Africa-Press – Tanzania. IN the year 2021, one of the milestone achievements that the country recorded was the move by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to bring on board all Tanzanians regardless of their political affiliations.
Since she took over Tanzania’s top office on March 19th this year, President Samia has been making a number of efforts to put the country in harmony, peace and unity for the interest of national development.
In particular, this is evidenced by the president’s actions in fulfilling her promises to have an inclusive government, where all Tanzanians, whether one is in the opposition party (ies) is taking part in bold decisions in the country.
When addressing the National Assembly for the first time in April 2021 after taking power, President Samia expressed her commitment to take initiatives to bridge the gap between the government and opposition parties and defend democracy and fundamental freedoms. She also promised to make appointments at various government posts, including sourcing competent leaders not only from the ruling party-CCM, but also from the opposition parties. Such a promise that was considered as a dream became true in one of her recent new appointments, when she walked her talks by appointing Ms Queen Sendiga as the Regional Commissioners for Iringa Region, taking over from Ally Hapi, who was transferred to Mara region.
In politics, Queen was a member of CCM until 2014, when she decided to shift and join the Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC)-one of the opposition parties in Tanzania.
In the 2015 Gen- eral Election, she contested for Kawe Constituency Parliamentary seat through ADC party, but lost.
Queen, who is the ADC’s National Deputy Secretary General could not give up as in the 2020 General Election race was elected by her party to run for the presi- dency in Tanzania, being one of two women including Ms Cecilia Mwanga of Demokrasia Makini to vie for the post through opposition parties.
Furthermore, in defending in- dependence and democracy, the president also pledged to meet and hold talks with opposition leaders to see how best they could conduct their political activities for the benefit of our country.
“Democracy, individual freedom and freedom of the press are important to foster develop- ment and peace. For the interest of protecting democracy, I intend to meet with all political party leaders to discuss how they can best conduct their political activities for the benefit of our country,” pointed out the President.
In fact, she did the same as just two weeks ago, the Head of State met with the members of the council of political parties in Dodoma, where she seized the platform to emphasize on responsible and clean politics, saying politicians should avoid issuing inflammatory remarks likely to derail peoples’ development.
She also opened the door for political consensus, imploring politicians to refrain from politics of chaos, riot and sedition, expressing the government’s readiness to allow politicians exhibit politician’s maturity by refraining from vulgar politics that could create instability and disrupt national development.
Moreover, the president directed the police force to meet with all registered political parties and other stakeholders to discuss and agree on the best ways to conduct the rallies without violating the country’s laws, rules and regulations.
The meeting, organised by the office of the Registrar of Political Parties in collaboration with the Political Parties’ Council, was attended by democracy stakeholders, council members, non-council member-political parties, clerics, government and non-governmental institutions, without contravening the legislation.
The president said that she was ready to lift the ban on political rallies provided that all parties would agree to maintain the coun- try’s peace, harmony and tranquility for development.
“I believe this meeting will have a dialogue which shall reach a consensus and if we realise that the rallies would be conducted in a peaceful manner, we would sanction them.”
In her address to the nation through the National Assembly, the president equally pledged to protect freedom of the people as well as the media.
She said that freedom and democracy were the foundations of peace in the country, which in turn stimulated political, economic and social development.
However, President Samia noted that there is no democratic freedom that is not protected and governed by laws, procedures and regulations.
Therefore, in addition to democracy and the freedom of the people, she urged Tanzanians to be steady, while carrying out their activities in accordance with the provisions of the country’s laws.
President Samia, on the other hand, insisted that her government was open to constructive criticism, saying people, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and politicians should be vigilant about government activities and highlight draw backs to improve governance.
She said she was aware that CSOs were dealing with people especially at the grassroots level; hence, they were able to relay people’s grievances for the govern- ment to act.
“I want you to help us know what the challenges our people are facing because this country is for us,” she said, adding that her administration was ready to work on all challenges facing Tanzanians regardless of their ideologies.
At the historic event that opened a new chapter in the country’s politics, the Chairman of the Tanzania Centre for Democracy (TCD), Zitto Kabwe, apparently requested President Samia to intervene and release the Chairperson of the opposition Chadema, Freeman Mbowe, who is facing charges before the court of law.
“We are here as leaders of po- litical parties, some are not here for their own reasons, but one of us is not here because of legal issues, we plead before you that he be set free and settle this matter out of court,” said Mr Kabwe who doubles as ACT-Wazalendo Party Leader.
Responding, President Samia underlined the need for every person in the country to abide by laws of the country insisting: “If we want democracy to flourish, it is equally important to respect the laws… if you don’t the government would not respect you as well. However, there is room for forgiveness because we are all human beings and we do make mistakes,” she stated, advising po litical parties to exercise politics of development, rather than dwelling on politics of enmity.
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