{UAH} Against the stupidity of govts, the gods themselves contend in vain - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Against-stupidity-of-governments-the-gods-contend-in-vain-/-/434750/2047806/-/4jgnkaz/-/index.html

Against the stupidity of govts, the gods themselves contend in vain - Comment

I have long held the view that governments are not put in place to think. No, they are constituted to prop us the edifice of state by enforcing what they term "law and order," an omnibus phrase that in practice means not to let the people be.

In the application of the "force" embedded in "enforcement" of law and order, government types are capable of the most egregious atrocities, though sometimes they can dabble in a little comedy without intending to be entertaining.

In my view, when a government looks like it's been thinking it is usually as a result of an accident, or a flash of inspiration suffered by a powerful individual in the system.

The one my attention focuses on this week would be firmly in the latter category, and it is about the right of a farmer to dispose of his/her produce the best way they think.

Now, you would normally say that is a no-brainer because, well, if the produce is theirs, who else should tell them what to do with it? But that is precisely the point.

For as long as I care to remember, the government here has been admonishing farmers not to sell rice, beans, sorghum, millet, cattle, goats, chickens and all manner of other agricultural produce to buyers across the border because, farmers are reminded, the nation needs that food.

To buttress such admonitions, checkpoints have come up along all the international frontiers with the sole purpose of "catching" those who infringe this government stricture, and those caught have been made to rue their treasonable actions.

Now, recently, President Jakaya Kikwete was visited by that flash of inspiration I referred to above, and he gave directions to local bureaucrats in one region to let the farmers enjoy the fruits of their labour by selling to whomsoever they please.

This, he said, will help them improve their incomes instead of enriching the ticks who man those border checkpoints.

Indeed, where such strictures fly in the face of sound economic sense and the people incline toward disobedience, it is the corrupt official at the border who gets the rich pickings by conniving with the combatant farmer who refuses to be stupid.

So, if all this is as easy as abc, why have we had all these stupid orders all this long? Search me, really, but I tend to think it's the result of what I alluded to in the opening of this piece. When the aggregate sense of those in government is pitted against the collective nonsense within it, the resultant thinking produced thereby can be meagre indeed.

That meagreness is further exacerbated by the reluctance of many officials, high and low, to step out of line — which can be career threatening —making them easy victims of debilitating groupthink and the herd mentality.

Consider this. In some parts of the country, every time there is a hint of maize shortage, an order is trotted out banning the roasting of maize, because, these petty officials figure, maize roasting depletes food reserves.

Look, a worker breaks for lunch and has an hour or so before the factory sirens summon him back. During that hour he needs to replenish his energies and maybe catch forty winks to prepare him for the dreary labour he has to go back to. So he goes to the unstructured labourer roasting maize, grabs a steaming hot cob, supplements it with a mshikaki of beef and a glass of watery juice. Just what is wrong with that?

A lot, apparently, because in these instances someone in government has long stopped believing — or maybe they never thought — that such fare amounts to a meal. A meal is made up of ugali or rice, or maybe potatoes, and all these have to be cooked, understand? No roasting please, we are Tanzanian.

How many times, how long and in how many areas will such silly things require the inspiration of a president to set them right, and that without the logic of policy and the force of law to prop them up?

Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: ulimwengu@jenerali.com

Against the stupidity of govts, the gods themselves contend in vain - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Against-stupidity-of-governments-the-gods-contend-in-vain-/-/434750/2047806/-/4jgnkaz/-/index.html