Stepping down will save Ms Mtemvu, crown images

THE ping-pong that the newly crowned Miss Tanzania does not qualify for the crown allegedly for being over-aged refuses to go away!

The continued debate on the issue is fuelled by two sides’ hard stance on the matter and there are no indications that there will be any thaw by either side on the stance.

And because of the hard positions held and protected, to the hilt, by either side to the dispute, there is a danger (given the present communication technology which has reduced the world into a global village) that the dispute would finally get to the Miss World contest to the detriment of Tanzania as a country.

If it gets to the international arena and it’s proved by the latter that indeed, our pageant was over-aged, it would be catastrophic. We all know what befell our national football authority over one decade ago when it was discovered that one of our U-17 players in the Serengeti National soccer team was over-aged.

The country was banned for four years by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). That incident should be the first and the last that this country has suffered.

We don’t need another incident to learn how not to wash our dirty linen in the public. Listening to both sides to the present dispute, it’s extremely difficult to tell who is telling the truth.

And that being the case, those behind the organisation of the Miss Tanzania contest need to work hard to resolve this problem once and for all.

Of course, people will offer suggestions here and there on how to resolve the dispute. But ultimately, the solution lies with the organisers. They need to resolve the dispute now and not tomorrow because tomorrow may be too late.

For instance, one way to resolve the dispute is for the organisers to seek the intervention of a third part in the form of an expert (which can be provided by those in the medical domain) in determining the age of a person, although I wouldn’t personally like those behind the organisation of Miss Tanzania to get to that!

Therefore, instead of allowing Miss Tanzania to proceed to the Miss World contest where the global organisers may be forced to re-check her age, with all other attendant problems, it’s better to resolve the problem now.

The latter process can however, only be resorted to if Miss Mtemvu is to be allowed by the organisers to continue clinging to her crown.

But when all is said and done, the easiest route out of what is increasingly turning out into an impasse is for the present bearer of the Miss Tanzania Crown to step down, voluntarily, instead of clinging to the crown and in the process being subjected to the kind of assaults she is presently being subjected to.

The beauty of stepping down is that it will help not only her as an individual, but also the Miss Tanzania organisers from being subjected to further scrutiny.

It’s important to note that stepping down has nothing to do with the acceptance or otherwise of what is being levelled against Miss Mtemvu. But rather, it would go a long way towards protecting her image and that of Miss Tanzania as an institution.

In fact, had she stepped down immediately a section of the people were raising the red flag, the ping pong would not have reached this far.

Again, it’s important to note that the event’s organisers are in a very tricky situation. They cannot take away the crown from Miss Mtemvu because doing so now would be tantamount to admitting that they had erred; that they were not thorough in determining the contestants’ qualifications.

However, when the present bearer of the crown steps down, say on the ground that, she does not want the Miss Tanzania contest as a respectable institution to be associated even by rumours, she would have contributed quite considerably both to the solution on the dispute and protection of Miss Tanzania as an institution.

In a word, the key to the dragging dispute lies with Miss Mtemvu. She holds the proverbial key to the solution. It’s not too late for her to act and save Miss Tanzania as an institution.

But as I have already noted, stepping down does not mean one owns what she is being accused, far from it. It’s simply a process to allow the organisers to get on with both lives and that of Miss Tanzania as an institution.

By Attilio Tagalile (Tanzania Daily News)