MDC Finance Minister Tendai Biti says the new constitution and reforms were needed first to ensure the poll result was "credible, legitimate and sustainable". Meanwhile Mugabe at his party conference is stepping up the rhetoric to ensure Zanu PF victory in the next elections
The nation is going to pay dearly for MDC's failure to force through meaningful democratic reforms for the last four years. Minister Biti would like everyone to believe that the reforms are still going to be implemented; it is hard to see that happening for three reasons:
1) It is hard to see how MDC can now accomplish in four months or so what they failed to do in four years
2) Even if some reforms are pushed through in the next few months; they will not have much effect on the ground on electoral process given the elections must be held by September at the latest.
3) The reforms would lose their full meaning if they are not set in law. The Copac draft constitution does not have contain any of the reforms, which is why by accepting the draft MDC and the nation at large if they vote YES in the referendum would be shooting themselves in the foot.
All the evidence on the ground; increasing political violence, the chaotic state of the voters roll, continued Zanu PF struggle hold on the public and private media, Mugabe's feverish paranoia and reckless all out looting calls, etc.; points to one thing and one thing only - Mugabe and Zanu PF are even more determined than ever to win the next elections. They will stop at nothing; if need be, they are geared to repeat the orgy of violence of 2008 to achieve their singular objective.
PM Tsvangirai and his MDC friends did not push for the reforms these last four years because they were too busy enjoying the life-trapping of being on the gravy train and did not want to risk being thrown off the train by pushing for reforms. Now that the passenger list of the gravy train has to be renewed they know their chances of winning a seat would have been a lot better if they had pushed through the reforms and the elections were free and fair.
The reasonable and logic course of action now would be MDC to admit the party had failed all these last four years to pursue the implementation of the reforms with the vigor and resolve they deserved and redouble its efforts to ensure all the reforms are faithfully implemented and they are incorporated in the new constitution. That would certainly stop the Zanu PF juggernaut and the orgy of violence it is now primed to unleash on the people. But of course, being reasonable is the one thing MDC is totally incapable of. Instead the party is going to blunder along.
MDC politicians believe Mugabe will need a sprinkling of MDC MPs at least to give his victory some semblance that there was a contest and each MDC politician hopes he or she will be one of the luck few who will have a seat on the gravy train! They will, of course, condemn the orgy of violence that will befall many ordinary Zimbabweans at the coal face of the culture of violence; paying the usual lip-service to the problem without ever doing anything concrete to end.
It is the ordinary Zimbabweans themselves whose rights, dreams and every lives stand to be once again crashed by the Zanu PF juggernaut. They are at the coal face of the country’s culture of violence and they, of all people, are experiencing the increasing violence, etc. and must know everything is set for the repeat of 2008. They should be more determined than ever to ensure that the reforms are implemented and the orgy of violence of 2008 is NOT repeated ever again.
They are being asked to accept this Copac draft constitution that will not stop culture of violence and guarantee their rights. They should reject that draft and thus reject holding of fresh elections until there is evidence the violence has stopped, there is free media, etc.
The current political situation is completely unique in that unlike in the past the ordinary Zimbabweans are being given a chance to reject through the upcoming referendum a political system that has denied them their rights and human dignity. If the people should vote yes to a system that made it abundantly clear all along that it WILL treat them like shit then does just that.
This time whole world will be right to shrug their shoulders and say "They voted for a shitty system; they got what the deserved!" For in the day and age when other oppressed people the world over are reasserting their basic right to be treated with dignity Zimbabweans would have voted to continue to be treated like shit!
5 comments:
@Rude Chikala
The danger here is that the people will see the referendum as a Tsvangirai vs Mugabe or MDC vs Zanu PF contest. It is not that; it is about what kind of Zimbabwe the people want. Do we want a country where they, the people are treated with dignity and their basic rights including the right to free elections and right to life are honoured? If the answer is yes then they must vote to end a system that has denied them these rights.
MDC does not care about these rights and that is why they did not push for the reforms. As for Zanu PF, it is denying these rights that has kept the party in power. To see the referendum as a Zanu PF vs MDC contest is to completely miss the point. The question is are Zimbabweans smart enough to see this?
Our record of the last 32 years would suggest we will once again shoot ourselves in the foot! With an average national IQ of 66 (IQ of 70 is poor) it is highly probable that is exactly what we will do - shoot ourselves in the foot! Sadly it is what would be expected of a people with such a low opinion of themselves, their own lives and cannot even see it when they treat themselves as shit!
@Canuck
Well they can secure that right by insisting that all the reforms agreed in the GPA must be implemented and a truly democratic constitution is produced and not the Copac rubbish on the table at present. The point is if the people accept this Copac rubbish and the next elections are marred again by violence it is THE PEOPLE themselves who would have shot themselves in the foot!
If you trip and break your leg; the world will feel sorry for you. But that their patience with you will soon turn to indifference or worse when your misfortunes mount and worse still when it is known that you go around with your eyes closed.
There is not one Zimbabwean who would deny that nothing has been done to ensure the violence of 2008 will not be repeated and by voting yes to Copac the people will have deliberately chosen to close their eyes to that reality!
As a people we have always wanted to defer to those in leadership positions and follow them - no questioned asked. It is one thing to let other lead you like a child leading a blind parent on a stick. But after 32 years of mismanagement, corruption and brutal oppression then we should have learnt that those leading do not know where they are going.
In 2002 USA Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, reveal in his cable to Washington that Tsvangirai was a "flawed and indecisive character" after meeting the latter on two or so occasions. After 13 years of blundering we still consider him a great leader.
Since both Zanu PF and MDC have endorsed this Copac draft; it is highly probable the electorate will vote yes in the referendum. We are not blind but chose to close our eyes and follow like sheep wherever individuals like Mugabe and Tsvangirai lead but do so at our own peril.
@Giribheti
This constitution referendum is actually turning out to be a referendum on this GNU.
When the GNU was first formed in 2008 following the signing of the GPA many people said it was not going to work because MDC had conceded too much power to Mugabe and time has proven the doubters right!
The GNU was tasked to carry out a raft of democratic reforms and write a democratic constitution to deliver one thing and one thing only – free and fair elections whose results, unlike the 2008 elections, would be a true reflection of the democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe and will not be in dispute. The GNU have failed in their set task.
Not even one of the democratic reforms has been implemented. There was supposed to be media reforms so that there would be freedom of expression and a free media, for example, and yet the public media is still under the struggle hold of Zanu PF whilst the private media still have the draconian laws like POSA and AIPPA hanging over its head. The other example of key reform is one that was meant to take the Police, Army and CIO out of politics and end the country’s culture of violence. We all know this did not happen and the spectre of violence is already claiming its victims.
As for the constitution all pretence of consulting the ordinary people was discredited at outreach stage; Zanu PF were allowed to completely takeover and impose the party’s own selfish agenda. Whatever Mugabe did not want in the Copac draft was taken out ending up with this rubbish which will never deliver any basic rights including the right to a free vote and the right to life.
A yes vote in the referendum;
1) is a yes the GNU carried out ALL the democratic reforms;
2) is a yes the Copac draft constitution is the democratic constitution we wanted:
3) is a yes we will have free and fair elections, free of violence, etc. from now on
The honest truth is that none of the above has been accomplished and it therefore beggars the question why the nation would want to be short changed for the umpteenth time and accept yet another election process marred by violence whose result will not be a true reflection of the democratic will of the people. Surely that should be enough to make the whole nation vote NO during the referendum.
A no vote to the referendum will mean the nation must go back to the drawing board and have the reforms implemented and a truly democratic constitution. Since the three parties to this GNU failed to carry out these tasks; their role after the referendum would be considerably reduced, Mugabe will not have the tyrannical powers much less wield it ever again!
“Zimbabwe’s capital city remains on high alert because of the ongoing spread of typhoid, with at least five related deaths registered in Harare since October,” reported S W Radio Africa
Zimbabweans have to learn that until we have good governance the nation's political and economic problems will only get worse! Free and fair elections is the very heart and soul of good governance. Sadly, this GNU have failed to implement the reforms and write a democratic constitution and therefore the next elections will not be free and fair. And therefore Zimbabwe will not have good governance!
The nation's hopes of getting out of this hell-hole are totally dependent on rejecting the Copac rubbish and thus force the implementation of the reforms.
Mugabe promises to exterminate corruption by firing corrupt Police Officers, corrupt Ministers, anyone and everyone guilty of corrupt.
“I was getting complaints even kunze from former South African president Thabo Mbeki who said some of our ANC people who come (to Zimbabwe) trying to do business, have been told, if you want to do business you should give us US$1 million. No, it is now US$5 million. We will take some of the money to President Mugabe, zvekundinyepera,” Mugabe said.
Why has he not done so all these years? It is the people's democratic right to fire him through free and fair elections. Mugabe should not be allowed to deny the people that right by holding yet another fraudulent election.
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