The harmonious society: Can it be delivered in present day Tanzania?

Former American president Lyndon Johnson introduced what came to be known as ‘The Great Society’, a range of domestic programmes geared towards the reduction of poverty and addressing racial injustices. He was deeply influenced by the New Deal programmes of another former president who had engineered America’s economic recovery and spearheaded efforts to rescue European economies from total collapse.

Johnson, who had inherited the presidency after his predecessor was assassinated, never felt like he was fully in charge until after he had won a presidential election in his own right. In the same vein, one can pinpoint where some of the previous presidents of this country invested much of their time and energy while in office.

The first president was preoccupied by building an independent country, one that was self-aware and not merely a reflection of a colonial heritage. The liberation movements of the Cold War concerned him because he never thought the country was free unless the rest of the continent was free as well. Meaning that to him, his domestic agenda would be incomplete if colonialism was everywhere beyond our borders.

The second president invested much of his energy in reforming the economy which had been under huge pressure and was underperforming. He thought that it was important to change some policy stances to advance the country forward. The changing winds on the global stage gave him more time to focus on his domestic agenda and was not as involved as his predecessor had been with issues beyond our borders.

The third president continued with economic reforms but in more aggressive ways and rekindled the country’s engagement with the rest of the world especially on matters of globalization. He believed that through trade and debt reduction or cancellation agreements, African countries would make real economic progress.

The fourth president was known for his laissez affair approach to many things, especially on the domestic agenda where he tolerated many of those who disagreed with him or had different political viewpoints from his or that of his party. He was even more involved with the rest of the world than his immediate predecessor in office.

The fifth president was a builder, he did that well than all his predecessors in office. He made some decisions at break neck speed and that much of the changes he ushered were not systematically done.

That is where the sixth president comes into picture.

While paying political courtesies to her immediate predecessor in office because political realities would dictate so, she has been charting a far more conciliatory path than most of her predecessors in office especially regarding political reforms. Receiving a preliminary report from a task force formed to look at wide-ranging reforms in the country, much of what was presented to her is nothing new, it has been part of the conversations for decades now.

It seems like she is trying to build a harmonious society. It is not like the one in China which is underpinned by socialist approach to addressing the inequalities and imbalances brought by economic growth; this one appears to be informed with her own personal and political experiences. Fundamentally, it is about collective efforts to address the many challenges the country faces from the economy to politics. She is investing in people, as she once put it by quoting a saying, about walking further if you walk with others.

In ways, it is like a huge tent (or a huge tree) in which differences should be resolved after exhaustive discussions. She believes that there is a lot of miscommunication and misinformation which once resolved, then all of us would work for the betterment of the country.

She will certainly disappoint some with her responses to what was presented by the taskforce like whether or not the proposed reform might lead to a new constitution or perhaps they would be enough to address the many issues which have been a source of many disagreements. There are those who will see some of the recommendations of the taskforce like delaying the process of a new constitution as a ploy of buying more time on her and the party she leads, that it is testament to their lack of commitment to fundamental reforms.

Where could all this lead to? A country with less ‘competitive’ politics in the current sense?

It is theoretical, with nothing being concrete and open to being misunderstood or poorly delivered. However, her critics and political opponents will come to realize she is a far better political character than they give her credit for regardless of whether or not she delivers the harmonious society.