THOSE of us who have been watching the two ‘political giants/monsters’ in the Zimbabwean political landscape fight, have watched with awe how much damage the battle for power has left Zimbabwe poorer economically and socially.
Zimbabwe, as it stands today is one of the few countries where the fight for political power has betrayed a common factor found elsewhere called nationalism (or patriotism). So determined are the political principals to outclass each another leaving us wondering when it will all end.
A deep thought which is in the best interest of Zimbabwe, will leave those of us who have decided to be apolitical wishing that our two major political parties take time to reflect on the impact of their battles on the ordinary citizen.
It is my sincere hope that Zimbabweans grasp why we no longer have Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independence Party (UNIP), Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi Congress Party and Jomo Kenyatta’s and Moi’s Kenya African National Union (KANU) in African politics today.
One can also look Russia and find that the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) is no longer in charge. The disappearance of these ‘revolutionary’ parties cannot be blamed exclusively on the influence of the west. Their failure to put in place people driven balances and checks on their activities played a major role in their downfall. They evolved slowly from people based parties to parties controlled by a well oiled few and eventually lost touch with the people. The end result was a general decline in their economies leading to development of internal resistance to their continued rule.
A good comparison with parties across the ideological divide would show that western parties like the Republican Party formed in 1854 in the US by anti-slavery expansion activists and the Conservative Party formed in the United Kingdom in 1678, are still dominant political players in their respective countries. A closer look into the reasons for their long survival points to an active involvement of the ordinary people in electing their leaders.
Viewed differently, one sees an acceptance that leadership has to be renewed regularly, thereby allowing and entrenching intra-party democracy. The strengths of most western parties is in the fact that they have developed healthy political habits which trust their ordinary members in charting the direction a party has to take. This also involves holding of regular elections to make sure one has a mandate to represent a party at local to national elections.
This kind of intra party democracy removes factionalism because a candidate is not nominated/selected from the top but elected by the grass roots and when one loses he or she would have lost openly. Every brand which doesn’t change when everything else is changing risks becoming obsolete.
We should be very concerned if our two parties go down the drain because they represent part of the evolution of Zimbabwe. A revisit of their constitutions as much as the Zimbabwean constitution needs panel beating will restore the people as the owners of our beautiful country. There should be limits to the number of terms one can serve as a leader of these parties giving room for others to go up the ladder. The west or the east cannot buy the country’s sovereignty from each and every member of the party, but members can become fortresses against imperialism. These changes should be done openly without setting anyone into an advantaged position. Some might ask why put the MDC in all this? The MDC should know that Bakili Muluzi’s United Democratic Front (UDF) is no longer a ruling party in Malawi after Bingu Wa Mutharika left to form his own party.
In attempting to survive, the Chinese Communist Party has introduced some changes and has managed to mix communism cum socialism with market reforms after the death of Chairman Mao in 1976. In so doing, the party has managed to move from a purely Marxist orientation to a more open market reform policy which has fed into the economic boom it is currently going through. Coupled with these changes, they have been able to manage leadership renewal and just recently they picked Xi Jinping, a 54 year old to succeed Hu Jintao in 2012.
I should hasten to say that though the Chinese Communist Party is having these changes, they still don’t have a clear and viable way of choosing leaders, the same problem Cuba has faced in replacing Fidel Castro. One can compare the elevation of Raul Castro and that of Jacob Zuma in the African National Congress and see the nobleness of engaging of the people in choosing party leadership.
When the people have been empowered, we need to talk as a family and say to ourselves, why are we fighting? Who are we pleasing or benefiting in our ‘civil war’? Is it the ordinary Zimbabwean? Why do I say this? It’s because as Zimbabweans we seem not to have a common factor that binds us together. We seem not to realise that whatever comfort we are deriving from the political stalemate, its hurting ordinary people the most in both sides of the political divide. The battle for political office has become so shameless such that it is only Zimbabwe where politics alone and not the firing of guns have led to an economic precipice we are facing today.
If the people are not the masters of their own destiny then who is? Certainly not Britain, USA, China, Iran or South Africa. These can only show solidarity. The people of Zimbabwe generally are at peace with one another such that the two ‘monsters’ in our midst should not externalise our problems to people who when they sign the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA), make ordinary Zimbabweans suffer (those who asked for it and those who are expected to address its concerns). I am certainly against that and any form of sanction to solve political disagreements. Totally!
As far as I am concerned, both Zanu PF and the MDC stand to benefit in different ways from political engagement and formation of a Government of National Unity.
The MDC will benefit in helping setting up of institutions that will not jeorpardise its victory in an election. It will benefit in domesticating and internalising the Zimbabwean problem to Zimbabweans only. With the age groups of its support base, it has more room to expand.
Zanu PF will benefit from having a time to breathe and put its house in order. It will benefit from allowing President Mugabe to preside over a people driven renewal of his party. A fresh Zanu PF will have new energy to market itself such that even the young will be free to associate with it without feeling guilty and out of place. It will also have a chance of turning the land reform programme into an agricultural revolution where both black and white can till the land for the good of the nation.
One would hope that during that time all the two parties will be operating at the same level in terms of patriotism such that no one will accuse the other of being an imperialist tool.
I hope the leaders in Zanu PF and the MDC will read this.
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