{UAH} Pojim/WBK: CCM think they are punishing Hubris, but their own Nemesis could be - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/CCM-presidential-candidate-nomination/-/434750/2798040/-/olckxsz/-/index.html

CCM think they are punishing Hubris, but their own Nemesis could be

In our mundane undertakings and daily toils, we sometimes encounter phenomena that remind us of things we had otherwise pushed to the back of our minds, such as stories we read a long time ago but have since stored in hitherto inaccessible chambers. Until now.

Such is the unforgiving wrath to be found in Greek tragedies and the doubtful morality of the gods whose will cannot be resisted by mere mortals.

Such, also, are the arbitrary applications of the tenets of poetic justice to one who sins without knowing but is considered evil and punishable by the immutable rules of Hubris and Nemesis.

Hubris, simply put, denotes foolish pride, conceit, arrogance, vanity, extreme self-confidence etc. It usually accompanies great wealth, physical strength and beauty. Or political power. When these attributes are combined in an individual, they could destroy him completely through the opposing device of Nemesis.

For its part, Nemesis is the power to punish those traits found in Hubris, such as conceit, vanity or, even, good fortune that smiles on someone who is clearly undeserving. In their own strange ways, the Greek gods sought to balance the books at the end of the day by serving as equalisers in unequal relations between good and bad.

Often they were illogical such as, as I said above, when they punished those who did not know — nay, could not have known — they were sinning.

For instance, Oedipus killed his father and married his mother unwittingly, as the gods had ordained, but the same gods punished him and his lineage for such impudence. This illogic of the gods was no doubt adopted by our Middle Eastern faiths, conveyed via Mediterranean intercourse.

You may not believe it, but I'm right now talking about the Tanzania electoral processes, especially the internal primaries within the ruling party.

The party structures require aspirants to produce a certain number of endorsements; in this instance, for the presidential aspirants, the requisite number was four-hundred-and-fifty.

When the leading aspirant, the man who was said to be unbeatable, produced some eight-hundred-thousand names, the signature inflation was seen as arrogance. When his supporters started wearing and posting on e-media emblems of the aspirant under a "Friends of" label, it was adjudged to be too self-assured.

When big names, young and old, from around the country were trotted out and made to declare for the man, the structures found this to be driven by high levels of conceit. When talk started spreading that those who were showing this unprecedented support had been given tonnes of money and promised this and that post, this and that business, a picture of Hubris was complete.

Nemesis was hard, swift and final. The structures refused to put his name through the constitutional organs, eliminating him on account of corruption.

When a few protesters within those councils dared to jeer the party's chairman, they were admonished by retired grandees, even as the process was being hurried along the way, and by the end of the night a relatively simple man was thrust into the powerful position of being the torch-bearer of the ruling party.

It is clear to all that the party's constitution has been flouted, but who says this party has ever been a rules-based entity? It all depends on who is being done in, at what time, at whose behest and to whose advantage.

Those who raise their voices against those malpractices fail miserably to veil the political interests they are speaking on behalf of. For instance, they decry the injustice meted out to only one candidate when those who were denied unfairly number at least 30. In their way of seeing, it's as if these others didn't matter except their man.

But will the ruling party ever learn? I doubt it. Having shorn itself of any ideology or principle, it's a rudderless organisation in a state of drift, riding one wave at a time, without a clue as to the one that will eventually blow it away, and on to the rocks.

When that happens, Nemesis will have taken care of all the children of Hubris in that tired, very tired organisation.

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

CCM think they are punishing Hubris, but their own Nemesis could be - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/CCM-presidential-candidate-nomination/-/434750/2798040/-/olckxsz/-/index.html

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