Thursday 12 November 2015

Greeks invented democracy to end autocracy, 2 500 years on we still want autocracy!


“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed” Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Dr King was spot on and you, Vince, are right to pick this as the big issue of our generation. What is sad here is that you have, once again, failed to address this issue.

 

Dr King was not just content with saying the oppressed must demand their freedom; he joined them in demanding their freedom. He denounced oppression, he match to demand freedom, he joined in bus boycotts, etc.

 

We have a tyrannical and murderous dictatorship which has perfected the art of rigging elections and it is totally committed to no regime change. Whilst others are demanding the implementation of GPA democratic reforms, you have dismissed all political activism. 

 

You still continue to promote your economic solutions as if these economic solutions can be implemented without political change. Not that you do not believe in political power, you do; you envisage you chosen regime having the same dictatorial power Mugabe has hence the reason you do not want any democratic reforms.

 

You have repeated the economic recovery the new government will achieve without saying how it will force Zanu PF to relinquish political power so the new government can implement its economic policies.

 

You claim to be a democrat and yet you refuse to endorse the demand to have all the GPA democratic reforms implemented as the only way of establishing a democratic system of government that will guarantee everyone’s basic freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life.

 

It is not that people like you and Mugabe do not know what democracy is and are therefore stupid to opt for the stone-age autocratic system government. You know autocracy has failed but still you go for it because it is the only system that will guarantee you, the leader, absolute power as contrast to democracy in the leader exercises power but within clearly defined limits and is ultimately accountable to the electorate.

 

Absolute power is the next best thing to being a god-on earth, this is why many mortals will do anything to assume such powers for themselves. We the people must be on our guard at all times to stop anyone assuming absolute power.

 

The challenge now is to demand implement all the GPA democratic reforms BEFORE the next elections. To expect the new government to implement the reforms after the elections will be tantamount to asking the oppressor to willingly give up their power to oppress. No doubt Vince Musewe, would maintain that this new Tsvangirai and Mujuru government will implement all the reforms.

 

Musewe will also, no doubt, assure us the new regime will NOT be corrupt and incompetent as it will be led by competent and visionary leaders. We will have to be really naïve and gullible to swallow that one given we already know that both Morgan Tsvangirai and Joice Muguru, the two leaders to head the coalition grouping Musewe is proposing, are corrupt and incompetent.

The real reason why people like Vince Musewe are loathed to demand the full implementation of all the democratic reforms is because they see nothing wrong with one-party dictatorship. Whilst they loath this Zanu PF dictatorship, because it is corrupt and oppressive they will argue; they will accept an MDC one-party dictatorship convinced it will never be corrupt and oppressive.

The temptation to abuse public office for selfish gain is as real and omnipresent as the temptation to sin against God. When we die, God will hold us to account for all our sins but until then our fellow mortals must hold us to account for our all failures to do to others as we want them do unto us.

A healthy and functioning democracy is the best system mortals have devised to hold each other to account; particularly important in the ruled holding the rulers to account since the former entrusted the latter with power and authority over them which, if not carefully supervised, the rulers will abused.
How ironic that the Greeks discovered democracy as the antidote to autocracy and all we have had to do is adopt it. Instead 2 500 years later we are still messing around with stone-age type autocracy and pretending we can refine and fine-tune to deliver justice, freedom and human rights guaranteed!

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