“Elections have become a problem that has sunk us into vicious violence, unreformed state institutions, political and economic strife.
Let us do away with them for 10 years and focus on reconstruction,” argued Hopewell Chin’ono.
The country is in this economic and political mess precisely because Zanu PF has blatantly rigged the elections so the regime is no longer democratically accountable to the people. For the last 39 years Zanu PF has rigged elections and stayed in power to do as the regime pleased. Our biggest mistake was to allow the regime to get away with this. The greatest challenge before us all today, tomorrow and everyday until victory is to demand the restoration of the people’s freedoms and rights including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life.
It is therefore shocking that anyone with a working brain would suggest we give up the fight and grant the political thugs a bonus of 10 years for having rigged elections and denied the people the vote for the last 39 years.
If the nation has sunk “into vicious violence, unreformed state institutions, etc., etc.” when these politicians feared that the nation may hold them to democratic account what hope is there that they will do anything of value when they know they have the licence to do as they please. Indeed, who will stop them extending the 10 years with no elections to 20 years or do away with elections altogether.
The one thing from the Lancaster House Constitution that Zanu PF has failed to take away from the ordinary Zimbabwean is the regime’s obligation to hold regular elections. The elections should be regular free, fair and credible. The people have never had free, fair and credible elections and that is what we should be fighting for. The argument that because we have been denied free, fair and credible elections we should just give up the right to regular elections too is foolish, to say the least.
6 comments:
Zimbabwe has had the great misfortune of having many intellectuals, professors, leaders, etc., all otherwise very successful individuals in their own right but alas devoid of common sense.
Look at Professor Mthuli Ncube, he has an impressive CV but has made a complete ass of himself as Minister of Finance mainly because he would not accept the simple reality that Zanu PF ruling elite are corrupt and vote rigging thugs. The idiot has been trying to achieve economic recovery regardless of the country remaining a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. He is trying to make a silk purse out of sower’s ear!
The tragedy is that it is the millions of ordinary people that are paying dearly for his “austerity for future prosperity”. The austerity is here already and is here to stay because prosperity will never ever come!
Hopewell Chinono is another intellectual who has thrown out of the window any common sense he has ever had in pursuit of a chance to impress Mnangagwa in the hope of reward.
"Elections have become a problem that has sunk us into vicious violence, unreformed state institutions, political and economic strife.
Let us do away with them for 10 years and focus on reconstruction," argued Hopewell Chin'ono.
Only a first class idiot would say such nonsense. He acknowledges that Zanu PF has failed to deliver its constitutional obligation of holding free, fair and credible elections and is suggesting give the regime carte blanche power not to hold elections for 10 years as reward for rigging elections. What a moron!!!
Biti said the law is inconsistent with the constitution of Zimbabwe and therefore it is not welcome because it institutionalises fascism.
"MAPO philosophy is fundamentally flawed. It seeks to protect the regime thorough the guise of law & order yet the key right to be protected is the right to petition and demonstrate spelt out in s59 of the constitution .It is therefore a worse version of LOMA and POSA.
"The militarization of policing as proposed in MAPO is dangerous and unwelcome. So too the legalization of fast trek trials. So too the requirement of ID obligations. The institutionalization of fascism in the name law and order must surely be resisted. MAPO must fall" he said
Zanu PF has 2/3 majority in parliament and senate and therefore the party will push through the passing of this act. Tendai Biti and his MDC A friends are themselves to blame for this mess. Last year’s elections should have never taken take without first implementing the democratic reforms to ensure they were free, fair and credible. The elections went ahead regardless because of opposition greed, as David Coltart has admitted.
“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,” wrote Coltart in his book.
“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.”
"The Maintenance of Peace and Order Bill (MAPO) by Emmerson and crew is yet another fraud .We have always argued that there are no reformers in ZANU and that it is not possible to have reforms without reformers. We have always argued that ZANU can never reform itself out of office,” Tendai Biti tells us.
Whilst it is true that Zanu PF cannot reform itself out of office it is nonetheless nonsense that MDC leaders have been aware of this. If Biti was aware of this then why the Dickens did MDC fail to get even one reform implemented in five years of the 2008 GNU? Not even one reform!
@ Gutu
I'm the sort of person who doesn't shy away from speaking truth to power, always, every time and indeed, anywhere and everywhere. That's me! I'm a prisoner of my conscience and my politics is deeply influenced by my principles and convictions. As Malcolm X once said: "It's better to walk alone than with a crowd going in the wrong direction." Ever since I got myself involved in active politics many, many years ago, I have resolutely stood by what I believe in and in a nutshell this is: peace, love, solidarity, non-violence, integrity, honesty, empathy, the rule of law and constitutionalism. To those amongst the readers who happen to know me closely enough, I am pretty sure you will agree with me that I have passionately stood by the afore-mentioned guiding principles in my political career. Basically, therefore, I don't believe in opportunism or rather, sacrificing my strongly-held principles for short-term personal gain.
Gutu, you are corrupt, incompetent and a sell-out with a big mouth, saying a lot but mostly rubbish. Here you are calling for the lifting of the sanctions against Zanu PF leaders and yet have failed to acknowledge that the sanctions were imposed for failing to hold free and fair elections. You are not that stupid to disagree last year’s elections were not free, fair and credible.
You and your fellow MDC leaders failed to implement even one democratic reform during the 2008 GNU and yet still consider yourself a principled person!
@ Daily News
Mugabe's legacy
“A veteran of many struggles against Mugabe once said that the old tyrant's main problem was his inability to abide people smarter than him. So he surrounded himself with sycophants, and the odd idiot savant,” you said.
Hit the nail bang on the head there! Mugabe did surround himself with sycophants and idiotic savants which was why the country has suffered economic decline for all the 37 years the tyrant was in power. When he was finally forced to step down the country missed the opportunity to recover because the same sycophants and idiotic savants took over and the blundering from pillar to post continued as before.
Mugabe promoted the likes of Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and others way above their level of competence and after decades in power they believed themselves to be some of the cleverest people to ever walk on earth. When Major General Sibusiso Moyo, the spokesperson of the November 2017 coup announce that it was not a coup but “a military assisted transition” some of us cringed at the sheer stupidity of the statement. But there was no doubt Mnangagwa et al were tickled beyond measure, they were convinced they had outwitted everyone.
Indeed, more such idiotic nonsenses were to follow such as “Zimbabwe is open for business!” call. How can Zimbabwe be open for business when Mnangagwa had done nothing of note to show Zimbabwe had shaken off its pariah state status? Telling the regime that was a waste of time! The idiots had no intention of dismantling the dictatorship, they were determine to keep it untouched. They thought they could fool the world into believing Zimbabwe was a democracy, a new dispensation, and get the economic help to revive the economy and yet still keep the dictatorship for their selfish political and economic benefit!
The regime has failed to revive the economy and its iron grip on power is slipping. There will be regime change in Zimbabwe.
Sadly, there are no qualities leaders in Zanu PF or the opposition to takeover. That is no surprise given the country is emerging from decades of corrupt and tyrannical rule in which debate was stifled and there was no democratic competition. Quality needs debate and democratic competition. The corrupt and incompetent village idiots on the political stage will fight hard to retain power and thus condemn the nation to one mediocre government after another!
It is barmy to even think Zimbabwe can revive its comatose economy without first addressing such basic fundamentals as corruption, the country's reputation as a pariah state, etc. It is a great pity that seemingly intellectuals like Professor Mthuli Ncube would ignore these key issue for no better reason than to keep his high-flier job. What is detestable here is that he is dragging the whole nation into an economic situation knowing it will bring heart-breaking human suffering and deaths for no tangible economic gain. None!
Ncube knows that the ordinary Zimbabweans have no power to hold the regime to democratic account. He will fly out of the country to join his wife and family back in Switzerland or wherever to enjoy economic gains he made as Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance! Meanwhile the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans whose lives he helped to cripple will have to carry on as best they can!
Justice, there is no justice in this world!
"As another astute Zimbabwean observer put it to me, Mugabe was good at playing the country's many opposing groups against one another. He would grant one the hope of ascendance, then pull it away in favour of another grasping gang. It created a precarious balance. Now one of the groups has the levers of state in hand, the awkward equilibrium is no more – and the winners are split in all directions too," wrote D Moore in the Daily News.
"With Mugabe gone, the victors – Mnangagwa's faction of the ruling Zanu-PF – have no idea how to police themselves, let alone an economy, their subjects and the opposition. Harvard professor and emeritus president of the World Peace Foundation, Robert Rotberg, has politely called their plans' "barmy"."
After 39 years of barmy plans, it is little wonder the nation is on its hands and knees in the gutter!
Worst of all, unless we do something to remove the regime from office, it will continue to rig elections and stay in power. The prospect of another four years of this chaotic misrule is frightening much less add another five years beyond 2023.
But I agree with you, if we do not force Zanu PF to step down then we will have a Zanu PF government post 2023, guaranteed! We will only have ourselves to blame for it because by condemning last year's elections the international community opened the door for us to push for change. It is up to us, Zimbabweans to demand that Zanu PF steps down on the grounds the regime has no democratic mandate tp govern.
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