From: Yona Fares Maro
Date: Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 3:00 PM

It is my considered opinion that why the nation has put up with this unproductive leadership for this long has been due to the lack of a real external threat, whether political, economical or military, to her corporate existence from her immediate neighbours, who until recently, had all been just a step short of being a collection of failed states with Tanzania playing the big brother role to most. The premise of my conclusion is anchor on the extrapolation of what is captured in the next paragraph.

Robert Greene and Joost Elffers in law two of their book, the 48 Laws of Power, did state that “without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy at our heels sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert”. To expatiate on the truth of this, he wrote of how the communist party led by Mao in China who had being fighting with their nationalist counterpart had used the invading Japanese army to train and keep it ragtag army in fighting shape that enabled them to defeat their nationalist counterpart after the withdrawal of the Japanese. And years later when a Japanese diplomatic attempted to apologise to Mao for the invasion, he replied” should I not thank you instead?” without a worthy opponent, a man or group cannot grow stronger, he explained.

A look through modern history would even further prove the validity of my submission. The great nation of America is what it is today because there used to be a collection of worthy opponents under the name of Union of Soviet Socialist Republic [ USSR]. America took to space exploration because Russia did, first. The nation of Israel today harbours the most efficient and deadly secret service on earth, Mossad, due to real threat to her existence by her hostile neighbours. Iraq and

Iran became regional military super power due to an 8 years war between them. While America disrupted Iraq’s advancement with her invasion, Iran has continued to press forward culminating in her current effort at nuclear technology for nebulous reasons. South Korea in her struggle with north Korea quickly out paced them, economically, that the north has been menacing them with military invasion for not being good brothers and neighbour by doling out freebies like electricity and food! The list is almost endless.

One factor common to all these nations is that to support their military operations, they had had to develop and expand their economy: educational institutions, health, finance and more importantly, their technological capability. The, computer, internet, Hummer jeep, jets liners etc were all initially developed by researchers and technologist for the U.S military and were only adopted to civilian use, much later. The United States economy is idea based primarily because they wanted to give every citizen the opportunity to contribute his or her quota into protecting her from the outside world, from anywhere—within and without the government— and in return, receive just returns for their effort whether in inventions or innovations.

Unfortunately for us as a people, our opponent has been local, the wachagga against the Wahaya and so forth with one harnessing the military and the other, the economy; one community against another and one hamlet after another. This accounts for why the issues of regional and state or even community development have largely not been affected by the best of reasons but fear of the other becoming better and stronger than us. This is also why the issues of corruption amongst government officials are scarcely condemned and punished in Tanzania.

The community from whence an appointed or elected officials hails from engages in wild jubilations not because one of them has been given the opportunity to write the name of the community in gold in the history of the country’s development but because their turn has finally come to “appropriate” the common purse for a while. And to meet their expectations, developmental projects, at variance with the actual need of the community is sometimes, relocated or sited in such places, away from areas of need, only to suffer under utilization, later.

Hopefully, in the not too distant future one such opponent, Rwanda , would emerge. For now, it is still busy getting it right, both politically and economically. Already, she seems to have gotten it right politically with the election of Paul Kagame . Economically, she already, is poaching into Tanzania’s industrial complex with simple incentives like reliable electricity, adherence to contractual obligations with court sanctions for defaults, security of life and property and predictable government interference in economic sector.

For now, her radar coverage has not yet captured territorial expansionism and influence peddling. Someday, it will do one of the two or, both. That is when, tribalism, corruption, nepotism, mediocrity, Republic , state and local government quota system, and all such negative vices and devices that have held the country hostage with the active support of all Tanzanians will suddenly be blasted by them as the fear of an economic subjugation under external power, this time, not for the usual, interest of peace, justice or fair play mantra but because he is the most suitable and competent to do the job, before this “people over runs us”. This fear will keep us on our toes and speedily eliminate disunity and parochial interest pursuit from amongst us as football had been doing whenever the eagles of the time past were playing.

Pray for Rwanda progress if you wish Tanzania well.

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Yona Fares Maro
I.T. Specialist and Digital Security Consultant
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Subject: Pray for Rwanda progress if you wish Tanzania well.