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MDC in danger of missing the freedom train
Nixon Mao Nyikadzino, New Zimbabwe
August 15, 2007

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/opinion281.16802.html

I HAVE read with interest the postulations made by Lloyd Msipa about setting a new agenda for Zimbabwe.

No-one would deny that such a new beginning is now or never. The only question we should ask ourselves is: how do we set the new agenda and for who?

For me the question is not about Morgan Tsvangirai's failures only, but the failure of the opposition as a bloc. It is regrettable that both MDC factions have tended to seek comfort in newly created terminology such as MDC formations while forgetting that whatever they are called, the fact still remains that the unity that once lit the hearts of many suffering Zimbabweans is no more and the culprits are the leaders of the MDC.

They individually and variously opted for self glory more than national interest. They paddled on personalising the struggle and making decisions on behalf of the people whose negative effects are predictably so fatal that even a grade one pupil would not dare make.

I disagree with Lloyd's argument that Tsvangirai is the only person or leader who has outlived his usefulness in the struggle for democracy. For me, both the MDCs have betrayed the people and they know it. The current wave of insults being exchanged is a clear testimony of how the opposition has stooped so low as to regard public platforms as a launch pad for attacking each other instead of concentrating on bread and butter issues.

Witness how they draw comfort from being identified in such terminology as "main MDC", "main wing", "smaller faction", "Tsvangirai MDC", "Mutambara MDC" as if any of that nonsense will end Mugabe's misrule. What has opposition politics become? A place of employment for the unemployed and unemployable?

The problem with Zimbabwean politics is that it centred on political parties only and hence the personalisation of power by leaders of the opposition. It is this personalisation that brings about idolisation and monopolisation of power - which is exactly what we seek to escape from.

The current wave of personalised attacks clearly point to a failed opposition that needs alienation. By alienating them, we give them enough space to remove the speck in their eyes and begin to see the reality on the ground -- that personal egos no longer have space in Zimbabwe and that people need deliverance from evil. And now!

The MDC must be made to begin to see that neither of them can walk alone. Zimbabweans must show their bravery and begin to have the guts to castigate the MDC left, right and centre for the benefit of many. Civic society and other brave Zimbabweans can bring about democracy in Zimbabwe.

How can both factions claim that they will continue the Thabo Mbeki mediation as a united front when they have failed to unite back home? Charity begins at home. Such political sentimentalism chastises them and reflects how they are both playing with people's minds, and lives.

It is an assumed belief that they have monopoly over us and hence they hold the only key to our salvation. But the truth is no one has monopoly over liberating a country from dictatorship. Only the people enjoy that monopoly, and the MDC is fast expending the people's goodwill.

By beginning actions that alienate the MDC, and yet people oriented, we can begin to see the emergence of a unified progressive force in Zimbabwe. My prediction is that if the MDC is alienated, then one day they will wake up from their slumber and realise that the train is already getting to its final destination without them, and hence the need to join others and not the other way round.

Both the MDC factions are wrong and they must be castigated for continuously letting down the people. At the beginning of 2007, both factions pledged to work together and to deliver the people of Zimbabwe from dictatorship. Eight months down the line, nothing has happened except the deepening crisis.

By the end of 2007, we shall judge them, and like what they said, if they fail to do something positive, then we should throw them into the dustbins of history and proclaim the emergence of a people's movement not based on personalities but on a new agenda and national interest.

As sure as the sun will rise and set tomorrow, the people shall govern!

Nixon Mao Nyikadzino is a Zimbabwean journalist and human rights activist

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