The co-option of 15 members onto the MDC-T national executive, including those who had lost their posts at the party’s recent elective congress, shows the sad state of democracy in this country.
Co-option is simply a euphemism for imposition, a cancer that has spread within the MDC-T’s main rival and former ruling party, Zanu PF.
What we are seeing here are the rudiments of autocracy and the makings of a clique of blue-eyed boys and girls who will soon become untouchable in the MDC-T.
On Friday we reported that there are many in the MDC-T who were disgruntled by this move not only because Tsvangirai refused to co-opt elected chairpersons, but especially because the selected 15 are perceived to be the Prime Minister’s favourites.
The questions that naturally come to mind are: What criterion is used to select those that are in government from the MDC-T side?
Is it on merit or on special terms? What would happen if the MDC-T were to assume total control of government?
Would we not have a repeat of the patronage system so irreversibly entrenched in Zanu PF where bootlickers are not answerable to the electorate but to their master, allowing them to be more equal than any other citizen?
What the MDC-T is promoting is the culture of rewarding losers. Zanu PF promotes losers by rewarding them with non-constituency seats, recycling them into different Cabinet posts or making them Senators.
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The electorate has to bear the brunt of funding those whom they vote out of power and who are now rewarded with rich pickings through the back door as in the MDC-T’s “co-option” strategy.
Reports that Tsvangirai got his way despite protests from elected provincial chairpersons, whom he chose not to co-opt into the national executive, are dangerous signs that another dictatorship is in the making here.
The MDC-T national executive, like the Zanu PF politburo, is the supreme decision-making organ of the party and if Tsvangirai, who is also the country’s Prime Minister, decides to surround himself with bootlickers who owe their posts to him, then it is difficult to differentiate between his party and Zanu PF.
MDC-T seems to be slowly adopting the Zanu PF way where candidates are imposed on the electorate and losers are rewarded at the expense of the winners.
What we see emerging in MDC-T are the inevitable factions in a scenario where the losers will gang up with the leader for protection while the genuine winners will sulk in another corner.
In such a set-up political parties and leaders will fight for their survival and continue to unduly recognise losers who are either under-performers or perennial problems.
What suffers is democracy and, in the process, the electorate who are the citizens that these leaders ought to serve.
What the MDC-T is demonstrating is that the road to democracy in Zimbabwe is blocked by political parties, particularly the leaders who want to ensure they stay at the helm forever.
Leaders should give way to democratic practice if Zimbabwe is to entertain any hopes of a new, democratic dispensation.
The blue-eyed-boy syndrome must be stopped in its tracks as it causes more harm than good to the nation. Just look around and see.
