The late Maalim Seif through the lens of Mzee Mwinyi (2)

This week I finish the part of Mzee Mwinyi’s book where he gives a comprehensive analysis of the late Maalim Seif (pictured).

The following day Idrissa Abdulwakil announced a new cabinet and two days after that he made a change of permanent secretaries who appeared to be close to Maalim Seif. It is clear that within and outside the country there were people who wanted to mess up Zanzibar but fortunately due to the astuteness of the security forces and assistance of the Almighty God, they never succeeded.

There is no doubt that Maalim Seif was very annoyed at his removal from the position of chief minister and people close to him removed or having their roles changed. He saw himself free now to oppose both governments and to continue his agenda of changing the Union and calling for a referendum on the Union.

When the acts of incitement became excessive, it became imperative that Mwalimu Nyerere as the chairman of CCM embark on a five-day visit on the island of Pemba at the beginning of March 1988. Five days is a long time for a visit to Pemba, but it had to be done since Pemba was the hotbed of the schism of Maalim.

Mwalimu said that the right of Maalim & Co to speak will be guaranteed; but that right should not be used to sabotage the country and incite treason. And when in Zanzibar he wanted the district commissioners not to hesitate to take action, including detaining people who would endanger peace and safety of the nation.

At the beginning of April 1988, the secretary-general of CCM, Mzee Rashidi Mfaume Kawawa, embarked as well on a visit to Zanzibar, starting in Pemba.

He warned everyone, including those in the government, those who sabotaging the government and the position of the party on the Union. He stated that the views about the Union be brought according to the party procedures and not being pressurised from outside the country as we were aware of inciters from outside.

But acts of incitement persisted. After the report of the SG was presented and discussed in the National Executive Committee of CCM, a decision was taken on the 14th May 1988 to expel from CCM Maalim Seif Shariff Hamad and six others including former minister of agriculture and irrigation, Soud Yussuf Mgeni; the deputy minister of finance, planning and economy; the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives; an MP of the Union Parliament; and two members of the House of Representatives, Zanzibar.

They tried everything to disturb the government of Idrissa Abdulwakil, including doing and inciting demonstrations on various pretexts. One pretext was the statement made in Dodoma on the May 7, 1988 by the chairperson of the Women's Organisation of CCM (UWT), Sofia Kawawa that the time has come to look at the customs and traditions, including religion, appearing to oppress women.

That statement that was not official from UWT or CCM or the government was the stupidity of firing up Muslim demonstrations in Zanzibar.

It meant me a few days later issuing a government statement and wanting people not to be incited to do demonstrations as a result of being mislead and that if need be stern measures will be taken against those who will continue.

There were also threats to burn cloves in order to sabotage the economy of Zanzibar that depended a lot on the crop.

And true, as the trouble continued action was taken, including detaining people. On the whole, all those who did that work tried to respect the rights of citizens and human rights. There were some revolutionary zealots who sought the making of laws to enable all those to be detained.

But the government refused. It meant at the end of 1988, the chief minister, Dr Omar Ali Juma having to remove any fear from the public that the government of Zanzibar would enact laws or take oppressive measures against those opponents, unless they make mistakes that are already outlawed by existing laws, such as treason or rebellion. He said the goal of the government is to ensure that peace and stability are maintained.

But the acts of incitement continued forcing Maalim Seif and three others on May 10, 1989 to be arrested when they held an unlicensed meeting in Pemba. When they were arraigned in court four days later, they had another charge added of being found with ten kilograms of secret government documents. The case took a long time.

His supporters would stand by the roadside when being taken to court, and he would use that opportunity to wave at them and attempt to talk to them.

The police were refusing him to do so but he was adamant. They threatened to take him to court handcuffed so that he would be unable to wave to his supporters. It was the case that the magistrate told the police not to do so as it was not a criminal offence to wave to people.

When we were heading towards the 1990 general election, the situation in Zanzibar flared up again, and honestly it is like Maalim Seif & Co decided that that election be an opinion poll on the structure of the Union.

They mobilised the people not to register to vote and threaten that those who will register will see fire. They made a lot of trouble and forced the government to take serious action.

Between the month of July and December 1990, there were certain political criminal events that involved the burning or blowing up of CCM offices and those who had registered to vote, and their farms to be burnt especially in North Pemba.

To some extent they managed to reduce the number of registered voters. It is only about 40 per cent of those who had a right to vote who did vote. Even some of those who had registered to vote did not vote out of fear. This enabled the CCM candidate, Dr Salmin Amour Juma, to easily win."

Andrew Bomani is a political scientist: [email protected]