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HakiElimu adverts: Exploring hidden issues in government impatience
2007-02-19 10:02:19
By Ani Jozen
Of all presidents so far, it is president Jakaya Kikwete who has succeeded to make regular appearances before local journalists, and in his latest outing, one question seemed to be nagging for so many.
It was the displeasure that the government has continually displayed about the HakiElimu spots on television, focusing on various things in routine governance generally, whether in relation to education or say, corruption.
There are similar spots by TAMWA that haven\'t sparked similar irritation at high places.
An editorial in the ruling party daily, Uhuru on Thursday February 1 brought out some key issues on the displeasure, which many people may have reflected upon, even if more might be unaware of them.
What seemed to come up in the write up isn`t the NGO per se, but the impression that it was doing that in association with foreign stakeholders, who it appears prefer to see expression focused in that manner.
It is this aspect of things that the government dislikes - that an NGO is paid for to pour scorn.
That the adverts are scornful of government action isn\'t something that can be disputed by those who watch the spots, but this is considered to be part of the freedom of expression.
The fact that the adverts constitute only an opinion, even if placing the government in a somewhat ridiculous outlook, was put to the president that it is routine that some people can laugh at the government.
While the editor who put up the question didn\'t say so, it is true HakiElimu adverts look like cartoons on policy.
There is one difference however that separates cartoons proper, and even criticism, from HakiElimu adverts, namely in the manner of expression as well as signature.
A cartoon is ordinarily an expression by an individual, a point of view in the strictest sense of the term, where a collective outlook is out of the issue.
When there is a collective dimension then it becomes a policy, and ordinarily this is beset with routine difficulties of credibility of organisation and a wider thesis it puts up, giving it fair play.
If HakiElimu is interested in government policy broadly, it is supposed to do so via its own work as an organisation, where it sets up elaborate activity by research and action in that direction.
In that case it not only would be able to sit in judgement as to what the government is doing, but others would also be in a position to judge its own work as well.
But it specialises in amusing strips on television, with nothing more ambitious to the public, providing a background for the fun it pokes on the government.
What is galling therefore to the other side of the TV screen, those upon whom the fun is directed, is the fact that they are supposed to take it calmly, without even knowing whom to answer.
For if there was an active organisation with publicly acknowledged work, for instance organising activities of a life-improving sort, or what is these days called `empowerment,` or `poverty reduction.`
Had it been doing this kind of activity, it would have plenty to say on its successes, not pour scorn on ministries.
But behind the ire of the government and effort to curb this activity is an entirely different issue, that of sovereignty, in its impression that HakiElimu is a foreign-funded outfit doing scarcely anything in particular but pouring scorn.
In other words there are some external organisations whose ideal view of things is reflected in what those spots show, namely that there are all sorts of failures, irresponsibility and putting it simply, stupidity littered all over. Why must a foreign organ keep laughing at our sores?
What the government is demanding isn`t in the first place a change in the behaviour of HakiElimu as a group of local researchers or publicists but rather the foreign organisations backing them.
Their key demand is that funding for HakiElimu shouldn`t be based on such assignment, that the fun that those foreign organs wish for, not merely to see it when they go around the country but to make it a prime viewing time speciality.
Everyone must watch it before the news at prime times, on major televisions.
That the NGO specialises in ridicule is disputable to a section of the viewers, on account of what in Kiswahili likes a blind eye, and saying it is merely a squint eye.
Thus if one has pleasure viewing the spots - and most people find it pleasurable unless they are working with the government or one of the ministries concerned, chiefly education - it will be hard to say it is unfair, one-sided, etc.
It is far easier to affirm the right of expression, whereas a level playing field is vital, to constrain expression.
So an organisation like AMREF which is involved in the thick and thin of fighting HIV/AIDS in the country would be too busy solving bottlenecks in what it does, or seeking government co-operation to solve various problems, not pour scorn on TACAIDS.
When by comparison HakiElimu specialises in pouring scorn, the corollary in psychological terms is that it has nothing important that occupies it, filling the gap (for funding, getting public attention) by TV spots. Isn\'t idleness the mother of all evil?
The government`s ire against HakiElimu is a reflection of its wider contention with NGOs, in the sense of an awareness that its prerogatives as a government are at times placed in difficulties by NGOs with a peculiar sense of mission, as in this case.
While the government detests funding for an NGO for the specific task of scorning government efforts (as distinct from tolerating expression as such), this spot activity gives a free ride to opposition parties.
CCM loses its argument simply when people are made to laugh at its efforts, from an organisation having no balance sheet of its own for its wider credibility.
The spots it offers suggest that the government is duty bound to solve all educational and societal problems, before one can appreciate its efforts.
That should include the sort of attitudes HakiElimu should be combating in the field rather than laughing at by TV spots (for instance `Kapeko`) as it is up to the government to guarantee rights for the likes of the disabled and talented child.
Such a broad view of things is unacceptable, and it needs an individual to sign a cartoon, not an influential NGO, as it makes that view of things true.
Backing scorn by huge funding makes it Tanzania\'s authentic image.
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