Wednesday 13 October 2010

Mugabe and Tsvangirai are yet how to step down gracefully like US President George Washington did!

@Jean Wright

You comparison of Tsvangirai appeasing Mugabe to that of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appeasing Adolf Hitler is spot on. Tsvangirai betrayed the nation by signing the GPA and yet he maintains it was “for the good of the country”. Chamberlain sold out the people of Czechoslovakia by signing an agreement giving away their land and claimed he had achieved “peace in our time.”

However you lost me with “there seems no obvious leadership choice for the MDC right now.” Where did that come from?

I would have agreed with you if you had said no obvious leadership choice for the quality leader the nation needs. But for someone to replace Tsvangirai, MDC have a bucketful of alternatives. Admit it, there can not be that many blundering fools in the whole wide world quite like Tsvangirai.

As to why MDC have blundered along with Tsvangirai for so long and will continue to do so for a long while yet? Tsvangirai may have publicly admitted that he has made mistakes (mind blowing blunders to you and me) but trust me; he has no intention of ever relinquishing power. And there lies our fundamental problem; it is for HIM to decide when to go, the rest of the MDC membership has no say in that.

Once leaders have been elected we view any form of competition within the organisation much less challenge for the top leadership position as highly destabilising at the very least if not an out right threat to the every existence of the organisation itself. It is tempting to dismiss it as a cultural thing but it is much more than that.

A good election system should ensure there is meaningful and structured competition so that the best candidate there is to be elected for each position. The system must have regular elections to renew and revitalise the organisation. And in between elections allow the incumbent leaders to follow through their set programme without the destruction of an election but, at the same time, without stifling the competition.

Having the best person for the job is the surest way of ensuring the organisations achieves its set goals and long team survival and that should outweigh the individual interest of being the office bearer and being in receipt of whatever perks go with the office. At a national level, the same argument can be extended to competing political parties and hence the necessity of multi-party democracy. You would think every member within an organisation and every organisation within a multiparty system would willingly subscribe to this elegant and democratic principle?

Zanu PF has always sorted to establish a one-party state in Zimbabwe ever since the party was formed and it has never any bones about that! The Lancaster House constitution imposed a multi-party constitution in Zimbabwe in 1980 still that did not stop Mugabe imposing a de facto one-party state. The one-party state mentality did not stop at stifling all meaningful competition from all other parties, it extended to within the party too turning it and the country into a one-man party/state.

Mugabe has been the Zanu PF leader ever his toppling of Ndabaningi Sithole in the 1970s. The late Joshua Nkomo was the undisputed leader of Zapu when it was first formed in the 1960s until its dissolution in 1987 when it was swallowed up by Zanu PF. There is nothing democratic about MDC when it comes to electing leaders, do not be fooled by the party’s name.

One of the most tense moments in American history, comparable to 9/11 or the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, was March 3 1797. Whereas 9/11 and Pearl Harbour are remembered for what happened March 3 1779 is remember for what could have happened. 3 March 1797 was the last day in office for America’s first President George Washington. Having tasted power, many feared he would refuse to step down and once again be just an ordinary citizen. If he had done so, certainly the whole history of this great nation would have been totally different. George Washington resumed the life of an ordinary citizen with grace setting a precedence that has contributed to America’s stability, dynamism and prosperity.

There is over 200 years of history separating George Washington from the likes of Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai and given the shallowness of the later two they would never reach the intellectual plateau on which Washington stood even if they were given another 200 years. Having tasted power Mugabe and Tsvangirai are the sort of leaders who have shown that they will do anything to retain it! As the late Edson Zvobgo said of Robert Mugabe “Takapa ushe benzi pano kuti repe vamwe rakabva ramanyira mugomo!” – “We gave the button of chieftain to a madman, instead of passing it on to the next he ran with it into the mountain!”

Of course we, the ordinary citizens/ members have been slow in condemning this madness of once president it is president for life!

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