Speaking of injecting more youth into the political process, CCM has just pulled a semi-expected move in the direction of revamping its upper ranks.

There is something to be said about respecting term limits: somehow their impeding retirement from the pinnacle of Tanzanian political life helps our incumbent presidents find the courage and determination they might have lost during the course of their rule.

Anything is possible when you know the end is nigh.

In the case of the fourth administration, I think it is worth commending this gesture of good will. The generational turn was bound to happen soon enough, and with this move much of the contentiousness of the process has been sidestepped.

I am not blindly faithful that there is anything particularly morally superior or even competent about youth, but I support the move for three reasons: Proportional representation, vibrancy and relevance.

We need more youth in government to represent the interests of the majority of the country, considering how young the populace is.

As for vibrancy, truth be told, our old men and women in the short-sleeved suits are tired and it shows.

The current administration has more or less proved that speaking the language of renewal and actually implementing solid new ideas are two different things entirely.

Hopefully, the natural impatience of young and untried leaders to prove themselves will result in at least as much action as there is talk.

Will this give CCM the focus and the authority it seems to have lost in recent years? Hard to say, but its move to nominate a majority of workers and farmers and pastoralists to its national executive committee is very interesting indeed.

The Grand Old Party calls it “going back to our roots,” a nice folksy slogan that gives the exercise a veneer of charm I am not sure it deserves.

While it is good to see the party remember some of its socialist beginnings, it shouldn’t lose the ideological flexibility and opportunism that has allowed it to remain stable through various incarnations.

Yes, it was a bad idea for CCM to embrace big business and especially wrong of the party to mix business and politics the way that it did.

But much of the future of the country lies in the direction of business, and there’s no point vilifying entrepreneurship when we’re trying to grow a domestic middle class.

Of course, there are a few flies in the ointment. I find it interesting that a number of formerly important politicians who were disgraced mid-term have made the cut, and that there is more than one member of the president’s family in the top ranks of the leadership structure.

Apparently only so much change but not too much is just about enough. I guess that’s why it is called continuity.

Much as I like to support oppositional politics, realistically I know that CCM hasn’t yet been unseated as the political powerhouse of the country.

Maybe given enough time, the opposition will grow into a viable alternative but that day hasn’t come yet, no matter how many times they assure us voters that we’re tired of the ruling party.

What’s really lacking, and where the opposition could truly stick the knife into the ribs of the Grand Old Party, is vision.

“A better life for every Tanzanian” is so open to interpretation, so wishy washy and ultimately soulless that it could only have been coined by a marketing firm. In this regard, perhaps, we could learn something from Rwandese President Paul Kagame.

President Kagame recently gave considerable access to a Time magazine journalist who was sniffing after the story of Rwanda’s role in the conflict in the DRC.

After Kagame was done manhandling his interviewer — and he manhandles them so well — he turned the discussion to approaches to development.

While I remain outside the ranks of the Kagame fan club, I have to admit an admiration for the steadiness of his overall ambition to build Rwanda on a foundation of self-reliance.

It doesn’t sound like life in Rwanda has much of the political confusion that plagues us here.

And that’s going to be the test of this new intake: Vision. Real vision, not sloganeering. Previous generations had their work cut out for them and seemed to know what they meant by public service.

Perhaps times were simpler back then. If this new intake could do take on the task of figuring out that one important thing — perhaps self-reliance, or education, even a deep commitment to rooting out grand corruption- — and committing to it, we are likely to see revolutionary results.

Analysts and commentators keep saying that the world is becoming more complicated, and I agree that it is, but the best and most revolutionary ideas remain as basic as bread, or freedom.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report, http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com. E-mail: [email protected]