Pessimism is defined by Merriam-Websters Dictionary as 1: an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome.
2 a: the doctrine that reality is essentially evil
b: the doctrine that evil overbalances happiness in life. For the purpose of my discussion here, Ill stick with the first meaning of the term. There are many forms of pessimism, but essentially all of them tend to agree that the worst is yet to come.
As a political world-view (on which I restrict myself here), pessimism is an attitude that emphasize that new political forces that have come to power will not bring any expected change or promised results. This form of pessimism is mostly seen during transitions from one political administration to another. In case of Tanzania, some people (including some very well intentioned and seasoned politicians in the ruling party and the opposition) are showing this sense of pessimism as far as the working of the new administration of Kikwete is concerned. Some responses from a number of people have not only been dire and gloomy but also very melancholic and heartbreaking.
People who hold this political pessimism cannot be leaders. They can ascend to power or desire power, but can never lead. Not only such pessimists cannot lead, but also they cant live fully their human potential. They can run for offices but their proclivity to pessimism restricts their motives and motivation. Sometimes, this pessimism is disguised in the veil of patriotic duty and under the shadows of good intentions. Pessimists are not bad people (not necessarily anyway); they just cannot be good leaders!
The way the fourth government has handled a number of issues since it came to power has left many people including me with a sense of apprehension and if may I say, with a sense of abandonment. But unlike other people Im not inclined to embrace pessimistic attitude; for it is a dangerous spirit that never rises up to meet challenges for it pessimism always look down on people and their motives. It is for this reason that I dare challenge pessimists out there to overcome this troubling spirit so when we criticize the government and our leaders, not because they can not because they have let us down and they can never do good, but because, we believe (as we should) that they can indeed overcome their shortcomings and step up to lead us into a brighter future. So pessimism must be defeated in all its forms. Even more, it is more dangerous to be led by a group of pessimists! But, why pessimists pose the greatest obstacle in leadership in our country. Here is why.
Pessimists do not trust the natural goodness of people. In the minds of pessimists, human beings are evil, full of evil ideas, motivated by evil, and given several options the most probable outcome of human acts will be an evil one. If someone promise good things or try to be good, pessimists will constantly remind him/her of his/her evil past! To them, no one can be truly good or at least not in the long run. Not only they do not trust in the natural goodness of people, they just cant trust people period. It is accepted that, once you put your trust on someone, you open yourself to a possibility of good outcome from that trust or relationship. Unfortunately, a pessimist does not see goodness in people, so he/she cant trust.
Pessimists see a dark horizon not a brighter future. To them the future is gloomy and darkened. Nothing in the future inspires hope to them. They look at the horizon and see the cloudy day not the sun rising behind the clouds! When the sun finally set, they do not see the moon and the starts shining (which are signs of hope) but they only see a dark and cold night. When Kikwete announced his cabinet early this year, the pessimists looked to the future and saw economic burden and hardships. There was nothing for them to hope for. We are a poor country how can we afford such a big cabinet, they said. They do not want to listen to what the president has to say or wait for the budget to be written. The cabinet signaled doom to the pessimists. It was a day of sadness to some of them. If such people ever become leaders, they will not work harder to bring prosperity and good fortunes to their people. Why work hard if there is no prosperity or good fortune in the future?
Pessimists see obstacles everywhere. They look at the current situation of things in the country, the ill-negotiated mining and power contracts, mishandling of public finances, possible scandals of conflict of interests. What they see are problems and more problems. They see corruption, incompetence, cronyism, laziness, and alike in all their shapes and forms. Unfortunately, most of the time they rightly recognize such problems and rightly they should be concerned just like any other citizen. However, they (the pessimists) cant see ways to defeat such ills in our society. Theyll ask, Do you think these people are really committed to end all these ills? They will answer emphatically, No way.
In their heart of hearts, there is no way out. Our society is so used to this we cannot change, they reason. These pessimists are not just outside the ruling party or in the opposition, most of them are in the ruling party as well and some are even in positions of power! To them they consider obstacles and difficulties they encounter, as problems that cant be defeated not challenges that need to be overcame. During their political campaigns they might have promised heaven, but deep within them they believe in hell. Such people in power cannot lead a people to a bountiful future or to that promised land where milk and honey flow!
Pessimists dont see a glass half-empty, as they classically do; they see it with nothing in it. According to them whatever is in the glass, is not even there, it is an illusion. Some might even argue that there is no glass at all! When such people get positions of leadership they will never work hard, seriously, and efficiently any problem they face. There is no problem, and if there is a problem, theyll try to excuse and finds ways NOT to remove it. These political pessimists in power their bottom-line is the belly, and their upper line is the mouth!
These sworn pessimists are the one who signed all these bad contracts that still are causing havoc in our economy and hardships in our daily lives. They are the ones that are waiting for someone to give them a list (orodha) of suspected drug dealers/smugglers and other hard-knock criminals! These are the people who will wait until the president (in some cases the prime minister) to tell them what to do and then they will wait until the president says, go do it! Even then the president might be required to take them back to Ngurdoto for another refresher course!! These pessimists in power cant understand why people are very critical of them, they think people are just jealousy and envious of their current positions!
As our government takes hold and start exercising its rightful power, a number of pessimists will rise to discourage it and even will try to their best to sabotage the efforts of the government. Theyll try to point out some problems, not for the sake of having them solved, but rather to show them out as failures. Theyll come in all forms, manners, and shapes. Among them are Professors, opposition leaders, ministers, religious gurus etc! I hope that the new leadership under Kikwete will be ready to recognize such people and without fear challenge them to hope. Not by words of promises of heaven but actions and deeds that convince them that the new government is truly from the people, by the people and for the people!
It is the hope in the best qualities of our people, the goodness of our intentions, and the courage to lift our nation out of poverty, ignorance and diseases (those mortal enemies we recognized a generation ago) that will defeat pessimism. We should understand that, as Winston Churchill put it, A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Former US President Bill Clinton said this on pessimism PESSIMISM is an excuse for not trying and a guarantee to a personal failure. May we as a nation and as a people never succumb to the deceiving and mesmerizing power of perpetual pessimism. My friends, as we try to correct and criticize our leaders, as we give out suggestions and opinions, as we work hard everyday to build a modern society, may we dare to hope and strive to make our dreams a reality for our posterity and ourselves.
