In Summary
One lie for example, says that the governments
of Tanzania and Rwanda or their leaders, have been exchanging ugly
rhetoric since President Jakaya Kikwete advised his counterparts in
Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC to talk to their enemies rather than fighting
endless wars.
Almost everybody knows Adolf Hitler, but not
everyone knows everything that this murderous man said during his life,
especially the observations and propaganda he unleashed under his
rhetoric stratagem.
In one of his writings he argues: “If you repeat a
lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to
believe it yourself.”
The teaching is found in Chapter 6 of Volume 1 of
Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kempf, which translates “My
Struggle” written in 1925 but published in 1939. Hitler titled the
chapter “War Propaganda”.
Hitler was not the first to speak these words as
the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution who played a key role in the
creation of communist Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, before his death in
1924 once noted: “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” It is the
question of perception.
This interesting art of converting lies into truth
is popular among politicians, activists, religious leaders, and
unfortunately journalists as well, especially when there is a goal to be
reached. Often a lie is told deliberately, but things may get worse
when a lie is told not because of anything but ignorance or much worse,
irresponsibility.
Currently, East Africa is witnessing the spread of
lies not seen before conducted by those who are determined to deceive
others and those who are irresponsible. These people care less about
what philosophers teach us, that truth is the conformity between what is
being said and what exists.
One lie for example,says that the governments of
Tanzania and Rwanda or their leaders, have been exchanging ugly rhetoric
since President Jakaya Kikwete advised his counterparts in Rwanda,
Uganda and the DRC to talk to their enemies rather than fighting endless
wars. Some people made it as if Kikwete had advised only Rwanda, which
wasn’t the case.
Yes, it is true that various people have been
talking too much about this issue, but it is not true that the Tanzanian
government has been doing so. The only statements related to that are
two so far: first, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation, Bernard Membe, responded kindly to those demanding that
Kikwete apologises, saying President cannot apologise for telling the
truth.
The second time was when Kikwete assured
Tanzanians in his monthly speech that Tanzania harbours no ill intent
towards Rwanda, which is the fact, frankly. Nowhere else has anyone from
his government ever said anything else! The President’s statement that
Tanzanian troops are ready to defend the country was a normal thing that
any Commander-in-Chief can say when officiating on heroes’ day.
When Kikwete gave 14 days to illegal migrants
residing in northwestern Tanzania to leave he didn’t name a single
country, and consequently people who identified themselves as Ugandans,
Burundians, Congolese and Rwandans, left Tanzania.
However, some people created a deception that
Kikwete had ordered the expulsion of Rwandans. Not true! Noticeably,
other countries are not throwing words at Tanzania.
Another deception going on in East Africa says
that Tanzania is dragging its feet on the East African dream to attain
political federation under the so-called fast track process.
None of these propagandists care to speak the truth that all
five member states agreed on concrete stages and further insisted that,
to move to the next stage the previous stage has to be fully implemented
and assessed diligently.
As we speak even the first stage of the Customs
Union has not been fully implemented. Tanzania didn’t object to move to
the second stage known as the Common Market, which again, apart from
demanding Tanzania’s land and free movement of people regardless of
issues like security, none of the member states has done enough to
attain it.
The third stage, Monetary Union, has already been
forced into initial processes by other four member states without any
assessment of the previous two, and Tanzania didn’t waste time to
caution about this irresponsible move, which won’t help the Community.
Well, we all know that the United Republic of
Tanzania knows better than any other member state about this animal
called “unification” because we have lived it, and we are the actual
founder of another successful regional body, the South African
Development Community (SADC), a much older body than the current East
African Community (EAC).
Additionally, let us not forget that Tanzania was
the only force behind the creation of the first East African Community,
and history attests to that. Thus, when Tanzania reminds other member
states in the Community to watch their steps, it knows what it is
talking about. You can follow the advice or leave it but do not play
Hitler’s game.
Hello East Africans, we do not need to deceive
each other day and night! Let us build trust among ourselves and build
this Community perfectly, not harshly just to satisfy temporal needs.
Mr Matinyi is a consultant based in Washington, DC
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
SOURCE: THE CITIZEN
