Mischievous Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe planning to derail the country's Constitutional reform agenda by misrepresenting the GPA out of fear of imminent defeat in elections that will follow adoption of the new Constitution Not that there is anything novel about President Mugabe’s psychological assessment but the surest way to judge his intentions is to get him edgy. It appears the Western nations have unanimously come to the conclusion that Mugabe can only be trusted when he says something in anger.
And nothing appears to enter his nerves by the day as does the continued banishment of his Zanu PF closed circuit freedom to travel globally by way targeted sanctions imposed on them and of course his person.
After telling the world he had despatched his Premier to Western nations that imposed the evil sanctions against his party leadership and overzealous supporters to push for the lifting of the restriction against his adherents and country alike as well as seek international aid for the state’s economic recovery programmes, the refusal by all the countries visited to consider such a move at present has extracted the real thinking within his mind.
Of course the Premier denied he was a Presidential emissary tasked to dismantle the sanctions preferring instead to tell the nation that he had Constitutional mandates as Head of the government to ensure the country revived severed relations with the international community and more specifically the Western nations.
The Premier further explained that securing aid for the country was critical but not the main reason of his forays into the Western nations.
President Mugabe has concluded that his emissary’s mission was in vain. He has looked around his team to see if there still remains anyone with a better chance of succeeding where his greatest prospect –the Premier- has floundered and concluded the best chance has slipped by long before the emissary’s report has been tabled to him.
President Mugabe decided it was time to set out the government agenda proactively.
It is not clear on what basis he still believes he has the obligation to craft government policy other than perhaps that it is the manifestation of residual work habits of a government leader for the past 3 decades forgetting that the task has been reassigned to the Premier.
And what a mess of it he made.
Constitutional reform
The Constitutional reform agenda is probably the most crucial political agenda for the coalition government. It is detailed in Constitutional Amendment number 19 which is the basis upon which the government exists.
President Mugabe demands that the process be followed to the letter and the Kariba Draft Constitution be used as the foundation for the reform process.
It is not clear how the President has formulated the notion that the Constitutional reform process must be restricted to Kariba Draft Constitution agreed between Zanu PF and the MDC but was never implemented.
The Herald reports that “Addressing the Zanu-PF National Consultative Assembly at the party’s headquarters in Harare yesterday, President Mugabe said the Parliamentary Select Committee on the constitution-making process should not deviate from that agreement (GPA).”
This is the kind of principled stance that we expect of the President in every agreement he enters into on behalf of Zanu PF and the State.
But the President flip flops and prevaricates depending on the clause of the GPA he is confronted with.
"Nyaya iri kuitwa iyi yokuti kune committee yeParliament . . . tiri kuti isu zvirege kusiyana neDraft Constitution yekuKariba nekuti takabvumirana tichisayinirana page-by-page saka hapana imwe constitution yatinoda isiri yeKariba," he said. (“In respect of the Parliamentary Constitutional reform committee, we are demanding that it should not deviate from the Kariba Draft Constitution because we agreed upon it page-by-page so there is no need for any other Constitution than the one agreed at Kariba.”)
"VeMDC vanobvumirana nayo kana tichitaura nezvayo asi vari kuvhundutswa nana-Madhuku vachiti it must be people-driven."(The MDC subscribes to the Kariba draft in private meetings with Zanu PF but are intimidated by the demands from Madhuku and his followers for a people driven process.”)
"Our people have got to be very careful and take precautions not to be derailed, not to be led away from the Kariba Draft. We will make the draft available," he said.
It is sincerely hoped the people referred to hear are those that subscribe to the Zanu PF view of constitution making that seeks to exclude the generality of the process from inputting its desires on how it wants to be ruled but seeks their ascent to how their rulers want to rule.
It would be sweet music for many ears in Zimbabwe to hear their President tell the Zanu PF National Consultative Assembly that the appointments of Cabinet Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Provincial Governors, Reserve Bank Governor, Attorney General, Ambassadors as well as any other Senior coalition government officials should not deviate from the GPA and lead by example in that regard.
But no the President chooses when to remember that there is a binding agreement and when to turn a blind eye to its existence.
Unfortunately for the nation it is when the President believes the agreement favours Zanu PF that he demands strict adherence to it but when it favours other parties in the coalition or the nation he vitiates the agreement with the disdain of a spoilt brat.
There has been no agreement that the Kariba Draft constitution will be the basis upon which the constitutional reform revolves but rather that the Parties acknowledged its existence and annexed it to the GPA.
This was done as a means of including in Constitutional Amendment No19, the provisions contained in Chapters 4 and 13, and section 121 of the Kariba draft Constitution that the Parties executed at Kariba on 30 September 2007 and not as a basis for pre-empting the Constitutional reform process as the president is now attempting to mislead the nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment