POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE MEDIA IN ZANZIBAR: EXPERIENCE AND IMPACT Presented in a seminar organised by the Tanzania Media

Council October 2010 Ally Saleh, Dip Journ; LLB (Hons) Introduction Zanzibar is now passing through interesting but also very trying times. It is like this moment, which we can call seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, was being awaited for the last six decades since politics began in Zanzibar with the establishment of the first political party in 1954 in the name of Zanzibar Nationalist Party. If it was a curse or a wrong footing than this has continued for too long a period and no one can say with conviction that there was any moment when Zanzibar managed to get back into the political rail, if ever there was that aim, but rather it has been brutally lost in the political wilderness or has been going on political roller coaster causing tears, blood, maim, suffering and deaths. The competitive politics from 1959 to 1963, with last one deciding Zanzibar to get her independence on December, 10, 1963 and the reintroduction of the same in 1992 leading to three elections, has not helped to get national consensus but rather tearing the very fabric of the already divided society. Without a healing process, Zanzibar has now been independent for 46 years, and the period between January 12, 1964 when a peoples Revolution ushered in new era and 1992 before multi party politics were introduced, hardly efforts were taken to reconcile the society but rather greater emphasis was put on attaining physical development to the expense or detriment of the former. The Zanzibar Media, thriving as it was since 1930s but reaching its peak in 1960s, has never been so strong in the period of 46 years but only when the weekly Dira newspaper was founded, but alas this paper was only to survive for one year or to be more exact it issued only 51 issues. It

was an epitome of the sad story that haunts Zanzibar government which can not stomach criticism. While Zanzibar has seen steps being taken in the line of opening up of freedom of opinion and expression from Constitutional changes with introduction of the Bill of Rights under the 1984 Zanzibar Constitution to several sets of media laws from 1989, but Zanzibar has been left, like so many other times in the loneliness and with minimum opportunities to freely air their voices in the print media while the electronic appearing to be more cautious though gaining ground of recent. And so this is the situation that Zanzibar has found herself in while it is going towards the fourth multi party elections, at a time I have called interesting because of deliberate efforts being taken to reduce political intensity by assuring competing parties of formation of Government of National Unity (GNU). The competitive politics, almost two decades on still needing a major overhaul and the press freedom three decades plus appears to be at a stage between infancy and retardation, as I once said one step forward and two steps back.

The political and media times For 13 years after 1964 Zanzibar was ruled by the Afro Shirazi Party a period that had a lot of anxiety. It was a time when the vibrant political parties like Umma, Zanzibar Nationalist Party (ZNP) and the Zanzibar and Pemba Peoples Party (ZPPP) were banned and its members going through political and ideological vacuum if they could not join ASP and most could not. Many believed this was the reason why the government of the day and the ruling party failed to receive high level of acceptance because it was not easy for such people just to get into the fold and probably this also explains on why there had been a total of 14 coup attempts against the government including the one on April 7, 1972 with dire consequences of the death of First President Abeid Amani Karume who many believed he ruled with an iron fist. Dissidents were not tolerated. It has been stated in some places that Karume eliminated part of his own leadership and a number of people
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have not been accounted for after being taken by the Security Service which was noted for its notoriety and which was a strong tool to prop the Karume government. It was also a time when other forms of organizations were prohibited such as involving workers when Zanzibar had seen very active union culture before 1964. In fact this union culture movement had been very instrumental in strengthening several ASP activists including Hassan Nassor Moyo, Mtoro Rehani, Jamal Ramadhan Nasib and others. The press was also cut its wings with the government failing to fill the void but with weak publications such as KWEUPE and later WHEN TRUTH PREVAILS both more as propaganda sheets. This was the time when the government owned media received frequent visit by Political Commissars, who checked what was going on and reported back to the government. Zanzibar for many years depended on Mainland newspapers which were at any rate at that time all being government owned. Remember also this was the time when the alternative media source- electronic- was a nascent stage and foreign outlets were hardly in existence. Some Western journalists ventured into this territory including world re known David Martin who provided a platform for Karume to declare that elections will be held in Zanzibar after 50 years, when he tried of course to be prophetic. The good intentions of the 1964 Revolution were slowly waning. The spirit was evaporating as the Revolution tried to put more footing on the ground when ideology was failing to unite the people. Slowly it began to be evident that the free land given to the people as a result of agrarian reform was slowly getting back to the former owners, the free social services like health and education began to get battering, the gap between the people was increasing and a new class was being groomed. By 1977 it was the time to ask how was the Revolution doing or to be more open it was at test on the ruling Afro Shirazi on its deliverance. So when the idea of fading out independence parties in Mainland and Zanzibar- Tanganyika African Union (TANU) and ASP, it required little effort for Zanzibari to express their willingness to do away with ASP and hence Chama cha Mapinduzi was born trying to fit into two different shoes in size but most important on the making.

Tanzania and Zanzibar politics has never been the same again. While hardly there have been complaints or regrets for the loss of TANU in the Mainland, on the contrary there are still ASP die-hards in Zanzibar who wish to see this party resurrected especially when their conservative thinking is challenged. Post CCM - politics Zanzibar has gone through a lot post CCM. First was for Zanzibar to live without ASP which as an independence party evoked a lot of memories but also it came as regrettable realization that without it, many were to loose power and grip. Some were to receive political burials before they were dead. Post CCM also Zanzibar lost more into the Union than any other time. Several Constitutional amendments including the famous of infamous 8th Amendment which led into Zanzibar surrendering the post of Vice President that was taken away from the domain of the presidency of Zanzibar; the 1984 Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) that was given powers to oversee Zanzibar petroleum prospects to name a few. There are also many other laws with no Union constitutional attachment but still have been extended to Zanzibar including Law of the Sea, Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance as well as the Tanzania Commission for Regulatory Authority (TCRA). These are just being tolerated to function in Zanzibar but on stormy days fingers are poked into them. During all this time, Zanzibar has found it hard to decide on things that may seem on the surface to be within her domain, but CCM would not allow it on argument that it affects party policy. Such issues include the right of Zanzibar to decide on her Presidential candidate as it happened in year 2000 when Dr. Amani Karume who trailed second was preferred over Dr. Muhammed Bilal who emerged top in earlier preferential votes. But also we have seen recently how CCM attempted to prevent the peace talks involving Dr. Karume and the Opposition Civic United Front Seif Shariff Hamad. Post CCM Press freedom

Freedom of the press and expression has grown in Zanzibar. But critics suggest that this has come with a lot of pain and still that freedom is not easily available and so can not be enjoyed. The government while preaching freedom has not been ready to open up. As we have earlier alluded Zanzibar has had very dynamic if not combative press in the time when it was going through political struggle and gunning for independence. Several newspapers but especially some editors went to the extent of strongly criticising the government of the day. Interestingly the government tolerated most of these critics and only took stern steps against the newspaper owned by Abdul Rahman in 1963 Rahman which was also a blessing in disguise because this case began a political platform for Babu who launched his party Umma. The new Revolutionary government in 1964 banned newspapers and the first one to come in the surface was in 1995 which was partisan to the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi until the coming of Dira in 2003 under the editorship of Ali Nabwa. Nabwa and Dira were thorn in the flesh of the government that the editor was banished as non citizen and the newspaper was folded for good. The first post Revolution law was the Newspaper Act which in 1988 which introduced issues of sedition and criminal defamation. The government had an excuse to introduce desacato laws and insult laws. But also promoting diversification of print media, the law tended to dwarf it. Only when the laws to do with electronic media came to place that it was easier for investors to fill the airwaves. But even as we talk today none of the FMs has chosen the critical path and hence they have not replaced the void caused by absence of strong newspapers. Reports are now available that indicate the government was in the process of not only reviewing these laws, but also move even further by introducing The Right to Information Act and The Media Services Act. The discussion on these proposals has begun at several levels but key areas need to be addressed. For instance journalists in Zanzibar can not effectively report inside the House of Representatives under a law enacted by the House, the there is
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still restriction on establishing a newspaper to the extent that even those which had seen the light like ASUMINI had to close for reasons not to do with professionalism but more on personal interest. Let us not forget that several journalists have been banned, newspapers have been stopped to come to Zanzibar and some journalists have faced court cases for reasons more to do with taming them than professional transgressions.

Politics and issue of identity We have seen how the Revolution as well as the long period of stability have not helped in setting out good political relations in Zanzibar so much that the emergence of political parties in Zanzibar in was more of a curse than a blessing. The days political parties were necessarily made to have had origin and even relations with the yesterdays parties. CCM has to be ASP and CUF has to be ZNP though if CUF was associated with Pemba than it should be linked with ZPPP. Like the 1960s the political parties of the 1990s were linked to their support to ethnicity though it was practically impossible to strictly divide both on party line but even geographical wise. With huge movements if not exodus after the Revolution, after the assassination of Karume, during the period of acute food shortage and the early times of multi party politics it was no longer possible to pigeon-hole political support in Zanzibar. If the basis of support to CUF for instance was Arab-Zanzibaris, it would have been impossible for CUF to have gained so much support in all the three general elections knowing that the Arabs have never been of striking majority in Zanzibar. Also the changed political landscape shows that CCM is supported in areas ASP was not popular and CUF has the same case too. Arguments have been raised that one can hardly find evidence of racial variation due to centuries of inter mingling. In fact the issue of identity now in Zanzibar has nothing to do with the local politics in the meaning of defining ones political commitment due to racial background. At this stage identity has more to do with maintaining Zanzibarism than anything else. Though Zanzibaris are by

nationality and so citizenship Tanzanians, but to them their identity as Zanzibaris come first then their nationality and citizenship as Tanzanians. This has meant that while Zanzibaris have found differences among themselves but they have always emerged as one when it comes to their fellows Tanzanians. To them identity is dynamic and always changing but the struggle against those who they do not identify as like them continues as we had see during the petroleum ownership debate and also the Zanzibar Si Nchi debate ( Zanzibar is not a country).

The current state: media and political parties After years and years of divisive and self centred politics and with the on and off press power, mostly by the independent journalists, Zanzibar has found herself in un-chartered territory when all of a sudden the political arch rivals Chama cha Mapinduzi and the Civic United Front have declared that they were committed to ending enmity that has marked the Zanzibar political scene. The meeting between Dr. Amani Karume and Seif Shariff Hamad was to many unexpected especially after the failure of the 14 month discussion between their two parties following what is known as Bagamoyo Rounds and the two of them coming openly to say that they were ready to burry their hatchets was also unexpected too. So that date of November 5, 2009 will go into the history books of Zanzibar. Within no time a proposal was on the table for Zanzibar to think of forming a Government of National Unity (GNU) in the form of a private motion tabled at the House of Representatives by Hon. Abubakar Khamis Bakary and in unprecedented move, the ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi supported the idea with little variation but mostly to do with the CCM standing reached in Butiama of holding a Referendum before the any GNU move. This is an election year. Both the political parties and the media had started the year confused. At the end of the year soon after the talks between Hamad and Karume political parties functionaries were advised to toe to the Hamad-Karume line and journalists were pressed to restrain from disrupting the promising Maridhiano to which soon Zanzibaris were awarded with the passing of a private motion and the commitment to have a GNU.
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If GNU is a carrot than what is the stick? Many would now understand that Zanzibar would hold two ballots this year. One in the form of Referendum and the other the General Elections. Both the politicians and journalists understand full well on the material conditions available now as Zanzibar is heading towards its biggest day ever. Lack of transparency by the Electoral Commission, politicization of the Police and other forces, double registration in the Permanent Voter Register (PVT) and threat of use of force when it comes to campaign, are things that both the political parties and the media fully understand but they prefer to put them on the hold because of Maridhiano. Both sides are aware when the machinery is set to motion what it will mean to security and well being of the people. Media, political parties: experience and impact Eighteen years of multi party politics by any standard is a good period for any person or organization to gain experience and even become master in the area of competence. In some cases some individuals have brought in experience gained else where in the running of some political parties be it from within or outside or from the pre or post colonial era. In some cases like Zanzibar experience of political party running had played a big role in the stabilization of the country. Zanzibar had in any case more experienced hands from people who were active in political activities and who were easily activated when multi party politics were re-introduced in 1992. The experience gained in Zanzibar is vast and deep. The two main political parties grown in every aspect of electioneering from working with members, fund raising,gendermering, enticing voters, campaigning, vote rigging, arm twisting. They have experience in propaganda, working with the media, negotiating their interest but more importantly how best to win sympathy. These experiences have been very useful in maintaining party membership in Zanzibar. Look at what is happening every election season and the voting trend hardly change. That is an argument put forward by many political analysts that in Zanzibar the level of political awareness is very high that voters easily make their decisions and when
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decisions are made nothing can sway them, meaning the level of party allegiance overrides everything else. The media has also gained huge chunk of experience. It has covered all the dirt, all the tricks, all the propaganda, all the blood and all the deaths. It has seen through the push and pull of the political heavy weights, the force and might of the armed section and of course most have been at places where crowd got dangerous close to lynch them. The media has been attacked by both political parties, have been barred many times, have been singled out on several occasions but has also played a positive role in reporting what was the story of the day and has had a positive hand in delivering of voter and civic education. Some have had the experience of going on the wrong side of the fence, There have been positive and negative impacts on both the side of the media and political parties. Social and economical impacts are easily seen as the fact that people can freely choose their leadership has tended to have effect on peoples confidence on the government. Though on the other side the negative impact has been restraining from supporting the government when the results were doubted. The private media has won the trust of the people. Most of the time people are looking for these outlets for a balanced report of local events while the public owned media have been looked with a dismaying eye because of blatant propaganda and support of the ruling party and the government of the day, even when these organs are placed in the hands of the Electoral Commission when the campaigns take effect. But overall, the population look at the political parties and media as essential tools to their lives. The population has tended to believe that through these tools that their hopes and aspirations can be raised, argued and defended. Through the media and political parties, deep inside them they believe they can join forces with other members of the society to achieve a common goal. Hence come sun come rain, come experience come impact, political parties with all their shortcomings are here to stay because they is no other way people can leave without them and so the same is for the media. The best that can be done is for the people to have power to influence them and useful to them to deliver what they expect of them, each on its own, not complementing but rather checking one another.

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