The Greek Athenians
went the extra mile to ensure the City State’s citizens were well educated and
informed as the only sure way for democracy – the government of the people, by
the people and for the people – to work. The Athenians embraced freedom of
expression, encouraged the people to ask questions and to think for themselves
as a way of acquiring knowledge.
After 42 years of
independence Zimbabwe is blundering for pillar to post, we are a failed state,
and our democratic experiment is going nowhere. Ignorance instead of knowledge
rules the roost!
“For past 22 years,
the journey and struggle for democracy has not been easy. We have fallen in the
process as well as erred on a number of occasions. We made mistakes
collectively, myself included, and it’s high time we acknowledged that; use
mistakes to shape future,” commented Dr Thokozani Khupe in Zimlive.
Ignorance does rule
the roost, indeed, and no wonder the country is in a real mess! The people of
Zimbabwe risked life and limb to elect madam Khupe and her fellow MDC leaders
into power for the express purpose of implementing democratic reforms to end
the Zanu PF dictatorship. In the 22 years, 5 of which in the GNU, MDC leaders
have failed to implement even one token reform.
During the 2008 to
2013 GNU, when Zimbabwe had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms; Robert
Mugabe bribed the MDC leaders with the trapping of the gravy train lifestyle,
the ministerial limos, the very generous salaries and allowances, a US$4
million mansion for Tsvangirai, etc. With their snouts in the feeding trough
the MDC leaders failed to implement even one token reform in five years!
Of course, MDC
leaders sold-out big time by failing to implement even one reform during the
GNU. Worse still they have continued to sell out to this day by participating
in flawed elections giving Zanu PF legitimacy for the sake of the few gravy
train seats Zanu PF was offering to entice them to participate.
“Mistake!” How can the
deliberate and calculated betrayal of the people’s cause of implementing
reforms to secure free, fair and credible elections for selfish gain – a share
of the spoils of power – be dismissed as merely a mistake?
Indeed, madam Khupe
and her MDC/CCC accept they made mistakes because they cannot deny the reality
of the ground; that they cannot name even one meaningful reform they have
implemented in 22 years, for example. Acknowledging the reality of one is lost
does not necessarily mean one knows where they are much less now knows where
they are going.
After the debacle
of the GNU sell-out, in their ignorance Madam Khupe and her fellow MDC/CCC
colleagues have been compounding the sell-out by participating in the flawed
and illegal elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuate the
dictatorship. “Use mistakes to shape future!” as she unwittingly and yet
ironically put it!
The people of
Zimbabwe had risked life and limb to elect the MDC leaders to implement the
democratic reforms and end the Zanu PF dictatorship. After 22 years of MDC on
the political stage, the Zanu PF dictatorship is still firmly in position or be
it their now have a junior partner.
Zimbabwe is stuck
with a corrupt and tyrannical political system that has destroyed the country’s
economy forcing millions to live and die in abject poverty. Stuck for 42 years
and counting because Zanu PF rigs elections to stay in power.
On the one hand, we
have Zanu PF whose track record is so bad party will never win a free, fair and
credible elections and so has no choice but to rig elections. On the other hand
is MDC/CCC whom the nation had entrusted the task of implementing the reforms
to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. They had not only wasted the many golden
opportunities to implement reforms but are now participating in flawed elections
for the share of the spoils of power.
As the senior
partner in this political marriage of convenience Zanu PF and want to retain
absolute power at all cost and MDC are fighting for as many scraps as they can
wrestle from Zanu PF. Both parties do not care that the culture of political
violence has stifled only debate and democratic competition – the prerequisite
for sound policies and good governance – and, worse still, is causing untold
human suffering and deaths.
2 500 years after
the Greeks civilization gave mankind democracy, government of the people, by
the people for the people, as the answer to the age-old question of best a society,
nation, etc. can self-govern. We are not asked to reinvent the wheel; only to
adopt it for our own benefit. It is most disheartening that we have proven to
be so incompetent and inapt we cannot even hold free, fair and credible
elections.
Zanu PF has failed
to produce something as basic as a verified voters roll, blatant cheating and
wanton violence have become the norm, etc. and yet the regime maintains the
elections are free, fair and credible. The MDC/CCC has participated in the
flawed elections out of greed telling its ill-informed followers they have “winning
in rigged elections strategies”!
It is insane that 42 years after independence, 2 500 after the Greeks, we are still dragging ourselves through what can only be described as a mockery of a democratic elections. This is the equivalent of one using a triangle in place of the circular wheel! When are we ever going to come to our sense and finally get it right and implement the democratic reforms to ensure free, fair and credible elections?
2 comments:
A security guard was left with horrific injuries after four men armed with axes and a gun tried to enter the home of Citizens Coalition for Change deputy leader Tendai Biti early Wednesday.
Biti's mother, who was home, was unharmed in the attack.
The CCC said the four thugs arrived shortly midnight and attacked the guard at the house in the exclusive neighbourhood of Glen Lorne.
The fear is this is just another instance of Zimbabwe’s culture of political violence. If the truth be told this is not going to stop until we do something to stop it and the one thing we can do is implement the democratic reforms.
We can bury our heads in the sand and pretend the political violence is not happening or it will go away. Or we can be honest with ourselves and admit the problem and address it. After 42 years of rigged election and wanton violence, how much longer are we going to let this madness continue!
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), recently came under fire over anomalies in the voters roll unearthed by pressure group, Team Pachedu.
What is most disturbing is that ZEC has never produced a verified voters' roll although this is a legal requirement and, worse still, the opposition has known this but still participated in the elections regardless. Of course, the opposition knew that Zanu PF was rigging the elections and they did not care as long as they got a share of the spoils of political power. MDC/CCC have connived with Zanu PF is rigging the elections in return for the share of the spoils of power!
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