Things are changing while the fundamentals are the same

President Samia Suluhu Hassan spoke at length on various issues with BBC’s Salim Kikeke. Without a doubt, some of the things she said left others wondering whether it’s a case of what French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr referred to as plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

President Samia spoke of what she termed as ‘political democracy’ which is about intra-party processes as opposed to ‘freedom of political chaos’, where there are endless protests instigated by political parties.

The President insisted the country was free, pointing out that no one was harassing the media and no one from the media was complaining regarding their freedoms.

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This extends to social media where she has been bitterly criticized by some of her early supporters but says she won’t silence them because then she will not hear their say on issues.

The problem here is not whether the media is relatively free or not under her watch and whether people can type out their minds on social media to the point of airing out insults but that there is no change in the legal framework that governs the space in which all these operate. We still have the same laws in place, some from way back during the time of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. The media landscape has changed so much since then but the laws have rarely followed suit for the better. In other words, the media, conventional or otherwise are still at the mercy of who runs the country.

From time to time, there have been instances where for better or for worse, we have opted to see presidents in this country on their own, divorced from their political party, CCM. The reasons for this have varied.

That was the case with retired President Jakaya Kikwete in his early days and even during the campaign. It was the same thing with Dr John Magufuli. This has led to disappointments because in the end, presidents do not operate in a political vacuum. While the constitution vests too much powers on the president, in reality, how that power is wielded depends on many behind the scenes actors from the ruling party.

When viewed through such lenses, then a lot makes sense. Not a single president ever wanted things to fall apart under their watch, not one of them wanted CCM to lose when they were/are in charge.

President Samia spoke about the new tax imposed on mobile money transfers saying what people complained about was not the new tax itself but the amount levied from such transactions. She defended the new tax with a long proven line of mentioning provision of social services like health care facilities.

There is no debate on whether the country needs these services or not, the debate and the controversy about the new tax is about the heavy financial burden it imposes on an already overstretched population.

The new tax is like low-hanging fruits which are easily picked with the least amount of efforts required. As such arguments have been made year in year out on expanding the tax base and not increasing or introducing new taxes on the same sources.

Take Lake Victoria as an example, where courtesy of legal red tapes and lack of political will, we have failed to harness it potential to the maximum and all the while singing about progress which has been made in the EAC project. There are countries with a fraction size of lakes and are making a fortune out of them which even the revenues generated by Lake Victoria today in all three countries pales by far. And as the gods of fortune would have it, they gave us many lakes, big and small.

There are many who were disappointed to hear some of the things the President said. In the words of a character in a popular British sitcom of the 1980s about the civil service, never to order any government inquiry, public or otherwise if the government cannot know the answers or the outcome in advance.

However, President Samia has time on her side. Her presidency is still new but the defining characters are all falling in place. She still has room to surprise the country, after all there are many presidencies which were completely altered or changed by a big crisis.

We are not there yet.