If you have watched a new documentary on Netflix named How to be a Tyrant, you can relate that Tanzania’s new President, Samia Suluhu, is on the road of going to join the ranks of the worst leaders in history.
Famous dictators like Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafi, and Adolf Hitler have one thing in common. They start by pleasing the masses to legitimize their rule before launching an all-out assault on them.
Just when she started showing that she was a reformist and not a likewise successor of the erstwhile president, her actions of convicting Tanzania’s opposition leader of terrorism have a hidden agenda behind them.
Samia Suluhu has given a fair warning to the foreign investors through her actions that economic giants willing to invest in Tanzania without constitutional reforms will make the biggest blunder of their lives.
Even countries like North Korea are behaving better than Tanzania, seeing that they, at least, do not walk the hypocritic path.
Kim Jong-un is a leader, who at least, does not show hypocrisy. On the other hand, the Tanzanian president is emerging as a hypocritical leader whose name is likely to be written in history books as a fascist who walked the path of a tyrant.
Tanzania’s Opposition in Danger: Samia Suluhu Showing Her True Face
Tanzania’s new President Samia Suluhu has emerged as a mirror image of the former president, John Magifulli, despite her initial efforts to bring Tanzania out of a lot of inherited mess.
When she took over the presidency and negated the concepts of the COVID denial by John Magufuli, everyone expected that Tanzania’s struggling time is over.
She launched a crackdown against the corrupt officials, including Lengai Ole Sabaya, receiving endorsement even from her critics.
However, all of this was an eyewash just to legitimize her rule. This is one of the distinctive characteristics of dictatorship; that they win the hearts of the masses and popular support first. After that, they come up with the actual plan that they want to implement in the country.
President Samia Suluhu impressed the United States leadership as well, which resulted in Tanzania occupying coronavirus vaccine shipments under the global initiative of COVAX.
When she won popular support through her actions, now she has launched a crackdown against the Tanzanian opposition.
Tanzanian opposition leader Freeman Mbowe is the first victim of Samia’s new violent wave. After being arrested, he is now being convicted under the terrorism laws by the court.
Labeling an opposition leader as a terrorist is an event that will initiate unprecedented violence in the country.
Perhaps this was the reason why Samia Suluhu was reluctant to bring constitutional reforms before the economic reforms.
At this time, when freedom of speech in the country was already facing an existential crisis, this crackdown against Tanzania’s opposition is expected to halt Suluhu’s so-called agenda of economic reform.
North Korea: A Better Place for Businesses Compared to Tanzania
Foreign investors, if they do not want to waste their money, must find alternate avenues for their investment. Even North Korea is better than Tanzania for business.
In North Korea, investors can see the business environment beforehand, knowing all the rules before investing even a single penny.
In the land of Kim Jong-un, the economic giants can have a surety that the laws will not have tampered after they make the investment.
On the other hand, the government of Samia Suluhu will not hesitate to change the goal post in the midst of the game.
Once the investment comes in, Samia Suluhu’s government can pass autocratic laws that would strangle the business regimes by making the performance of the business index as hard as possible.
For instance, once businessmen invest all of their hard-earned money in a country like Tanzania, the Tanzanian government can introduce unnecessary taxes and laws of seizing business properties in case of issuing a statement against the government. So, business leaders who want to earn money may end up serving a jail term in Tanzania.
John Magufuli was worse, but Samia Suluhu is turning out to become the worst. Under John Magufuli’s government, Tanzania’s opposition was only subjected to arrests, but now Samia is leading them to the unbailable offenses of terrorism.
These types of actions will serve as a death threat to the democracy of the country, where no potential politician will ever dare to speak against the government.
Tanzania’s opposition was already living in unfavorable playing conditions, with the constitution serving the interests of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi.
How to be a Tyrant: Samia Suluhu is a Practical Example of a Netflix Documentary
As Samia Suluhu looks forward to the next presidential elections, her bid to neutralize her opponents to rule forever is a path that every tyrant wants to walk. The Netflix documentary How to be a Tyrant underlines the same steps.
The ultimate path of a tyrant consists of six steps, including seizing power, crushing your rivals, reigning through terror, controlling the truth, creating a new society, and ruling forever.
President Samia Suluhu is on the second stage of crushing her rivals. Now, when she is criminalizing Tanzania’s opposition, she has officially entered the third phase of reigning through terror.
Now the general public will be frightened to speak even a single word against her government.
Final Thoughts
Samia’s government ambitions of screwing Tanzania’s opposition as if they were real terrorists also give a fair warning to the foreigners who want to visit Tanzania. Tourists often use social media to tell their followers about the country’s culture.
If any tourist censures the Tanzania government for its autocratic practices, Samia Suluhu can launch a crackdown against them so that the truth about her must not be unveiled.
The international community, especially the United States, has a role to play amid all these humanitarian crises.
As the US Vice President Kamala Harris and the Secretary of State Antony Blinken were involved in calling out the Tanzania government for vaccination drives, now they must enforce better human rights designs in the country.
When Magifuli died, everybody thought that Tundu Lissu would be the last opposition member to face the government’s assault; however, now it seems that even Freeman is not the last one.
Giving a free hand to the autocratic government of Tanzania is a recipe of disaster for the African country, where more than 58 million people await their turn to be the victim of the female president.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.