Mutambara must fix his sights on bigger picture

Mutambara must fix his sights on bigger picture

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By Tonderai Munakiri

THERE is a saying that goes “only time will tell” and so it is for politics.

When Mutambara graced the Zimbabwean political landscape there was a lot of euphoria by most progressive and right thinking Zimbabweans.

This is because Mutambara combines intelligence and youth which resonates with a lot of people at this critical time. Mutambara’s acceptance speech at the Congress in Bulawayo was also well received by a lot of people who felt he had a vision and mission for our country and oppositional politics, a vision to make Mugabe history and a mission to reunite and reconcile the two MDC factions.

However, to date, the MDC has remained divided and after the Budiriro by-election over the weekend, I would like to challenge Mutambara to look at the “big picture” and “think nationally”.

Mutambara had a lot of advantages at his disposal upon his entry into national politics. He had more friends than enemies because he was a “new kid” who in his words was “untainted”. Arthur came in with a lot of zeal and promise for a better and new Zimbabwe. Most Zimbabweans naturally fell in love with his long resume which surpasses Mugabe’s degrees in “violence”.

More importantly Arthur has a history that he carved for himself while at the University of Zimbabwe. He led demonstrations that changed the political landscape of our country and whether he gets to be the President of Zimbabwe one day or not, he carved his place in the annals of Zimbabwe’s political history a long time ago.

Added to this, Mutambara can easily relate with the essential needs of the majority of Zimbabweans who are in dire need of jobs, food, drugs, and an education. Mutambara is set to be an all inclusive politician and will not demand that someone produces a resume with liberation war credentials in order for them to serve in a future government if he becomes a President of Zimbabwe.

While Mutambara has all these pros to his side, and with due respect for Mutambara and his followers, my humble submission is that he made a wrong entry point into our politics. My opinion is that Mutambara could have done two things upon his arrival on the national scene of Zimbabwe. He should have remained “untainted” by not affiliating himself with any of the factions. This would have given him time to do an objective analysis of the situation in both factions.

The second option was for him to mediate between the two factions for the sake of our oppositional politics, a bleeding economy and the national democratization project. Mutambara should have mediated between the warring factions and should have drawn a plan of action for the two factions to work together. Mutambara’s “untainted” person at the time he arrived on the Zimbabwean political scene could have won him sympathy and support in both camps. The democratic forces of our country may have triumphed and Zimbabwe may have started to recover from the current economic sabotage by Zanu PF.

By aligning himself with one faction, Mutambara missed the opportunity to ever close the wounds between Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube. Additionally, he missed the opportunity to get our oppositional leaders to ever grow beyond “personalized differences” to carve a place of honor for themselves in the democratization project. Now, instead of committing their resources to the democratization project, the two factions are fighting and splitting votes amongst themselves. Additionally, the two factions have also lost a lot of credibility amongst the voters. They have not only frustrated voters but they have betrayed the living and a lot of those that died for this democratization project; may their souls rest in peace!

But more importantly, Zimbabwe’s economy is in the mortuary now because Zanu PF has sabotaged the economy with plunder and profligacy among its ranks and files. Zimbabwe is bleeding from massive and unprecedented corruption and instead of fighting this scourge; the MDC split has lessened checks and balances in our political system. All efforts and energies have been wasted and exhausted on the trivial and personalized fighting for power between the MDC leadership.

Mutambara holds a lot of hope for our politics in Zimbabwe but he needs to look at the big picture for the sake of our national politics. Mutambara should take off his blinkers and think “nationally” and not “factionally”, after all we are trying to advance the same goals for our country. Zimbabweans should be more united than ever, the hostility within our oppositional leadership will only exacerbate the problems the country is currently facing. This is because resources will be wasted on the factional fights and not on making Zanu PF history and stopping the plunder of our country.

We must avert the current moves by Mugabe to mortgage Zimbabwe to the EAST with his failed look EAST policy. As Mutambara rightly puts it, this is generational intervention which could not have come at a better time. The decisions we make today will impact current and generations to come and, as the late Professor Banana puts it, “Zimbabwe is loaned to us by future generations”.

The MDC shall be judged harshly for failing to look at the NATIONAL picture and advancing the democratization project if it doesnt do something now.
Tonderai Munakiri is a Zimbabwean student and writes from South Africa
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