Wednesday 24 May 2017

Do not "bombard voters with reform" Magaisa advise - stupid advice from rancorous crow. P Guramatunhu

“Imwe neimwe shiri inemaririro ayo!” (Every bird has his own characteristic song!) So, goes the Shona adage. Alex Magaisa, like the rancorous cry of the crow which is offensive to the ear, specialises in give characteristically stupid advice.

"One thing that opposition parties must understand is that continuously bombarding people with messages of ZANUPF rigging and its refusal to implement electoral reforms actually works to the advantage of ZANUPF because it only serves to deflate voters' spirits……." said Alex Magaisa.

"In a nutshell, the opposition narrative must change from one of hopeless victims to that of hopeful warriors who are determined to succeed against the odds. The narrative must change from that of electoral reforms to that of electoral hope. These are the positive messages that people want to hear. They will boost their confidence and persuade them that this time things could be different."

To the readers who do not know or need reminding, Alex Magaisa was Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s special adviser during the GNU. So, we can safely assume that this is a taste of the advice he gave Tsvangirai in years and months leading to the 2013 elections.

Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC leaders were advised by none other than SADC leaders themselves to implement the democratic reforms and we all know that not even one reform was ever implemented in five years. Not one! In a last minute desperate attempt to stop Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections going ahead with no reforms in place, the regional leaders told Tsvangirai & co. not to contest the 2013 elections.  

In 2013 the Maputo Summit, in June 2013, before the elections, the Maputo Summit was all about having the elections postponed – the SADC summit. I went there,” Dr Ibbo Mandaza to Violet Gonda in a recent interview.

“I was there at the Summit and Mugabe pretended to agree to a postponement of the elections. If you recall, the postponement was based on the need to reform at least electoral laws.

“And after that Summit, Morgan Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, all of them were called to a separate meeting by the Heads of State of SADC in the absence of Mugabe, that same evening. And they were told - I was sitting there outside the room with Mac Maharaj - they were told ‘if you go into elections next month, you are going to lose; the elections are done’.

We know Tsvangirai & co. ignored the warning and contested the July 2013 elections, no doubt on the advice of the special adviser to ignore the negative message of reforms and focus on the positives.

MDC went into the 2013 elections on a high, beaming with confidence that the newly passed constitution would deliver the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. Tsvangirai even boasted that the new constitution was an “MDC child!”

Once again, MDC leaders were warned the new constitution was weak and feeble, it was not the democratic constitution the nation was seeking. But once again Tsvangirai et al would not listen; advised no doubt by Alex Magaisa, who is a lawyer and University lecture at that, to focus on the “positive”.

All nonsense of course as Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig the 2013 elections. The nation has paid dearly for MDC leaders’ folly of ignoring SADC leaders’ advice not to contest elections without implemented the reforms first and listening to contrary, stupid, advice from Alex Magaisa.

The reforms are still necessary today and therefore it is folly to contest the 2018 elections still with not even one reforms in place. It will be collective lunacy for the people of Zimbabwe to once again disregard sound advice in favour of the same stupid advice from the same stupid “special adviser” of nonsense, Alex Magaisa!

“In my opinion, Zimbabweans have two simple choices to make and these choices have their own consequences which we must be willing to accept and endure,” commented Vince Musewe.

“Either to follow those who think that we should participate in elections anyway even without fundamental reforms. Register to vote in numbers and hopefully be able to exercise that vote on voting day in 2018 and then hopefully achieve the results which we desire. Or insist and do whatever it may take to achieve the necessary electoral reforms first before participating or legitimising a fundamentally flawed electoral process and architecture.

“I choose the latter and that, in my view, certainly does not make me a "hopeless victim" of circumstances. With this choice, the debate should then focus on what we need to do as a collective, but also acknowledge that our world and our future does not stop with 2018 elections. In other words it could be a very long struggle but that's okay.”

Who ever said there is no God! Not too many moons ago, Vince Musewe was firmly in the camp calling to participate in the elections regardless of the fact the whole process was flawed and meaningless. Well he certainly has had his Damascene moment!


Our struggle for something as basic and fundamental as the right to free, fair and credible elections has been a very long drawn-out process; it was one of the key demands before independence and it is still a key demand today, 37 years after independence. By participating in flawed elections we have played our part in perpetuating the outrageous practice.

You can’t expect us to reform ourselves out of power,’ boasted Zanu PF’s Professor Jonathan Moyo, with the usual arrogance of the tyrants.

Let it be known in a village and hamlet in Zimbabwe; we are not asking Zanu PF to reforms itself out of power. We are not here to negotiate, we are demanding the implementation of the reforms. And we are denouncing the stupid advice of the rancorous crows to continue participating in a totally meaningless and demeaning flawed ritual.
   

The next elections should be a simple and straight forward event marked with the simple words, “As of this minute of this day, all Zimbabweans will have a meaningful say in the governance of this country and enjoy free, fair and credible election as their birth right!”

3 comments:

Nomusa Garikai said...

Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest in MDC were elected on the ticket to deliver democratic change and yet to look at what they have been doing all these last 17 years one would not be surprised to hear the lot of those are on the CIO payroll! How else can one ever explain that President Mugabe bribed them into doing absolutely nothing about the reforms they were elected to implement for five long years?

I can understand someone like Tsvangirai and a good many others in MDC being fooled by Magaisa’s stupid and totally irrational advice, MDC has some very incompetent individuals. What I cannot get my head round is that Magaisa managed to hoodwink the entire MDC leadership including the likes of Tendai Biti and David Coltart, one, until the GNU fiasco, told had some working brain.

Zimbabwe has been chaining out intellectuals like Magaisa with the paper work to prove their academic achievements but with not an ounce of common sense. How he got the job as a lecturer at a UK University, I will never know. If I had a relative at the same University attending his classes, I would have him/her withdrawn from the course!

Zimbabwe Light said...

We know MDC was literally begged to implement the democratic reforms by SADC leaders and they failed to get not even one reform implemented in five years! Magaisa told MDC leaders reforms were not important and they clearly believed him. Tsvangirai concentrated on the positives, winning the elections with no reforms.


Well we know Zanu PF went on to rig the July 2013 elections and thus proving beyond doubt that the reforms are indeed important.

It is shocking, to say the least, that the same individual who said reforms are not important in 2013 is once again repeating the same advice. Worse still, the same politicians who foolishly believed the stupid advice last time are once again accepting the same nonsense! This is insane!

Thank God there are still a few Zimbabweans out there whose faculties are still working! We must stop the insanity of dragging the nation into holding even one more flawed election! There is nothing to be gained from it and everything to be lost from it!

Zimbabwe Light said...

As the country’s largest and most popular political party, the MDC should start preparing for the worst-case scenario, that is a scenario in which the BVR process will be abandoned by Zec mid-stream and we have the elections in 2018 being conducted using the old, manipulated and crooked national voters’ roll,” Obert Gutu told the Daily News.
“It is not too late for us to start strategising and computing a viable and effective Plan B. The Zanu PF regime is essentially renegade, insipidly corrupt and incorrigibly dishonest. Zec is emasculated and virtually powerless in the scheme of things, particularly regarding the running of a free, fair and credible election that can easily pass the test of legitimacy.
“Election 2018 is just around the corner but Zec is still ducking and diving. An election is a process, not an event; a marathon and not a sprint.”
Could not agree with you more Mr Gutu, “ZEC is emasculated and virtually powerless in the scheme of things, particularly regarding the running of a free, fair and credible election.” SADC has proposed a solution; do not contest any elections until reforms designed to free ZEC and all the other state institution to do their work are implemented. You, Mr Gutu and your MDC friends had five years during the GNU to implement these reforms. You failed to get even one reform implemented.

MDC was warned to boycott 2013 elections and thus force the implementation of the reforms. David Coltart admitted boycotting the elections was the obvious choice.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart. 

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

Today, you are admitting the same yourself that ZEC will never deliver free and fair elections and yet you are still going full steam ahead and contest the flawed elections!

Be warned, you and your MDC friends have betrayed the people of Zimbabwe in the past and got away with it; you are NOT getting away with selling out on contesting flawed 2018 elections! You contest the flawed elections and consider them you last because every Zimbabweans will know what you have done and your name will be mud!