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Why MDC divisions are good for Zimbabwe
Itai Masotsha Zimunya
October 17, 2005
WHILST many people wail and cry over
the MDC infighting over senate elections, I am of the view that
the division might be good for the people of Zimbabwe for many reasons.
The chief reason is that, after several
years of compromise, it is necessary and healthy for leaders to
be exposed and let the people point the way forward. Zanu PF is
also happy about the fissure, not because it creates a chance for
the people to develop, but because they see a window of a one-party
state. Zanu PF has serious bloody fissures and they are controlled
by the gun. Mugabe sees the mayhem as more easy power to Zanu PF
but the division gives chance of internal rejuvenation.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) President, supported by the youth and women movements
maintains that the party must not contest the senate elections because
the party believes Zimbabwe needs a new constitution and that the
$60 billion cost of the senate could be used to feed, educate, house
and medicate the poor people.
On the other hand, the party’s Secretary
General, Welshman Ncube, leads a team of leaders and people that
argue that the party should contest the elections. Their chief argument
is that the party must not surrender power on a silver platter to
Zanu PF.
Zimbabweans face very serious problems
of a failed government and a dictatorship. The people of Zimbabwe
had deposited their trust and faith in the opposition MDC to lead
them in a democratic and non-violent way of getting power. This
avenue largely constitutes the electoral process. The most interesting
thing in the crack is the claim by both sides that they are representing
the people’s interests.
A major question arises here: who are
these people that both Morgan and Welsh purport to represent?
Ncube, sporadically and spasmodically emerging in several faces
of Gift Chimanikire, Paul Themba-Nyathi and others, argue that they
are inspired by the 33 votes of the national council and as a constitutional
requirement, they move the party towards the poll. They argue that
these 33 represent the people of the Zimbabwe.
On the other hand, Tsvangirai whose other
faces include Youth chairperson Chamisa and Women Chairperson Lucia
Matibenga, argues that the senate is Mugabe’s project to solve Zanu
PF’s succession dilemma and that the MDC must boycott the poll to
divert the $60 billion towards health, education, food and housing.
It has been publicized that most of the
33 people that want to participate see themselves having a chance
to be elected senators and benefiting from the hefty salaries and
soft loans that accrue to such offices.
Paul Themba Nyathi eyes a seat in Gwanda,
Roy Bennet was assured a seat in Chimanimani, Evelyn Masaiti and
her new husband, MDC National Chairperson Isaac Matongo, have eyed
the comfort of Harare. This wagon includes a host of other senior
party officials that mostly are not in parliament.
It would be unfair and harsh to accuse
people of political ambition, and in this case it is their right
to eye certain seats. However, the fundamental question is: who
does it help for the MDC to be in senate and why is it important
for the MDC to be led by principle and not mathematics?
At mathematical law, Welsh and his group
are excellent. The national council voted 33 to 31, and it is common
sense that their decision should carry the day since 33 is bigger
than 31.
However, there is a vast difference between
law and politics. Hitler was right at law to exterminate the Jews
in Germany because it was law but politically it was wrong. It will
be lawful for Chinamasa to take people’s passports but politically
wrong. The pro-senate wagon is educated but not learned. David Coltart
brought to parliament one day a draft "Zimbabwean Constitution"
that he wrote alone pointing out that Zimbabwe needs a President
with at least a degree. Only yesterday Coltart argued that Zimbabwe
needs a new people driven constitution and today he turns otherwise
with a bedroom constitution. Secondly, what is in a degree? How
many degrees does Mugabe have? And if degrees grow an economy, why
is Zimbabwe in a mess with an educated President? I am therefore
tempted to follow uneducated but learned and people-centred arguments,
not mathematical and rocket science based approaches that border
on selling out the wishes of the people.
The best answer to the above questions
comes from Mugabe. Addressing the Zanu PF central committee in Harare,
Mugabe said: "I am happy that the MDC is going to contest."
Further questions ensue, why make Mugabe happy and who had informed
Mugabe that the MDC was contesting? It is not our attempt to answer
these questions. In Bulawayo when giving computers to a crowd of
more than 2000 people -- of which half seemed to be soldiers – Mugabe
celebrated these cracks and lambasted Tsvangirai for boycotting
the senate polls.
It is important to highlight that our
agenda is not to blindly attack or oppose Mugabe. Mugabe has done
immense work for Zimbabwe including pushing the land agenda though
I do not agree with both his means and the end. Mugabe seems pleased
of the MDC National Council decisions than Zanu PF central committee
resolutions. It is not shocking that Mugabe trusts the MDC more
than he does Zanu PF because 6 of the 10 Zanu PF provinces were
clear that Mugabe must go whilst the MDC national council says they
need "to talk to Mugabe". Zanu PF is clearer here and
this split in the MDC leadership opinion will show the nation which
leaders wished to meet and dine with Mugabe whilst houses were being
destroyed in Murambatsvina.
However, in the case before us, it is
of fundamental importance to scan Mugabe’s reaction because it was
one of the MDC’s slogans that Mugabe must GO. So why now bless him
to more executive power?
The current division in the MDC might
be good for the people in that there will emerge a strong people
centred party that truly represents their aspirations. Modern political
power resides in people and not in intelligence, eloquence, oratory
or guns - though all these elements are necessary in a power game.
At start, the MDC was a composition of
reformists whose ideology was centre-right and a strong component
of leftist women, students and labour activists. There were also
a few but vigorous farmers.
The Church and the ghetto youth formed
the hub of the party whose initial demands were a new constitution
and free and fair elections. As the party went towards formalisation
and elections, there are several opportunists that joined the train
because of their wealth, academic background or societal position
and took leadership positions in a party whose objectives they guessed.
The Raw data book bears testimony to my claim and most of the people
that want senate elections today are selling out on the positions
affirmed by the party at Chitungwiza, White City and Rufaro stadiums.
From this background, it does not shock
some of us when Mafikizolos claim parenthood of the party and demand
to lead it against the wishes of the poor peasants and workers.
The Ari Ben Menashe issue must be revisited.
Which national council met on this issue? The political dialogue
between Zanu PF and MDC in 2003, though noble must be interrogated
in the same fashion.
The treason trial and the state media
slowly prepared the people to accept an MDC without Tsvangison -
the arrogant and uneducated Briton. Is there anything hidden that
all other people do not see here?
Some people in the MDC leadership had
made themselves bigger than the party. They had substituted the
national agenda with their very private and selfish agendas. We
argue that Mugabe is a selfish person who does not want to move
the button to another person, even within Zanu PF. It is not far
from the truth that Mugabe’s celebration of the MDC’s participation
was because he saw little Mugabes in the making.
That is why I believe that this split
is very, very good for the future of Zimbabwe. Whilst it could be
confusing at present, I encourage people not to worry. Splits and
divisions are common in all political processes; the most important
thing is to be consistent and predictable on the position of the
poor.
Mugabe and his colleagues were very clear
during the liberation struggle. Tongogara says they were fighting
for land to the poor and one-person one vote. They boycotted the
1978-9 internal settlement not because they feared losing or that
they feared giving Abel Muzorewa power on a silver platter. Indeed
Muzorewa took power, much to the pleasure and praise of Ian Smith,
but the agenda of the poor remained in the fore of Zanla and Zipra.
That is why these two groups were so popular with the povo and that
is why the union of ZAPU and ZANU – the patriotic front -- rules
today. It was on the basis of people centred work and not compromises.
From a youth and parent’s perspective,
what good will the senate bring to Zimbabwe’s future? Certainly
none, save for the myriad of dangers that it brings to the nation.
Like Tsvangirai argues, the $60 billion is better used to pay the
army, teachers and nurses, create more jobs and secure fuel.
From a principle perspective, what good
does it give the MDC to embrace one aspect (the senate election)
whilst refusing to accept the total package of confiscation of passports
and the finalisation of the racist and elite land program?
It is my third observation that this
split is a necessary development, specifically to show some people
that they are not gods of Zimbabwe and that Zimbabwe will move without
them. The anti-Mugabe agenda is not eternal to the extent that we
pray that he goes to hell. It is just a loud call for him to go.
Mugabe is a Zimbabwean and like everybody else, like him or not,
he deserves to enjoy his gains and not loots.
What Zimbabwe wants is a new people driven
democratic constitution and free and fair elections not MDC, Morgan
or Welsh. Under a new people written constitution and from free
and fair elections, should Joice Mujuru or John Nkomo win the presidency,
we hail them and support them well because they would be an outcome
of the aspirations of the people. Why people, including myself,
do not give Mugabe allegiance is because we were beaten and often
subjected to sub-human conditions each time there is an election.
That is why we say he is illegitimate and thus not our president.
Simple!
This split is also important to Tsvangirai
as a person. The Ari-Ben Menashe saga and the treason trial had
more than one tonne of gold changing hands among several people
including senior MDC officials. Who is Morgan Tsvangirai not to
be sold when our Christian saviour Jesus Christ was sold by his
tablemate? Why were these 66 national council members, especially
the 33 conspicuously absent from the High Court? It was the ordinary
party members, especially women, who stood by Morgan in prayer until
he came out. Bennett knows how many people and which came to see
him in Jail.
It is rather regrettable that very ambitious
people hide their power lusts under the guise of not wanting to
give Zanu PF control in a silver platter. If people cannot learn
from the metropolitan governors of Bulawayo and Harare, the firing
of MDC elected mayors and councillors and the numerous rigged elections,
then they ain’t seen nothing yet!
I would like to conclude from a vanguard
end, that the poor peasants and workers will protect their project,
whether named MDC or anything, so long it demands a new people-driven
constitution and free and fair elections. Leaders may fight, claim
to know the people better or get billions worth of land and mineral
rights, the spirit of resistance will not die in Ncube or Tsvangirai.
After all, people die and Zimbabwe lives. So why worry? In fact
who is Tsvangirai and Ncube? Zimbabwe is and will forever be loved
much more than these two and it must be known that no person is
bigger than the people of Zimbabwe. Freedom is coming tomorrow.
Aluta continue.
*Zimunya is a human rights activist
and can be contacted at: itaizim@yahoo.com
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