This is a reply to Skint War Vet's comment on the last blog which also apeared in the Zimbabwe Times.
Skint, you say you will ask one question and then go on to ask several questions and make some remarks besides. Still I will answer them to the best of my ability.
Question: What else should Biti and Tsvangirai or MDC in general, have done that could have removed Mugabe from power?
Answer: You have to understand that after the sham 27 June 2008, Mugabe had politically “hanged” himself – no one was prepared to accept him as the legitimate president of Zimbabwe after such a violent and murderous campaign. Mugabe was finished! No one with any sense would trust such a brute to hold any position of power and authority – that, sadly, did not include Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai cut down the dictator and reinstated him – a stupid mistake, particularly since the brute has continued to keep Tsvangirai and the nation at large in the teeth as soon he caught his breath! Still, it is water under the bridge; what can we do NOW to remove Mugabe?
Tsvangirai insists the GNU is working and the next minute he is complaining about Mugabe’s arrogance and intransigence. Well there is an example of some one who can not make up his mind. He keeps talking about the GNU being “the only game in town”. Again another stupid move, telling Mugabe that has made the dictator even more arrogant! If the GNU is NOT working – and it is not – then we must have the courage to face that reality and explore other options.
The next best option is for MDC to walkout of the GNU. Then there will have to be fresh elections. Yes Mugabe will probably have to resort to the same violent and murderous tactic to win. (There is no guarantee that at the end of the GNU when fresh elections will be necessary, Mugabe will not use violence. So staying the present course out of fear of fresh election violence is only saving to post pone and not eliminate the threat. Indeed, I would even argue that delaying elections is helping Mugabe to reorganise and find better ways of hiding his murderous activities.)
Another sham election would put Mugabe back where he was after the 27 June 2008 election – bungling at the end of the hangman’s rope. Hopeful Tsvangirai will not step in and cut the rope – but I would not count on it!
Q: Why haven’t you formed your own party so that you can remove Mugabe or even MDC from government?
A: So you think only the politicians have the exclusive right to comment on how Zimbabwe should be governed? A logical extension of that is that those who risked their lives in the liberation of the country; have the divine right to rule. For that is exactly what people like Mugabe think; indeed that is exactly what the brute was saying to justify his violent and murderous campaign last year. With shallow minded people like in power; little wander we are in this mess!
I am a Zimbabwean citizen and it is my divine right and duty to comment on public matters regardless of whether I am a member of a political party or not. And every Zimbabwean out there has the same right. I know this right like many other rights and freedoms have been denied us but that does not change a thing. There are still our basic and fundamental rights and I, for one, will exercise these rights whenever I can.
Comment: You seem to be obsessed with seeing innocent blood being spilled. In a democracy you do not get into power through violence but through the ballot box. Zanu PF will never rule forever. That is why there are elections every five years. One day those elections shall be free and fair.
Reply: You are clearly confusing MDC’s mix of appeasement and down right blundering with being none-violent. The two are worlds apart. MDC should by all accounts have ended Mugabe’s rule in 2000 or 2002, they failed because they are politically incompetent. Last year the again failed and now they are appeasing Mugabe. And you think they did that to save innocent blood being spilt – how naïve!
Skint and many others like you, really need to snap out of this old mentality in which any political leader who is appointed to district chairman position or above is automatically placed on a pedestal to be worshiped. Do that and, naturally, these individuals start behaving as if they are indeed infallible and they are cut above the rest of us. We went through that with Mugabe and the nation has paid dearly for it. But at least some of us learnt something from that; I will be damned if I will let myself go through that again!
Tendai Biti’s remark was stupid and completely off the mark. I want Mugabe removed because he is a ruthless dictator not because he is old. Youth is not a virtue, just as old age is not a curse or some contagious disease; youth, old age and death are as certain as morning, afternoon and night, it is the way all us mortals go.
No comments:
Post a Comment