Why we at where we are....

Why we at where we are....

RECENT OPINION ARTICLES

• Silencing Silence Chihuri

• A leader who thrives among raw talent and flourishes in dull environs

• Reporting MacDonald

• Zimbabwe and software development

• Where is our Mandela?

• The myth of mass action in emerging democracies

• Sadc and human rights - bridging credibility gap

• A tribute to Rosa Parks

• Zimbabwe crisis, Robert Mugabe presiding

• The problem with Africa

• On Mugabe and Katrina

• Musekiwa: Setting the record straight

• Musekiwa a political opportunist

• Zimbabwe tomorrow, the questions

• Zimbabwe: debunking myths

• Biotechnology: Lessons from China

• South Africa should not give Mugabe a cent

• The Zimbabwe we seek

• Murder in the name of Marxism

• For Zim, elections not an option anymore

• Where are the Africans to speak for Zimbabwe

• Two Bobs 'making poverty history'

• Knowing that which I didn't know

• Zimbabwe: talking with one voice

By Silence Chihuri

I WISH to thank everyone for the responses to my last article published on New Zimbabwe.com.

Someone phoned me expressing concern about what an article posted by Makusha Mugabe on NewZimbabwe could have done to my reputation. I told that person that my character was just too intact to be scathed by nonentities like Makusha and his depraved sycophancy and I know for sure that he can never advance his lunacy beyond where he left. Again, substance shall prevail over such fallacy because substance is here to hound them and shall stay.

While I am glad that there are so many out there who share my views, my only concern is the apathetic silence by the wider population on such pertinent matters of national relevance.

If I had said anything in the runner-up to a presidential, parliamentary or worst of all senatorial election, then any poor showing on the part of the MDC party could have been laid squarely on my feet. However it is on the record that the MDC President has stated boldly that elections are no longer an option for the party but confrontation against the regime.

I am very comfortable to take my debate further with the full knowledge that I am compromising no one’s prospects here. Of course this is not the first time rhetoric has been whipped up at the helm of the MDC and I hope it will not be just another dose of such rhetorical semanticising.

The reason why I have had to dwell on the misgivings of the MDC leader is that Mugabe’s mistakes are well documented. But while he (Mugabe) has been desperately trying though failing to correct them, Tsvangirai bungles on, and here are two leaders both of whom are failing. Mugabe is failing to turn things around for the good of the people and Tsvangirai is also failing to take advantage of the people’s disgruntlement with Zanu PF mal-governance. Both leaders are ring fenced by fiercely loyal but equally inadequate hangers-on who would do anything to keep the leader in place because for them, his removal means doom. It is a case of 'he who shouts the loudest in support of the leader has his place guaranteed regardless of what they say or their credibility'. It is no longer a case of qualitative but rather quantitative support, and the quality of politics in general is has been greatly compromised both in opposition and in government.

Another striking similarity is the conveniently acclaimed notion of enjoying the support of the people on the ground, the so-called grassroots support and this is why we are where we are today in Zimbabwe. The people on the ground are largely kept ignorant of the realities of the political situation and their decision in either supporting or voting is made from a point of that ignorant and blind support. During the last five years, the onus has been with MDC rather than Zanu PF to emancipate the Zimbabwean people but it has been one big moment cometh and goneth.

Political leadership is about smartness, a characteristic wanting of the leader the Zimbabwe’s largest opposition whose rather chequered career is marked by too many slip-ups and costly gaffes. These range from the bemusing ‘cheque incident’ right up to the mother of them all, the Ari Ben Manashe debacle. Although Tsvangirai has always sheepishly claimed to have been set up by his ‘transgressors’, the big question to ask is what was he doing in such a compromising situation in the first place? Or was he trying to demonstrate his hands-on approach as a leader such that he had to personally (iye pauzima) engage the services of PR gurus for the party? Then came the infamous ‘final push’ that actually became the final straw to Tsvangirai’s credentials, and then the procrastination just before the parliamentary elections in March 2005 during which the MDC leader spent four weeks or so singing his favourite phrase of “damned if we do, and damned if we don’t”. During all that time Zanu PF was gaining ground while the MDC faithful were simply getting demoralised only to be told on the very eleventh hour that “damned but we will do.”

The MDC Party arrived on the Zimbabwean political scene with a loud bang. The welcome it received from Zimbabweans at large was resounding while the support it went on to enjoy is still a record breaker. In fact the MDC went on to become as some have rightly said, the fastest growing and most popular opposition political party in Africa. The party has been of phenomenal influence to politics on the continent. In essence, the MDC’s acceptance by the people of Zimbabwe was akin to being given a blank cheque to aid the deliverance of Zimbabweans from perennial dictatorship. Failure was not to be an option for, the anger was there among the people, and the cracks were there in the ramshackle government and most significantly, the political void created by Zanu PF was there for all to see. Even Zanu PF had to change “maitiro” in the face of MDC having been used to miniature opposition parties such as the tribal Zanu Ndonga and Muzorewa’s remnant UANC. Yes, retribution ensued but all the hype that followed the MDC wherever it went could never be missed.

However the telltale signs of the excesses characteristic of the directors of an oversubscribed FTSE company started surfacing within the top echelons of the MDC. Suddenly and visibly there was this inclination towards comfortable existence at the core of the MDC leadership and the party chief also succumbed to that benevolence. Such indulgence is a matter of principle and the leader of a party (or be it government), has to set the benchmark but this has not happened. Why did Tsvangirai vacate No. 17 Dunnum Close in Ashdown Park for the more affluent Strathavern, or was that to mark his gradual ascendance to higher and bigger places? And the presidential motorcade and the presidential department at Harvest House led by a Director of Presidential affairs? Why was the MDC, a mere opposition party turned into an opposition government paralleling the extravagance of Zanu PF in every aspect? This tilt towards the comfort zone of stately establishment is what has cost the MDC focus. Could anyone imagine Tsvangirai going out of his beautiful house through the electric gates out into the street to demonstrate? People should not be duped by some of his irresponsible remarks such as that “the people should go in front then we will join them later”, because he will never join you commoners. Not even now in these latest claims of “confronting the regime”.
Silence Chihuri is man MDC activist based in Scotland. He can be reached at silencechihuri@hotmail.com
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
debate@newzimbabwe.com