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MDC dithering, a betrayal of suffering masses
Reyhana Masters
October 16, 2005

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?path=./news/2005/October/Sunday16/&st_id=3161

BEFORE I am labelled in the usual manner that Zimbabweans are an opposition activist, a Zanu PF sympathizer or some such other thing, let me explain why I write this.

I listened to story after story after story of incredible violence against very ordinary people who were unable to find justice anywhere. There has not been any retribution and it is very unlikely that there will be retribution against those who committed these crimes of violence. It was difficult to listen to these accounts of brutality and this was more so difficult because I could offer nothing in return.

But maybe I can give voice to these people and so I write this because I am outraged and I am articulating the deep frustration felt by the people who have suffered and continue to suffer.

Five years ago incredible violence swept through this country. It came in many forms and the attacks seemed random but it soon became apparent that the violence was strategic, well planned and deliberately carried out.

Farm workers had their homes destroyed, their possessions burnt and they ended up displaced and destitute. Some of them have never recovered. Teachers were brutally beaten up and discarded. Students were terrorized. Property was burnt or destroyed. People were left homeless. All that violence was numbing.

As I travelled around the countryside I would hear the hair-raising stories of people having narrow escapes. Most often there was no escape. For many of the villagers the attackers would come in the night. There was a knock on the door, followed by banging. Family members who answered - usually a child or wife were harassed, humiliated and most often beaten up. These villagers, many of whom had spent years sacrificing much and building their lives suddenly lost everything - their crops, their food, their livestock and their livelihoods.

Women were raped - often brutally and in the presence of family members. Many of them ended up HIV positive. Many pregnant women repeatedly told their stories of how they were beaten up and had miscarried as a result. Women and children lost their fathers and brothers. Men and children lost their wives and mothers respectively. There are those who had their ears cut off or parts of their bodies mutilated. There are those who just disappeared. There are those who died. The stories go on and on.

All of this was done in the name of politics. Opposition politics to be precise. For the first time there was a formidable opposition. And it was the people of Zimbabwe who paid the price.

But they did so with courage and with conviction. Despite the threat of danger at every corner there were those who braved the environment.

As we all have witnessed, the violence intensified and the repression continued. What always struck me when people narrated stories of the violence inflicted upon them was the fact that they did so in a very matter-of-fact way.

What always came through was how brave determined they were to continue supporting the MDC. As I often sat listening to the harrowing tales of violence I sometimes felt that their faith was misguided but how could I offer my cynicism to the wave of hope that people felt.

Five years later I am outraged on behalf of Zimbabweans who have suffered and the Zimbabweans who have lived through extreme difficulties. As I write we all may try to bury our heads in the sand and pretend otherwise but there is great suffering, extreme poverty, hunger, ill health and uncertainty facing this country.

So how devastating for all those who risked life and limb, to now be faced with an opposition that is so conspicuously divided. The decision by the MDC to contest/not contest the senate polls leaves the general public confused, uncertain and without hope. Morgan Tsvangirai quite accurately says: "Democracy in Zimbabwe is still a farce." But the manner in which the MDC has made its decision and the way in which they imparted that information is farcical and absolutely ludicrous.

The fumbling and inept manner in which critical decisions such as this are made is devastatingly disappointing. Do people who have put up with so much deserve to be rewarded with an opposition that dithers and dawdles over major decisions with no clear vision of what and why they are doing something.

I am probably naïve and idealistic, but I am sure that all the people who have suffered over the years including MDC MPs themselves would have wanted different. You want to know that you have suffered for a reason.

Zimbabweans know that decisions in our particular environment are not easy. Often we are caught between a rock and a hard place.

This country is in desperate need of clear and strategic thinkers. It needs people who make decisions with absolute conviction. The country needs people who know what they are doing and know why they are doing it.

The MDC has to make it clear to the general populace throughout the country, why a certain decision has been made and what the implications of that decision are. When a final decision is made have the courage to stand together and confirm this decision with all the conviction you can muster.

People need a party that knows what it wants and is clear that the stakes are high and the risks are even higher.

If MDC continues bumbling along as they have when critical decisions have to be made, there is no doubt that they too will have committed the crime of exploitation and they too will have done so in the name of that which is righteous and just.

Zimbabweans have had enough of that!

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