Democratic transformation demands rising from subjective to objective thinking

Patrick Guramatunhu you are spot on; (Trevor Ncube tweet “torched a storm”)

·       Trevor Ncube was stating a fact, Tsvangirai is corrupt and incompetent.

·       Ncube’s conclusion that those who continue to follow the said corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai cannot call themselves part of the transformative Zimbabwe, is a logical conclusion

·       You are right that telling these MDC supporters these bear-knuckle home truths should have forced them sober up and carry out so serious introspective and objective reflections

·       It is sad that instead of sobering up the MDC supporters have flewn into a rage and thus proving that they are incapable of looking at issues objectively.

·       You are also right to conclude that; with an electorate that is incapable of objective thinking, like these MDC supporters; Zimbabwe’s dream of becoming a healthy and functional democracy will remain a pipedream. Democracy demands an electorate that capable of rising above the run-of-mill subjective thinking and look at issues objectively, evaluating the facts and listening to reason and logic.

Joel Montgomery was given one of the best definition of objective and subjective thinking.

  

“An objective perspective is one that is not influenced by emotions, opinions, or personal feelings - it is a perspective based in fact, in things quantifiable and measurable. A subjective perspective is one open to greater interpretation based on personal feeling, emotion, aesthetics, etc.,” he wrote.

“For example: I may take an objective perspective that the Bible is the most published book in all of history.  This can be verified as a factual statement by looking at publishing records and statistics.

“A subjective view would state that the Bible is the most influential book of all time, or that it is the greatest book of all time.  I cannot verify these statements with fact - only through opinion.”

Whilst MDC leaders and supporters alike have readily agreed that the 2013 elections were rigged they have however stubbornly refused to discuss why Mugabe was able to blatantly rig the elections when the principle objective of the 2008 GPA was to deliver free, fair and credible elections. They have deliberately introduced subjective issue in the discussion for one purpose only, to cloud the issue so that they never admit that Tsvangirai failed to implement the reforms which would have stopped Mugabe rigging the elections.

These MDC members remind me of some corrupt and incompetent individuals workmates of mine and I had to work with in valuing and awarding tenders. We were able to award the project to the best company on merit and nothing else because the tender awarding procedure was very specific:

a)    Open envelop A, containing detailed specification of the plant to be supplied and work to be carried.  

b)    Open envelop B, containing all the technical bids. Each bid was then compared to the requirement of the specification in a) and any that failed to meet must-have requirements were discarded.

c)     Open envelop C, select the financial bids of only those suppliers who sailed through b) above. The bids were then checked to ensure the meet all the financial constrains called for in the specification in a).

d)    Only those suppliers whose technical and financial bids met the specifications were then grade and the one offering best value technically and financially was awarded the contract.

Following the laid-out procedure eliminated unnecessary pointless arguing about awarding the tender to a company because it has lowest price when the company would not have made it past the technical selection. If you want a sports-car, you are not going to buy some fuel guzzling banger with a top speed of 50kmp just because it is the cheapest on offer!  

By failing to implement even one democratic reform in five years of the GNU, Tsvangirai has proven beyond all reasonable doubt that he is corrupt and incompetent; this is a historic fact.

If we are serious about transforming Zimbabwe from the corrupt and tyrannical autocracy to a healthy and functional democracy, which is what Trevor Ncube was talking about, then we specifically need competent and visionary leaders, ideally. If we cannot get the competent and visionary leaders, then we must get leaders with some common sense, at the very least. Surely Zimbabwe has a few men and women out there with some common sense our job is to create the right political environment to allow them to emerge.

Someone like Tsvangirai with a proven track record as a corrupt and incompetent leader does not even make it on the shortlist because he does not have any common sense.

Some Tsvangirai supporters have often reminded us how he was assaulted by Mugabe’s thugs, for example. His been beaten is surely no excuse for him to betray the nation by failing to implement reforms much less justification for the nation to overlook he is corrupt and incompetent and elect him back into office to carry out the very task he failed to do during the GNU – implement the reforms.  

By the same token, Mugabe’s liberation struggle exploits, regardless how times and how colourful the language he has retold the stories, will never excuse the human misery and deaths his corrupt and tyrannical rule has brought to the nation. Mugabe has inflicted so much human misery because for two decades, at least, after independence; Mugabe could do no wrong, as far as many Zimbabweans were concerned. It was the lack of objective thinking, the same being shown by MDC supporters towards Tsvangirai today, that them from the simple reality that Mugabe was just a fallible mortal like everyone else.

Zimbabwe is in serious economic and political trouble but one of our own making. If anyone thinks that the country has fit rock-bottom and cannot sink any deeper; he/she should look at Libya, Egypt, Syria, etc.; hell-on-earth is very deep, we can and will sink even deeper. If we are ever going to get out of this hell, then must start thinking objective and stop this sentimental nonsense of considering a corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai a hero!