“I am sick to the teeth to hear people like you in the Diaspora, who are enjoying the comforts of a home, good income, all the freedom and rights; criticising people like Tsvangirai. He and his fellow MDC leadership, unlike you, have chosen to stay back in Zimbabwe and they are doing their best to fight Mugabe’s dictatorship and have to deal with all the economic hardships Zimbabwe is going through to boot!” A friend e-mailed me the other day. She was expressing a common sentiment I have heard a thousand times!
She was reacting to one of my blog articles in which I had accused Tsvangirai of incompetence and dithering following Mugabe’s continued refusal to announce the 29 March 2008 election results. In my view, MDC and Tsvangirai should have had a plan of action and mass action was definitely a viable option they should have considered. They did nothing instead and Mugabe viewed that a weakness and he deploy his thugs with disastrous consequences.
My friend, as is often the case in such cases, did not want to concede that my arguments had at least some merit. If fact that to her was a secondary issue; she was question my right to question Tsvangirai. Me, an “armchair critic”, she called me criticising someone like Tsvangirai who a few months ago had his whole face following a brutal beating by Zanu PF Police and live in constant fear of Mugabe.
Freedom of expression is a universal right, and like all the other rights and freedoms, which should be enjoyed by all member of the human race inspective of race, gender, political affiliation, etc. etc. So anyone outside Zimbabwe, be they Zimbabweans or not, have a right to express an option on Zimbabwe, Mugabe, Tsvangirai or whatever. Just because these people are not experiencing the hardships the people left in Zimbabwe are going through is no reason why they should be denied any of their basic and fundamental rights or freedoms.
People get their hackles up when they are criticised. Praise them and they would listen all day; criticise and they cannot get up quick enough to shout you up! If anyone does not like public scrutiny then they should not hold public Office or aspire for one. When it comes to public office; many are called and a few are chosen and public scrutiny is the only foolproof way of separating the deadwood, then the mediocre from the real quality visionary leaders worthy of the honour of being first among equals!
Zimbabwe’s biggest mistake with Mugabe is that we did not allow the rigorous process of open debate and criticism take its course and thus found ourselves landed with a ruthless and brutal dictator in State House. Of course he fought hard to create a sterile political atmosphere in which freedom of expression and open debate were denied. We should have fought hard from the very start to ensure that did NOT happen.
The same argument being professed today to stop the criticism of Tsvangirai and MDC were advanced to stop the criticism of Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF before independence.
There are those who would argue that criticism a luxury the nation can ill afford because it will sap the energy which should otherwise be spent on fighting to end the dictatorship. The opposite is in fact the case, open and vigorous debate and criticism will allow every move and strategy to be carefully and thoroughly scrutinised and every possible outcome considered. The same through process is adopted throughout the implementation stage and corrective measures taken as necessary. And afterward the event, an equally through post-mortem. So once again debate and criticism will serve to distil the move and fine tune it, increasing the chance of success.
In 2000, 2002 and 2005 MDC showed the party did not have a plan B, what the party would do if Mugabe rigged the elections. If the party had allowed rigorous debate this shortcoming should have been picked up at least after the first election. This year, 2008 again the party still did not have a plan B! This very serious shortcoming has allowed Mugabe to seize the initiative from MDC and deploy his thugs and consequence is the wave of violence, intimidation and murder now sweeping Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe I would like to see is one in which there is rigorous and open debate in public, within the parliament, inside Cabinet and even within our private homes. Out of all such debate will come out the best well thought out policies and ideas – the true and solid foundation for a free, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe. Man is a thinking animal and that is why mankind is lord over all other living things; those who stifle debate stifle the very essence of the very thing that makes us, humans, special!
Just one more thing, critics have a thankless job; very often they will find themselves hated by those on either side of the fence but also by those seating on the fence too!
No comments:
Post a Comment