Run off or run away for Tsvangirai?

MORGAN Tsvangirai’s mock asylum claim in a ‘Boer’ Embassy raises serious questions on whether he is an international icon for democracy or just an international eye sore which is blurring our vision from progressing as a nation.

Secondly, by running away from the run-off, can we truly rely on his leadership in crunch times because leaders must be counted on when it really counts?

The current retreat by his MDC leadership is of great historical significance apart from being merely symbolic.

When the British people came to colonise Zimbabwe, they used the Netherlands and the Dutch settlement at the Cape as their gateway. Since then, the Dutch influence has been entrenched in the Zimbabwean legal system in the form of a dual Roman Dutch law legal system currently operational in Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai’s retreat to the Dutch embassy and his Spokesperson’s return to the Cape are not only symbolic, but are indeed a closure of the historical cycle. This closure of the cycle is significant on two levels.

On a historical level, the MDC is simply reconnecting its umbilical cord to its mum but on an ecological level, the MDC has reached the end of its cycle and is now writing its own political obituary.

History is replete with both famous and infamous people who, at the end of their life, return to where they began. Literature students might remember how Michael Henchard in the Mayor of Casterbridge and King Lear’s lives ended.

Tsvangirai’s latest image and speeches lacked originality and it appears that there has been an invisible hand controlling his attitude, thinking and behaviour as if he was a yoyo, while he sang from a hidden foreign hymn book.

Although externally he changed like a chameleon assuming iconic images of Obama, Dalai Lama, and Ghandi and also forcibly trying to etch his way into the international ‘Hall of Fame’, the hand that continued to control his reflexes was Anglo–Dutch in nature and colour.

Tsvangirai must now admit that his journey to become an international icon has suffered a fatal abortion and he is now an international eye sore. He now needs to come out of a mock hiding because nobody is playing hide and seek with him. Only a naïve coward would go into hiding when no one is following him.

According to the BBC’s John Simpson, his followers are continuing with life in Harare as if nothing is happening. If Tsvangirai thinks he still leads without looking behind to see whether he is still being followed, then he is simply taking a walk because leadership demands a following.

Tsvangirai needs to come out of his hiding and explain his petulant behaviour to his followers because they need a strong leader and not a cry baby. His crocodile tears will not save his cause.

We want him to come out and challenge President Mugabe this Friday and see who the man worth of our following is. No one would dream of starting a fight without measuring their opponent first? Who would on earth start building a house without counting the cost? Why lead five million people into a cul–de–sac? This is his Gethsemane; he must drink the cup because adversity is the breakfast of champions.

Opposition politics is good for any progressive society and unless Tsvangirai comes out to run off rather than run away, he is writing his own political obituary. All we can wish him is to relax in peace (RxIP) and meet him on the other side of the crystal show.

Arthur Gwagwa

Tsvangirai’s ‘Biographer’