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The Senate: what's in it for the people?
By Morgan
Tsvangirai
WHILE it remains our strategy and ultimate goal to assume power through
the ballot box and other democratic means, our experiences with elections,
both local and national, are instructive and significantly enlightening.
The Mugabe regime decided as far back as last year to screw up the Parliamentary election in order to rally a two-thirds Parliamentary majority, regardless of the national sentiment and the outcome of the actual voting patterns on the ground.
In other words, like the 2002 Presidential election, the result of the March 2005 poll was pre-determined. Mugabe made no secret the same, in his public pronouncements at rallies and public meetings.
Between 2000 and 2005, the regime failed to tamper with the Lancaster House Constitution because the MDC enjoyed a blocking representation in Parliament. An attempt was made to persuade the MDC into working with Zanu PF to amend the Constitution at the end of 2004. Unsure of how we were going to react, the project was abandoned.
Zanu PF then decided to use its Parliamentary majority to push through a raft of legislation including the enactment of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act which created a highly partisan ZEC that proceeded to claim to run the March 2005 election, and as is now the case, with disastrous results.
Far from resolving the national crisis, the electoral route has become a weapon used for driving our people apart and for deepening our mistrust in the conduct of the Robert Mugabe dictatorship.
Our people have totally lost faith and confidence in elections. Elections have brought no meaningful change to their lifestyles. Against this background, Zimbabweans are cagey about the proposed Senate elections. The Senate, as a national institution, is being forced upon the nation against our advice and despite our spirited resistance in and outside Parliament.
The idea came out of a piecemeal Constitutional change, Amendment No.17. We have argued, together with the entire civil society in Zimbabwe, that our country needs a comprehensive Constitutional review process which is people-driven and publicly accepted. Zanu PF is against that approach, sadly, for selfish reasons.
Zanu PF can proceed with the Senatorial plebiscite, as they have indicated they wish to do, but that action shall fail to deal with the question of legitimacy and the crisis of governance before us. With a Senate, Zimbabwe shall continue to strengthen its pariah status at home and abroad, with a coterie of ambitious politicians carrying the useless title of senator.
Because of the unresolved disputes in 2000, in 2002 and after March 31 and our desire to end the national crisis, taking part in this flawed and opportunistic exercise presents us as a party that is out of touch with the grim reality on the ground. We shall be subjecting our people to a process that provides no value addition to their political fortunes. We shall be pressing our people to pretend to make choices and informed decisions in a matter that fails to raise their political destiny in any meaningful way.
We shall be asking our people to follow the Zanu PF succession agenda, a political experiment that has cost our nation its esteem and driven us to the most agonizing level since time immemorial. We shall be asking the people to resign to their fate. I raise this point because we are told that the proposed Senate is a once-off, one term institution. Of what public benefit, economic or political, is this set-up going to give us as an embattled nation? What is in for the ordinary person, without food and without a job?
Talking of benefits, may I remind Zimbabwe that although the proposed Senate shall have fewer members than the current Parliament, the election shall cost us trillions of dollars more than the amount we spent in March 2005 because of our substantially weaker currency and galloping inflation?
Further, we will need the same numbers of ballot papers, polling stations, polling agents, election officials, election materials, campaign materials, fuels, imported ink, Chinese-made ballot boxes, vehicles and all other necessities that come with a real political contest. Surely, can we afford this luxurious expenditure at a time when we have no food, no fuel, no foreign currency and no jobs? Is creating 65 jobs for senior citizens and greedy politicians an emergency in Zimbabwe today?
As I said before, the outcome of the Senate election shall be pre-determined, just like the March 2005 Parliamentary result. Anyone wishing to partake in this process should therefore refrain from crying foul because Zanu PF's intentions are as clear as the September sky. Some may argue that we need to give Zanu PF discomfort at every turn. But does this mean we have to do it even if we end up chasing our own tails?
From the MDC, my position as President remains unchanged. We are in local government, supposedly in charge of lives of 80 percent of the country's prime productive minds. But have we ever been given a chance to exercise our duties and responsibilities without Zanu PF meddling?
Harare is in state of chaos because Zanu PF refused to accept democracy. The same can be said of Bulawayo, Mutare, Chegutu, Chitungwiza, and all the other towns and cities in our hands. Zanu PF is not interested in co-existence. Zanu PF is intolerant. Zanu PF does not accept our presence and shall never respect our political space and political autonomy, hence the appointment of so-called governors and resident ministers whose mandate is to fight the MDC at a local level.
Our presence in Parliament is merely symbolic. Despite our protests, Zanu PF has pushed some of the most draconian pieces of legislation in Zimbabwe during the past five years. MDC legislators are to debate, raise matters of reason, caution and advise Parliament, but that translates to nothing as Zanu PF simply abuses its inflated majority to do as it wishes. What then is the point?
The Zimbabwean struggle needs a radical paradigm shift. Parliament cannot be the main arena of our struggle. Our experience in Parliament since 2000 shows that the struggle resides outside Zanu PF-dominated institutions. POSA, AIPPA, the NGO Bill, Amendment No 17 and many other repressive laws were shoved down our throats in broad daylight. We have lost acres and acres of political space through legislation, imposed onto the people while we sit there in Parliament. Someone must explain to me that Zimbabwe shall be a different place as soon as we take up seats in the so-called Senate?
We must be serious with ourselves if we hope to make an impact in our desire to bring about far-reaching democratic change in this country. Playing the Zanu PF game means more suffering and greater uncertainty about the future. Instead of wasting time with the Senate proposal, which we vehemently opposed during its passage in Parliament, perhaps it is time we take a fresh look at our continued presence in that often-abused institution.
As political parties and individual politicians, voters award us their mandate on the basis of our promise to public service, our undertaking to the people. In the proposed Senate election, what shall we promise the people? What can the people look forward to as a result of the establishment of a Senate? Food, jobs? What shall be our campaign message?
Zimbabweans need
a break from past malpractices and past political deceit.
Morgan Tsvangirai is President of the Movement for Democratic Change
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