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MKAPA CONCENTRATES ON ECONOMIC ISSUES AT ARUSHA RALLY
Updated: Monday, 23 October 2000 ARUSHA, Tanzania-Oct. 22 - Before a roaring, hyped-up crowd of some 30,000-35,000 yellow-and-green clad supporters, President Benjamin Mkapa opened the last week of his campaign concentrating on the improved economy, a better future and the incompetence of the opposition to even think of governing the more than 32 million citizens of the United Republic of Tanzania. Under a broiling sun, crowds of people jammed the Sheik Amri Abeid Stadium in this northern gateway city to some of Tanzania's best-known game parks. All the hoopla of Sunday afternoon off, brought bands, dancers, singers and even a comedian to hear the leader of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) defend his record and paint a glowing future for Tanzania, once one of the poorest countries in Africa. The top leadership of CCM in the region were there along with several MPs and cabinet ministers hoping to ride to victory on the president's coattails. Highly partisan, but good-natured, the crowd responded enthusiastically to the portly, balding man who is seeking his second, and last, term as president in Tanzania's second multi-party elections to be held Oct. 29. Mkapa, in turn, gave the audience a string of facts and figures to prove that the last five years have laid a strong economic foundation for the next five. He intermingled his serious message with good humour, while castigating the 12 opposition parties for their accusation that he was selling the country to foreign investors "even though they do claim to have economists with doctorates in their membership." "We still have an economy with needs much greater than our income so if we expect investors to come here we have to do something about paying some of our own way. And that means taxes. So we set out to try and collect taxes in an organized way. In 1995, we collected about 22 billion Tanzanian Shillings-a-month. Now we collect 60 billion."(US$1 = about 800 shillings) That money, Mkapa said went to schools, hospitals, roads and running a government. "The difference between us and the opposition is that they promise to improve development without spending money. Our (CCM's) theme is to build our own capacity on our own, using our own brain-power to solve our problems." This economic attitude has restored confidence in bilateral donors as well as domestic and foreign investors. He claims to have built 299 new primary schools, still a deficit, developed 416 water schemes in drought-prone country, built up the crumbling health systems, improved Tanzania's notoriously pot-holed roads, upgraded the often-faltering, telephone system and brought in much-needed technology. "All that takes time and money and, even after finishing our projects we need to make them sustainable. For example look at our parastatals. Almost all of them were in deficit, they had to be propped up by government, they were badly managed and used outmoded technology. So we began a privatization programme where we sold the whole enterprise or sold shares in it to the private sector." Now two thirds of the country's parastatals are under some form of privatization. Mkapa was not shy about taking the credit for many of these radical reforms. "We have made the private sector our highest priority by changing the investment policies for local and foreign investors." Citing gold mining, breweries and small business as examples, the president claimed 714 new projects had been started since he was elected in 1995 creating more than 100,000 new jobs. "The donors had stopped helping us but after our reforms began to work, I went back to them and said 'give us another chance' and they did and we have got 400 billion shillings in new investment." And the facts seem to support him: South Africa is in the brewing business in a big way, also in real estate and tourism; Canada is heavily involved in mining; Britain in banking; Germans in telecommunications, Japan in cigarettes and more is to come. Of interest to Arusha is the 600,000 tourists-a-year, now ahead of Kenya and Zimbabwe as favoured destinations in Africa. What Mkapa didn't tell his audience, which the opposition does, is that more than half the population (18 million) live below the poverty line and of these 12.5 million live in abject poverty. But here at Arusha he argued persuasively for more external help as well as the reform economic policies the CCM government is following. Tanzania became eligible this year under Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative which, while writing off its massive debts, will still leave the country short of resources to tackle poverty, disease and unemployment, although the latter is shrinking slightly and GDP is projected at five percent this year. In the stadium, Mkapa scoffed at the lack of opposition economic policy. "Print money. Don't pay your debts and live off the largesse of donors. A fool's paradise," he said. Mkapa also dealt with his country' endemic corruption, admitting it is far from solved, despite a number of arrests of senior officials by the anti-corruption commission "including two bigwigs here in Arusha and many others in other regions." "The opposition said I was so bent on foreign investment that I would sell Lake Victoria, he quipped, "but that's not true. However I have negotiated a better fishing deal for those who work in that important industry." It was, in many ways, a set speech but the crowds loved it and are delighted to hear their country praised by one of their own as less than the basket-case foreign donors and investors once characterized it as. At the end of the long, hot afternoon, the President provided the lastlaugh on the badly divided and fractious opposition, without ever oncenaming them, introduced the candidates from the region and turned to leave the tiny platform. As he got to the bottom of the steps, an aide whispered to him. He clapped his hands over his bald pate, bounded back up the steps shaking his head in embarrassment and laughter at the same time. It took a while to stop the bands, but he got back on air. "I've spent all afternoon telling you why you should support CCM and the party's candidates and all the wonderful things we've done." Shaking his head ruefully, "but I forgot to ask you to support me for the presidency. Please." The crowd roared. Maybe that's the man's success. Competent, human and with a sense of humour that can laugh at himself. No pretensions here. (SARDC) This article can be reproduced with credit to SARDC and the author Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) P O Box 5690, Harare Zimbabwe Tel: (2634) 738694-6 Fax: 738693 Email: sardc@sardc.net Website: www.sardc.net/sd/elections2000 |
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