Nyerere needs a master plan

THIS GAMBLE MUST COME OFF
By Hugh Kay
A RESIGNATION and a wedding in
the lives of two remarkable African Catholics dominate the news this week. Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika and Tom Mboya of Kenya have something else in common as well as— or perhaps because of—their faith: a sense of balance that has attracted to both of them the label of "moderate", an unpopular one in current African politics.
Mr. Nyerere's resignation as Prime Minister has special import in a one-party system, wherein party posts can wield more influence than portfolios. Mao Tse-Tung, the people's idol and the party "theologian", knew the advantages of withdrawal from the day to day routine of government business and concentration on the building up of a national mind and a national effort.
Snags
This is equally true of a nonCommunist monolith, and Mr. Nyerere remains head of the party (TANU). There is also much to be said for a procedure that has something in common with the British convention of "going to the country". When the gamble comes off, or when substitutes have made a mess of things. the hero s weeps back triumphant.
But the gamble may not come off, and the snags in Nyerere's position reveal at depth the way in which a one-party system can divide a nation when a two or three party system could unite it. Oppositions are expected to oppose, and in doing so help the nation to a synthesis. Divide a one-party regime, and a nation is thrown into confusion and dismay.
The talk about the division in TANU as Left v. Right or even Centre v. Left is misleading. Nyerere's opponents are not to be written off as Marxists. Nor is there any religious issue. Moslems
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