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Revisiting Hakielimu’s Saga with MoEC
2005-10-04 23:21:19
By Charles Mustapha Kayoka
If the Biblical myth of Ham (the son who laughed at his father’s nakedness instead of covering it) is to go by, then HakiElimu, has committed an abomination that it cannot be excused of. Just as Ham was condemned to poverty- and we are told, we African’s are his descendants, Hakielimu should not expect anything less than a severe lashing in front of the cowed members of the public and total alienation for its behaviour can corrupt other friends of education.
Let me organize some kind of ”kitchen party” for Hakielimu, for I believe that they are behaving like spoit kids who dare to laugh at the MoEC’s nakedness just as Ham did to Noah, his father. First, in African you don’t tell your parents that they are naked. If you cannot cover them so that other people don’t see it, then pretend that you don’t see it unless the father discovers by himself that the whole world is looking at his sacred parts, and takes action to cover the same. HakiElimu should have known this better!
Second, there is canonized and non-canonized truth. HakiElimu’s version of truth on the decrepit state of the provision of education in Tanzania is a non-canonized truth. The canonized truth that would have been accepted is that admitted by the government, the father, itself. It would be the truth that would have indicated that everything was going fine with PEDP. In Africa, and in Tanzania in this case, for an Ngo like you to have your truth accepted, you have to submit the documents of your research to the ministry, let it be doctored, changed and censored, and finally, the truthful version of the report will come out and declared acceptable by the government. Then you will be called a true friend of education, may be awarded a tender for more serious canonized reports.
Third, just as Ham was wrong to tell his father that he was wrong to sit nakedly, you were wrong as well to change the paradigm of communication which says that the general is always right, rule number one. And rule number two is, if you are doubtful still, refer to rule number one. HakiElimu should have stayed quiet when the minister said you were wrong, for he is the general and, he is always right! Why did that not enter into your heavy heads?
Fourth, all these years since independence, it was the government that has been doing that dancing, the playing, the refereeing, the setting of rules, the talking and ordering. We the citizens have been always located at the receiving end, watching from sidelines, clapping hands for good words the father says, not asked for our opinion, the party supremacy. We were all at the fringe and some self-selected guys at the centre- the CC, the NEC, the secretariats, the ministers, and PSs, all doing the ordering, the directing. We were on the wings-Jumuia, they, on the body running things. The paradigm of communication has to change, just as implied by the new political dispensation where we talk of participatory democracy and governance, but the statements and actions taken the minister still indicate that by the talk of decentralized, people-centred governance is but a hollow talk and dream to end when we wake up in the morning.
HakiElimu, and this is a message I am sending to all other NGOs in Tanzania calling with various appellations, friends of education; friends of people with disabilities; friends of democracy; friends of freedom of expression and information, should know that they are just nincompoops to be seated at the wing and take orders just as the body instructs and not otherwise.
This is indeed the problem we all face when seeking information in Tanzania, about the government which runs on taxes we pay through the nose. It is the problem we face when we want to hold the government accountable and more responsible to people. It is the problem we face when attempting to interrogate policies which lack alignment with realities of the various stakeholders, who, in the first place, are sparsely involved in the whole process.
In Tanzania, we are used to culture of silence; you don’t speak when your rights are trampled upon; you don’t complain when oil prices shoot up in comet-like speed as we are seeing now. It has been, and still is a country where, those speaking the truth, daring to challenge authority and ask their voices to be heard are demonized, ostracized and unjustifiably subjected to public ridicule. See how the petrol prices are sky-shooting with such a rapid speed, and we are not complaining. The government is happy, nchi ya amani na utulivu! But see what happens when the daladala drivers say we can’t tolerate this, we are striking unless oil prices come down or we raise the bus-fares.
The authority will wake up and ask all to pack their buses and forfeit their licences.
The cowardly daladalas will just resume operations in fear. See what happened in Kenya, a minister said, lower down oil prices or we withdraw licences of all oil importing companies. They did not wait the prompting of the poor citizens. Hakielimu, you were wrong to prompt the government, which is a know all entity, on the fact that something was wrong with the delivery of education.
Indeed, we need a recasting of the principles of democracy we are all singing about. I guess the problem is that we have put a new wine in an old bottle.
I fail to understand myself, that guys who I first heard about when I entered the gates of primary school are still running the government.
Forty-five years or so, the same people, the same names, the same faces, just shuffled about, and yet we think the new wine will not go wrong! If anything, NGOs in this country have a field day ahead to prove themselves and their good intentions before the government.
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