There are defining moments in a nation’s history and
students of history will tell us these moments are outstanding for one or both
of the following reasons:
- Visionary leader able to pick out the single most important, urgent and critical issue – the big issue of the generation – out of the many other issues clamouring for attention
- Having picked the big issue, the leader must have the patience and perseverance to see the task through in the face of all the temptations to go for the short cuts or, worse, to give up.
Abraham Lincoln’s America and post independent Zimbabwe have
each had defining moments in the two countries’ history with two completely
different outcomes; the former had a visionary leader in President Lincoln and
the later a “flawed and indecisive character” as Chris Dell, former USA
Ambassador to Zimbabwe, so aptly described Tsvangirai.
“To end the scourge of slavery and the suffering of millions
living in bondage today and millions more yet to be born for all time by a
constitutional measure,” is how US President Abraham Lincoln described the big
issue of his generation. Lincoln argued that America would never prosper “half
slave and half free”.
When President Lincoln was pushing for what is now the 13th
Amendment to the American constitution, abolishing slavery, some people argued at
the time that he should focus on end the civil war. The Civil War was in its
second years and many lives and resources had been lost already. The temptation
to drop the slavery issue like a hot potato was enormous; the breakaway
Southern States were keen to end the war and re-join the Union provided they
were allowed to keep their slaves. Ending the war offered a very attractive
bolt hole.
President Lincoln decided to stay the course and abolish
slavery. He argued that ending the war without abolishing slavery would be a
betrayal all the sacrifice the nation had made in human suffering, human lives,
money and resources to afford this unique opportunity to deal decisively with
this thorny issue of slavery.
On 31 January 1865 the US Congress passed the 13 th
Amendment abolishing slavery and slave trade in north America and the rest of
the world was soon to follow America’s lead. Abraham Lincoln seized the moment
and changed the course of history of not just the United State of America but
of the world, especially those nations that had the cursed honour of supplying
the slaves!
Ever since Zimbabwe attained her independence in 1980 the
country has been on a steady path of economic decline. Today after 35 years of
gross mismanagement and rampant corruption, the economy is in total economic
meltdown. Unemployment has soared to nauseating heights of 90%; a nation that
exported food before independence is now dependent on food imports, we are
starving in the “Garden of Eden”; millions are now living in abject poverty;
etc.
Where there is poverty and hunger, disease and death are
there also.
Life expectancy, the qualitative and quantitative measure of
the nation’s standard of living, has plummeted from 68 years in 1980 to 34
years in 2004 when it was last measured. Today it is a lot worse and, unless
something is done quickly, it is set to get a lot worse as the ruling party
Zanu PF has given up on economic recovery.
It is not that the nation has been fast asleep and was not aware
of the economic decline; the people were aware of the decline, at least by the
late 1990s they would have been aware even sooner if there had been free flow
of information. All the people’s efforts to change the regime, which is what
one would do given the economic decline was due to misrule by Mugabe and his
cronies, have come to naught because Zimbabwe is a de facto one party
dictatorship.
Mugabe has denies the people their basic freedoms and human
rights including to right to a meaningful vote and even the right to life to
establish and sustain his one party dictatorship. He has become expert in all
manner of vote rigging dirty tricks including murder to maintain his
no-regime-change mantra.
The one big issue in Zimbabwe for the last 35 years is
simple enough – to restore the people’s freedoms and human rights including the
right free, fair and credible elections.
We should have never got into this mess if Mugabe and his
cronies had not betrayed the nation by hijacking the revolution to create this
corrupt, murderous and tyrannical regime. We should have had free, fair and
credible elections from day one!
Zimbabwe’s big issue is simple and clear enough to most
people but clearly not to those tasked to deliver the free, fair and credible
elections – Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. MDC MPs were first elected in
2000 on a ticket to deliver democratic change but have failed in spite of the
many chances to do so.
The best chance for MDC to deliver free and fair elections
was at the end of the 2008 to 2009 GNU. Following the wanton violence of the
2008 elections, SADC forced Mugabe to sign the 2008 Global Political Agreement
which stipulated a raft of democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF
dictatorship to ensure the next elections will be free, fair and credible. MDC
was tasked to propose the reforms and have them passed by parliament – MDC should
have had no problem in this since they had the majority in parliament.
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did not table even one single
proposed democratic reform in parliament. Mugabe bribed them with the gravy
train lifestyles plus the $4 million Highlands mansion for Tsvangirai; in
returned they kicked the reforms into the tall grass.
SADC leaders reminded Tsvangirai and his friends about the
need to implement the reforms but to no avail. SADC leaders warned MDC leaders
of the folly of taking part in the 2013 elections with no reforms in place but
again their warning fell on ears paid well to hear nothing.
Mugabe and Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013
elections. The regime has since continued with is gross mismanagement, rampant
corruption and to impose its oppressive lawlessness resulting in the
accelerated economic meltdown.
Ever since the rigged 2013 elections Tsvangirai and his MDC
friends have since come round to accepting that Zimbabwe needs to implement
reforms if the nation is ever hold free, fair and credible elections. But
instead of reverting to the original 2008 GPA reforms Tsvangirai is proposing
wishy-washy electoral reforms because MDC has a better chance of forcing Mugabe
to implement these reforms than the tougher original reforms precisely because
Mugabe will still have his vote-rigging machine intact.
Tsvangirai’s electoral law reforms have already been ruled “inadequate
and incomplete” by Veritas, a Zimbabwean think tank on legal matters. He knows
that these reforms will accomplish nothing but he is pushing for them because
he wants to be seen as doing something about implementing the reforms.
Since the GPA expired at the end of the GNU SADC cannot
pressure Mugabe to implement the GPA reforms; Zimbabweans will have to find the
pressure points on Mugabe. The worsening economic situation and the on-going
dog-eat-dog infighting in Zanu PF have weakened Mugabe making him more susceptible
to accepting change.
A united voice demanding free, fair and credible elections
will force Mugabe to accept that there is no other way out. A dithering and
confused opposition which does not know which is the nation’s big issue much
less how to resolve it is a blessing to a tyrant like Mugabe and a curse to the
nation.
If
we accept Tsvangirai’s electoral reforms then the nation will be implement more
and more of these reforms 100 years from now and still be no nearer to holding
free, fair and credible elections than we are today. The demand for free, fair
and credible elections will be the big issue for generations more of
Zimbabweans to come!
Credit where credit is due, the ordinary Americans were able to recognize and appreciated President Lincoln's visionary leadership qualities and hence the reason they voted for him for a second term rejecting those opportunistic leaders who promised to end the war, damn the slaves! The fact that we still have Zimbabweans who still back this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship even now with the nation sinking into this abyss whilst many others still follow the village idiot Tsvangirai regardless goes to show how far behind the 1865 American electorate the Zimbabwean voters are!
ReplyDeleteThe Zimbabwean electorate are very naive and gullible and there is really no reason they should be, not in this day and age. The only logical reason why they are still naive and gullible is that they are too lazy to open their eyes and minds to see what is there before them. The fact that it is their own lives and that of their children should have help galvanize the person to pay attention, sadly that has not happened here.
It is the same unwillingness to think and fight for freedom and justice that made blacks from Africa ideal slaves; they are easily subdued, corralled and put to work.
If Zimbabweans have failed to figured out what constitute visionary and competent leaders as is clearly the case here, what hope is there they would in another 100 years? None!
In terms of intellectual development this present generation is the cleverest; they were better fed, better educated, better housed, etc. Ever since President Mugabe instituted his farm seizure in 2 000 at least one third of the nation has been malnourished, the country has been chaining out university and college graduates whose degree qualification are not worth the paper they are written on, everything is in an advance stage of rot and decay from roads to hospitals, etc. and all these factors are working to lower the nation’s IQ.
If the nation’s IQ now is not much higher than that of an idiot, in another 100 years we will be a nation of certified first class idiots who turned the Garden of Eden into one sewage pond and now the nation is slowly drowning in their own shit.
After the rigged July 2013 elections was sure the Zimbabwe electorate was going to go into over drive in their search for an explanation why Zanu PF had once again managed to rig the elections with relative easy. They were disappointed but that was all! Most of the people do not have a clue what happened during the GNU and so they have learnt nothing regarding MDC leaders being breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and sell-outs. So come the next elections they are just as likely to vote another lot of corrupt and incompetent leaders if not the same MDC leaders even.
DeleteUnless people wake and do something in the next year or two to end this tyrannical rule this nation will be condemned to a life of poverty and despair. The longer we fail to do something to end this nightmare the harder it is going to be to do it tomorrow.
I have to agree with you, when it comes to using our heads, we are a very lazy lot!
A senior official in the People First project confirmed that several MDC-T officials, who left the opposition party, were on the ground and working with the Mujuru project
ReplyDeleteSome of the defectors include former deputy mayor, Emmanuel Chiroto, Dzivarasekwa councillor, Herman Karimakwenda and Mbare councillor, Friday Muleya among several oth-ers, who left the opposition for various reasons.
MDC is a party that has no ideology, principles and values the one thing all the party's leaders and members alike are seeking is an opportunity to get on the gravy train and have their share of the loot! MDC is clearly lost and sinking fast. On the other hand People First is rising and it will offer them a better chance to get somewhere. MDC councillors are deserting Tsvangirai first because they are hoping to secure the front seats in the new party before those now in the front seat in MDC join them.
In Zimbabwe politics merit counts for nothing, it is a matter of first come first served and once you have secured a seat you attach yourself to it like a binnacle. Tsvangirai. Mugabe, Mujuru, etc. understand this binnacle mentality because that is what has kept them in power for donkey years!
There must be panic in Harvest House right now; Tsvangirai has been keen to form a coalition with People First on the basis that MDC has a mass following. New of MDC leaders deserting to join People First and recruiting members for the later can only mean one thing People First is getting big at MDC's expense. Soon the People First will have MDC members without having to take on the baggage of the top leadership!
Tsvangirai had three chances to remove President Mugabe and he fcuked up every time. The nation is ready to give someone else that chance to remove the tyrant from State House and Joice Mujuru has the best chance to do just that in the present situations. The people were disappointed with MDC's failure to end the Zanu PF dictatorship after the July 2013 elections and in Mujuru they see someone who can.
MDC's public supporter is not as great as Tsvangirai has pretended it is and the launch of People First will finish off MDC! Let us just say MDC leaders are negotiating their coalition terms with People First not as a party but as individuals! People have deserted Tsvangirai be-fore and this could be the last straw that broke the camel’s back!
@ Stewart Murewa
ReplyDelete“It escapes him (Biti) that the country has been holding free and fair elections since independence,” you said.
It was not just Biti but SADC and the AU also did not think Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections were free and fair and hence the reason why the two bodies forced President Mugabe to sign the 2008 GPA and to reform the Police and other institutions you telling us now they do not need reforming.
Zimbabwe is in this political and economic hell-hole because it has failed to hold free, fair and credible elections and is not getting out of the hole until it implements the GPA reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections.
Tendai Biti, Morgan Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube and all the other MDC leaders had the golden chance to implement the GPA reforms during the GNU but wasted that chance. They failed to implement even one reform in five years because President Mugabe bribed them to kick the reforms into the tall grass.
Zimbabwe’s present political paralysis and economic meltdown are both socially and politically unsustainable and the only way to change the situation is through free, fair and credible elections and to have them we must implement the GPA reforms. There is no other way out, you, Zanu PF apologists, may deny this all you want but you will be forced to accept this reality sooner or later.