Just what is the meaning of change?

Just what is the meaning of change?

As the MDC tears itself apart amid shocking scenes of violence, accusations and counter accusations, New Zimbabwe.com can today reveal that the chaos could have been avoided if the MDC leaders had read a warning from our columnist, Mthulisi Mathuthu, in August 2003, three months after we launched. We reproduce Mathuthu's column here, and the comparisons could not be clearer:

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THOSE who are familiar with the Zimbabwean story only through the press can be forgiven for imagining that the struggle is just about a few conservative old men and women clinging onto their political privileges ranged against the rest who include democrats, the young and the liberal minded whose collective catch-word is CHANGE.

It is easy to imagine that the word change has a collective meaning and that that change is just the point beyond Robert Mugabe’s rule. How wrong. What doesn’t occur to many is that while the word change is scary to the ruling elite and their hangers-on, its meaning is different even amongst its proponents.

Even within the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which is supposed to be a movement with one collective purpose, with its members sharing a common vision, it is clear that the word change is interpreted differently.

To an MDC member in Kezi, change is most likely to mean a new dispensation under which power and the national patrimony are shared equally amongst the majority and the minority while to its Harare supporter, it might mean the removal of Mugabe from power and the ushering in of a new era under which people will not queue for petrol and bread.

To the latter, it might simply mean a change of characters in the power game and not a change of political culture which nurses intolerance, gullibility and violence. Welshman Ncube’s idea of change is obviously different from that of Morgan Tsvangirai for the simple reason that their memories, fears and hopes are hardly the same. Even Zanu PF treats them differently mindful of differences in their idea of a better future.

Tsvangirai, a former Zanu PF member, might just be hoping for a future under which he will be above Mugabe with all the people celebrating his ascendancy to power singing songs of praise for him as a man who proved to all that Mugabe was infallible. Already, he has announced that his wish is to see the calling of new elections whose end will be the restoration of international confidence in Zimbabwe and the end of the economic problems. To him a new constitutional arrangement is second to the availability of bread and cooking oil.

"Let David Coltart, Roy Bennet, Ncube, Tsvangirai and Job Sikhala’s ideas of change be known and be acknowledged so we can strike a common understanding"

MTHULISI MATHUTHU

Ncube on the other hand could be hoping for a future which is free from untrammeled power and praise singing. A future which ties all its hopes on the rule of law and the power of diversity. To him, Mugabe can be a major factor only in as far as he has become a powerful tyrant who has penetrated every facet of life. Otherwise he is just another man whose removal alone will not guarantee a change of a political culture which Mugabe’s rule has inculcated since 1980.

To the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists change might mean the scrapping of Posa, Aippa and Jonathan Moyo’s redundancy while to the white people it might mean the return of the farms in a post Mugabe era.

Now what does this teach us? It is a warning that if people refuse to acknowledge their different understanding of the word change we are likely to have a situation in which the future will reify Tsvangirai and his people and leave outside all those who were working against Mugabe outside.

Once again those who are against Mugabe but are not behind the future leader will be branded as "sell-outs", "Mugabe’s puppets" and so on. The sad result will be a vicious circle. Rather than downplay the differences between our hopes, fears and ideas it will be in our interest to find a common platform on which we will celebrate our differences.

Let David Coltart, Roy Bennett, Ncube, Tsvangirai and Job Sikhala’s ideas of change be known and be acknowledged so we can strike a common understanding.
Mthulisi Mathuthu is a Zimbabwean journalist and New Zimbabwe.com columnist. He is currently on leave writing a book. He can be contacted at: thuthuma@yahoo.com
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