is a far cry from the declaration that, among other things, ensured that leaders and officials lived by a strict set of ethics, since it was forbidden for them to cultivate and perpetrate capitalist tendencies. It was also a taboo for leaders and officials to hold shares or directorships in private companies, to receive two or more salaries and own houses for rent. Compare that with today’s MPs, who bestow on themselves hefty allowances and perks, along with fat remuneration and loans. Today, an MP claims subsistence allowance and sitting allowance for doing the job for which he or she is already paid. As if that is not enough, they clandestinely raise their pay and allowances without informing the people they claim to be representing. Thus, the lawmakers raise their “sitting” allowance from Sh70,000 to Sh200,000 (up 186 percent). With fuel allowance of Sh50,000 plus per diem, they would now be taking home Sh330,000 in daily allowances, not to mention other allowances such as Sh280,000 when attending a two-hour “seminar” on the on-going energy crisis in the country. All this in a country where the minimum monthly wage is Sh80,000 and where the government owes teachers arrears totalling Sh50 billion, for which they have to declare a national strike. This is a teacher from whose monthly salary is deducted Sh5,000 for the Uhuru torch and another Sh5,000 for “strengthening the party”. In the end, his gross salary of Sh320,000 is reduced to a net pay of Sh200,000. This is the nature of the leadership we have nurtured under the Zanzibar Declaration. Gone are the days when leaders were essentially servants of the people and were supposed to discharge their role diligently and ethically. Instead, they are distinguished from the people they lead in terms of wealth and lifestyle. This was unthinkable under Arusha Declaration. No wonder people are once again calling for the revival of the Arusha Declaration, which is relevant to the prevailing political, social and economic situation. Made defunct Contrary to what is sometimes suggested, the Arusha Declaration was not made defunct overnight after the Zanzibar Declaration was passed. In fact, there were efforts to undermine the Arusha Declaration right from the early 1980s. That is why a report prepared by Chama Cha Mapinduzi during the one-party system in 1981 raised alarm over rising capitalist tendencies and attempts being made to sideline the Arusha Declaration. The negative outcome of such tendency was the emergence of a class of state leaders and officials who enriched themselves and did not care about the plight of ordinary people who suffered hardship through rocketing prices of basic commodities. After all, their own incomes easily cushioned them from the impact. An idea is being floated to include Arusha Declaration values in the new Constitution that is being envisaged with the aim of benefiting society as a whole. Meanwhile, leadership ethics should be placed on the national agenda for the proposed Constitution. With such a Constitution, leaders would be accountable for their actions and those of their subordinates. They would then be made to resign as happened when Home Affairs Minister Mwinyi in 1976 resigned as a gesture of accountability over the deaths of prison inmates in Shinyanga. While celebrating 50 years of Independence today, people call for a Constitution under which leaders would be accountable to the people and not to the foreign masters with whom they sign neo-colonial agreements and contracts. We need ethical, patriotic and honest leadership. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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