Neo-liberal, elitist mafia who best fits the description among the the three images
January 23, 2009
By Tendai Biti
WHEN a struggle becomes long, and the end becomes as illusionary as a
mirage, opportunism, hypocrisy and mendacity creep in.
In all these situations, principles are sacrificed on the altar of
self-interest. The struggle, already arrested by exhaustion, becomes
commodified and bastardized.
History also shows that those struggles that have survived have only done so
because a few have stayed the course and have refused to be seduced by
myopic soft-landings.
It is this sort of mentality that has given rise to a new school of thought
that seeks to revise our recent history and has peddled myths about the
limited options available to the people of Zimbabwe and has, therefore,
sought to compromise the one thing that can never be compromised. This is
the sacrosanct principle that it is only the people that have an inalienable
right to decide their course and their destiny.
The revisionist school of thought and its disciples constitute a bunch of
tireless, airport lounge activists and a beehive of "people representatives"
who are nothing but a cocoon of neo-liberal, elitist mafia.
Oftentimes, their ideology is betrayed by a series of pseudo-intellectual,
high-sounding superfluous blur and the sepulchral mucus oozing from this
camp. It is a pure distillation of anger and frustration masquerading as
political strategy.
Let us begin with the fiction and contention that there was no winner in the
29th of March election.
But indeed there was a winner! We contested this election without resources,
without access to the media, without access to vital electoral information
and data.
Contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act, we were not availed the
voters' roll, neither did we know the number of polling stations. The law
kept being changed in the course of the game and it was more like playing
tennis with a continuously moving base line.
For instance, the law made it clear that every candidate in the four-in-one
harmonized election would be entitled to an agent inside the ballot booth
but this was ignored. On the 20th of December Mugabe himself signed a law
that kept policemen outside polling booths but by the 10th January he had
reversed that law through a presidential decree.
Furthermore, as we exposed at the time, all State agents manning the polls
were carefully handpicked to exclude anyone thought to be sympathetic to us.
Indeed, over 5000 teachers were excluded as a result of this. What monstrous
fraud!
Beyond legal shenanigans was the massive vote buying spree authored and
executed by the insufferable onyx, Gideon Gono. In March, trillions of
dollars were splashed in the so called Phase Two of the farm mechanization
program.
On the ground, hundreds of our meetings were denied. Indeed we went to court
on this and other issues and not once did this fantastically marinated
judiciary pronounce judgment in our favour. At the same time, Zanu-PF
gallivanted freely across the countryside. Mugabe roamed the thirsty
countryside in three state of the art helicopters whilst Tsvangirai and the
rest of us drove like maniacs in dilapidated jalopies in the dusty and
cracked cheekbones of Zimbabwe's countryside.
In short, the political, legal and contextual frame-work could and did not
justify an incontestable election. The fact that the election was run by a
totally partial body, that there was no access to the media, that there was
proscription of free movement, the abuse of state resources and the denial
of access to information is evident of the fact this was a limping election
whose ethos fell below international standards.
The achievements of the MDC and indeed of the people of Zimbabwe were
Herculean. That the opposition in all its forms won this election under
these circumstances was hardly surprising. The result would certainly have
been more emphatic was it not for the gerrymandering of constituencies by
deliberately creating more rural constituencies and indeed the absence of an
even and equal playing field. Moreover, Zanu-PF narrowed the gap in two
constituencies i.e. Red cliff and Gwanda South which it won in the violent
27th June event.
To suggest that the MDC did not win the election on the 29th March is
intended to obfuscate the Zanu-PF decline while inflating the over-inflated
egos of some who were severely defeated in that election! Their
self-proclaimed mantra as kingmakers is a by product of this myopic venery.
More importantly, it underlies a deep and inveterate contempt and disrespect
for the people .It is the people that decide their fate and not some overfed
Google-addict sitting on a table. Politics is not a chess game of fluent
gambits or over elaborate flip-charts.
A second fraud is to try and equate Tsvangirai with Mugabe. This, with all
due respect, is sick populism intended not to defile Mugabe for he has done
that on his own, but to ridicule and demonise Tsvangirai and the MDC.
The attack is personal and is no different from the daily diatribe of
defamatory vituperations churned in the Herald. In short, to both Mugabe and
others, Tsvangirai is the red flag that has generated anger and hatred of
satanic proportions.
Is it an accident that a rocket scientist can be so ahistorical and so
revisionist as to equate the sins of this regime with any other person? Can
the failure of this agreement be visited upon our shoulders?
One thing has to be emphasized for the benefit of those conducting the
symphony of hatred and discord at Herald House. Tsvangirai is the undisputed
and uncontestable leader of the MDC. Not only that, he is the leader of this
struggle. Every struggle has a face and a leader.
Thus, Vladimir Lenin was the face of the Bolshevik Revolution despite the
array of luminaries in the Bolshevik party. Equally, Nelson Mandela is the
face and leader of the struggle against apartheid despite giants like Albert
Luthuli, Govan Mbeki, Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and others.
For the record, it is Mugabe alone and his acolytes who have been
responsible for the castration of Zimbabwe's manhood. It is not land reform
or so-called sanctions that have created the phenomenal decline of this
economy to levels unheard of in modern economics. Gukurahundi and
Murambatsvina, the post 2000 violence and the post 29th March violence are a
progeny of this violent "thugocratic" state run by a securocracy or, as I
described recently in Parliament, a "juntacratised" State.
Now where does Tsvangirai fit into all this?
The answer is simple. It is not Tsvangirai who is frustrating the
consummation of this deal but rather Mugabe himself. In this regard let's
put into perspective the MDC position on the dying dialogue.
It is that there must be a satisfactory legal framework to underpin the
agreement. Secondly, that there must be an equitable distribution of
ministerial portfolios - in short, responsibility with authority.
Thirdly, there must be defined the constitution and composition of the
National Security Council. In view of the "juntacritisation" of the State
surely this overseeing body is essential to ensure the gradual weaning of
State Institutions from the breast of Zanu-PF.
Fourthly, there must be an equitable and fair distribution of key public
positions including governors, ambassadors and permanent secretaries.
Lastly, there must be a reversal and cessation of all breaches of the MOU
and the GPA. This includes the unconditional release of Jestina Mukoko,
Gandi Mudzingwa and all abductees and the reversal of all executive
appointments unilaterally made after 21 July 2008.
Surely there is nothing extraterrestrial about these demands. The demands
are not domiciled at Albus Dumbledore's Hogwarth School of Magic and
Wizardry. There is nothing British or American in the same. In fact the
demands are a logical platform if not precondition for any viable Government
of National Unity.
That however is not the view of others. Just get in there and sort
everything while you are inside! In short, put your eggs in the basket of
hope and faith. More plaintively, trust Zanu- PF.
Trust is exactly what we did when we signed the GPA on the 11th September
and attended the glittering ceremony of a doctored document of the 15th
September when so many issues were outstanding. We genuinely assumed that
Zanu-PF was ready and bona fide. Alas, we were naive. We ignored the
fundamental construct that Zanu-PF sees itself as being endowed with a
divine right and obligation to rule Zimbabwe . The sense of entitlement
common in many nationalist parties is disproportionately overdeveloped in
Zanu-PF, particularly when one considers the role of the peasant countryside
in the war of liberation.
The sense of entitlement is the tumour at the epicenter of Zanu-PF's power
retention mantra which is the sole reason for its existence and not any
other ground norm. Thus, engaging the MDC through the GNU is a strategic
retreat in the power retention project. A retreat that is necessary for the
party to regroup following what Mugabe has called the "lapse" of the 29th
March.
The events of the last three months following the execution of the GPA have
shown beyond reasonable doubt that no self respecting person can ever trust
Zanu-PF. Daily have been episodes of the clear lack of paradigm shift on the
part of Zanu-PF.
First has been the interference and frustration of food and humanitarian
assistance in breach of agreements. Second has been the unleashing of a
fresh wave of violence, this time characterised by an evil spate of extra
legal abductions. The case of Mr and Mrs Chinanzvavana, Gandi Mudzingwa,
Chris Dhlamini, Jestina Mukoko and others reflects beyond a shadow of doubt
the mindset of this voodoo regime and its lack of bona fides.
The reappointment of Gideon Gono as Reserve Bank governor and the
appointment of Johannes Tomana as Attorney General add to the body of
incontrovertible evidence of this lack of paradigm shift. Quite clearly,
these are the things that others will not talk about. But that we are
expected to gloss over these issues and pretend they don't exist eludes our
wisdom.
One can understand the desperate shrill of some to make this agreement work
despite the clearly foreseeable Golgotha . After all this is the one
God-given opportunity of holding public office to many of us who cannot in
the immediate to short-term win any election
What is clearly as hypocritical as it is obnoxious is the populist attack on
the West. Two things are particularly appalling.
First, is the attempt to frame an anti-Mugabe position as being mothered and
authored by the West. Therefore we in the MDC can't think for ourselves but
must wait for Condoleeza Rice and Jendayi Fraser.
What philistine madness!
Second, for some having cut our teeth in the West and some of its best
universities to try and reinvent ourselves as latter-day Che Guevaras is a
humourless banality. It does not fool any one. Not at all.
The struggle for democratisation in Zimbabwe has been a long and arduous
one. Indeed the struggle for independence itself was a first step in this
gravel road. This generation has a duty is to fulfil the unfinished business
of that struggle. On this we stood with Joshua Nkomo, Edgar Tekere and
Ndabaningi Sithole as they were persecuted by Mugabe.
We were there when thousands were violently displaced killed and maimed
during Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina the post 2000 violence, the Final Push and
other great demonstrations.
We were proudly there in Hillside at the National Working People's
Convention on 26 February 1999. We were also there on that sunny, lovely
Saturday afternoon at Rufaro stadium on 11 September 1999 when Gibson
Sibanda arrogantly told Mugabe that: "We have accepted your invitation to
form our party. This is our party."
We were there inside Matapi police station as Isaac Maphosa told us the
results of the Constitutional referendum on a smuggled mobile phone. And
yes, we have buried comrades, from Tichaona Chiminya, Talent Mabika, Trymore
Midzi, Nomore Sibanda and the irresistible Learnmore Jongwe. Tonderai Ndira
still looms large in our dreams, the peerless Gertrude "Diesel" Mthombeni
will not leave our hearts and the pillar of our struggle, Isaac Matongo,
continues to lift us on his bulky shoulders.
That is our history. No one then can bastardize the same and seek to frame
it on a template of a neo-liberal, British or American creation or
construction. That is the greatest insult to the people of Zimbabwe and to
our history as a social liberation movement completing the unfinished
business of the liberation struggle.
Finally, a myth has been peddled that there is no other strategy or option
other than that of a GNU. This can only be a Freudian dislocation. Dialogue
and the GNU are the conscious by-product of a roadmap we crafted in May
2006. They are the baby and not the mother.
They are a means and not the end. They are an adjectival issue and not the
substance. The substance is to achieve democratic change in Zimbabwe through
peaceful, democratic, constitutional and non-violent means. To then suggest
that this can only be achieved through a GNU chaired by Mugabe is somewhat
cataleptic.
In short, we remain committed to the cause of change in Zimbabwe as we
remain committed to the GPA, subject to the resolution of our demands.
However, we are not naïve to allow Zanu PF to trap us in the cul-de-sac of
any sterile processes.
Our party might be 10 years old, but our experience is of gerontocratic
proportions.
(Tendai Biti is the Secretary-General of the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai
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