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The MDC and a very Zimbabwean disease
Chenjerai Hove
October 17, 2005

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/senate43.13298.html

THE scene is a country called Zimbabwe, and the audience, thirteen million anxious Zimbabweans. The actors: Zanu-PF and the MDC. The Stage Director, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The title of the play: The Senate Bandwagon.

The Zimbabwean political audience is once again faced with an ever more confused political situation.

A few elections later, the people are rather puzzled as to what exactly is happening. President Robert Mugabe has dangled a new carrot, the Senate. And one already knows why this carrot is there, in front of the two political parties and their faithful. I always wondered why this causes confusion because the Senate is supposed to last only a short time. After all, it was abolished in 1987 on the pretext that it unnecessarily delayed urgent legislation which the government wanted passed the fast-track way.

With the current series of endless crises, it would seem the need for urgent passing of legislation has not died. The land issue is still fresh and causing havoc to the economy, the economic mess fraught with so many other problems, the decline of services like health, education, transport. So many urgent issues! In the midst of all this, the president wants to introduce a Senate, an expensive undertaking which a shrinking economy can hardly afford.

It is well known now that Mugabe wouldn't care less if the country was broke or not, as long as he keeps power till he dies. So, in order to accommodate his 'fellows' who had fallen by the wayside, he decides to introduce a senate which practically serves no useful purpose except to give terminal benefits to his old and sickly friends he had forgotten to take along on his gravy train of economic plunder and electoral fraud.

Then comes the side show: the MDC jumping onto this worthless project on the assumption that it might be possible to contain Zanu-PF in its own game. To play or not to play the Zanu-PF game? That was the question facing the national council of the MDC. Surprisingly, the outcome was half-half kusenga kwedhongi.

The meaning of it all is that to play the game means the MDC accepts the rules and procedures which created the game. It also means an endorsement of the political manoeuvres which have created the senate, and also an acceptance of the recent constitutional amendments as valid. That is what President Mugabe wants to happen, realizing that he created this game in order to dangle a few crumps and left-overs in order cause a splits in the MDC and possibly civil society. Mugabe's project seems to be advancing without any hitches, so far.

As far as I can see, the problem of the MDC started when they participated in the parliamentary elections whose results were already predicted and known. Now, members of the opposition are in parliament, but not all who wanted to be there. Those who could not make it to parliament would argue that the current MDC members of the august house are enjoying the benefits of the gravy train while denying others the opportunity to do so in the new Senate. That is the problem facing the MDC. They have allowed themselves to taste of the niceties offered by the devil, and everyone wants their piece of the carrot. Exactly what Mugabe and Zanu-PF wants, especially in these hard times of economic collapse and struggles for survival!

Everyone wants to put bread and butter on the table, never mind the source! As far as I can see, wrapped inside the carrot, Mr Mugabe and his party gurus have thrown a live snake in the house of the opposition. Some from the opposition camp only see the skin of the carrot, while others have the vision to see the snake within. Thus, the opposition party begins its own demise fired by the energies and skills of Mr Mugabe's camp. The audience, we ordinary Zimbabweans, can only look and wonder whether the opposition is serious about participating in a Senate whose introduction it strongly opposed not so long ago.

Having participated in the formation and running of several national organisations, I have come to accept that the Zimbabwean disease is one and only one in terms of organisational management. Once an institution is formed, the next crucial task for some Zimbabweans is to find as many reasons and ways as possible to tear it apart. Some people call it factionalism. Others call it 'splinterism'. What I know is that both are usually not based on any basic principle or vision. They are usually based on some flimsy excuse and rampant opportunism, a national malaise in the affairs of our country. All the noble reasons underlying the formation of the organisation are soon forgotten. Every one for himself, and God for none of us! It is sad that the MDC is split and probably destroyed over a worthless carrot (Senate) dangled in front of them.

Every citizen can see clearly that the Senate serves no useful purpose except to function as some kind of old-age pension and gratuity for Mugabe's loyalists and friends. Everyone knows who the new senators will be: old men and women discarded by either design or mistake by the Mugabe gravy train. Why anyone with a national vision and some kind of realization of where the country is going should join, I have no clue. In the end it also becomes a question of personal integrity and dignity. Zimbabweans are used to national abuse, especially by the ruining party, Zanu-PF.

Sadly, it seems the MDC, having raised people's hopes, has also now embarked on this national malaise of thinking that they can earn good salaries from a national purse which does not exist. They can join the dance of Zanu-PF pensioners and then wake up in the morning to call themselves the opposition. In Shona it is called 'kudziya moto wembavha'.(Warming themselves from the fireplace of a thief).

As the Zimbabwean disease of splits and factions engulfs the political realm of the country, the decay continues, and more political parties will be formed in order to split again and again while Mugabe continues to destroy the country. The national vision dies, only to be replaced by financial greed and illusions of boundless power. In the end, national political fatigue creeps in, and no one wants to vote for anyone, knowing only too well that there is no Zimbabwean politician interested in shaping a genuine national vision devoid of greed for power and money.

*Chenjerai Hove is a Zimbabwean writer and poet

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