A certain amount of forcing could be noticed in some leading newspapers presenting the new CCM central committee line up, saying party chairnan and Union president Jakaya Kikwete says this is a 'winning line up.' Winning in that context would imply preparations for 2015, whereas this is the one thing that the president energetically steered clear from embodying in his nominations for the central committee. It is also evident that the voting in NEC would not be blind, as there is plenty of canvassing that goes on in a structured manner, to assist his work.
Introducing his list and somewhat providing a blanket explanation for the specific nominations, the president pointed at their "undisputed professionalism and experience," which is slightly odd for the central committee.
It made the issue take an air of someone selecting the cabinet of ministers, where there is scarcely any doubt that "undisputed professionalism and experience" are vital qualifications for anyone to feature in the list. When it comes to the central committee there are vastly different considerations as the work to be done is entirely different, in effect.
There was blanket attention and making of hay out of each step that is being heard in higher political echelons, first in reconstituting parliamentary committees and now in the more serious business of drawing up the party central committee.
The point being doggedly pursued is who gains or loses in the run to 2015 on the basis of extending of influence or losing it in the wake of various initiatives, including results of NEC polls last year, and the more recent steps. This focus knows little of the specific complexitty and 'modus operandi' of how the state and CCM operate.
One thing that the president pointed out in unveiling the new central committee helps to grasp some of the problems involved in figuring out strategies of whom to select into the central committee, though rather distantly.
He said that nomination to the central committee wasn't about "enriching your CVs but making sure that the party remains strong," which evidently begs questions. In what manner is the idea that one enriches the CV by membership of the central committee at odds with helping the party to remain strong? If not, what distinction could thus exist?
To illustrate the problem, enriching one's CV can be said to constitute a situation of "business as usual," that what one is doing as part of some particular political body, for instance Parliament, is consonant with being CC member. As a matter of fact that it true for the National Executive Committee (NEC) which is often an alter ego of parliamentary work, the party parliament as it were. There is less of a distinctively different ethic when one becomes NEC member as different from his or her sitting in Parliament; this failure to distinguishing the two led to problems.
Hence the proper background to nominating the current central committee and to an extent the secretariat that emerged after the NEC elections is the sort of issues that were being considered by the central committee up to that point. A major item now rather forgotten was a suggestion, perhaps a firm decision to that effect, that MPs should no longer be members of NEC.
The proposed change seemed to have arisen from regional party chairmen and secretaries, along with the secretariat, but leaving out in the cold leagues of MPs seeking to 'enrich their CVs' by NEC polls. One reason why this step was deemed necessary was 'the fight against corruption' during the parliamentary stewardship of senior minister Samuel Sitta, who has a few key allies in the secretariat like Nape Nnauye.
At some points NEC meetings started looking like parliamentary debates without the usual decorum or specific motion at hand, giving the president a distinctively uncomfortable environment. The question is that Parliament has firmer rules of procedure as it is based on an ethic of confrontation and voting, while NEC needs moral solidarity, togetherness.
Removing MPs from the NEC would thus ensure that the party sentiment that is cultivated in the grassroots and which is visible in all levels of the secretariat is maintained in NEC, instead of being misused by MPs.
They seek membership in NEC to 'enrich their CVs' in order to make them even stronger in seeking a new mandate in the next general elections, and often at the expense of cohesion and a sense of purpose in the party. When the leagues of anti-corruption fighters descend on the government, is that not a sure way of shoving voters to opposition parties?
On account of the general lethargy in the anti-graft campaign following the shame about Richmond/Dowans, refusing to buy the system and seeing it purchased by some clever Americans, the heat in NEC diminished. This facilitated a peaceful environment and a rescinding of the axe on MPs sitting in NEC, now that it was clear they would 'behave.' Meetings are no longer as disruptive as they were earlier.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
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