What do CCM tours mean in Tanzania’s political terrain?

Dar es Salaam. Some top officials of the ruling party, CCM,  have, in recent months, been touring different parts of the country to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the 2010 election manifesto.

Some commentators see the move as a good strategy towards solidifying its grip in its strongholds as well as an attempt to win back hearts of people in places under the opposition. As CCM continues with its tour under the theme: “Ahadi ni Deni’, literally meaning ‘a promise must be honoured’, the opposition side has not sat back quietly. Members of the latter too have been busy holding countrywide rallies.

The opposition’s move is under the banner of sensitizing the people about the process of writing the new Constitution.

However, the Katiba saga has also been covered by CCM cadres on tour, particularly, attempting to explain why they defend the current Union structure of two governments.

Speaking to the Political Platform, Mr Faraja Kristomus from the University of Dar es Salaam’s Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics said the CCM secretary general, Mr Abdulrahman Kinana, has proved to be vigilant and fitting well in the post that his party handed him. 

He said Mr Kinana has seen the looming signs in his party especially for the coming general elections. During the 2010 general elections CCM made many promises to the masses in order to win votes.

“Unfortunately, between 2010 and 2015 there are things that have happened in the country which were not anticipated before and they do not appear in CCM’s manifesto of 2010. Money has been dished to things like the New Constitution, 50 years of Independence in 2011, the visit by US president, and several others. All these have disturbed the trends of the budget for the subsequent years,” Mr Kristomus said. 

He said apart from these unforeseen developments, many party leaders had also alienated themselves from wananchi and the opposition used that chance to reach out to wananchi.

Now, according to Mr Kristomus, Mr Kinana deserves credit for his efforts to try and revive the old party’s spirit of being close to wananchi. The daunting challenge, however, is the fact that these days the party has lost the power to control its government.

“I think what has contributed to this is the decision of awarding double offices to individuals. One person has a seat in the party’s executive and at the same time in the government; then who will control, supervise or monitor the other? If the party had seriously wanted to control its government then there was a need for power separation,” he said.

He added that what Mr Kinana is doing is trying to win back the people’s confidence in the party, which had greatly been eroded.

But, will the secretary general succeed? This is the challenge, said Mr Kristomus, which is the toughest nightmare for Mr Kinana for he must reprimand his fellow CCM members who also double as top government officials.

He, however, warned that, the government, under CCM, has failed to manage the finances. It has been carrying forward the debts of previous years and at the same time creating new ones. And next year things are going to be worse because almost every Member of Parliament from the ruling party would want to retain his/her seat.

Mr Kristomus said it would be the voters who would guarantee whether incumbent legislators retain the seats or not. They know that they will face difficult questions from their voters because they chose them on the basis of promises they made in 2010 and now they recognise years have passed like a shadow and the promises made have not been fulfilled. That is why they have decided to use the Tenth Parliament meeting to push their agenda -- asking the government to fulfil all the promises made. But, will it and has it got that capacity?

In his comments a political commentator from University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Benson Bana, said CCM’s initiative geared at monitoring and evaluating the implementation of its 2010-2015 election manifesto is the right step in the right direction.  The party’s secretariat under the able leadership of Mr Kinana merits support and appreciation. He said the supervisory visits are timely and have a value addition ingredient to the ruling party’s political work. On several occasions Mr Kinana and his colleagues have responded positively to myriad issues and concerns that are raised by the people, so argued Dr Kinana.

Moreover, he has on a number of occasions compelled actors in government to take measures to address the concerns of the people/electorate. An accusing finger has been pointed at, arguably, underperforming ministers. The ministers now know that they are being watched. This is reinvigorating CCM and enhancing its image in the eyes of the electorate.

Dr Bana said Mr Kinana has distinguished himself from his predecessors in terms of his approach to political work. He has narrowed the gap between leaders and the people.

“He is participating practically with the people in self-help development programmes, emulating the immediate post-independence style of the political leadership. Since we reverted to multiparty, I haven’t witnessed top leaders of political parties, either in power or in opposition doing what Kinana and his team are doing to bring their political parties close to the ordinary people,” Dr Bana said.

However, he wondered why other CCM leaders at national, regional, district, ward and village/street levels were not supporting or emulating Kinana’s approach to political work! It should not be a one man show. Dr Bana warned adding that teamwork is required if Kinana’s mission is to be effectively accomplished.

He noted that, the role of a political party is to articulate and aggregate the interests of the people and channel them to the relevant authorities for decision and action. It is upon central and local government authorities to prioritise, strategise and mobilise resources to meet the needs and interests of the citizenry.

“As Tanzanians, we know the budgetary constraints that afflict our development plans and programmes. We know that our ability to raise revenues is limited. We know that our budgets significantly depend on donor funds. “We must wake up as one people to take measures that will help our country raise revenue to adequately meet our recurrent and development expenditure. Let us expose, name and shame tax evaders, let us work hard and smarter to increase production, let us reduce expenditure in public entities, let us combat the spend thrift culture,” Dr Bana said.