By Harold Hans, WASHINGTON
YET again, the Western media, having
destroyed unity and harmony in some of their countries, have continued with the
mudslinging campaign against some African countries especially the aggressive
government of Tanzania.
The false news machine is back on
track. I have just discovered President Trump is right in demanding
accountability in the US media. As an intern who worked in the Zanzibar side of
Tanzania for 2 years in the past I felt bad to read the latest round of such falsehoods
coming from a Washington Post article titled; “Why is once-peaceful Tanzania
detaining journalists, arresting schoolgirls and killing opposition leaders?”
authored by one Rachael McLellan.
As someone who witnessed how Tanzanians
continue to enjoy improved social well being including free primary and
secondary education, access to improved health services, increased revenue
collections and better pay to farmers for their produce, I wonder what has
fallen to the journalism standards of the western media today?
It has been a trend time and again for
the western media to write only fabricated negative stories from Africa;
totally shying away from positive issues or rather fact-check; realities on the
ground, sorting out on what is not right for the nation and which are in the
interests of the people.
Why all this slander campaign at this
time? The answer is simple; foreign players in the business world abroad, and
particularly, United States and Europe, have been badly hurt by daring reforms
by the Tanzanian reform president Dr. John Pombe Magufuli aimed at curbing
plundering of the country’s resources.
It is with no doubt that the previously
sponsors and plunderers of the country’s immense resources namely minerals,
forestry products, marine resources, among others, not to mention a litany of
shoddy contracts from multinationals, are quite ill-fated with the reforms
which are aimed at sealing the loopholes.
The former pillagers and their
collaborators are thus turning to the media in their countries to paint a
negative picture of Tanzania to their audience and somewhat to influence
cutting of financial aid from their home countries, which as a matter of fact,
is on the decline as the country strives for self-reliance.
In
the recent article by Rachael McLellan, who claims to be a PhD Candidate at
Princeton University researching opposition parties and decentralization in
Tanzania, the unconcealed fabrication of facts is obvious.
The author, apparent ignorant of
immigration laws in Tanzania or acting on malice, cites the recent detention of
two members of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) who
were briefly held by immigration officials for breaching the immigration laws
and regulations. I was once detained in France on a visa issue. Its normal and
once sorted one is free.
The media reported clearly that the two
media activists entered Tanzania on a holiday visa but instead ventured into
media advocacy and holding meetings with local politicians, admitted of their
wrongdoing and were immediately freed. How can a Princeton PhD miss this simple
truth.
For a respected newspaper like the
Washington Post, it should have known of the facts and report accordingly but
because of the seemingly hidden agenda, it went on and published the lies,
ostensibly to please those behind the campaign.
The author continues to claim that
pregnant girls have been expelled from schools. Had she conducted a fair and
balanced research she would understand that Tanzania has in place special
arrangement for girls who conceive while studying and no one is expelled.
Morally
what the nation is against is allowing a class of teens to be crippled by half
of them being mothers. Can the PhD columnist measure the psychological mess in
such a class? I understand that the government position is explicit in that after
delivering, the girls are allowed to continue with their studies under a
different formal arrangement whilst the men found to have impregnated them are
subjected to stern jail terms of up to 30 years in prison.
Then again, the so called PhD
candidates comes up with “the human rights” issue for Lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and intersexual (LGBTI), she was seemingly happy in her article
that some donours have withdrawn aid due to the government of Tanzania’s stance
on homosexuals. The scholar missed it big time-human rights are not universal,
culture, norms and diversity must be accepted; even the EU court had ruled-homosexual
is not a human right.
It is true that some European countries
had threatened to cut aids after the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner, Mr
Paul Makonda, had ordered a clampdown on gay people. The
order was immediately disowned by the Tanzania’s Foreign Minister, Dr Augustine
Mahiga, based on procedural issues but the Government of President Magufuli
maintains its stance against homosexuality.
Same sex relationship is a crime in
Tanzania and perpetrators may face up to 30 years in jail, according to the
Sexual Offences Special Provision Act (1998) and the Penal Code.
What is more, not only in Tanzania but
LGBTI rights have been challenged in a number of African countries, including
Mauritania, Sudan, Somalia and parts of Nigeria. Worldwide, more than 80
countries have penalized it worldwide and even in some US boroughs and cities
it is contested.
The biased author and her editors
allege further that Tanzania has been ruled by the same party, Chama Cha
Mapinduzi (CCM) since independence from the British colonialist in 1961 but “it
has never been a democratic.”
McLellan
should understand better unlike many countries in Africa and beyond, Tanzania
remains among a handful of countries where the mantle of leadership (read
presidency) are handed over peaceful after General Elections where electorates
vote for leaders of their choice.
Since re-introduction of multiparty
politics in Tanzania in 1992, the country has held General Elections in 1995,
2000, 2005 and 2015 and never has any country in the west pointed a finger at
the polls for not being fair or credible, one would wonder where the author
picks her ill-intended inventions. Opposition MPs are also increasingly
elected. It looks like the PhD holder has a new definition of democracy; it is
not democratic when and until opposition parties win presidential seat! What a
pity for a PhD holder.
The author falsely claims further that
since President Magufuli was elected in 2015, opposition politicians have been
arrested, harassed and beaten while regime critics — journalists, business
executives, opposition politicians, student leaders — have been kidnapped. He
is a liar.
For a candidate pursuing a PhD, she
should have provided some tangible evidence to support her claims. Instead she
just writes with malice to satisfy the sponsors of the mudsling campaign. Yes,
I’m reading some MPs being prosecuted for violating national laws. These have
included ruling party, CCM, MPs who were once prosecuted for allegation of
bribery.
Putting all matters in perspective, it
is noticeable that President Magufuli’s unwavering reforms aimed at boosting
socio-economic welfare of the people are shaking the hitherto plunderers of
Tanzania’s resources and rather wrongly are turning their guns at a determined
and unshakable leader.
I thought, as a concerned western
citizen I should play my civil rights role by denouncing our own sponsored fake
news. It is very bad. The Washington Post should at least have exercised accountability,
seriously so, but in vain. I encourage President Magufuli to stick to his
reform agenda.
Ends
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