{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Electoral season is on, logic is out the window and idiocy is in the - Comment

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Electoral-season-logic-out-the-window-and-idiocy-driver-seat/-/434750/2783748/-/78xu8d/-/index.html

Electoral season is on, logic is out the window and idiocy is in the

Madder and madder gets the body politic in this country every electoral season; it's been that way for two decades, but this latest escalation looks like it's going to assume dangerous proportions.

People lose their sense of propriety, and the simplest norms governing logic, decorum, fairness or beauty are simply cast aside as people organise themselves into flocks that follow whomever (or whatever) their whims have dictated to them without expending an iota of thought.

I'll give an illustration from a real experience from exactly 10 years ago today, when we had a situation similar to the one we have today. There was much euphoria around one of the candidates (who eventually won), and it looked like the whole of the country was going to vote as one man.

There was this talk of this particular candidate being the only choice for Tanzania — a Roman Catholic even dubbed him God's own choice; that there was no possibility of having any other person, and that if his party did not pick him, his supporters would "offer" him to another party, and that latter would win.

When I asked one of his noisier supporters why she was so enamoured of this candidate, she looked me in the eye, seemed lost for a bit, before replying, "Honestly, I don't know, but I like him like hell."

Exactly 20 years ago today, the same madness was with us. A man I knew to be a dangerous demagogue, but who had a way of romancing crowds, took the country by storm promising to end corruption and usher in an age of plenty for all. For me personally, this candidate (who eventually lost) was seriously challenged intellectually, mentally and morally.

And yet university professors swore by his name, and women swooned at his very appearance. Crowds would follow him everywhere, and would insist on pushing his car rather than let the principle of internal combustion do its job. It was an honour to break their backs for him.

I tried to ask one of these benighted dons why he supported this pied piper; hadn't he read the history of Adolf Hitler, the fascist who came to power through the ballot box? His reply was, believe it or not, "Maybe it's a Hitler we need at this juncture."

If that kind of unthinking can be found in such quarters, I leave you to imagine what it would be like in the general populace, especially with the dwindling of educational standards. Professor Chachage's "collective imbecilisation" has taken firm hold of our people, and idiocy is in the driver's seat.

I was wondering whether it was this kind of affliction that allowed a former president to state recently that retired leaders should shut up when it comes to the politicking going on. Apparently he failed to realise that by saying just what he was saying, he was failing miserably to follow his own advice.

And what about candidates who are serving ministers in Jakaya Kikwete's government, who promise to eradicate the "rampant corruption" in government if they are elected? As if to acknowledge that their government is so thoroughly corrupted that the only person able to clean it up is the president, and the current one is doing a lousy job of it.

I don't suppose that it is a very comfortable feeling for any incumbent head of government to hear his own ministers insinuating that they and he have been running a hopelessly corrupt outfit. That is usually the preserve of the usual suspects, in the media and the wrong side of parliament.

The overall picture emerging is that of business as usual except for the singular rise in the number of aspirants. It will keep growing in the coming years, until the opposition wins — a dim prospect for the time being — because the time warp informing all these aspirants is that whoever gets the party ticket walks straight through the gates of Ikulu.

However, if the opposition get their act together and forge some kind of a working coalition, they may perhaps prove that "it ain't necessarily so."

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

Electoral season is on, logic is out the window and idiocy is in the - Comment
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Electoral-season-logic-out-the-window-and-idiocy-driver-seat/-/434750/2783748/-/78xu8d/-/index.html‎

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