MDC should snub Senate

MDC should snub Senate

• Mugabe calls senate poll for November, MDC undecided

• Msekiwa Makwanya: the MDC, the senate and boycott politics

• Morgan Tsvangirai: The senate, what's in it for the people?

• Grace Kwinjeh: No to senate elections!

• Kwinjeh attacks MDC senate poll participation

• MDC to contest for senate seats

• Prof Jonathan Moyo: New amendments should face battle royal

• New constitutional moves 'will not fly'

• Chinamasa slammed over 'exit visa' threat

• Innocent C Sithole: The MDC and culture of prevarication

• MDC wants to give senate a miss

• Prof Welshman Ncube: Constitutional reforms recipe for disaster

• Zim denies plot to curtail critics' travel

• Dr Alex Magaisa: Constitution without Constitutionalism

• Lucas Nkomo: The right to revolt against tyranny

• Tawanda Hove: Constitutional reforms and MDC mess

• US says Zim moves 'a sad step backwards'

• Rights groups condemn constitutional moves

• Paul Themba Nyathi: Dark day for democracy

• Parliament passes amendment bill

• Prof Jonathan Moyo: Constitutional madness will not save Zanu PF

• MDC ambush Zanu PF with draft constitution

• Zim tables bill to amend constitution

• Lawyers condemn constitutional amendment

• Aspiring Zanu PF senator dies of poisoning

• Alex Magaisa: Constitutional amendment spells doom for economy

• Chinamasa admits Zanu PF has no two thirds

• Zimbabwe opposition snubs Mugabe

• Zimbabwe senate will last only 5 years

• Moyo fights constitutional amendment

• Mugabe recalls Zimbabwe parliament

• Zanu PF accelerates Senate plans

• Mugabe appoints nephew to new Cabinet

• Mugabe to extend term

• Moyo on opposition benches as MPs sworn in

• Mugabe appoints governors, Cabinet expected

• Mugabe vows to rule for a century

By Oscar Nkala

IT WAS long coming but all Zimbabwe watchers would have known that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change still had to decide whether or not to participate in the Senate elections.

It is now public information that the party, after exhaustive nationwide tours in which the people repeated their desire to be liberated from Zanu PF abuse, has finally decided to ignore the people and join the Zanu PF bandwagon by sending candidates aged 40 and above into the next gravy train -- the Senate.

No wonder the MDC youth movement is furious, only useless people near or beyond geriatric age will be required for the Old People’s home the Senate promises to be. In a long letter that correctly lists the adverse situation in which Zimbabweans find themselves, MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai asked a question whose answer every Zimbabwean learnt from Mugabe well before the 2005 parliamentary elections. Mr Tsvangirai asks what the people are going to get out of the Senate.

For an answer, I would like to remind Mr Tsvangirai that Mugabe stated in public that all Zanu PF parliamentary aspirants who had lost the primary elections should not despair but instead campaign for the chosen candidates, who would then go into parliament and support the imposition of a so-called Upper House of Parliament, which would in turn be stuffed with primary election losers.

Those who had been following the inner rumblings in Zanu PF before the Tsholotsho saga exploded will remember that the party’s congress last December blew great holes and left many disgruntled gravy-train lovers without a ride. The purpose of the Senate, Mr Tsvangirai, is too accommodate the remainder and by a master stroke bring back all Zanu PF prodigal sons before the finalisation of the succession dispute.

Ask yourself why Zanu PF needed Tekere and I will bet my expired Z$5 000 travellers’ cheque on that Two-Boy is already a senator, only waiting to be confirmed by the election process in November. Tsvangirai asks: What’s in the Senate for the people?

Assuming “the people” here refers to everyone; the Senate has nothing to offer for the people. If the MDC is still the people’s party we were made to believe it was, the Senate elections would be one key event to boycott. For the government to say that the Senate enhances “our democracy,” whatever democracy means in Zimbabwe, is a fallacy and by participating, the MDC would be committing one of the greatest in a series of monumental blunders that have done more to entrench than erode Zanu PF tyranny.

Without the participation of the MDC, Zanu PF’s soiled underpants would be appearing on roadside billboards to remind politicians of what democrats should not wear. Because of the MDC, Zanu PF can lay claim to having a discredited parliamentary majority, which has just shoved the Senate down the throats of screaming MDC parliamentarians. The presence of the MDC in parliament is Mugabe’s only claim to democratic pretence. The fact that the MDC has chosen to abandon the people and jump and dance each time Patrick Chinamasa twitches his fingers to tinker with the constitution exposes the desperation of Zimbabweans for a better and more decisive leadership.

Any party that lays claim to majority support, but still fails to draw functional mandates from it abuses its supporters. The Senate is a Zanu PF creation, meant to serve a narrow Zanu PF political agenda. The people will get a bloated, unnecessary and exorbitantly demanding classroom full of tired, senile beings, some of whom claimed to have 97% disability ratings when they siphoned funds out of the War Victims Compensation Fund. The taxpayers will have to dig deeper to buy the latest Nissan Hardbody vehicles for the country’s most outstanding political rejects.

As if that is not enough, the MDC intends to join the confusion and emerge with yet another humiliating defeat, which will be the case because Mugabe said loud and clear that he would create the Senate for Zanu PF rejects. The real beneficiaries of the process which MDC wants to legitimize are some Zanu PF factions and Robert Mugabe who views the Senate as part of an exit plan. The average Zimbabwean will continue without food, without money and without an accountable government.

It is sad that the MDC, despite the trust bestowed on it by a growing majority of people, chooses to side with Zanu PF instead of going back to the masses to explain that they cannot take part for fear of legitimizing the constitutional murder and rape the ruling party has set out to repeat. It is needless to have members in a Senate to decide on resolutions made in a House where the MDC remains voiceless. Unless if the MDC wants to create its own equivalent to the Zanu PF league of geriatrics in parliament and cabinet, there is no need and no real benefit for its participation. This would also be the first time that the opposition has abandoned the masses and preferred to kow-tow to Chinamasa’s constitutional rape and bigotry. Such participation will encourage even more dubious acts and elections.

Telling Zanu PF that there is no need for a Senate and withdrawing MDC participation would send a more positive message that the Constitution is not there to be raped. The MDC needs to stand up to, and not bow down to Zanu PF. Any opposition party that takes orders from undemocratic ruling militias disguised as revolutionary parties shoots itself in the foot and is a very willing accomplice in the murder of democracy and the suffering of the people it purports to represent.
Participation by the MDC will confirm them as ponies in the Zanu PF succession game and by extension China which is Zanu PF’s rickety godfather. Forwarding candidates for the Senate elections will also drive a wedge between the MDC youth and older leadership because the youth are disqualified from fielding candidates. Although it has always been the norm that Zanu PF leaders remain youth until they are aged well over 50, I do not think the MDC youth league can produce anyone aged 40 and above to meet one of the key demands for Senate candidacy.

While Zimbabwe suffers from the tyranny of Robert Mugabe, the MDC suffers from a crisis of indecision. It is because of such policy confusion that Mugabe remains president. The MDC is still a willing ladder for Mugabe’s political carpenters and constitutional rapists to reach over and dominate Zimbabwe. By participating in the Senate elections, the MDC will be sending a bold and clear message that the party leadership takes their orders from Mugabe. Are they not a willing accessory in the further abuse of the people and Constitution of Zimbabwe?
Nkala is a Zimbabwean journalist based in Johannesburg, South Africa
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