BEING in the business of both optimism and realism, I do not believe all hope is lost for the opposition — genuine opposition, that is — regarding next year’s elections.
echoes: CONWAY TUTANI
This is because,one, a week, as they say, is a long time in politics, what more with months — few as they seem — to go before the 2018 polls and with the regime fielding a by then 94-year-old candidate, who cannot, under any normal circumstances, be an attractive and assuring proposition? Is it any wonder then that they have now resorted to equating President Robert Mugabe with God or re-inventing him as God to make him sellable to the electorate in order to circumvent or distract people from his worsening incapacitation that comes with the ageing processing from which we are not spared if we live long enough to get old?
But this deification does not fool people; they will play along to get along like the people held hostage by the Islamic State (IS) terrorists in the Iraqi city of Mosul for some three years. Yes, Zanu PF has built the equivalent of a caliphate — an Islamic State where the rule is convert or die — in Zimbabwe by imposing a de facto one-party State, where you lose all your rights and privileges — including getting away with murder and corruption — if you are not a party, or Mugabe, loyalist. People are biding their time to celebrate when — not if — this edifice collapses, as the residents of Mosul are doing after IS was driven out this week.
This is also because, two, people — ordinary people — have far much better judgment than some of the detached regime propagandists and so-called experts in the opposition camp credit them with. The regime is out to sow self-doubt, alarm and despondency among opposition supporters, but people should not fall into that trap. If the opposition was totally useless, the regime wouldn’t have at its and every rally the ritualised slogan: “Down with the MDC!” The opposition should hold its head up high because Zanu PF’s fixation with it shows, indeed, tacit respect and fear of the opposition as an existential threat to the repressive and corrupt regime.
Explaining why he fled the country in 2001, former Cabinet minister Nkosana Moyo, who has since announced his intention to contest next year’s presidential election, said: “I had no army or police, so I had to flee the country for my own safety because of the volatile situation of that time.” True, true. It was perfectly understandable for him not to foolishly place himself in such obvious danger.
But some of Moyo’s newfound supporters labelled MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai as cowardly for fleeing into neighbouring Botswana when he was in much more grave danger as he — unlike Moyo — posed an existential threat to the regime after beating Mugabe in the March 2008 presidential election. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. But when Tsvangirai gives a similar valid explanation, it becomes an excuse among some so-called experts and fellow travellers that have quickly moved to line up behind Moyo as the real deal. Does Moyo have the army or police now? No, nothing has changed. So why do these people think the regime will behave any differently? Are they saying the regime will be kinder and softer with Moyo than it has been with Tsvangirai? And why should that be so?
These critics ought to come up with more valid grounds than that for people to even start listening to them. Those parties founded on the facile and false mantra that Tsvangirai sold out and is a failure have themselves failed to take off because people are not that credulous; they will not believe anything and everything they hear. The political system in Zimbabwe is, in practice, no different from the one-party State system in China, as the regime pays lip service to the Constitution. In view of what it has been contending with, the Zimbabwean opposition has not done badly. That’s why we had our own low-intensity Tiananmen Square crushing by the police of the demonstration by the MDC-T youth assembly this week. And so observed MDC-T returnee, Job Sikhala last week: “Zimbabwe is not an open democracy. It is under a colossal dictatorship. The machinery we only have are the people.”
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This is also because, three, there are enough sane, cool, rational heads in the opposition, who are clear in their minds as to what is needed, what is essential to change the system and move Zimbabwe forward. Said MDC leader Welshman Ncube this week, as he ably and adroitly acquitted himself well on the BBC’s Hardtalk interview programme, where tough one-on-one questions are the name of the game:
“. . . in choosing a candidate to lead that coalition, we must choose a person, one, who will be able to unify all of us and, two, a person who has sufficient support at the grassroots level to rally as many voters to our side as possible, a person that we will be able to work with post-victory to deliver change.”
It cannot be more crystal clear than that, but some elements, vocal at that, masquerading as being in the opposition are not failing, but contriving not to see this obviousity, something that is so self-evident it goes without saying.
The opposition — the genuine opposition — should forge ahead with its campaign strategies, and not entertain nonentities making disproportionate and unwarranted demands to be included in the grand coalition. They should heed the warning by war veteran, Margaret Dongo — the first one to break ranks with Mugabe and the first to beat Zanu PF in a by-election — that a coalition of political party leaders will not get them anywhere, but a coalition of the people will do the trick. Not this burgeoning scenario of the proverbial too many chiefs and too few Indians. It’s time to call the bluff of these vociferous political midgets. It’s time to talk directly to the people, and to stop indulging some over-inflated egos.
Continued Ncube on Hardtalk: “What is important is that we must keep in mind that, up until now, (MDC-T) president Tsvangirai is the only person, who has previously defeated Mugabe in an election. We must recognise that from previous elections, he has secured the highest number of votes and it is important, whatever coalition we build, to ensure that those, who have supported him all along, are able to continue to support the collective position that we will agree on.”
This is the equivalent of seeding in sports. According to the Blurtit website: “Seeding is done in such a way that the better players occupy more vital areas or play at the most important significant places . . . A top seed indicates a player, who is superb in his field and most of the hopes are pinned on him and his performance.”
Ncube has sensibly said the opposition should play to its strengths, not weaknesses, that they “should do things in a realistic way, not in an idealistic way” (his words), that they “should use objective criteria” in choosing the coalition leader. Ncube’s line of reasoning cannot be faulted. It’s an obviousity that, as it stands, most — not all — of the coalition hopes are pinned on the MDC-T. One Wezhira Wezhara observed: “The only meaningful coalition is that involving Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube and (National People’s Party leader) Joice Mujuru if she stops selling out. Otherwise, Tsvangirai should consider Welshman only to create the original MDC, which was winning (though stolen) elections from 2000 to 2008.”
So from that, the opposition — the genuine opposition — should not entertain any further those narcissists and eccentrics suffering from political heartburn, who sit around in the confinement of their own little worlds along with their sidekicks such as Facebook activists, picking apart the actions and efforts of others. Why should time — precious time — be wasted anymore on these people who will talk and talk until the day they die, but will never actually take part in worthwhile and fruitful discussions and actions?
It’s time to boldly and confidently move on without these sore losers and tell the nation: No deal is better than a bad deal.
Conway Nkumbuzo Tutani is a Harare-based columnist. Email: [email protected]
