Slaa and Sendeka hail Mengi
Following the "Statement by the IPP Executive Chairman, Mr. Reginald Mengi (click to read) " :
Karatu and Simanjiro legislators Dr Willibroad Slaa (pictured) and Christopher Ole Sendeka (CCM) have praised the IPP Executive Chairman Reginald Mengi for naming five individuals linked to grand corruption, saying this shows his courage and dedication to the cause of fighting the vice in the country.
Mengi`s step is a bold one, and should be emulated by other patriotic Tanzanians provided that they have proof, the two members of parliament told The Guardian on Sunday in Dodoma this week.
``Such courageous people are very few in our country, and other (citizens) should ask themselves why Mengi has decided to name in the public the corrupt elements,`` Slaa said.
``When a person comes out in public and names people believed to be the most corrupt individuals in the society, that is courage to be positively commended,`` he added.
Mengi is a person with sober mind who knows what he said, Slaa insisted, stating that by mentioning the names he had proof. ``Mengi could not just come from nowhere and mention the names before the press... he must have evidence because he knows the implications.``
He said the IPP Executive Chairman`s decision went farther in the campaign against grand corruption. If the general public comes to a point of facing corrupt individuals without fear, Tanzanians will make progress in the fight against the evil.
Slaa said people who are notorious for corruption were using their money to set up media outlets for personal gain, but primarily for mudslinging patriotic Tanzanians fighting against the corruption vice.
For example, he said, during the last parliament meeting each MP was given for free a copy of a tabloid, the contents of which were basically about a person committed to fighting corruption, and that the information it published was not a public issue.
``If I may ask you; is it an issue of great interest to the public when somebody publishes in his newspaper that individual X has girlfriend Y?
If you tell me that X has girlfriend Y, so what! Many people have girlfriends,`` he said.
He added that one day the same tabloid published a story claiming that Slaa and his friends were among people involved in grand corruption in the country.
``In that story my picture appeared, as well as that of the leader of UK’s Conservative Party.
``But when I contacted its officials, they denied to have knowledge on the story,`` He said the motive was to discourage people waging the campaign against corruption.
``You can see what they are trying to do. They are diverting the attention of the public from the main issues to peripheral matters that have no benefit to the public.``
The MP said the naming of ``corrupt heavyweights`` would be more meaningful if appropriate legal action is taken against them, explaining that there are signs of lack of political will on the part of the government to take legal action against corrupt people.
``I have said often, I repeat that it is likely for the accused - in the ongoing court cases against people involved in the theft of public funds from the Central Bank and Richmond scam - to be let free at the end of the day.
``Look here, recently one of the accused named Dr Daudi Ballali, the late central bank governor as the person who ordered him to do whatever he did.
He queried: ``Did we record Ballali`s statement so that we can use it as evidence?``
He said there will likely be no evidence in all the cases against people accused of siphoning billions of public money from BoT`s External Payment Arrears (EPA) account because there is not any statement of the principal suspect, the late Ballali.
On his part Ole Sendeka said the names of corrupt individuals that Mengi announced “are not new in the ears of the public or in the press because they are well known.``
``The question that everybody should ask is ‘what steps have been taken against them,` `` adding that he was worried by the fact that despite the individuals being mentioned no real political will has been shown to deal with them.
Article source: SUNDAY OBSERVER
Photo source : Various sites.
Karatu and Simanjiro legislators Dr Willibroad Slaa (pictured) and Christopher Ole Sendeka (CCM) have praised the IPP Executive Chairman Reginald Mengi for naming five individuals linked to grand corruption, saying this shows his courage and dedication to the cause of fighting the vice in the country.
Mengi`s step is a bold one, and should be emulated by other patriotic Tanzanians provided that they have proof, the two members of parliament told The Guardian on Sunday in Dodoma this week.
``Such courageous people are very few in our country, and other (citizens) should ask themselves why Mengi has decided to name in the public the corrupt elements,`` Slaa said.
``When a person comes out in public and names people believed to be the most corrupt individuals in the society, that is courage to be positively commended,`` he added. Mengi is a person with sober mind who knows what he said, Slaa insisted, stating that by mentioning the names he had proof. ``Mengi could not just come from nowhere and mention the names before the press... he must have evidence because he knows the implications.``
He said the IPP Executive Chairman`s decision went farther in the campaign against grand corruption. If the general public comes to a point of facing corrupt individuals without fear, Tanzanians will make progress in the fight against the evil.
Slaa said people who are notorious for corruption were using their money to set up media outlets for personal gain, but primarily for mudslinging patriotic Tanzanians fighting against the corruption vice.
For example, he said, during the last parliament meeting each MP was given for free a copy of a tabloid, the contents of which were basically about a person committed to fighting corruption, and that the information it published was not a public issue.
``If I may ask you; is it an issue of great interest to the public when somebody publishes in his newspaper that individual X has girlfriend Y?
If you tell me that X has girlfriend Y, so what! Many people have girlfriends,`` he said.
He added that one day the same tabloid published a story claiming that Slaa and his friends were among people involved in grand corruption in the country.
``In that story my picture appeared, as well as that of the leader of UK’s Conservative Party.
``But when I contacted its officials, they denied to have knowledge on the story,`` He said the motive was to discourage people waging the campaign against corruption.
``You can see what they are trying to do. They are diverting the attention of the public from the main issues to peripheral matters that have no benefit to the public.``
The MP said the naming of ``corrupt heavyweights`` would be more meaningful if appropriate legal action is taken against them, explaining that there are signs of lack of political will on the part of the government to take legal action against corrupt people. ``I have said often, I repeat that it is likely for the accused - in the ongoing court cases against people involved in the theft of public funds from the Central Bank and Richmond scam - to be let free at the end of the day.
``Look here, recently one of the accused named Dr Daudi Ballali, the late central bank governor as the person who ordered him to do whatever he did.
He queried: ``Did we record Ballali`s statement so that we can use it as evidence?``
He said there will likely be no evidence in all the cases against people accused of siphoning billions of public money from BoT`s External Payment Arrears (EPA) account because there is not any statement of the principal suspect, the late Ballali.
On his part Ole Sendeka said the names of corrupt individuals that Mengi announced “are not new in the ears of the public or in the press because they are well known.``
``The question that everybody should ask is ‘what steps have been taken against them,` `` adding that he was worried by the fact that despite the individuals being mentioned no real political will has been shown to deal with them.
Article source: SUNDAY OBSERVER
Photo source : Various sites.
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