The Chant of Savant

Saturday 26 October 2013

WHEN CHAFF BECOMES WHEAT AND VICE VERSA

I’m not trying to chaff our system especially when I talk about its hotchpotch stuff known as policy. Yet again, I can confidently say that we've become a bushel of scientists in bad light though. When I look at how a bunch of people get away with corruption, I must admit. I hate our system. Our hunk is artificially peaceable and truly stone. Again, does peace mean absence of war or something?  Peace without justice is as good as sheepish tranquility. Sheep are not happy with their shepherd especially when they know that he eats them. They’re calm just because it is their fate. As beasts, they’re not capable of taking on their shepherd. What of human being endowed with big cranium and consciousness? To be treated like beasts for human makes them smaller even than beasts themselves.
The other day Mr. President told said that he’d the lists of drug dealers, robbers, bribe takers and almost all criminal wrongdoers in the hunk. If my mind serves me rightly, it was 2006. After declaring his namby pamby victory over wrongdoers, many erred thinking that he’d nary shilly shally. Instead, he’d soon descend on these criminal wrongdoers. To test his resolve, in 2008 it came to light that one of his consigliore, Eddie Lowassa’s water tightly implicated in Richmond Scam. Tongues started wagging saying that Mr. President would axe his friend. Nope! He didn’t. When the parliament noticed Mr. President’s reluctance, under Mr. Standards, Samuel Sitta, the parliament decided to reign by forming what’s known as Mwakyembe Commission which edged Lowassa out after handing him the noose to weigh things and decide. He truly weighed the situation and opted to ease himself out. The dent, big one, had already been done.
After Lowassa, willingly and knowingly, decided to vacate the office due to being tightly implicated in the scam, many thought he’d be charged. For, if anything, in law, Lowassa’s decision was self-inculpatory and it’s as good as an admission that he committed the alleged crime. Nobody knows the logic for not prosecuting Lowassa after obtaining such self-inculpatory evidence. Shockingly, after Lowassa was seen off, he bounced back becoming a chair of a very powerful Parliamentary Committee for Defense, Security and Foreign Affairs! He also lampooned detractors who egged prezo to deal with him that their network was not formed at the roadside.  What on earth should God give him! The fish was returned into the pond after missing it for a stint.

What’s telling is that Lowassa’s not alone in this game of deceit. Andrew Chenge, former Minister and former Attorney General, was implicated in Radar Scandal by British Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Interestingly, Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) shamelessly did exonerate him. This brought PCCB in disrepute. Again, things were massaged and the public easily forgot. Also, it came to light that he received some kickbacks at the tune of one million dollars. To add salt to injuries, it came to light that he stashed the same money in Jersey Island. When he’s confronted to shed light on the allegations, he didn't deny. Instead, he comfortably said that a million dollar was but peanuts!  Those who believed in the words of Mr. President that he’d no excuse with corruption, goofed again thinking he’d keep tabs on Chenge. Nope! He didn't  Instead, just like Lowassa, Chenge bounced back also becoming the chair of parliamentary Committee of Finance and Economy.
Yeah! This is the science of turning chaff into wheat. After MPs realized how Chenge manned their economy to end up milking the hunk a million dollar, they awarded him the position that would enable him to mint even more dosh. Were they drunk when they elected him? Who knows? Maybe they wanted to discourage boozers from pointing fingers at sacred cows. Again, if this is the way they do their things, who’ll put the jinnie back into the bottle? While boozers are grappling with this, prezo is oblivious of it for the sake of friendship and partnership.
No wonder. Bongo is always full of surprises and everything is hunky-dory. While Lowassa and Chenge got away with it, one Fredrick Tluway Sumaye with the record serving longer than anybody in the hunk wasn't that lucky. After retiring without his heart retiring, he tried a hand on representing Hanang District in Party’s National Executive Council (NEC). He’s trounced miserably by his protegee Mary Nagu.  Up until here, Sumaye noticed that the science of turning chaff to wheat was at work. He openly alleged that the network of corruption bought votes and as such he lost. Bongo's mind-boggling politics are always funny. Who'd believe that the then rookie  Kikwete’d be preferred for presidency to doyens like Joseph Warioba, John Malecela and Salim Ahmed Salim to name but a few? Despite being rejected by the father of the nation Mwl Nyerere, Kikwete miraculously trounced those bigwigs something many regret and wonder about. What indeed helped Kikwete is nothing but the science of turning any competitor a fair game for dirty campaigns conducted by journo for hire.  Does our “Science of fiction emancipate us? My foot, what a déjà vu if not potpourri sort of policies and politics!
For today that is it, nothing in the lockerroom.  Latin sage had it, “Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit, occidentis telum est (A sword is never a killer, it's a tool in the killer's hands).
Source: Business Times Oct., 26, 2013.

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