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PM has alerted the Church and us all
2007-01-19 09:35:46
By Wallace Mauggo
Exactly how developed countries and international financial and trade institutions will respond to Tuesday's appeal by Prime Minister Edward Lowassa that they help in ensuring that African natural resources and other wealth benefit Africans and not otherwise remains to be seen.
But whichever way the pendulum swings, it is clear that the call will not have fallen on deaf ears.
It is also obvious that, although it would be overly naïve to expect the responses to be uniform or identical, the involvement of the bodies requested for assistance stands to have significant impact.
For one thing, all the respective institutions wield immense power and influence in financial, material, spiritual and other terms.
It surely would be no exaggeration to suggest that a substantial chunk of humankind catches a cold whenever the major religious institutions and agencies like the World Bank International Monetary Fund and the European Union sneeze.
To show that he was not letting off unguided missiles in making his appeal at an international symposium organised by the mighty Catholic Church, the Prime Minister pointed out that the onus was on every African to support the social, political and economic reforms undertaken on the continent in the last two decades at least by striving to ensure that justice was done and Africa benefited the most from its human and other resources.
There is no doubt whatsoever that some of the institutions whose support Mr Lowassa would gladly invite on behalf of Africa are of incontestable integrity and have such a superb track record that there is every reason for them to be viewed as serious and dependable development partners.
Of course, saying this should not be taken to mean that these institutions have had no reservations over developments in this part of the world or differences of opinion with individual African countries or the continent as a whole.
There are countless examples of such misgivings or differences that not only surfaced but also on occasion erupted with a bang and those institutions did not mince their words in expressing their dissatisfaction whenever the need to do so arose.
It was an indisputable sign of maturity whenever the countries faulted took things in their stride, convinced that constructive criticism would help them fine-tune their operations and therefore serve their people better.
Fortunately, the Church is among the institutions that have always vomited their bitter inside against what they saw as tendencies, trends, behaviour or deeds likely to endanger national unity and security or wreak havoc on the entire human race through the perpetration of evil.
The Prime Minister must have had this in mind when he challenged the Church - `as a community of faith` - to stand for development, noting that justice, peace and security could be neither sustained nor indeed achieved in the absence of equitable development.
That must also be why he affirmed that peace and security would always be in jeopardy when poverty is so rampant and entrenched that the majority of the people go without the basic needs of life and are therefore effectively incapable of leading dignified or decent lives.
But soon after Mr Lowassa had challenged the Church to stand as an energetic witness to justice and peace both within and outside its own structures, to apply the gospel to concrete life and to continue serving as the voice of the voiceless, Tanzania Episcopal Conference President Bishop Thadeus Ruwaichi in turn shot up with a counter-challenge.
`We accept the challenges that you have just thrown to us but we kindly ask you to ask politicians to help us achieve our objectives,` the bishop said. A valid request, no doubt.
It may not be that difficult guessing the way the Prime Minister will deliver that humble but telling message to a fraternity where he is such a distinguished and highly rated member.
He could do it relatively safely at virtually any of the many forums he will be sure to address any of these days - such as Parliament in Dodoma where as official leader of Government business, rallies all over the country to be organised specifically for him as he makes routine and emergency 'inspection tours', and the news conferences he has since learnt to put to wonderful use.
One reason Church leaders are there is to knock the human conscience into a form that enables humankind's physical, mental and spiritual faculties to come together in making the world more God-fearing and therefore generally more liveable.
Few other agents of change have a capacity that enormous while at the same time commanding enough public respect to honour their obligations to the wider society, and Mr Lowassa could therefore have hardly chosen a better occasion at which to make his appeal.
But Bishop Ruwaichi's fast rejoinder to the Prime Minister's challenge to the Church and to international financial and trade institutions could be indicative of a pervasive though perhaps strategically muffled feeling that the government should also get going by clearing its own decks - sweeping its own house clean and truly opening up to public scrutiny before 'foreign' agents of change come in to complement its contribution to nation-building activities.
That would be only fair, and the government would be well-advised to see it as constructive intervention and not a slap in the face by a mischievous child.
As a high-ranking leader in a country that knows the true value of unity, Mr Lowassa will find genuine pride in the views of Tanzanians and Tanzania watchers fond of reminding the government that all citizens have duties to the society as well as rights in it - and that they also serve who merely observe and speak out.
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