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Time to unite and claim our rights
David Jamali, ZimRights National Programmes Co-ordinator
May 2003

David Jamali is currently a Master Student of Social Science (International Development): RMIT University, Australia

For any successful victory to take place against the oppressor, it is fundamental that pro-advocacy groups unite to crash the oppressor once and for all. Human rights violations in Zimbabwe have reached unprecedented levels. The electorate has become the victim of those they elect and in the case of Zimbabwe we have become the victim of electoral thugs and despots.

The human rights situation has entered a phase one would like to describe as a famous theorist David Potter described as the "Transition Approach". The people of Zimbabwe have passed a stage of national unity (political identity) where everyone agreed that they are Zimbabwean to a situation where we have a new political elite (dispensation) which is trying to carve its own identity and seeking to be identified as a vibrant social movement. We are going through a second phase which David Potter called inconclusive political struggle, conflict between opposing groups, new elites with older elites. At this stage national unity can be torn apart - which is the case now and one group has become powerful and is overwhelming the opposition. After this stage we will go through what David Potter described as a historical moment in other words called the decision phase where the opposing parties decide to compromise and adopt democratic rules which gives each side some share in polity. This is called the first transition, which then leads to the habituation phase (2nd transition), where conscious adoption of democratic rules is done; these rules are put up grudgingly as necessary. The new elites will then become habituated and believe in the rules. When this happens a democratic regime may be said to be firmly established. In this approach it is firmly apparent that, it is not only through political parties that democracy can be achieved but other actors in civil society take an active role. It is very possible to achieve democracy after a protracted struggle against the status quo and the outcome of this may well be a very long lasting democracy because there are rules introduced and the one who goes against them will then have face the same rules. The rules here can be in the form of a democratic constitution to govern the country. The purpose of relating the crisis situation in Zimbabwe to contemporary political and social theory is to assist those in leadership roles in civil society to understand the dynamics of history and to learn from other situations throughout the world.

The biggest force today in the world that has influenced political change on behalf of ordinary citizens is the civil society organisations. In Zimbabwe today there are a number of civil society organisations operating and are very good at what they are doing. The only problem we have in the country is that these struggles (activism work) is being done in isolation, there is no cohesiveness in the approach for better results. One civil society organisation is busy competing with the other making it possible for the current government to take advantage of this situation. It is important for NGOs, churches, opposition political parties, the judiciary and other progressive government departments to unite against tyrants who are making difficult the life of ordinary Zimbabweans. Many people in the country do want change, but do we have the capable leaders who will lead the people to achieve that. IT is arguable that what we need in Zimbabwe is another or more political parties that are viable to challenge the status quo. We have a dangerous situation in the country where we only have one viable opposition parties. History has shown that if the opposition happens to win and take the leadership role without other strong opposition parties we are bound to find ourselves in the same situation as the ZANU-PF government. If there is no one to challenge the new government, they tend to relax and bask in the glory or power. If we have other opposition parties then we will be able to keep the new government on their toes because if they don’t deliver they will know that the strong opposition will replace them. This is the kind of democracy that Zimbabweans should strive for. At the moment we don’t have this, but we can unite as all citizens to fight and restore democracy and in this process new opposition forces will be born.

My contribution is just an attempt to create debate around real issues in the country rather than chasing the wind all the time. In my own personal opinion the real problems are:

1. Lack of respect by the current government to respect human rights,
2. Isolated activism work by civil society groups,
3. Lack of proper mechanism to confront the government for it to account for its actions,
4. Donors not doing enough to channel resources for united actions,
5. Donors trusting too much, few individuals who are enriching themselves in the process and hence do not care what happens to the ordinary person in the street.

There is also lack of alternative parties to ZANU-PF and MDC which is a very dangerous situation for the country. There is need to come up with a proper strategy to fight the present status quo. One way will be to intensify civic education through teaching people the meaning of the recently enacted laws. The other way is to convince the ordinary person that if they do not rise up and speak out against the human rights violations, no one will ever do that. The other thing is to teach our electorate that checks and balances can only be maintained through establishing more viable opposition movements to guide us from falling into the same trap of one dominating political parties no matter it is ZANU-PF or MDC people should learn from our own experience. After all change will only come when people are empowered with the necessary knowledge and strategies for change. I hope my small contribution to this debate will inspire others to share their valuable knowledge and insights into what can be done to come out of this mess we have found ourselves in. I am part of this problem and has contributed to this development and so is you. The challenge now is what can we do to come out of it. We are now tired of a regime that is not democratic and does not respect the rights of its own people who it claims has elected it into power.

Action
Write to Civic Organisations asking them on their current strategy to redress the human rights situation.
Write to civic organisations offering suggestions on what can be done.

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