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’Infallible’ Mapuri will never run out of excuses
2005-09-19 07:17:17
By Rayner Ngonji
An outstanding adage goes thus: ’an adult is never called a liar.’ This literally means that he doesn’t tell lies. Whatever he utters is correct. He is infallible.
This however is a polite way of telling him that he has erred.
That camouflage is only applicable to certain situations.
In some situations especially situations where things are uncontrollable the technique doesn’t work.
That is what has happened to the Minister of Home Affairs, Omar Ramadhani Mapuri.
He has allowed his tongue to slip by uttering remarks that disturb harmony in public.
Yet, he wants the public to believe that what he did was correct.
But the circumstances do not allow such an attitude.
His remarks have sent members of the public and all those who wish Tanzania good, irate. He has also been hurt by his very own words.
He might have had good intentions but his remarks following clashes between the prison officers and the civilians, have invoked all his intentions.
It all began on Saturday, September 12 when Ukonga prison officers accompanied by some inmates invaded the neighbouring civilian quarters to forcefully evict the occupants from the houses which were said to have been bought by the department.
It has not been made clear when the houses in question were bought.
What is certain is that after the eviction order the occupants had filed a court injunction objecting the move. The case is yet to be ruled by the court.
The prison officers felt the process was delaying their plans and decided to take the law into their own hands by beating up the occupants as well as journalists who were at the scene to cover the event.
The prison officers are alleged to have fired tear gas onto the defenseless residents, triggering panic and pandemonium resulting in the injury of some of the occupants and journalists.
Mapuri instead of sympathising with the victims of the unprecedented incident opted to defend the prison officers by saying that they had a right to institute the punishment to both the occupants and journalists.
He said the prison officers had the right to treat a blow to the journalists because they had interfered with what he termed, ’military operation’ and that they ought to obtain a permit before doing that.
To the occupants he said they had already been served with an eviction order and were allegedly resisting the order.
He however forgot that the issue was already in the hands of the court when the inhuman act took place.
A human rights activist is said to have telephoned him concerning the issue but he is reported to have said, ’why are you carried away by the incident, CCM members were burried alive recently you didn’t comment on that.’
The honourable minister seems to have got things wrongly and that has resulted in getting them mixed up. The two incidents are of a totally different nature.
While the CCM incident was politically motivated, the Ukonga turmoil was a civilian engagement.
I was one of the occupants of the disputed houses in the early 1990s.
Not only do civilians inhabit these houses located in a civillian area but also it has been conjoined with other civilian structures.
People were moving freely on that side without any interruption.
Any property change of ownership can only be completed when the parties concerned exchange the relevant credentials.
It’s only then that one can claim that the property sold to them is theirs.
In no social setting can one claim a proclaimed asset without any documents as one’s.
How the prison officers got hold of the houses and who sanctioned the ownership change is debatable if not considered as a mechanism of hexing the rule of law.
Following the uproar from members of the public who were calling for his resignation, the minister said the issue was very minor and did not warrant his resignation.
Calling such a violent incident where people had their blood oozing from their bodies a minor incident is adding salt to injury.
In fact it’s something which no one can easily understand except a man from mars.
Again, telling members of the public that you have been misquoted without giving your correct version is ridiculing professionals.
It is also hard to believe that one can be misquoted by a group of over fifteen journalists who attended the press conference.
It’s possible to be misquoted by one or two journalists but to believing that the entire team of scribes who attended the press conference misquoted the honourable minister is something incredible.
That could be taken as another way of refusing to admit that you have erred.
The minister, in his intervention over the issue is said to have ordered the police to carry out an investigation on the incident.
But the composition of the commission, that is, four police officers and four prison officers, raises more questions than answers over its credibility.
Whether it will really come out with justifiable findings remains to be seen.
However, experience has it that commissions formed after serious incidents like this one, sparking off an outrage from the members of the public have been used as a manoeuvre to temporarily silence harsh situations.
And once that period becomes calm, everything is burried in the cabinet files.
However, this time mzee Mapuri is in for it. Wananchi are determined to have him out of office.
They have declared never to exercise a reverse.
Whether he likes it or not he will have to bow to the people’s demands. The earlier he does that, considering the looming general elections, the better.
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