Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) The good has been politicized

The good has been politicized
Reason Wafawarova–Opinion
Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:43:00 +0000

AT the time of writing this piece, this writer shares the optimism of every well meaning Zimbabwean that the Thabo Mbeki-facilitated negotiations by Zimbabwe’s political leadership are the only panacea to the pernicious polarization that had become endemic in our political system for the past eight years.

August is the month we remember all those gallant children of Zimbabwe who chose a perilous route of joining the armed struggle that brought us this freedom that we do not only often take for granted, but also ridicule by the indignity of deriding the survivors and living heroes of that struggle, that is when we are not denigrating the principle of the struggle itself.

The legacy of our liberation heroes who rest at home and outside the country cannot be meaningful in its abstract context. It is a legacy that remains the foundation of Zimbabwe’s destiny. Zimbabwe cannot be founded on free market forces and the delusional campaigns for alien political and cultural values disguised as modernity and globalisation. Neither can it founded on a leadership driven by borrowed reasoning.

Those who feel educated and sophisticated by continually reminding the rest of the country that Zimbabwe is not an island but part of the global village must remember that the fundamental component to the entity called Zimbabwe is not its political behaviour but its identity. Indeed Zimbabwe is part of this planet and will remain so throughout the times. The challenge we have as a country is to find our own footing and to charter a way forward founded on our national interest.

The Heroes Day is a day that reminds us of that national interest – the compendium of the aspirations of those who shed their blood for the cause that took away our servitude and colonial slavery. These aspirations did not die with our departed heroes but remained with those who survived the brutality of the ignominiously racist British colonial forces that presided over Rhodesia. These survivors are not necessarily limited to the ZANLA and ZIPRA ex-combatants and the politicians who led them but also include all the vulnerable civilians who survived Ian Smith’s reckless brutality.

Humanity has this inherent tendency to glorify what cannot be seen and to underrate or even vilify what is before its eyes. Even Jesus Christ had to ask how it was possible for people to love a God they had never seen while they hated the very people they lived with. No doubt some of the people who took part in the struggle that brought our independence have erred and wronged the country by omission or commission but that does not mean a good hero can only be a dead one.

There has been a baseless but unanimous opinion in the West and in some African countries that Zimbabwe can never ever recover in the presence of President Mugabe. This is a man who stands on behalf of the departed and living heroes of the armed struggle we call the foundation to our nation – a man whose vision some of us have chosen to fight against alongside the imperial enemy.

The baseness, stupidity and incendiary with which Western leaders and their media have tried to divide Africa over the issue of President Mugabe are remarkably amazing.

This writer is aware that any writing that that contradicts the “Mugabe is a dictator” philosophy is a path infested with thorns. The danger interestingly lies mainly with some fellow countrymen who have been caught up in the folly that says democracy means the removal of incumbent political leaders, by definition. Sometimes it is safer to meet a lioness robbed of its cubs than to confront a fool caught up in folly. Each time a person like Gordon Brown opens his mouth over Zimbabwe one is reminded of this saying.

This writer can endeavour here to define democracy and give a lecture on how it applies to various peoples and cultures but it is pointless with a people bent on pursuing a hate war. It is as futile as paying tuition to educate a fool who has no heart for wisdom.

The fragility of our own political ranks as Zimbabweans in general is what gave the Western powers the leverage they have used in the past eight years to bring our country down on its knees. These are years that have shown us adversity within our beloved Zimbabwe, within our own ranks as a people, even right in the legacy of our liberation history.

It was now hoped that the fragility and seeming incompatibilities between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition would be a thing of the past and this hope is now held at ransom by the reported indecisiveness of Morgan Tsvangirai.

Erroneous practices and ideas harmful to the Zimbabwean revolution have developed within the generality of our people and among our politicians. The current talks towards a negotiated settlement are a good effort at combating the destructive route our country has been taking, despite the relative fragility of the political relations between the country’s political parties.

This noble effort has taken a lot of compromises and sacrifices already and it is dishearteningly disappointing for one man or one party to make an attempt to measure popularity by politicking over a matter that has been mandated by Sadc and endorsed by the African Union.

More worryingly there is a looming danger that forces from outside the African influence have not only sneaked into the negotiations but that they have actually stalled progress as a way of assessing the strength of their influence.

There is nothing we have not seen in the last eight years. We have seen appalling about-faces; confrontations have followed provocations, and we have seen splits and schisms. The country has gone through a phase we would all want to forget and it is highly irresponsible for any one particular politician to cherish the effect of the country’s turmoil for purposes of maintaining relevance and political mileage.

We have seen opportunism and we have watched it work – in a way that shamelessly abandons the revolutionary struggle and that betrays the intransigent defence of the people’s interests in frantic search for personal and selfish advantage. This seems to be perpetuating in the inter-party talks and for as long as there are people who think of the self ahead of the whole then we are bound to continue watching the national hope being held as personal property by the whim of political ambition.

For having chosen to follow the path of empowering the masses of Zimbabwe through the land reclamation policy rather than the easier route of avoiding upsetting imperial authority, Zimbabwe has been subjected to ever more slanderous attacks from both the traditional enemies of the pre-colonial era and from elements that have come from the ranks of its own population, mainly those currently residing in Western countries. It would appear like this politics of the repossessed land is again central to the cause of the hidden Western hand that has now stalled what looked like promising maturity on the party of Zimbabwean politicians. As has always been the case, those driven by the vindictive drive to turn the tables on the land policy will never openly admit to the real motive behind their hostility.

There is also this new dimension of some regional countries in Africa surprisingly showing unjustifiable exasperation over the affairs of Zimbabwe. Botswana has just been acting like a defacto British protectorate of late, unnecessarily and baselessly accusing Zimbabwe’s leadership of illegitimacy, as if the succession policy in Botswana’s ruling party is not without controversy. Well, Botswana is plainly not doing its own bid and it does not look like they are even ashamed of their decision to get angry on behalf of the Western ruling elite.

The mainly young Zimbabweans occupying themselves with the attacking of their own country, supporting Western imposed sanctions and all adversity; together with the new government of Ian Khama in Botswana; are either ignorantly impatient with the political evolution in Zimbabwe, and in that vein smitten by the zeal of novices, or else they are, as already stated, frantically and openly pursuing the interests and ambitions of Western ruling elites.

Opportunism is just like counterrevolution – it is a thornbush habitually found in the path of any revolution and until the logical conclusion of Zimbabwe’s revolution –that is the creation of a society whose glory was the dream of those who died for our independence – opportunism will continue to show itself at different moments, under different circumstances and in extremely varied forms, all the way from its most right-wing expressions to its most ultra-left and radical. The inter-party talks are about pragmatic and people centred positions and not about political opportunism. Political competition failed to produce a definitive solution to the crisis of the country and the platform for that competition was offered in the elections we saw in the first half of this year. That chapter has been closed and the talks are about a united effort to move the country forward.

The difficulties of the last eight years, the arduous demands of political activity, the harshness of the struggle that was the land reclamation programme, the temptation to betray the country in exchange for accommodation by Western powers – all these factors have contributed to the political turmoil the current talks are set to resolve.

The West is naturally looking for a fatal deadlock and deadly betrayals in the process of the inter-party talks. They seek a deceitful quelling of the problems in favour of the assertion of imperial control over the country’s resources. That is what called Western interests and it is our duty, not the West’s duty, to ensure that our own Zimbabwean interests remain supreme to any foreign interest.

Indeed the negotiated settlement and the idea of a new government is the hope of today. The challenge of tomorrow is in tasks that are many and complex.

The enemies of the country’s land revolution and its self-determination are already working with redoubled energy and ingenuity to bar the road forward. This is what Mr. Tsvangirai can either chose to support or ignore. Both choices have a price and one hopes that dignity will be the chosen prize chosen over the indignity of fulfilling alien aspirations.

Zimbabwe will need more courage, more conviction, and more determination to keep marching forward. This will come, in part, from the lessons we are able to draw from the last eight years of strife and political conflict. The era we are entering now is one that needs a scientifically organised ideological and political framework. The country needs honest appraisal of its policies. However, there is need to enter this challenging phase as a united Zimbabwe and not another fragmented grouping having to commit energies to yet another political conflict being kept in motion by those who chose thwart progress for the sake of achieving selfish personal goals.

Zimbabwe needs the current talks to be concluded positively and amicably so that the country can move into the next phase.

In this phase the neglecting and downplaying of important tasks in government must be a thing of the past, and the rhetoric that gives the impression that we want to change everything immediately must be corrected. Policy implementation must not only be the expected task of the public service but necessarily the mandated order with no option of failure.

Failure to implement public policy must become an unforgivable sin for all those who are going to hold public office. Unity of purpose towards achieving success can only come on the backdrop of acknowledging that we all share the inadequacies and defects currently inherent in our political spectrum.

Zimbabwe needs a diversity of initiatives, of thoughts and activities that are rich with a million nuances, all put forward courageously and sincerely in the framework of accepting differences and respecting the need for criticism and self-criticism, and all directed towards a single, bright goal which is none other than the happiness of Zimbabwean people.

Lastly, corruption must not only be fought, but must be killed to the last offender. We do not need professionals to manage corruption as if it were a virtue. It simply must be killed and the term mercy cannot be compatible with corruption. If it means Zimbabwe will have to export convicts to curb corruption so be it.

As we remember our fallen heroes this month, and as we hope that sanity will prevail with the conclusion of the talks, let us remember that only Zimbabweans can build Zimbabwe.

It is homeland or death and together we will overcome.

[Reason Wafawarova is a political writer and can be contacted on wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk or reason@rwafawarova.com or visit www.rwafawarova.com ]

Labels: MoU

posted by MrK @ 6:59 PM