PLURALISM: LET IT BE A NEW BEGINNING INDEED
For a little more than five years now, multiparty political activities in Tanzania have been on the wane.
This was especially after the President of the sixth-phase Government, the late Dr John Magufuli, virtually shifted politics to the backburner and – for all practical purposes – switched it off by banning the opposition from politicking.
One of the results of this has been harassing opposition politicians by the security forces, particularly the police, whenever they have tried to hold public rallies, and even indoor party meetings.
In more extreme cases, opposition leaders and other cadres have been hauled before law courts across the land to answer criminal charges that could be remotely connected with political activism of one kind or another, and to one degree or another.
Needless to belabour the point, suffice it here to say that the situation was worsening by the day.
And, in noble efforts to ensure that it does not get out of hand for a country that has virtually known NO political violence since independence from foreign rule 60 years ago, the Political Parties Registrar, Retired Judge Francis Mutungi, organised a 3-day meeting on December 15-17 this year for the parties concerned to dialogue on the matter.
The objective is to reach an amicable solution founded on political pluralism in the best interests and common good of Tanzania and Tanzanians.
The meeting was graced by the presence of President Samia Suluhu Hassan who – to put it very briefly – called for a rational attitude-cum-approach so that all is well that ends well.
Political pluralism-cum-multi-partism is justifiably provided for in the 1977 Union Constitution and related legislation as amended from time to time.
President Hassan is, therefore, correct in urging all the stakeholders to earnestly uphold multiparty democracy based upon political pluralism for a safer, better and sustainable socio-econo-political future.
MARKETING DRIVE LAUDABLE
The government’s renewed efforts to source more external markets for the country’s agricultural products is welcome. This momentum needs to be sustained if the government is to address what is a perennial impediment to the development of agriculture.
Over the years, Tanzania has achieved demonstrable successes in boosting productivity in the horticulture, rice, sugar and tea sub-sectors.
However, for many farmers across the country, the biggest challenge is to extend the reach of existing efforts and expand their access to lucrative but untapped markets.
Among the worst-hit are tobacco and tea growers. Farmers of the two cash crops have been decrying the lack of better markets for their products, which has prompted many of them to look for alternative crops. With no buyers for their produce, farmers find no good reason to continue producing, and this has a negative impact on households and the economy.
This is why we believe the government has taken a step in the right direction to remove the bottlenecks in agribusiness value chains.
