TANZANIA—I Independent African State With Record Of Stability

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 5

TANZANIA—I Independent African State With Record Of Stability

(Specially written for “The Press” by D. C. CLOSE) Surprise that a New Zealander can enjoy living and working in an independent African country seems widespread in this country. The reason for the surprise is obvious: most New Zealanders have the impression that Africa is a very troubled continent where the combination of political instability, administrative incompetence and anti-Western feeling makes life almost intolerable for Europeans.

Africa’s problems are indeed immense, but I can say from experience that I believe my countrymen’s impression is largely false, especially of Tanzania. Tanzania, larger and poorer than its two neighbours in East Africa, Kenya and Uganda, became fully independent in 1961. Early in 1964 an army mutiny, which was accompanied by the looting of shops in Dar-es-Salaam, was quickly suppressed by a small detachment of British troops, the total death toll being about six. Last year two former Cabinet Ministers voluntarily went into exile, and two minor politicians were detained for attempting to tamper with the loyalty of the armed forces. Neither the events of 1967, which are scarcely worth mentioning, nor the more serious disturbances of 1964, had any popular backing and have not affected the long-term stability of the country. Tanzania’s record, then, though not unblemished, belies the suggestion, quite frequentlymade, that every independent African state is a Congo. Outstanding Figure The President, Dr Julius Nyerere, who led the country into independence, remains the outstanding figure in the Government. He commands universal respect and affection and is usually referred to by his semi-official nickname “Mwalimu” (teacher), which refers not only to the profession he followed before he entered politics, but also to his wise guidance of the nation. His Cabinet, though shuffled a few times and infused with new blood, has not changed radically. People in the West have understandably been suspicious of the transformation of Tanzania into a one-party state, since we have always associated such a system with easci sm or communism. However, in Tanzania no opposition parties were suppressed because virtually none existed; the Government’s claim that the official establishment of a oneparty system was merely seting the seal of the law on an existing fact is valid. The arguments for a oneparty state are very strong. Is it wise for a young country to dissipate its scanty resources in inter-party feuds? Is it not reasonable to debate policy

within the party, avoid regional or tribal groupings, present a united front to the country, and put all energies into the development of the nation? Furthermore, by giving the party an official status, the Government has created an instrument for explaining its policies and executing its plans at the grass-roots level. Theory And Practice As with all political systems, of course, the theory is rather better than the practice. At times there is an apparent conflict between the duties of Parliament and party, and the official answer, that no conflict is possible because T.A.N.U. (the party) and the Government are one, merely begs the question. To whom does a member of Parliament owe his first loyalty, to T.A.N.U. or to his constituents? Open criticism of the Government is far less common and far more restrained than it is in New Zealand, and the reason for this seems to be that, though the President has stated on a number of occasions that he does not confuse criticism with disloyalty, some of his followers probably do Regrettably, members of Parliament do not debate major policies and plans of the party and the Government, but they are most outspoken in their criticism of short-comings in government departments, and by their constant questioning of Cabinet Ministers, help to ensure the progress of projects within their own constituencies. The first elections after the establishment of the one-party system took place in September, 1965. In each constituency there were two candidates, both T.A.N.U. members, selected by the national executive of T.A.N.U. from a short list submitted by the local branch. A joint campaign was arranged for the ■ two candidates, who each spoke for the same length of time at the same meetings under an independent chairman. The electors clearly demonstrated their will: two ■ Cabinet Ministers, six Junior - Ministers (parliamentary ! under-secretaries), and numi erous sitting members were defeated. The results convincingly disproved the overseas ■ belief that democracy and a one-party system were incompatible. There are other encourag- : ing features of the Governi ment The President himself and the members of his Cabinet constantly tour the country in meet-the-people cam-

paigns, which are generally eschewed by New Zealand politicians except in the weeks immediately before an election. Their object is to explain Government policy and to maintain contact with ordinary people. It is quite common for two-thirds of their time at public meetings to be spent in answering questions from the floor. At one such meeting held shortly after the banks and major industries had been na-

tionalised, a questioner suggested that the combination of public ownership and the oneparty system was making Tanzania a Communist state. The speaker replied that Communists did not believe in God, but Tanzanians did and were free to worship as they pleased, and that therefore Tanzania could never become a Communist state. The reply was a gross over-simplification but did emphasise the aspect of personal freedom; there is no attempt to produce a country of conformists, and development targets are to be reached through the voluntary cooperation of citizens, not through their regimentation. The much-proclaimed policy of self-reliance is not a rejection of foreign assistance but the recognition that the main responsibility for developing their own country rests on Tanzanians themselves. “Selfreliance,” however, does reject aid which expects repayment in the form of support in international politics. “Better poor and free,” said Nyerere, “than merely wealthy slaves.” As a non-aligned country, Tanzania receives aid from East as well as West, but as Nyerere has repeatedly said, the establishment of relations with Communist countries does not indicate prospective entry into the Communist bloc but simply corrects the imbalance of the colonial past when the country had contact only with the West. China has built a huge cotton mill and promised to build the new railway to Zambia; she has become Tanzania’s chief customer for raw cotton, and Chinese light manufactured goods, often available for a

fraction of the British equivalent, are to found in many shops. Lapel badges of Mao Tse-tung’s profile were commonly worn by school pupils (just for fun) until the Government banned them a few months ago. Schoolboys continue to write away for free copies of “Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung,” but “Time,” on sale throughout the country, seems to do a more effective job for the Americans than Mao does for the Chinese China, of course, having developed tremendously with very little foreign assistance, commands the respect of Tanzania, which is also trying to be self-reliant. Chinese or Communist ideas, where they are applicable to Tanzania, may be followed, but the Communist “menace” in Tanzania and elsewhere is largely an insubstantial bogyman of sections of the Western press. If we exclude Zanzibar, where there are admittedly large numbers of East Europeans, and, I understand, some Chinese, we would probably find that teachers and technical experts from the West outnumber those from the East at least twenty to one. Economic Situation Falling prices for sisal, cotton and coffee, Tanzania’s main exports, have been discouraging during a period when the Government had hoped for a big increase in production to assist in the country’s over-all development. Great expansion of educational and medical facilities has taken place since independence: dispensaries in country areas have multiplied, the numbers entering both primary and secondary school have doubled, and those entering university have increased several times over. Yet In many areas the income of the peasant farmers, who form the bulk of the population, has not risen appreciably, the result, very obviously, of depressed prices on the world markets. We in New Zealand, conscious of the effect on our economy of the fall in the wool price, should have every sympathy for countries like Tanzania whose plight, so much worse than ours, stems not from over-heating of the economy, but from stagnation, which could, I fear, prove to be the most serious long-term threat to political stability. (To be concluded )

Mr Close is a former Christchurch schoolteacher who has taught for two years and a half at a boys’ school in Tanzania. He is at present on leave and expects to return to Tanzania for a further three years.