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What goes around comes around
2005-09-23 07:14:28
By Marycelina Masha
Beleagured Home Affairs Minister Omar Ramadhani Mapuri is a very clever person indeed. Undoubtedly, he is a descendant of bad governance and he should have realised this much earlier, before he attempted to defend an act of cruelty to civilians.
Quite often we forget that what goes around comes around. And in Kiswahili we say, ’Aliye juu, mngoje chini.’ That Mapuri is down and finished is a matter of time.
If the minister does not want to accept defeat and the public opinion that presses for his exit, he should have viewed a TV programme in which viewers called the station to air their views on the recent Ukonga evictions.
It was interesting that in the entire programme of one hour, not a single caller stood on Mapuri’s side. In fact, an angry viewer urged Mapuri to go back to his home village and run for councillorship.
In his view, the honourable minister did not even fit to hold a cabinet portfolio, because he lacks a judgemental mind. The press teamed up with the civil society and condemned the minister in their strongest terms possible.
Still the minister has refused to budge. And we know that there is more to it than meets the eye.
I am fully convinced that the minister is a protege and his persistence stems from the fact that he has protectors. You see, in our country, once you are in the government, you count yourself as a demigod.
Whether you live up to the expectations of the people you are supposed to serve, that does not count.
This is all about politics. As long as you can twist a few words and dodge the real issue, then you will be okay. No transparency, no accountability.
Of course I stand to be corrected. Tell me, which leader in his or her senses can cling to power after so much furore calling for his or her resignation after hurting the feelings of the people he was supposed to protect?
Hasn’t Mapuri tainted the good image of the ruling party and indeed the government?
In my view, the minister’s silence proves many things. He doesn’t care about what happened because after all, the episode will drag on and on and will finally be forgotten.
What with all the protection he is enjoying?
But whoever is behind this protectionism, should know that Tanzanians of today are not the same as those of yester years.
You hit them, they hit back and harder. And the ’Mapuri anger’ will serve as a deterrent.
Soon and very soon, even those who backed Home Affairs minister Mapuri will realise that they were on the wrong side.
We should not ignore the trauma and shame to which the Ukonga evictees were subjected.
Imagine being thrown out of a house you have known as your home for more than twenty years.
What of the privacy you enjoyed then, only to find yourself putting up in a chicken shed?
How does it feel when you come to think that all this is happening just because some prison officer believes he is the one who deserves the cool air at Ukonga and not you?
And how about children who have never shared rooms with their parents but are now forced to do it or have to live with relatives and friends?
Lest we forget, the Ukonga evictions have brought back memories of such callousness in other parts of the country.
It happened in Morogoro too and we are not quite sure it hasn’t happened in other parts of the country.
Somehow someone owes Tanzanians an explanation.
I say the people are fed up and they will not sit back and watch while their rights are trampled.
We’ll therefore use every means within our reach to demand our dignity back.
Of course we will not riot but we will make sure those leaders who are a thorn in our flesh learn it the hard way.
As for honourable Mapuri, I can see only one option, to call it a day and bow out.
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