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Politics a 'zero-sum game' in Zimbabwe
By Tonderai
Munakiri
I THINK most
Zimbabweans have come to the conclusion that politics in our country
is a “zero-sum game” after watching the democratic forces
in Zimbabwe fall apart.
The winner in our politics takes all and the loser loses all. There is very little political accommodation in Zimbabwe going by the current events in the democratic camps.
ZANU PF could have
been made history had all opposition forces united to dislodge it from
power.
A closer look at the results of the democratic forces that won the “no”
vote during the constitutional referendum in 2000 vindicates my assertion.
During the “no vote” campaign every democratic force sang
the same hymnal from the same hymn book and everyone was motivated by
the interests of the country and not by any self-gains.
Unfortunately today self-interests have taken precedent over national interests. The divorce in the MDC is a good example of the failure to accommodate political differences.
We have splinter parties that have been formed all over the country and one wonders why Zimbabwe should have more than two political parties when the country has no more than 12million people. Most of the first world countries have two official political parties.
The current piecemeal and divided forces will not deliver Zimbabwe from the tyranny. The current political intolerance will not end the hunger that is threatening to knock on every Zimbabweans’ door this season, the current turmoil in the opposition camp will not end the foreign currency shortages, the current disunity in the opposition camp will continue to scare investors and donors and the current scenario is a groundswell for poverty and disease which have caused havoc in this southern African country.
It is rather absurd for the top six MDC to argue that the “Senatorial elections” precipitated the split in the party. History and posterity will surely judge the top “six” harshly for this breakup because a simple issue like senate elections would surely not have caused this acrimony which we have been reading about in the newspapers everyday. The trading of insults is analogous to children engaged in a street fight. Some of the things we heard about the six leaders are not supposed to be washed in public because it is dirty linen. How can we trust these leaders when simple issues over participation in an election can cause such a big rift?
Ironically the new child on the bloc (Mutambara) is seeking not to participate in future elections. This decision was made way far before the 2005 parliamentary elections by all civic groupings and only to be overturned a few weeks before the 2005 parliamentary election.
If these collective efforts and decisions were to be implemented collectively we would surely be somewhere with our democratic struggle. We are where we are because there has been lack of cohesion and focus which is needed when one confronts a formidable rival like ZANU PF. Only consented pressure and unity will see the birth of a new Zimbabwe. We had passed the first stages of this democratic struggle and when we were almost reaching the final stages we were let down by a leadership that is yet to understand what conflict management is all about as well as what it means to serve the national interest.
One wishes our opposition leaders could learn from politics on the other side of the continent. For instance, in America, every politician is cognizant of the national interest; every leader knows that their different ideologies matter less when it comes to national interest. In America, leaders come together when the national interest is at stake and they go back to their parties when ideological issues arise. Added to this, politics this part of the world is not a “zero-sum game”, politics is a program of political action and accommodation to serve the national interest.
A lot of theories have been advanced to explain the reasons why African leaders never share a political table. There is the poverty theory which says there is a very little national cake and everyone is going for grabs. While poverty could account for the current fights, we would think that leaders are less motivated by their self-interest than they would by the interest of the nation.
Another theory has been the “colonial hangover”. This theory says following the departure of the colonialists, nationalists became too drunk with power that they forgot to empower the masses that fought for the liberation of the country. Now the Mugabes of this world think that they have a right to mortgage Zimbabwe to the East just because he went to the bush to fight the colonialists. Zimbabwe is too big to be owned by one man or person and so we all have a stake not only in the governance but even in the resource allocation of the country.
Another theory has been that there is very little training regarding the history of the country and conscientization about the value of being a Zimbabwean. Some Zimbabweans revoke their nationality the moment they leave their country for greener pastures or for neighboring countries. This is because we lack consciousness about what it means to belong to a country and to be a citizen of a given country. While Americans have every reason to be proud of their country, they have never stopped to be patriotic even when the chips are down.
Americans have continued to identify with their country even when over 2000 soldiers have died in the Iraq war. The Democrats and the Republicans are all agreed that the Iraq war must be won and not abandoned. Zimbabwean leaders on the other hand are ready to divorce over simple electoral issues.
One wonders why all small opposition parties cannot join hands with a bigger opposition camp so that they do no split the votes and so that they can form a formidable opposition. Margaret Dongo’s ZUD is a classic example of a party that was buried politically because she never wanted to embrace the winds of democracy that were sweeping across Zimbabwe. If every democratic force were to be united and mobilize its constituency, we could surely see another victory similar to the “no” vote during the constitutional referendum polls. Zimbabwe would be liberated and delivered from the jaws of poverty, bad governance today. However, as long as opposition forces are in disarray, ZANU PF will never be dislodged from power.
At the moment, the two MDC factions have a crisis of legitimacy because we all don’t know what is really going on. Who is the real MDC, what are their programs of action? Do we not risk another civil war should one of the MDC factions win the Presidency? While a conflict is healthy, a divorce is very dangerous because it steals the morale of the people, disillusions voters and is a betrayal to the many that have lost and risked their limbs for a new Zimbabwe. Those who died for the democratic struggle must be turning in their graves because after laying all the groundwork, the leaders failed to take the battle further because of their personality problems.
In any organization, leaders must learn that conflict is normal and even healthy. It does not take rocket science to recognize this. The split within the MDC camp was unfortunate because it should be noted that the Zimbabwean crisis only worsened in 2000 after Mugabe and ZANU PF realized that they were under siege following their great loss at the constitutional referendum polls. The “great loss” by ZANU PF was followed by the passage of repressive laws and a retribution war on every democratic force.
“War Cabinets” were created so that the wrath of Mugabe could be unleashed on his perceived adversaries. Mugabe was not going to surrender power without a fight and when we thought that the MDC and other like minded forces would fight back we suffered a major set-back when the opposition started to discord amongst itself. What a great betrayal MDC! But the point l am making is that had it not been for the MDC, Zimbabweans could have been in a better situation than they are now. Maybe we could still be having electricity, clean water, affordable bread and other basic commodities but ZANU PF is in a “survival fight” and they have taken every bad policy to survive the siege. The MDC was to exert consented pressure on the tyranny until the mission was accomplished.
It is for this reason that it is imperative that all democratic forces; the students, workers, the independent media, diasporas and every stakeholder start to sing the same hymnal in order to dislodge ZANU PF from power. Disagreements should be allowed but these should not divert our attention from the national project of making Mugabe history.
Only when democratic
forces unite and adhere to one agenda can we see a new Zimbabwe being
realized otherwise this will turn out to be one pipedream that shall
never see the light of the day. The current acrimony in the opposition
camp is not healthy if we are to give Zimbabwe a fresh start. The current
forces need to be pulled in one direction and only by doing that can
we achieve true opposition that can challenge a formidable ZANU PF.
Remember ZANU PF had its own struggles but these never derailed them
from the national project which they completed at independence.
Munakiri is a regular opinion writer and writes from South Africa
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