THE statement issued by the Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai on the state of the talks on Thursday should be read in the context of the current political crisis obtaining in Zimbabwe and how that crisis started. The MDC leader, who has become almost infallible in the eyes of many Zimbabweans who choose to ignore their history and struggles, said that Zanu PF had not made a “paradigm shift”.
What paradigm shift?
The MDC accuses Zanu PF of not having made a paradigm shift, yet the events on the ground do not point to a shift of position on the part of the MDC itself.
Journalist and broadcaster, Tanonoka Whande, on a pirate radio station yesterday called on Zimbabweans not to support the “dictator” and put aside all their differences and support the MDC leader. I found this argument rather simplistic. For some of us to support the MDC we need to witness a paradigm shift they are accusing the ruling Zanu PF of not having made.
How can you ask Zimbabweans to support a party has no position on imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, globalisation and north-south relations? If it has, we have never been privy to that position since its inception. It has no position on sanctions, on Black empowerment, or affirmative action. It has no position on indigenisation or Black advancement. Actually the MDC has a position on sanctions: it promoted them.
Those who make excuses for the existence of the MDC should let us know what the position of the MDC with regards to the above is, and then we can all consider joining (or not joining) the party.
The MDC has spread stories of genocide in Zimbabwe and called for Western intervention to oust the Zanu PF government of President Robert Mugabe, yet admitted culpability to that violence in a joint communiqué released soon after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. In the joint communiqué, the party admitted to using violence to destabilize the country (and by implication, effect regime change). Its marriage with former colonisers and countries that are former colonisers would make any party wary of its intentions.
Here are some of the points raised in the statement by the MDC leader yesterday (October 9, 2008) (italised) and my responses to those points:
MT:
“On the day we signed the agreement the people of Zimbabwe breathed a sigh of relief and their hopes for a final resolution of this crisis were raised. Unfortunately, no progress has been made since then, to bring the Zimbabwean people to the beginning of the path of recovery. Instead, the economic crisis has worsened with people spending all their days in endless cash queues. We now live in an environment characterised by hunger and starvation and we are days away from seeing people dropping dead on the streets.”
COMMENT:
The MDC leader called for sanctions against Zimbabwe. He was a regular face on BBC’s Frost programme barely two years ago and was also on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation endless times calling for sanctions against the country. In 2007, Tsvangirai said, "The role of the international community, including Australia, in pressurizing Mugabe to relinquish power is very, very important," in Zimbabwe – openly advocating sanctions against the country. How could Tsvangirai be the same person to try and take Zimbabwe out of the same situation that he was advocating only recently? Those who try to defend Morgan Tsvangirai today should ask themselves why Zimbabwe’s meltdown coincided with the formation of the MDC and why the raft of sanctions were imposed at about the same time.
It is unprecedented for a country, anywhere in the world with the resources that Zimbabwe has, to experience the deterioration we have seen in recent years without an invisible hand. What is that invisible hand and why are Zimbabweans their own worst enemy? .
MT:
I believe suffering knows no political affiliation and both Zanu PF and MDC supporters are suffering under this economic crisis.
COMMENT:
Did the MDC leader think about this before he did his cross country advocating sanctions? It is true that sanctions are not selective and all those MDC supporters who voted Tsvangirai into power are not spared in this current crisis. In fact most of them suffer while the MDC leader is globetrotting around the world calling for more sanctions against the country, or not denouncing them. Recently, the MDC watched silently as their friend Britain (according to MDC National Chairman, Lovemore Moyo’s address to the Labour Conference last month) and the U.S. fought hard to impose sanctions against Zimbabwe through the U.N. Security Council.
The same party remained mum when the German company, (Munich-based Giesecke & Devrient GmbH) stopped selling money printing paper to Zimbabwe and two-thirds of the 1000-strong workforce took leave. Yet the same party has the audacity to blame the Reserve Bank for the country’s current cash crisis.
Tsvangirai promised what he called a “President’s Fund for Victims” of US$500 000 when he returned from South Africa and Botswana in early June 2008. What happened to that Fund? Or was that a way of winning votes in the June 27 Presidential runoff? If the MDC were also culpable of the post-election violence (as per the joint communiqué) what was their game plan when they set up the Fund, and who paid into that Fund?
“The time for peace and prosperity is beginning. The MDC President's Fund for Victims of Political Violence will begin by providing an initial Z$150 trillion dollars to begin the process of supporting victims of political violence to rebuild their lives,” Tsvangirai said on May 26.
The MDC said it had selected a board of trustees from churches and grassroots organizations to administer the Fund and an independent firm of accountants would audit it. The MDC leader was meant to give details of that Fund, but no-one heard of that Fund afterwards. What happened to it? What happened to the board? What happened to the Trustees?
This empty rhetoric has become characteristic of the MDC and Zimbabweans have been taken for a ride for too long. I wonder whether such rhetoric will be transformed into real action when the MDC leader become Prime Minister, or it will remain intact.
MT:
I stated at my last press conference that given a nation in such a state it was necessary to put a government in place in order for us to begin the task of ensuring that the problems facing our country are dealt with.
COMMENT:
What could have prompted the sudden realisation that problems facing “our country” should be dealt with promptly, especially from a man who whose political fortunes were predicated on those problems? For a man who has advocated sanctions and openly encouraged Western countries to take action against his own government and country, this statement is not only mischievous but is grossly irresponsible.
MT:
We have actively engaged our colleagues in Zanu PF with a view to ensuring that we have agreement on the outstanding issues.
COMMENT:
Those are the same people he went around the world calling killers and murderers. What happened for the MDC leader to turn around his thinking in the past few months? Perhaps this is the paradigm shift he is alluding to! Now that the MDC leader is staring high office in the face, his rhetoric has completely changed and he calls Zanu PF members his colleagues. Maybe the term “principal” has made him come to that realisation.
Interestingly, the MDC leader complained about the “hate language” in the media and yet allows the newly elected Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo, to use the same hate language that undermines the confidence of the members of Zanu PF in the power-sharing arrangement. The MDC spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, is on every blog and every web-based media organisation spreading the same “hate language” about Zanu PF and yet complains about the language used in The Herald. Ironically, in the same statement where he complains about hate language by Zanu PF, Tsvangirai labels the same people he is calling his colleagues “insensitive to the needs of the people”. How could the MDC leader have it both ways? What makes him believe that it is the MDC (which called for sanctions against its own people) that is sensitive to the needs of the Zimbabwean people? And is this language not divisive and does it not threaten the power-sharing arrangement?
The MDC should realise that what is good for the goose is good for the gander and if they wish Zanu PF to desist from using “hate speech” in the media, they should also desist from using such language themselves. The independent media is filled with hate speech against President Mugabe and Zanu PF and the MDC is not short of media outlets to promote their “paradigm”. What paradigm?
Zimbabweans have a right to choose their political affiliation. Each individual has the right to choose whichever party they want to belong to. It has become almost a crime to belong to the Zanu PF party and membership of the MDC is considered the only viable option, yet these are the same people who cry for democracy and the right to belong to any political affiliation they so choose.
The MDC for me is not, and will never be a viable option. It is a party characterised by unique and frightening theoretical and practical weaknesses and I will not subscribe to such a party. Such weaknesses are now beginning to show as the various interest groups that aligned with the MDC for expediency are beginning to take their own identity and shape. I am a Zimbabwean, born and bred. I love my country and my people and I want to see them progress. I have every right to choose which party I belong to without undue influence from anyone, living or dead. For now, I will exercise the right to choose which party I do not belong to, and it is the MDC.
Chegorero • chadz@aol.com Subject: MDC - Zimbabwe's Achilles Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:58:29 • Not so long ago, on this forum, amidst the furore of the ascendancy of our brother Morgan to Prime ministership, I humbly contributed an article that was headed ' Morgan's naive politics'. Fellow Zimbabweans, allow me space to revisit this and other related issues as we seek to deconstruct the myth of the MDC's worthiness as a political force in the Zimbabwean space. Please, come along with me as we critically look at the issues at stake for the country that I believe as at all of our hearts. Some of my home truths will be painful for those on the other side of the political divide, but hey, we need that at a time like this, don't we?
As other writers on this forum have already stated countless times - there is a deafening silence on the part of the MDC gang on matters that are at the core of our nationhood - land policy, black empowerment, mining and mineral policy, among others. It is difficult to speculate on why there is such silence, and yet so compelling to demand discussion as a matter of urgency.
We continue to hear how Morgan and the MDC would go about mobilising the international community for financial support to 'resuscitate' the economy. Is it only me here, fellow Zimbabweans, who senses the downright mischief and disregard the MDC views the political maturity of our people and those who lay in unknown places all over Africa? What is it that MDC have promised the so called 'saviours' to re-invest in a country that has steadfastly taken the black-empowerment route through a game-changing land redistribution policy? What is the interest of these 'investors' in a country known for having been the first in Africa to practically take up the challenge of meaningful economic re-alignment in favour of the majority that happens to be a hitherto struggling lot drawn mainly from villages and tribal trust lands created of the settler governement? Is this real, or imagined? Comrades, do we not deserve answers, better ones for that matter?
From reading through articlces in the public domain, it would appear the MDC-T is holding out for what they consider to be key ministries. Which Zimbabwe are we talking about here? I am not one for supporting rottenness - some members of Zanu PF had become a burden to our vision and rightly so, a process of reorganisation seems underway. For MDC to even contemplate overseeing the finances of the national economy with the calibre of people they have is daylight dishonesty that should be stopped at all costs. If the plan is to let in 'dirty money' and then claim to have restored confidence is a back-hander strategy designed to recolonise Zimbabwe, and leave us destitute for generations to come. Tomorrow's battles are not about who comes out tops on the physical battles between armies, no. The turf has moved to hideous offices of the capitals of the world where day-in-day-out plans are hatched to run our lives and fine-tune public opinion in the name of democracy. They are battles where the futility of uninhibited free market anarchy assumes the form of a 'correction ' when the decadence that is at the core of the system rears its ugly head.
Zimbabweans - be warned, the very soul that brought us together to fight the evils of settler politics is at risk. Even more so, when we consider the fact that we are having to fight off the underhand of thsoe defeated colonists, that operates through the malleability of our 'own'. These 'unZimbabwean' foot soldiers may prove even more lethal as we shift our attention to consolidation after a period of what I call 'creative deconstruction'. the pains we have endured are about to bear fruit, for that reason we need to steadfastly guard against letting off our guard.
I will continue with this theme, and look forward to your feedback
Sean Amers • sean@parrogate.com Subject: neo-colonialism etc Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:30:45 • The world is a very different place now in 2008 compared to 1900. Then it was natioanl policy of counties in the west that Africans were inferior and needed to be be civilised and that the demands of capitalism at the time justified colonialism.
Today there are institututions like the UN etc were little countries like Vanatu population less than 500000 sit next to mighty nations like US and China.
If our so-called leaders do not feel confident enough to sit down with these ex colonial master states and keep telling us that the west is wicked and greedy then please can we have leaders who can sit with the west one on one and get the best deal for this country at every meeting.
AFTER ALL WE DID WIN THE WAR. WHY ARE STILL AFRAID OF OUR ENEMY.
WE ARE ON PLANET EARTH AND MUST TAKE OUR PLACE IN THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN AKA GLOBALISATION - KNOWN TO MUGABE AS NEO-COLONIALISM.
FUNNY HOW ALL THESE GUYS SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT THE WEST BUT LOVE WESTERN GOODS LIKE MERCEDES, GUCCI, AND NOKIA CELL PHONES.
VERY SOON WE SHALL NOT HAVE ANY DECENT ROADS or eleecticity to power up that 52 inch plasma TV ETC TO ENJOY THESE DECADANT WESTERN CONSUMER GOODS MY COMRADES. TAKE HEED.
GET REAL AFRICA FOR HEAVENS SAKE
N/A • N/A Subject: Paradigm shift Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:09:44 • It is utterly mischevious of the MDC to complain about hate language in the Herald. Websites and newspapers sympathetic to MDC cause are filled with such unbelievable hate language against President Mugabe and Zanu-PF and its supporters.Yes the demonisation of President Mugabe and Zanu-PF is in full throttle. That is a well known West's strategy when they want to effect regime change. Pity some of our Zim brothers/sisters are swallowing that line hook, line and sinker. Majority of us Zimbabweans are very confused on what MDC stands for. We have heard their slogans such as democracy, human rights, rule of law, governance etc. What do these terms actually mean. At least with Zanu-PF, we know their positions on land reforms, black empowerment , on sanctions etc.Philip is right to ask what the position of the MDC is on such crucial issues. Judging from the behaviour of some MDC members in terms of dissenting voices, I question their democratic credentials since they are very intolerant of such voices.Some Zim students have had their education disrupted because of campaigns mounted by MDC supporters. Other Zims have been hounded out of their jobs as a result of MDC campaigns? That is not democracy. Is it guys? That is dictatorship. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Zanu-pf supporters have every right to belong to the party and should be very proud of the liberation credentials of the party. Has anyone observed that the Ukrainean orange revolution is beginning to unravel? Take heed.
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