IT is obviously inevitable that someone is going to succeed President Robert Mugabe one day. Judging from the unprecedented sinister plots and counter-plots in his own party and the splits in all political parties (including Mugabe’s own party) motivated by the desire to lead, it looks like the time is nigh.
If you are one of those plotting your way to State House and your answers to the following questions are all “NO”, then you might be the suitable successor to the throne an ordinary chap like me is crying for.
Remember an obsession takes over your mind completely. If your obsession is the removal of Mugabe so that you can walk into State House, you will be so mono-focused that you won’t have time to think about important things such as the wreckage called Zimbabwe’s economy or the suffering masses. When you get up there, because obsession is your second nature, you will be obsessed with staying in power so much that you will be worse than some of the worst rulers recorded in history. You won’t hesitate, for instance, to use violence and intimidation to stay in power; you won’t hesitate to commit yourself to genocide or to rig elections, among other things.
Are you one of those people who believe that everyone owes them something? If this is your belief then you will falsely think that when you are on the throne the people of Zimbabwe would owe you a lot because you would assume that you are their Messiah. You will quickly forget that it was you who plotted your way up there as you would falsely look at yourself as their Messiah. You would also forget that the people whom you would contemptuously look at as your debtors actually helped you ascend the throne.
Because you would believe that the people are indebted to you and only you, you will start using contemptuous language such as “My people” or “Our people”. You start crafting “take away” policies that force people to “pay back” what you think they owe you. For instance, you will tax them left, right and centre and introduce a plethora of levies. You will craft unreasonably high fines and you will unconstitutionally turn government agencies such as the police into revenue-collection robots. Because your philosophy is based on taking rather than giving, any policies that benefit the majority would be averse to you.
If you confuse the two then you will fail to understand that we are in the 21st century, where the world has become a tiny global village. You will fail to understand that in this global set-up, new strategies to manouvre are required. There is nothing, in such a set-up, called an all-weather friend or an all-weather enemy, as it were. You will be shocked to later realise that your so-called all-weather enemy is your so-called all-weather friend’s best friend. Because of the intricate networks in the tiny global village, you cannot avoid dealing with anyone. You will use your emotions to choose whom to deal with and whom not to deal with at the country’s own peril.
It is imperative to note that although Zimbabwe is sovereign, it cannot isolate itself from certain international statutes that govern play in the tiny global village. If you mistake sovereignty for isolation or vice-versa, you will assume that you can insulate yourself against international scrutiny by, for instance, isolating Zimbabwe from its “enemies”. This is just a nice way of inviting disaster to your country. The East, West, North and South blocking systems are now so artificial that they mostly exist on paper. Sworn enemies make deals with each other or through their proxies at night but swear at each other during the day.
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A self-centred person will never admit failure. If you are self-centred, you will never admit that you can fail because of your inherent weaknesses. You will never admit that like everyone else, you have your own tragic flaws. You will blame everyone else except yourself for your failures. Or you may simply be in denial. For example, you will never admit that the demise of the economy, potholes, unemployment, chaos in the education system, corruption and looting, among others, would be the direct result of your failure as the leader.
Your self-centred nature will direct you to look for scapegoats and you will sacrifice innocent people to validate your point. Self-centred people do not care for other people’s opinions because they think they know it all. They do not want criticism, no matter how constructive, so you will make sure that there are restrictive laws that carry severe punitive measures against anyone who dares express opinions contrary to yours or anyone who criticises your waywardness. You will want everyone, including the unborn, to sing your praises.
Power is sweet. What do you think it would do to a megalomaniac? It would obviously make him/her power-mad, as it were. If you are a megalomaniac, you will want to stay on until you die even if you were to be incapacitated. You will ascend to that throne and start believing you were anointed by the Almighty. You will validate this by stifling all opposition, proclaiming life presidency, using violence to suppress would-be contenders to the throne or openly rigging elections and daring anyone who wants to point out to that fact.
If it would be in your power, you would delete the word democracy from all dictionaries and ban it from any type of discourse. You would surround yourself with yes men and women as you play the politics of patronage at the expense of the masses to keep a hold on power. You will recycle deadwood in your government as you know that these would be at your beck and call and they would defend you with their lives to protect their own lucrative positions that they did not land on merit.
If any one of your answers to the five questions above is a “Yes”, then you don’t qualify.
l Kamurai Mudzingwa writes in his personal capacity. Feedback [email protected]
