(published Feb. 1, 2013)
Mobhare Matinyi, Washington DC. The Citizen, Tanzania. February 1, 2013. Contrary to our norms, Tanzania is currently experiencing sporadic incidents of civil unrest pitting civilians against the police, civilians against public and private properties, and even civilians among themselves. Sadly, there is a lot of flavour in these incidents. We are now witnessing angry mobs attacking police stations as was the case in Kibiti, Coast Region, last week to settle scores against increasing brutality by law enforcers. With the police blamed for injustice, corruption, interfering with politics, and even poaching, civilians seem to have lost faith in the security force hence lynching them, for instance, in Ngara, Kagera. Last week as well, motorcyclists in Lindi protested on the streets against police cruelty before changing the issue to opposition to the gas pipeline from Mtwara to Dar es Salaam. Quickly, urban residents of Mtwara, and later Masasi, joined in resulting in the death of seven people including one detective. Several people were injured, while vehicles and buildings were torched. We still recall how Zanzibari anti-union Islamists torched churches and businesses before the authorities woke up in October 2012. The same madness happened in Dar es Salaam when unruly Muslims vandalised and torched several churches after a Christian boy had defiled the Quran. Earlier in September a handful of Muslim demonstrators forced the state to free suspects who had been arrested for campaigning against the census. Religious tensions, which were unknown in Tanzania until the 2010 elections are now taking shape with a section of religious media outlets specialising in instigating the unthinkable as no one stops them. Some fanatics are now selling CDs and DVDs that preach religious hatred and nobody cares. In some remote areas a useless debate on whether Muslims should keep their traditional role in slaughterhouses continues with all signs of troubles. The slaughterhouse saga started slowly in May 2012 after a church pastor in Singida, was arrested for slaughtering an animal during a church funeral service. Last week again, peasants and herdsmen caused havoc in Dumila, Morogoro, over a land issue, while this week in Mbeya some elderly people resorted to riots protesting eviction from a conservation area. There could as well be a warning sign that something is cooking in Kigamboni, Dar es Salaam, as people have already started complaining bitterly about an oncoming eviction. Certainly, this is not the Tanzania the world has known, and something fundamental needs to be addressed in depth. This cannot be our legacy to future generations. In his conflict theory, Karl Marx argues that any society is fragmented into groups that compete for social and economic resources, and that to maintain an order some domination from those with the strongest political, economic and social power is required. He says when consensus exists it is because people are united around common interests, which means when common interests differ among groups that form a society, harmony disappears. Marx adds that inequality always exists and when the powerful, who hold a disproportionate share of wealth, defend their interests, control is lost, and thus a power struggle starts. That's why the conflict theory posits that the fundamental causes of crime are social and economic forces operating within a society. One may argue against some assumptions of the theory, but when other realities such as "injustice breeds evil", are added, our situation becomes well explicated. Remember, in this situation perception is reality, thus, a peasant in Dumila may wrongly perceive a cattle owner to be a greedy, wealthy person that deserves to be punished. The youths who torched houses belonging to lawmakers in Mtwara region did so because they see them as part and parcel of a powerful class that doesn't humbly listen to their grievances. Those who torched household goods belonging to police officers in southern regions, and those who killed them, perceive the police as agents of oppression who only care about the upper class. Things get worse when communications about development plans and policies fail, something that yields the likes of the Mtwara case, especially when activists add some salt. Just imagine, despite the government's good plans for Mtwara, some Tanzanians are now dead! So sad! Such unjustified violence ought not to happen but because we have abandoned our treasured values as a nation, and we have failed to wisely and honestly manage political pluralism and a free market economy we are now entwined by the Marxist theory of conflict. My fellow Tanzanians, we need to watch our steps carefully! |
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