BY EDITOR
26th August 2015
But this time it isn’t owing to the controversial mining contracts he hastily signed while in office – giving everything to foreign investors, while leaving the country with nothing but empty holes.
Nor is it courtesy of his bid to grab Kiwira coal mine when he was our beloved country’s CEO.
Mkapa is making headlines thanks to the reckless utterances he made at an inaugural campaign rally organised by his ruling CCM in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.
While some people out there may suggest that it was all a forgivable slip of the tongue, we at The Guardian feel obliged to strongly condemn his overly rash comments.What will have puzzled civilised people most is that these utterances came from a highly respected intellectual and public leader. Indeed, what Mkapa said at the rally has made many people wonder whether this is the same person groomed by world-renowned statesman Julius Kambarage Nyerere.
Tanzania is fighting to thrive as a democratic and prosperous nation, and it is a demonstration of moral bankruptcy setting a dangerous precedent for anyone to write off other people as stupid or worthless simply because of differences in political ideology.
Yet that is precisely what Mkapa, a former cabinet minister, ambassador and president, has done – in broad daylight.
Mkapa may abhor the opposition, but he has no right whatsoever to insult or ridicule those differing with him politically. While we respect his democratic rights, we remind him that Tanzania does not give anyone the right to insult other people.
Time has come for leaders to accept the reality in which we live. CCM may indeed be the liberation party Mkapa says it is, but this doesn’t necessarily make those believing to the contrary stupid – or are enemies of the State.
What Mkapa doesn’t seem to understand is that political competition isn’t a curse but part of a democratic process allowing voters to freely elect their leaders.
Mkapa should understand that Tanzania is much bigger than any individual or political party and that not even a former or serving president has a bigger stake in the country’s affairs than anyone else.
General Election fever rising and it’s perilous to allow anyone, much less a former president, to publicly insult other people. Our unsolicited advice to Mkapa is that he should stop shooting his political foes or anyone else with rash statements likely to cause disorder.
Our memories are still fresh about the tragic events in Zanzibar on January 27, 2001 when, with Mkapa in power, security forces gunned down scores of people.
Tanzania should not fall into that bloody trap again. As a nation, we have weathered numerous storms together and just cannot allow political loose cannons to plunge this country into anarchy.
We should all resist temptations that could make us fall into the trap that has ensnared Mkapa as, surely, an intelligent person is the one who knows how little he or she knows.
In Love is Blind, Lynsay Sands writes: “Intelligent people know they are intelligent…they also know that one person cannot know all, hence a person is not stupid simply because he is ignorant of one thing or another.”
And William Shakespeare once aptly wrote: “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” We believe Mkapa can learn from these wise words – and desist from setting dangerous precedents.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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