The Weekly Sneak: On to the Next Thing

Well, it's not like I can NOT comment on the new cabinet thing even if I didn't want to. A little independence is one thing, but when a columnist starts to get too "self-directed" (i.e. out of touch with trending stories) then she might be inviting The Men In Nairobi to reconsider her contract, and not in a good way. As some former Ministers can tell you, performance reviews are a (insert your word of choice). As I am not a details girl, I have left all in-depth plumbing of the implications of the new appointments to those who are more competent. Instead, I have tried to offer a look beyond:

"Lookingat the arc of events that has led us to this point as a collective, I wouldhave to say that the prognosis looks good right now. We might just be learninghow to finesse our political processes with an eye to useful governance, whichis a step on the road to the unattainable idea of great governance. Now that we’redoing slightly better at this Executive and Legislature business, it might betime to turn our attentions to some of the other lurking behemoths: theJudiciary and that most important institution of all, the Civil Service."

It isn't hard for me to stir myself into a frenzy of nationalistic fervor, but so rarely does an opportunity come along to do so because things are going well. Political optimists, you know, we really have to work hard not to come across as desperately naive and/or clinically insane. But this Cabinet thing, good stuff, and an excellent jump-off point to look at our other institutions. So much work to be done! Feel that energy? Feel it? Yeah. :)

Weekly Sneak: Taking Peace for Granted

Wasn't the end of this last Bunge session exciting. Seriously, who was expecting that anyone would employ a Motion of No Confidence to push the government off-balance. Our brand of politics has favored more direct forms of confrontation over those offered by the tools of public administration, so this is a step in the right direction.

Of course there was no way, no matter how swiftly the political activists moved on this one, that the Prime Minister was going to go down like that. If CCM hadn't found a reasonable technical loophole to escape this attack, they would have created one. And if all else fails, the President still has overwhelming powers to create law out of thin air by making a declaration. So truly, I don't think there was any particular danger other than hurt feelings and such.

For us regular citizens, politics is interesting because we need the products of improved governance: roads, schools, etc. The tangible stuff. But in order to get that, the crucial role played by long stretches of peace through successive administrations cannot be ignored- after all it is the foundation on which we have been able to build the state in the first place. So as long as we keep substituting legal, symbolic, democratic and administrative conflict for real physical conflict and civil unrest- we're doing great.

There's been a lot of huff and puff in the media about this being Africa's Century*. The only thing that would give this ideal any real legs, to me, is if this generation achieves its mission of creating a majority of states in which residents can take peace for granted. Kind of the way we take post-colonialism for granted now. And that starts with intelligent, pacific statecraft. This is hardly a new theme with me, but some things bear repeating. Coming to an East African near you:

"So much of our public dialogue these days has become consumed with questions of leadership, fighting corruption and getting the kind of governance we think we want. Most of the time, we frame our collective dissatisfaction with calls for great change, explicit change, explosive change if necessary. I wonder if we are all just a bit tired of living in a state of extended anxiety over the financial pinch, and anticipation that things will improve because surely they can't get any worse. But who is to say change will come all at once, and from the expected corners anyways? It would be fantastic if increasingly better governance and sensible politics could sneak up on us one concession at a time."

Morning Constitutional

I was trying to squeeze the last drops of sleep out of my Saturday morning when The World's Best Housekeeper switched on the radio. And just like that I was up and out of bed: someone was discussing the constitution! To be precise, ITV and Radio One were broadcasting the second discussion on the proposed Bill to review the constitution that's going to appear in Bunge Anytime Now. They are holding these debates at the University of Dar es Salaam, and Nkrumah Hall was overflowing with young men and the odd young woman. The front rows held all the usual suspects: a row of professors, lawyerly types, opposition politicians and other famous talking heads.

Happy days. It's easy to focus on what's not functioning in a system, makes for better copy most of the time, but the truth is that part of this blog's work is to document (haphazardly) the democratic evolution of this one African polity. We're doing alright, yeah. I don't think my parent's generation was personally invested in the constitution in their day- these were not matters that plebs discussed when there was Nyerere to tell us how to think and what to do and when to do it. My generation does not have that luxury, nor do we want it.

Which is why I had to roll out of bed- we're breaking new ground here. No Bananas and Oranges, no oversimplification, no donor-interests in the driver's seat. Just straight up talking about how we want the country to be run- that's the stuff of democracy. And it's happening at the hill. That's a quiet achievement worth celebrating.

No, we're not likely to pull a South Africa. If the constitution does get amended, I expect we'll have a lot of hair-pulling and name-calling left to do. As it is the Commission that is tasked with doing this review is working under dodgy circumstances, as Presidential commissions are wont to do- no transparency. The opposition parties are doing their fire and brimstone thing, obviously hoping that someone will give them a fight so that they can look like political martyrs. CCM- conspicuously, and wisely, absent. Quality of discussion: variable.

But all of these are expected hiccups on the road to a new and improved constitution. At least if we do this one thing and pass the Bill, the door will be opened up and we'll do more as time and public opinion dictates. My favorite part: this older gentleman stood up and pointed out that public servants have forgotten themselves and gone feral. How is it that we have allowed our public sector to run off unhinged and start dictating to We The People how things must be done? A complete perversion of the governance relationship if there ever was one. We are a democracy, after all and this babu had reminded us of a crucial truth.

Too often we forget that the government is here to serve us, and not vice versa.

I only have the one worry when it comes to this constitutional review thing: freedom of expression. Watching the discussion, it is obvious that the moderator is trying to control the crowd so that nothing too offensive gets said. On the one hand, this is fine: courtesy by all means. On the other hand, the moderator is stifling contributors. It's a fine balance and I don't know if he's getting it right. I'm watching a young man having a Live TV meltdown over his problems: cost of living, hard life, corruption. Very vigorous, but totally offpoint. Not to mention hysterical.

Ah well. At least we're talking, neh?

Tanzanian Exceptionalism?

This is an idea that has been rolling around my head for a while. And it's probably going to take a bit of doing to explain. But here's a start:

Emergent Democracy.* It's a concept I have only stumbled upon recently after thinking that the idea of emergence shouldn't belong to economics alone (emergent market). Yeah, I know. I move slow. Now, onto the good stuff:

-"action of many individual participants"

- "complex and unpredictable results"

- "efficiency beyond the comprehension of any individual participant"

- and my favorite bit: "Supporters of the idea point to instances in which bloggers have brought about political change by posting about issues that mainstream media had not paid much attention to..."

Now: comparative political analysis has it's uses but I have felt for years that Africa is underserved in this area by her many polities, ethno-political complexity, geographic variety and impenetrability, structural racism, ignorance fuelled by spotty documentation, and general misunderstoodness. None of which are new complaints amongst Africanist scholars, I'm just cribbing from those who've gone before and standing on the shoulders of giants.

This mash-up of convoluted thinking is trying to address how strange comparisons happen: the Kenya/Tanzania pairing for example. I think it makes more sense to do a Tanzania/South Africa pairing in the post-colonial context if one counts South Africa's independence as having happened in 1994. Which is when the emergent market concept kicks in nicely. Kenya/Tanzania? What, because of geographic proximity? That's just lazy. Yes, even if we're going all EAC. It's still lazy.

But that's just one layer. Evidently there is a technological/communications component: it seems that social media is an integral factor of emergent democracy as a concept. Not to mention the way it introduces/acknowledges complexity by embracing the idea of multiple actors outside of the traditional roles (legislator, executive, judge) without devolving the discussion to something as trite as single-issue lobbying.

And so it makes sense in my head to think of Tanzania as one of the emergent democracies on the continent: diverse population, diverse agendas, complex interrelations. Democracy at work however compromised it may appear to an external observer (the system does in fact self-correct for balance. or peace. and no, you don't get to choose how.). Modernist habits- the adoption of IT technologies, leap-frogging stuff like a cumbersome landlines parastatal telephone system. Entrepreneurial spirit and political savvy. These are just a few of the significant positives that Tanzania could continue to build upon.

Which means, naturally, that there are significant negatives threatening to drag us down too. Beginning with oversimplification: our decades-long public-education mess is not serving us well. I have heard keen-minded colleagues in the field of political analysis say things that are shockingly dubious about our history. And then cling to antiquated notions against all evidence of research, articles and voluble argumentation. That's messed up. If idealism and conservatism constantly trump evidence and dynamic thinking we're gonna tie ourselves up in knots.

Put down the verbal gun. I'll be the first to admit: I had to leave the country to learn the country, if you know what I mean. Yeah. Try buying a well-researched, totally dependable collection of books on Tanzanian history and let me know how that went for you, bongolander. Being kept uninformed about the gritty bits of our contemporary history is a part of the social contract that I think we should push to renegotiate in a global kind of sense.

But that's just one layer. There's the real issue of haves and have-nots: what's our mechanism for handling economic stratification? America advances the idea of universal opportunity: if you just work hard enough you too shall be a millionaire. Now, it's a nice little bedtime story and we all know it doesn't quite work out that simply. Still, as a national ethos... it's pretty positive. Constructive. Non-partisan. It's got non-Americans skipping on planes to go find their streets of gold in a country that isn't nearly as kind to immigrants as it's PR campaign suggests.

The Tanzanian social contract is sort of libertarian with heavy doses of social liberalism. Social stratification is a lived reality for Tanzanians of all walks of life, as economic enclaving is almost impossible here. Perhaps one major factor, often overlooked, is the fact that the state owns land in Tanzania and only leases it to citizens for prescribed periods of time. Which means that this business of going Happy Valley and shooting trespassers is not done with impunity here. All to say, it can be hard to be entirely untouchable here as some folks from the previous government may have found out to their surprise. I like it that way- keeps us honest, lean and mean.

Tuesday 23rd November: I completely forgot to mention a major factor in the social contract! Corruption. We point our fingers upwards and knock our politicians about for stealing public funds- and they deserve it. However, we also don't talk about the fact that living in Tanzania these days means hustling and you can bet your bottom shilling that most every adult has at one point or another deliberately initiated or engaged in corrupt practices for their own gain. So it's structural. I don't really know how this fits in with the emergent democracy framework, or if it does. Might be more of a cultural issue- one man's nepotism is another man's family duty.

Another layer: emergent democracies are not all that common. Not really. It takes a certain fluidity, technophilia, mental flexibility and creativity to live and thrive as an emergent democracy. I think that Tanzania, in her post-colonial history, has proved that she's got what it takes to adapt to the various situations thrown up by a rapidly changing, ever-competitive world. Doubt me? Look at how we handle our elections. It might not be perfect, but it's a far cry from Kenya (eish), Uganda (puh-leeze), Burundi (hm?), Rwanda (democracy? heh.), Congo (basketcase), Zambia (mh.), Malawi (mh.), and Mozambique (meh. maybe).

Thing is, it's not about superiority or inferiority. Here's how Asia has always been a touch more privileged than Africa as a developing continent. See, Japanese folks don't get subjected to anxiety dreams over what Indians are doing. Because no one is confused about whether Asia is a country or a continent. Both polities, both cultures are respected in their individual right as they work the nation-state model. Africa? Not so much. Why is it that on this most diverse of continents we don't embrace the fundamental idea of real diversity? With functionality as the only real measure of success? Sure, there are fifty-plus polities. What's wrong with the idea that they are all exceptional, and worthy of study in their own right?

I think that only after this level of respect for individual polities has run it's course will it make sense to talk about a pan-African identity and accept the demands of massification/ manufactured collectivization. Europe still won't get it together, and it's taken them how many millenia? Enough said. Gonna end here for this foray and see what turns up in the comments section :) Be gentle. Heh.

*Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is tugging my heartstrings for money. I would give him some if I wasn't perpetually embroiled in a fight with my bankers over the quality of their retail services. Still, what a fantastic resource is Wiki? Sigh.