|
Back to Index
This article participates on the following special index pages:
2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Dinner
anyone?
Albert Gumbo
April 11, 2008
Gridlock. The future
of Zimbabwe and her politics is in deadly gridlock. Press conference
after press conference has not yielded the result. It is perhaps
time to enter in to the realm of influence and diplomacy away from
away from innuendo and rumour and blood hungry reporters.
It is an apt moment,
I would suggest, to look to another moment in history when the unity
of another country was threatened by a different type of gridlock.
Joseph J. Ellis, the author of Founding Brothers narrates such a
moment. The context is a fledgling American nation with a fledgling
government.
One day in mid-July 1790
Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State in George Washington-s
cabinet encounters Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of Treasury. "Hamilton
was not his customarily confident and resplendent self. Jefferson
thought he looked 'sombre, haggard, and dejected beyond comparison.-
( . . . ) He was, at least as Jefferson described him, a beaten
man. While they stood in the street outside Washington-s residence,
Hamilton confided that his entire financial plan for the recovery
of public credit, which he had submitted to Congress in January,
was trapped within a congressional gridlock. Southern congressmen,
led by James Madison, had managed to block approval of one key provision
of the Hamilton proposal, the assumption of state debts by the federal
government, thereby scuttling the whole Hamiltonian scheme for fiscal
reform. Hamilton was simultaneously fatalistic and melodramatic.
If his financial plan were rejected, as now seemed certain, then
'he could be of no use and was determined to resign.-
And without his plan and his leadership- these two items seemed
inextricably connected in his own mind- the government and inevitably
the national union itself must collapse."
Zimbabwe is in a similar
context. Words like "precipice" "revolution"
and "tipping point" (you gotta love these speech writers!)
have been thrown around. Personally, I do not think there is a threat
to the integrity of the nation but we are not a la une of the world-s
headlines for nothing!
Back to the new nation
that was the United States of America back in 1790. "Jefferson
suggested that perhaps he could help. 'On considering the
situation of things,- he recalled, 'I thought the first
step towards some conciliation of views would be to bring Mr Madison
and Colo Hamilton to a friendly discussion of the subject.-
Though he was still suffering from the lingering vestiges of a migraine
headache that had lasted for over a month, and though he had only
recently moved in to his new quarters at 57 Maiden Lane in New York
City, Jefferson offered to host a private dinner party where the
main players could meet alone to see if the intractable political
obstacles (my emphasis) might melt away under the more benign influences
of wine and gentlemanly conversation."
'They came. I opened
up the subject to them, acknowledged that my situation had not permitted
me to understand it sufficiently but encourage them to consider
the thing together. They did so. It ended in Mr Madison-s
acquiescence in a proposition that the question (i.e. assumption
of the state debts) should be brought again before the house by
the way of amendment from the Senate, that he would not vote for
it, nor entirely withdraw his opposition, yet he would not be strenuous,
but leave it to its fate. It was observed, I forget by which of
them, that as the pill would be a bitter one to the Southern states,
something should be done to soothe them; and the removal of the
seat of government to the Patowmac was a just measure, and would
probably be a popular one with them, and would be a proper one to
follow the assumption.-
In other words, Jefferson
brokered a political bargain of decidedly far reaching significance:
Madison agreed to permit the core provision of Hamilton-s
fiscal programme to pass; and in return Hamilton agreed to use his
influence to assure the permanent residence of the national capital
would be on the Potomac River. If true, this true deserves to rank
alongside the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 as
one of the landmark accommodations in American politics. And, without
much question, what we might call The Compromise of 1790 would top
the list as the most meaningful dinner party in American history."
The infant state of America
which has become the world-s superpower was saved on more
than one instance by private rather than public negotiation. To
put the "Great" back in to Zimbabwe, it is perhaps time,
that we consider this option. I am sure this is taking place already
but only Zimbabweans have the best interest of Zimbabwe at heart.
I hope there are private dinner parties taking place in the leafy
suburbs of Harare. It is called "lighting a candle, instead
of cursing the darkness." A friend of mine told me, "Character
is what you do when no one is watching."
Who are the larger than
life and selfless characters out there, close to the centres of
power? Your defining moment has come. Seize it!
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
