“I can’t afford to
expose my supporters to any violence from Zanu (PF) and so that is why I will
not be holding any rallies or distribute party regalia. A person should simply
know in their hearts who they want to support and simply vote for them,”
admitted Dr Nkosana Moyo.
The former banker and strategist told The Zimbabwean that
he intends to make door to door campaigns and speak to people in private as a
way of drumming support for his presidential bid.
It is refreshing to
note that Dr Moyo is acknowledging that Zanu PF’s ability to intimidate the
electorate is a big worry in Zimbabwe politics; he had not done so far. In his
pronouncements so far, he gave the impression, that the opposition had lost
past elections because they failed to mobilize the electorate.
Having acknowledged
that problem of intimidation he is also offering to address it. Refraining from holding rallies and not
distributing any T-shirt or anything that will make anyone supporting him
standout is certainly going to reduce possible attacks. Still I will condemn
his actions for three reasons:
1)
This is offer is not fool proof because anyone seen talking to
Dr Moyo and/or his agents can still be accused of supporting him and be
punished.
2) As a contesting
candidate, why should anyone have to be so severely restricted in terms of whom
they are allowed to see, where, etc. in their campaigning for votes?
3) Do we really want a
country in which incumbent regime and its thugs are the only ones allowed to
hold rallies, distribute their party regalia, have the licence to beat, rape or
even kill opposition supporters who dare make themselves known? Do we really
set this as the norm of Zimbabwe politics and a precedence?
It is
either Dr Moyo fully subscribe to the notion that every Zimbabwean has the God
given right to free and fair election and freedom of association. If he does
then he would know that in contesting next year’s elections under the present
system, even with his added precautions, is a none start.
Or else he considers
the right to free and fair election, etc. to be privileges that can be granted
to some and denied to others at the whim of a tyrant.
Zimbabwe has yet to hold
its first free, fair and credible elections. There was no reason why this has
happened other than the selfish greed and lust for absolute power of a tyrant
and his cronies. They have systematically corrupt the country’s State
Institutions and beaten, raped and even murdered many innocent Zimbabweans to
create and retain this de facto one party dictatorship. And now they are
resisting demands to implement the reforms to end the dictatorship and restore all
the individual freedoms and rights.
You can’t expect us to reform ourselves out of power,” some Zanu PF
leaders have argued.
Oh yes we are! Since when has anyone, anyone at all, had to absolute
right to deny others their basic God given rights and freedoms? Are these not
what the nation fought for and thousands died for?
The solution to Zanu
PF’s imposed political culture of blatant vote rigging and violence is to
demand the implementation of the democratic reforms to designed to end this
culture. Participating in the elections only gives the process credibility and
help perpetuate it.
Our people have
waited for 37 years since the Zimbabwe attained her independence for the opportunity
to cast their first free and fair ballot. They are sick and tired of adventurer
like Dr Moyo keen to some ill conceive political experiment on how to conduct
an election campaign whilst playing hide and seek with murderous thugs.
Zimbabwe is in this
political and economic mess because for the last 37 years we have failed to
deal decisively with this problem of bad governance and the failure to hold
free, fair and credible elections is at the very heart of the problem. We have
a chance to deal with the problem once and once for all by demanding the
implementation of the democratic reforms BEFORE holding the next elections. After
37 years of blundering for pillar to post, here is our chance to do something
right for once!
Door to door
campaigns, indeed! I hope every time your knock the door of a Zanu PF thug he/she
will have a knuckle sandwich for you! Just to knock some common sense into you.
It is bad enough to have to explain the need to demand the implementation of
the democratic reforms to simpletons like Morgan Tsvangirai or Joice Mujuru
without having to do the same to, supposedly, intellectuals like Dr Moyo as
well!
Zimbabwe’s next
elections will be free, fair and credible, if we, the ordinary people, should
so decide, stand firm and not let our corrupt and incompetent politicians drag
us into yet another meaningless and rigged election. We do not need to go
through another election to know that with no reforms in place Zanu PF will rig
the vote.
3 comments:
PROSPECTS of an opposition coalition against President Robert Mugabe continue to hit turbulence, with National People's Party (NPP) leader, Joice Mujuru yesterday distancing herself from claims by MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai that a pact would be in place by month-end.
Zanu PF is busy implementing its vote rigging machinery and the opposition are wasting time fighting each other over nothing!
Zimbabwe's opposition politicians are too corrupt and too incompetent to understand what is in their own selfish interest and the reason they are always quarrelling and blundering. They have no clue where they are coming from and where they are going.
People have followed corrupt and incompetent individuals like Morgan Tsvangirai but only because they are so easily fooled. They are like kapenta fish, one does not need any bait to catch them, turn on the light and you have them fooled. It is to see why our electorate are such naïve and gullible simpletons, they spend most of their time in a comatose like slumber and therefore know nothing of the world around them. They will follow anyone, even a certified village idiot, blindly like sheep to the slaughter.
By contesting next year’s elections with not even one reform in place, Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians could not have shown how utterly useless and selfish they are more graphically. The pretence that they will win and form the next government is just that a mirage to point to their gullible supporters foolish enough not know better. What the opposition are after are the few give away gravy train seats and they do not care that the nation will pay dearly for another rigged election.
It is now for the people themselves to wake up from their slumber and denounce these opportunistic opposition politicians who pretend to represent the people when all they are doing is help Zanu PF torment the people and destroy this nation for thirty pieces of silver.
We do not need these stupid coalitions, never did! We want free and fair elections!
I have a couple of questions for Dr Moyo:
1) If your campaign is confined to door to door campaigning because you do not want to expose the electorate to Zanu PF violence associated with rallies, wearing opposition regalia, etc. - very thoughtful of you sir. But suppose you lose the election, would you say it was a free, fair and credible election?
2) If you were SADC, AU, or anyone else including a private Zimbabwean; would you take the complains that the election was rigged serious from candidate whom you have warned repeatedly that the election will be rigged but he/she would not listen?
3) Do you accept, Dr Moyo, that by contesting the elections you are giving the process credibility and per se forfeiting the chance to have the democratic reforms implemented and thus finally deliver and guarantee free and fair elections.
4) Even if you were to win next year's elections; would you agree that you will have to fight your only colleagues in APA who will not want the reforms implemented because they will know, as the incumbent government the system will help them stay in power?
5) In short Dr Moyo, you are asking the nation to forfeit ending the dictatorship once and once for all on the basis of a gamble of you winning the elections Zanu PF has the licence to rig and, having won against all the odds, that your administration will implement the reforms fully. Do you really think all Zimbabweans are that stupid to make such a reckless and foolish gamble when the risk free option is to get the reform implement before the elections?
It is naive, to say the least, for anyone to think that Zanu PF thugs on war path because they are worried their party will lose the elections will be so easily pacified because there are no opposition rallies in their patch! Does Dr Moyo think the thugs will mistake the campaigners moving door to door for Jehovah's Witness members?
Why are we coming up with all these stupid solutions that will never work when all we need to do is stand up tall and say no to rigged elections!
If Dr Moyo is willing to compromise on something as basic and fundamental as individual freedoms and human rights it is hard to see what else is left out there over which he will not compromise. We are in this mess because for the last 37 years we have had a string of men and women who had one thing in common; they all had no morals and principles, they would sell their own mothers for a price. We need a leader with some morals and principles and not yet another slug with no backbone!
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