The question of whether or not an opposition coalition is the
answer to ending the Zanu PF dictatorship is an important question. Thank you, Tshepo
Mabalane Mabalane, for starting of the debate.
“The split (of opposition coalition) was caused by the
limited drive to entrench a single narrative of a homogenous Zimbabwe with one
problem(Mugabe) yet the MDC was a conglomeration of groups with different
interests but had in common the need to counter a ZANU hegemony,” you said.
That is a mouthful. I would put is differently.
The realisation by the opposition parties that the as long as
the stand a multitude of parties each too small and weak to take Mugabe and
Zanu PF alone they had no chance of ever defeating Zanu PF is the force pulling
the opposition to force coalition. There is another force at play here too, each
party or individual within the party is keen to maintain their own distinct identity
so that they can strike out and emerge out of the vanquished Zanu PF as the dominant
party/individual.
Consider the first as a gravitation force, pulling all the
different bodies together and the later as an electrical repulsive force of bodies
with the same charge. As any student of
physics will tell you; which force will dominate with dependent of a number of
thing but for the sake of simplicity the greater the mass to charge ration the
greater the gravitational force to electrostatic repulsion.
Zimbabwe’s politicians right across the political divide are simpleton
and as shallow as a petri dish; they have no principles, no ideology, no policies
nothing beyond their burning desire to be the top dog to get on the gravy train
which is the sum total of what holding public office mean to them.
Take Tsvangirai for example, he never had a clue what were
the democratic changes the country needed although he has been leading a party
elected on a ticket to bring democratic change which is why MDC did not
implement even one reform. Even to this day he still does not have a clue what
these reforms are about.
So if one was to compare Tsvangirai to other world leaders
like President Barak Obama whilst the latter is a man of substance, has gravitas,
a one foot diameter ball of sold lead; Tsvangirai is a one foot diameter helium
balloon, let go and he will float into obviation.
Our helium balloon MDC leaders were united throughout the GNU
by the prospect of defeating Zanu PF; but, true to their no-substance nature, failed
to see that this would not be achieved without implementing the removes. So
when Mugabe rigged the elections and thus ending the little gravitation force the
electrostatic forces came to the fore with a vengeance! How someone like Tendai
Biti could say Mugabe, a corrupt and murderous tyrant is “better” than
Tsvangirai only goes to show just how shallow Biti is.
Introduce an electric charge on lead balls and they will not
move. Do the same thing with helium balloons and they will fly apart!
Zanu and Zapu had the same problems as the opposition now
have. Mugabe has managed to keep Zanu PF united these last 34 years because he
was in power and used political patronage to glue the helium balloons in the
party together. The country has been striped bear of all loot and without it
Mugabe is now finding it tough to stop the party splitting apart!
I know many Zimbabweans are desperate to end this Mugabe
tyranny and have again and again sort the unity of the opposition as the
answer. We need to think outside the box; instead of trying to knock Mugabe off
his patch with several helium balloons we should try using one water balloon.
What we have lacked is just one opposition leader of substance; uniting 5 or 10
leaders has not worked as the sum total of the united opposition has often been
less than the individual contribution because they have opposed more than they
have reinforced!
As a people we are more easily impressed by quantity and
never see quality, we are ourselves intellectual featherweights and therefore
man of substance mean nothing to us!
2 comments:
The Zimbabwe economy shrunk by a staggering 84% in the six year period 2002 to 2008 alone and one of the causes was the voodoo monetary policies and outright looting that was going on at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Now the details of what was going on are coming out.
So Munyaradzi Kereke got a $1.3 million golden handshake from an institution that has admitted to making $2 billion loss unrecovered farming loans alone. What exactly was he being rewarded for?
The government admits that there is a lot of looting going on in Marange and only one of the five companies that had promised $10 million towards a community trust fund has since paid $1.5 million. The government in its infinite wisdom says it will reorganise the mining operations to end the chaos but not until the end of the year.
So the looting is to continue for another six months in the hope that the companies may remit some of the looted wealth and contribute the $1.5 million each to the fund! How infuriating is that!
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