DEAR EDITOR–Let me register my disgust at the manner in which the newly elected Movement for Democratic Change legislators brought our Parliament into disrepute. After watching a video tape of the proceedings on Tuesday on CNN, I am worried about the calibre of legislators, and opposition leaders, we now have in the respectable Chamber.
I wonder if the MDC-T party has any quality control processes in its selection of leaders and whether it has any kind of leadership code by which all members should abide. Most of them need at least a day at a finishing school, or at Toastmasters International.
Is also seems the party works on impulse in its decision-making, flip-flopping on decisions to attend Parliament or not. I sincerely hope that some of these legislators will not be included in a future government by President Mugabe; otherwise our country will go to the dumps.
Frustration and antipathy towards politics are rising in our country, fuelled by a flurry of allegations and counter-allegations, innuendoes and counter-innuendoes, and the like from the opposition and some misguided elements from the ruling party.
Rather than respecting institutions and getting on with the business at hand, as mandated by the people who voted them into power, we saw MDC-T members forfeit the responsibility they were given by voters on March 29, and make a mockery of one of the respectable institutions we have in the country.
This was a first in the history of the august Chamber.
The MDC-T should understand that democracy is a peaceful way of adapting and responding to changing times. Embracing and harnessing the democratic process is the only way we, the Zimbabwean people, can ensure our country can change for the better without having resort to such barbaric actions as demonstrated on Tuesday 26 August 2008.
Judging from the events on that day, Zimbabwe’s problem is not that it lacks institutions, but that it lacks good calibre leadership. The strong tradition of open debate about issues of national importance is easily being eroded by these “hooligans” as President Mugabe called them – who do not have an understanding of the importance of our Parliament and the processes going on therein.
The last session of Parliament, which effectively was equally shared by the two main political parties, maintained its respect despite sharp ideological differences. Legislators like Professor Welshman Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga conducted themselves well and co-existed peacefully alongside Zanu PF legislators without the schoolboy drama we saw earlier this week. Other opposition legislators, who entered Parliament at a very tender age, conducted themselves very well, in sharp contrast to the current crop.
If our elected leaders feel secure in openly putting into disrepute the most entrenched, most permanent institutions of our country, is it any wonder that the talks currently going on have taken the route they have, and God knows where Zimbabwe is headed?
The previous six sessions have done a good job of respecting our Parliament and related institutions and respecting them. We all know, however, that that era could soon be coming to an end when political activists who have no understanding of their role occupy such spaces.
The rough-and-tumble nature of Zimbabwean politics is simply reflective of our failure to develop the right kind of attitude needed in co-existing politically with those whose ideas we do not subscribe to.
Institutions such as Parliament are necessary for democracy to flourish and flower, and should never be abused by self-seeking, egotistical individuals.
*SamuelGarande writes from Cambridge, United Kingdom. He can be contacted at: samgarande@live.co.uk
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JTaylor • jjtaylor98@yahoo.com Subject: Quite right chiefnegomo Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:24:16 • It is very sad that the Western media/political elite and society in general has lost all sense of impartiality in its crusade against Mugabe. It is much the same in its reporting of the Georgia/Russia conflict.
It makes me embarresed to hear my 'educated' friends in the UK talk about Zimbabwe, they truly believe that if Mugabe was removed and MT put into power everything would suddenly be fixed. The media has managed to successfully make everything into a comic book story. Many of teh comments on these boards rile against the fact that western leaders treat Black africans as stupid, but its more elitist than racist, they treat working whites as though they are even more stupid.
Mhofu • freezim08@yahoo.com Subject: Animalistic tendencies necessary at times Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:09:51 • Sometime you have to become an animal to fight an animal!, Zanu pf has been riding rough shod over people for decades and using state resources to fund party terror groups and no one has hardily had the courage to voice against these evils. I do not agree that MDC parliamentarians were all that wrong (though heckling is not progressive, it is high time Mugabe should realize that his terror tactics do not have the same old effect)
It is indeed high time that people show him that he is not greater than Zimbabwe, We are not HIS Zimbabwe!, as he sometimes claims.
I have a message for Grace Mugabe, The state house does not belong to you and your husband , that is why its called STATE HOUSE DUMMY!, so stop saying that Tsvangirayi will never set foot in it.
To Mugabe and Zanu pf, my message is that God did not put you into these positions of power, it was the people of Zimbabwe, and you have clung on to power for the last ten years without the people's mandate, hence the parliament itself has lost respect with most of us Zimbabweans. I dare not talk about the Heroes acre!.
Whilst not condoning the behavior of the MDC MPs on that day i can understand it in the light that Mugabe and Zanu pf have turned all of our public institutions into circuses. (Just look at the Justice system, apart from making it ineffectual we have Gono giving them cars & LCD Tvs , which is totally ubsurd, where is the independence of our justice system, even our Magistrate are still GVT employees. )
tose • n/a Subject: YES Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:05:51 • I think we need that for now kuti Zimbabwe ichinje, we r going to go thru a lot zvatisina kumboona panguva yehudzvanyiriri hweZANU, Mp's were intimidated before but not anymore that is why you are seeing all this do not panic maZimbo nyika is under reconstruction, thats the demolishion being done kuita ground clear chaizvo
n/a • n/a Subject: n/a Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:27:01 • N/A you say you did not know your vote was going to transform into a national embarrassment? When you voted for these ignoramuses, did you at one time ever thought that for one to grace the hallowed halls of that august House of Parly, you need to have read their profiles first, understood the kind of person they are and whether they are likely to act and deliver on the dreams you may have? No, you didnt! I say so coz three quarters of those MDC guys voted into parly have only been chairmen of workers committees at workplaces where intelligence and the need to use it, was never expected of them. They have never partaken in any meaningful exercise of leadership save for the May 1 holiday clarion calls for a 20% to 30% ZCTU wage rise at Rufaro Stadium! Or therein, making calls to remove the govt by violent means! Those that made progress went into trade unionism, where acts of corruption, swindling of employers on threat of bringing in war vets to harm them etc was the norm. When said employers realised that the trade union movement in the country was just a bunch of corrupt unintelligent bums with a strong affinity for money to be earned by whatever dubious means to be employed, devillishly resorted to encouraging them to form a political party with unlimited funding from europe so as to try and reverse the gains of independence, as money was not a problem to them but the land they had lost was! That is what you voted for and that must not come as a shock to you! What a bunch of numbskulls these MDC parliamentarians are! One raped the wife of a colleague who had gone to him to report a misfortune that had befallen her as her husband was away! Another kidnapped and attempted to rape a 17year old relative using his brother as a guard in this dastardly act and surprise! surprise! Tendai Biti a qualified lawyer wants amnesty for all perpertrators of violence during the period leading to, and after the elections! I had initially thought MDC, full of hope that a stolen election would see them forming a govt (Biti lied to the world that MT had won), had wanted all perpertrators of violence to be prosecuted when they drafted that silly document, with the ZANU(PF) leadership headed to the Hague to join Karadzic, after being sold to the West as unrepentant and dangerous slaves! Now that some of them in the MDC are awaiting trials for serious offences, and they are not alone as Zanu(PF) has a fair share of them too, then an amnesty becomes a good thing? A good bunch of legislators this group is! And you know what, this act of collective stupidity demonstrated by this bunch receive support from the west for this stupid notion, know why, coz they dont have any regard for blacks, black govts, black independence, blacks owning their resources et al coz they have stupid blacks in their pockets who are in leadership positions not only in the Zim parly, but in countries like Bots, Zambia, Tanzania, Senegal, Nigeria etc. Their Queen is Head of State in Britain and never has she been heckled and shouted down by parliamentarians at Westminster coz they respect her position. In Zim, same scoundrels encourage numpties to do so coz they have no regards for us and our institutions as we are deemed inferior! God bless Zim and may He also continue to fight for us to remain independent so that those whose lives were lost during the liberations struggle would not have died in vain. The living that vote in people without any brains or minds of their own can wallow in sanctions until the good Lord deems it enough and bestows upon them the wisdom of upholding ones' independence.
Dreads • na.@zol.co.zw Subject: BRING BACK THE BRITISH. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:54:02 • these hecklers have obviously been studying the British Parliament at work, not realising that that by booing like this they are in fact immitating their British Puppet Masters down to the dotted i.
How sad are they then? Or, perhaps it was intentional and they actually Back the British to the core - and this was their way of saying Bring back the Brits! We want the Colonials running our country! We want to be whipped back into place and made to remember our place in society today because we no longer know who we are! We have forgotten our Ancestors and our Heroes and we are a mindless race of Booooers! (Boers? I dont thnk so!)
why else would they boo just like the pomms?
Statues for Mandela, Booking in Parliament - all these colonial die-hard habits revolt me.
Chiefnegomo (aka Oliver Mtyambizi) • chiefnegomo@yahoo.com Subject: ??? Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:15:37 • Its realy funny that most media would carry out headlines of these deadlines and dead thinking without condemning such acts.Its just shows how the world and the media in particular has been cohesed by the offenders of democracy to embarass mugabe.
One would have expected headlines to condem such multitudes of ignorance by the MDC legislators but instead,they seem to have been receiving applause from all corners.Is the world real concerned about Zim democracy?If you stil do not have an answer to this,then you ought to be critical of your multi-faceted brains.
Not only MDC MPs are democraticaly elected and whoever vested them that mandate to represent them,i am sure would disaprove your aproval of heckling Mugabe.What would this solve apart from demonstrating their level of thinking.Never are we saying ZANUPF is the only party with the mandate to rule in zimbabwe,but instead of using emotions to make conclusions,lets have respect in our endeavours.
What we are saying here is the MDC should show maturity and ability to move from opposition to proposition.Such undeplorable behaviour is typical of a bunch of kinderagatten clowns.We are against the macabre propensity by the myopic MPs to confuse their followers more than confounding their enemies. The trajectory to freedom need a modicum of magnanimity not to bloat your actions with decapitated reasoning.Lets not forget that the masses who vested the powers to these legislators have suffered enough and their only lifeline stands within the perpherals of a meaningful reasoning by these legislators.
Mashudu,spare a little thought and come to the reality that such enervative actions of booing Mugabe does little to solve the problems of zimbabwe.In an case,the MDC MPs are simply an overzealous bunch of unbookish zimbos and what would you expect from such traits in this 21st century.Their behaviour is so retrogressive and no wonder why they float on more rhetorics than realities.As i may be labelled a ZANUPF apologist by people like you,my contributions are simply to exonerate myself and any fair minded zimbo from such cheap thinking.The choreographed heckling of Mugabe is a serious deficiency of maturity
Mhofeti yemukoneti • pasizw@yahoo.co.uk Subject: MDC Hooligan behaviour in Parliament Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:26:34 • The MDC need advice that as a 'ruling party' they are setting a precedent that will only come to haunt them if they one day decide to act like one. The Zanu PF has been accused of politicing national institutions and judging by Tueday's events it's regrettable that they need to be reminded that they are the majority as far as 210 constituencies are concerned. Leadership comes with responsibility and the sooner they realise that everyone is watching carefully to see what sort of 'democratic change' they are bringing the quicker they clean up their acts. Please don't let the Zimbabweans who voted for democratic change down and still insist an unequivocal condemnation of such behaviour from Mr Tsvangirai will go a long way in putting the record straight.
n/a • n/a Subject: n/a Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:53:46 • I never knew my vote will embarrass me to the level shown. Zvino ndovhotera ani?
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