Promoting Enterprise Spirit
Often you hear people lamenting about the ails of a nation; how its fortunes are not amply nor opportunely exploited and its people marginalized by a system perceived to be bent on doing only that – marginalizing its people.
Tanzania is not an exception to this norm. Clearly Tanzania is not the last in class when it comes to good governance and national development management in the Africa space; but a lot is left to be desired when a country is as endowed as this one is and everyone but its own people (those meant to benefit) are excited by the fact.
“Blame it on ujamaa” seems to be the classic quip offered by most pundits uninterested in belaboring the matter to its core! Let me, foremost; declare my adulation for everything Nyerere and potential bias in addressing ujamaa as a result. But to blame today’s struggles on a well intending but tanked political experiment 30years expired is nothing short of ill-fated. Yet not to reference ujamaa completely may also prove to be misleading as it is the bedding stone for what I believe to be at the core of our current perceived and real ‘struggle’.
Anxious to dethrone the then total President, the late Mwalimu J K Nyerere, and his ‘euphoric’ idea; the following generations of ‘founding’ fathers (by the way sequels, almost always, aren’t as good as the original) capitalized on the obvious failings of ujamaa to usher in their poison of choice – capitalism. In the process, though, ujamaa was excessively vilified and capitalism illusively glorified to portray it in its glowing radiance of evident fruits as seen from the perspective of more developed and capitalist states of the time.
But instead of good old fashion capitalism, we were dealt with a hybrid variant that served to preserve the inherent and mostly negative qualities of the outgoing authoritarian politically laden system, guised in a veil of select liberties often associated with its [capitalism’s] spoils – mostly lifestyle goods and services and almost completely devoid of the functional drivers that characterize a truly capitalist system.
I believe that political systems are quite like religions, different routes to a common ideal, often embracing good and generally accepted values. The advantage of capitalism and its appendages is that it’s a more inclusive, dynamic and resilient approach. And quite like religion, to get the most of any chosen political system, you have to be true to its ideals. This is exactly why ujamaa failed to begin with, it is inhumanely difficult for most to be true to its core attributes.
In as much as capitalism is evidenced through lifestyle attributes, its existence and sustenance is a product of its ability to promote enterprise spirit. Enterprise spirit is at the core of capitalism and enterprise spirit is exactly what is missing here. We may have businesses but one can argue that we don’t have a free and fair system free of political mingling and insider trading.
The invisible hand of government is actually quite visible but instead of one super-hand (as was the case during the ujamaa era) we now have many hands with politicians actively imposing their interests on the enterprise sector and mindset and diminishing on its natural spirit and drive. This is so much the fact that on appointment, people expect politicians with administrative powers to leverage their positions to further their interests as opposed to overseeing effective and development focused change.
One can argue that its only human nature to want to further ones interests, especially if the system avails the opportunity. Hence, it becomes even more compelling; in a capitalistic environment like the one we are trying to promote, to clearly dissociate direct political influence from effective enterprise. If the USA, the world’s leading capitalistic jogger naught can do this, then why should Tanzania be an exception? Politiicians should continue to influence policies and legislature but should not be active participants in businesses for which their political interest could give them an advantage or worse off disadvantage others with.
I support, in this same spirit, promotion of transparency of business interest by our governing elite and their consequent dissociation from any decisions that could present a potential conflict of interest.
