“My aunt, who is a nurse by profession, once told me that when
someone is in shock; they will drown in water a few feet deep because they
cannot think straight to stand up! We are drowning, stuck in this Zanu PF made
hell-on-earth because we are in such a state of shock we cannot think straight
to stop President Mugabe from blatantly rigging the next elections!” argued
Patrick Guramatunhu.
I have heard of that one; a slap in the face will help most
victim to snap out of the shock and start thinking straight again.
A clever argument Patrick but will not wash here; we cannot the
whole nation in a state of shock for over two years? It is quite possible that
the people were stunned into silence the day of the elections and the effect
lasted for a few days or even a few weeks. It is now over two years since the
rigged national elections at least some people some have started demanding an
explanation from both MDC – why the elections had been rigged when they had
insisted throughout they would free and fair – and from Zanu PF - demand an
explanation for the treasonous vote rigging acts.
Indeed Zimbabwe has yet to hold free and fair elections so if we
will have failed to think straight and demand an end to rigged elections
because we are in a state of shock then we have been in shock for 35 years!
I agree that we are starving in the Garden of Eden; “drowning is
water a few feet deep”, if you like; “because we cannot think straight to stand
up”. But that is not because we are in shock but rather that we are too lazy to
think straight.
Some people have argued that Zimbabwe is a very repressive state
and the populous have been cowed into silent submission. I readily acknowledge
that indeed the Mugabe regime’s track record of over 30 000 innocent
Zimbabweans murdered by the tyrant’s thugs plus millions harassed, beaten
and/or raped for political in 35 years say it all.
“I have degrees in violence!” Mugabe was often boasted!
Yes Mugabe is a corrupt and murderous tyrant and Zimbabweans
have had good reason to fear him and his ruthless henchmen.
Still it is in the nature of every human being to desire and
strive for freedom and liberty much more so when economic condition one is
being forced to live in are unbearable as is the case in Zimbabwe. Millions are
now living in abject poverty as a result of the decades of criminal worse of
human and material resources. And so the people should have been restless and
always on the lookout for unlocked door or window through which to escape from
this hell-on-earth Mugabe had frog-matched them into.
It so happened that the nation got its get-out-of-hell card when
Mugabe was forced to sign the 2008 GPA in which he agreed to a raft of
democratic reforms designed to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and replace
it with a democratic system of government.
At the end of the five years of the GNU we were supposed to have
free, fair and credible elections and thus walk out of the Mugabe hell. We did
not have free and fair elections and hence the reason why we are still in this
hell under the same tyrannical subjugation.
We did not use our get-out-of-hell card because MDC leaders
betrayed us and failed to implement even one reform in five years of the GNU.
The very fact that the people have never taken the MDC leaders to task over
this goes to show just how slow the people themselves have been in their
thinking.
There is no reason why the people of Zimbabwe, not just a few
but all of them on-mass, had failed on-mass to see the golden opportunity the
GPA presented for them to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and to seize. When you
get a get-out-of-jail card, use it. You do not complain of the jail’s high
walls, razor fence, etc. The doors and gates have been thrown open; walk out.
There is no reason that is other than the people have completely switched-off
and will not think straight because they are too lazy to think.
So as I said in the last article, those
who will not learn from the past will be forced to repeat the lesson over and
over again and pay dearly for each repeat. We are in this political and
economic mess because for the last 35 years we have wished for an end to this
corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship but not with any passion and
conviction. We should be demanding to know why past elections have were rigged,
this is a necessary first step in securing this basic and fundamental human
right for ourselves and posterity and our ticket out of this hell-on-earth
Mugabe frog-matched us into.
Until we snap out of this self-induced sloth-like comatose state – shock would last for days not years - and start thinking straight then the political chaos and economic meltdown gripping our nation will only get worse; we ain’t seen nothing yet!
8 comments:
@ Gorden Moyo
PDP is pushing hard for opposition coalition.
Forget the coalition and focus on getting the democratic reforms you should have implemented during the five years of GNU implemented. SADC reminded you again and again of this and you ignored them and now you are doing the same thing again. You really are some of the most corrupt and incompetent politicians in history!
We in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats believe that the opposition should unite and speak with one voice in the demand to have all the GPA democratic reforms implemented because until the reforms are implemented the next elections will once again be rigged. MDC waste five years of the GNU years and failed to get even one reform implemented and now they are doing the same.
@ Elliot Pfebve
Yes it is a great tragedy the 3500 new university graduates should face the grime prospect of “less than 2% of Zimbabweans will get a job 2 years after graduating; in UK 95% of graduates will go to get a job within 6 months of graduating”. That is really a night-mare no one should ever have to face.
For all our impressive record of high literacy rates and probably the highest number of university graduates too in Africa; it is shocking that we, nonetheless, seem to be at sixes and sevens as to understanding the issues affecting their own lives.
It is important to note that we have had many opportunities to end the Zanu PF dictatorship with the best chance coming during the GNU. All MDC leaders – many of them University graduates too - had to do was implement the reforms and yet after five years not even one reform was implemented. Not one!
Many of our rural people would be looking to these University graduate to explain to them what happened and more significantly how the nation is going to get out of this mess. Those rural people are to be disappointed because most of these graduates do not have the foggiest idea what has been happening in the country. They can talk until the cows come home about football players or Holly Wood gossip but ask them about issues affecting their own lives and it is lights out.
As a nation we have lost the plot a long time ago; how can we chain out all these citizens with university degrees to hang on wall and all dander heads without a hint of common sense in their heads!
Mugabe will never accept that he has failed regardless how high the mountain of evidence of his failures and folly maybe that is the height of human arrogance and no one is more arrogant than a tyrant who knows every little. Of course the energy crisis in Zimbabwe today is just another example of Mugabe's great failures!
We know he is a corrupt, incompetent and murderous tyrant who failed this great nation and therefore must go. Our task is make sure that he goes a.s.a.p. and we should not be found wanting in pursuing that singular objective.
Concerted efforts by the post congress Zanu-PF to torpedo the mooted electoral pact between former Vice President Joice Mujuru and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai appear to have hit the skids after the People First movement reiterated its eagerness to work with the MDC yesterday.
“Former prime minister in the Government of National Unity as having consistently exhibited true leadership qualities”! Well that is fresh but coming from People First, that is not surprising.
The GNU’s most important task was to implement the democratic reforms so the 2013 elections would be free and fair. MDC failed to get even one reform implemented so how anyone can consider such breath-taking incompetence proof of “true leadership qualities” beggars belief. But coming from someone like Rugare Gumbo that is not surprising; the idiot has never understood was the GNU was about and what it was supposed to do.
Tsvangirai and Mujuru are some of the most corrupt and incompetent politicians in our nation’s history. The political marriage between Tsvangirai and Mujuru is the marriage between tweedle dee and tweedle dum; we in the Zimbabwe Social Democrats will do our best to warn the nation against accepting this as the way forward because we believe the nation can do better and deserves better!
@ Myabazo
It is true that Mnangagwa will lose in a free and fair election but the same could have been said of the 2013 elections, Mugabe would have lost. The fact of the matter is no democratic reforms were implemented and none are on the cards since MDC and the voters have but forgotten about reforms and so the next elections are not going to be free and fair. Mnangagwa will have control of the electoral process and no prices for guessing who will win
@ Patrick
The easy with which Grace pulled of this dirty trick on Mujuru and the nation at large is disconcerting it shows just how naive and gullible we really are as a nation! We say we want democracy but do not have a clue how democracy works even something as simple and basic as free, fair and credible elections. Mugabe subverted the whole electoral process for his selfish gain and we accuse the victim of a totally nonsensical charge of factionalism! How stupid is that!
@ Shumba
Zimbabweans need to accept some basic fundamental truths:
1) Mugabe has taken the last 35 years to establish this de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dic-tatorship and all those who think the regime will implement any meaningful reforms, es-pecially on the grounds that Tsvangirai asked them to, are naive.
2) Zimbabwe had its best chance to get meaningful reforms implemented during the GNU and MDC failed to get even one reform implemented because they are corrupt and incompetent.
3) Zimbabweans failed to see the golden opportunity for meaningful change during the GNU because they were no paying attention. The people's failure to see MDC leaders for the corrupt and incompetent individuals they are is proof that they are still not paying attention. Tunisia, for example, was able to transition from a dictatorship to a healthy and functional democracy because the Tunisians are not so naive and gullible as is the case in other Arab countries and certainly is the case in Zimbabwe.
We can all dream of ending this Zanu PF dictatorship but even if we manage to replace it peacefully we will still be a long way from getting a competent and democratic government. Zimbabweans are not ready for such a government; people get the government and opposition they deserve, we certainly deserve this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship and its equally corrupt and incompetent MDC opposition.
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