(TALKZIMBABWE) Overdependence on media deception threatens MDC-T

Overdependence on media deception threatens MDC-T
AFRICAN FOCUS Tafataona P. Mahoso
Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:53:00 +0000

ON October 31 2009, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC-T, chased away reporters because he did not want the people of Zimbabwe to see his picture playing golf in Ruwa while the nation was mourning and burying liberation war hero and national hero Cde Misheck Takaedza Chando.

The Rhodesian Press ghetto in Zimbabwe, which usually presents itself to donors as the champion of media freedom and freedom of the Press, has ignored this incident because it contradicts the false image which Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC formations have cultivated for 10 years as champions of Press freedom and freedom of information.

But the incident raises more long-term questions about the future of Zimbabwe’s national media management policy. The MDC formations have for the last 10 years demanded to take over leadership of the formulation and crafting of that policy.

That demand is dangerous for several reasons:

- First, the MDC formations have not formulated a consistent national media management policy but have instead relied on unsuitable advice from the US State Department, from the British New Labour administration and from European countries such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

- Second, the MDC formations helped to destroy the economy of Zimbabwe through media demonisation of the country which they pursued as a means to justify the imposition of illegal sanctions on the people.

- Third, the MDC formations have not been able to shift their media approach from the sectarian-activist mode of their opposition days to a nation-building, unity-building mode required by the inter-party agreement which they signed on September 15 2008.

- Fourth, the MDC formations have not stopped the illegal hate-stations set up by their British, European and US allies to broadcast into Zimbabwe and cause despondency.

The sectarian-activist approach to media within the MDC formations has been driven by the Rhodesian lobby, by the British, by the US State Department (through USAid) and by the Europeans.

This approach is premised on the Blairist notion of organising media stunts and pseudo-events which generate artificial “news” which give prominence to the individual leader, the political party or the false agenda being pushed.

The theory on which this Blairist notion is based derives from the activist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. In his book called Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, Jerry Mander describes the dead-end consequences of applying this theory in a real society.

The first problem it creates is that the activists begin to lose sleep over media tactics and media appearance rather than over the real-life situation facing the people. So, when the people were concerned about the effects of illegal sanctions on the streets, in the shops, on the farms and at all growth points around Zimbabwe, MDC-T was concerned about announcing a big incident or decision which would cause the whole country and the entire Sadc leadership to pay attention to Morgan Tsvangirai.

So, the so-called “disengagement” from the inclusive Government began with a Press conference in Harare around October 18-19 2009, escalated to a boycott of the burial of national hero Misheck Chando, and finally ended with another Press conference called by Tsvangirai to end the disengagement in Maputo on November 5 2009!

According to Mander:

“It was clear that as (activist) life increasingly moved away from the streets, community centres and market places, one message on television — even just thirty seconds — was worth more than a thousand hours of organising or whistlestop political touring or hundreds of newspaper advertisements.”

Not only was work on the streets and on the farms hard and boring, but even within the media, certain platforms were discounted because their impact was considered slow and lacking in glamour.

The Western activists, just like the MDC formations in our case, failed to notice that television was not just changing “public opinion”, apparently in their favour, it was also changing them.

“All competing factions shared the idea that if they could gain access to it, television could communicate their message as well as any other, that television technology was only a neutral instrument. Intent on changing other people’s minds, they did not consider that television might change those who use it.”

In this regard, MDC-T has emerged as the party of media stunts, the party that is surrounded by media tricksters and handlers who have no organic grounding in the culture of Zimbabwe. So, when Finance Minister Biti and Prime Minister Tsvangirai foregrounded foreign mass media products and foreign mass media services at the expense of national ones in their policy statements, that policy orientation communicated the character of MDC-T as a foreign-sponsored imposition.

Mander elaborates: “Educational work was sacrificed to public relations work. The goal became less to communicate with individuals, governments or communities than to influence media. Actions began to be chosen less for their educational value or political content (meaning) than for their ability to attract television cameras (impact). Dealing directly with bureaucracies or corporations was frustrating and fruitless. Dealing with communities was slow. Everyone spoke of immediate victory.”

Such an approach can backfire, not only against the MDC-T but also against the whole country. One result of the over-mediation described by Mander is the entrenchment of a dangerous hierarchy of valued mediated actions:

- The concerns of ordinary people on the streets and on the farms are relegated to the “back-burner” because they don’t have media impact. By the time they have impact, they have deteriorated into emergencies or crises.

- Next, Press conferences are valued over visits to real people in the fields or in their shops, because they always get coverage.

- Even better, Press conferences concluding some fancy workshops at a holiday resort are more likely to attract Press than ordinary Press conferences.

- At a higher level still, boycotts or stayaways have a higher impact than conferences, workshops and Press conferences at the end of workshops.

- Even better than stayaways or boycotts are “mass” rallies.

- But marches with a few clashes have higher impact than boycotts.

- After all, marches, sit-ins and violent clashes will definitely attract global attention.

According to Mander: “As the stakes rose, the pressure mounted to create ever more outrageous actions. The most radical elements were up to the challenges of the theory of accelerated action. They advanced to kidnappings, highjackings, and bombings.”

Since the formation of the inclusive Government (IG), the MDC formations, as part of Government, have failed to shift from their activist-media profile to a down-to-earth, government-of-the-people profile.

The biggest tragedy which now befalls the country is the economic pentecostalism which the MDC formations employed to deceive people into voting for them. Unfortunately for the public, the economic pentecostalism or pentecostal economics which originated in opposition campaigns in the run-up to the 2005 parliamentary elections and the March 2008 harmonised elections has now been transferred by journalists and editors from opposition campaign trails to the media’s marketing of the role of the MDC formations in the IG.

This is a public dis-service.

In the MDC manifesto for the 2005 parliamentary elections the opposition hid the fact that it was the party that invited the UK, the US and the EU to wage an illegal economic and propaganda war in the form of illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe.

Instead, in its manifesto the MDC cynically declared: “Our promise to the people of Zimbabwe: jobs, food, a sound economy, prosperous agriculture and livelihoods.”

This hoax continued in the March 2008 harmonised elections, but Zanu-PF neglected to challenge it effectively until toward the June 2008 Presidential run-off election.

However, since journalists and their media houses claim that they exist to inform and educate the public by “telling the reality as it is”, one would expect that Zanu PF’s extraordinary delay in countering the MDC hoax would not matter and would do no harm because the journalists would do their job to show that an illegal financial and trade blockade imposed on the people of Zimbabwe at the request of the factions of the MDC could not be the basis for providing more jobs, food, a sound economy, prosperous agriculture and improving livelihoods for all the people, as promised by the same MDC formations!

But it was not only the opposition which misled the people. The journalists and their editors also refused to live up to their claim to inform and educate the public by “telling the reality as it is”.

Therefore on July 24 2008, we find in The Financial Gazette under the column “National Report” an uncontested verbatim statement by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai entitled: “Morgan Tsvangirai speaks on MOU: The world stands ready to join us in rebuilding our nation”.

The last paragraph of that statement brings to the IG period the same hoax contained in the March 2005 MDC manifesto: “The heart of the entire world is broken by what has happened to our country (because of illegal sanctions invited by the opposition), and your bravery is praised among all peoples everywhere. The world stands ready to join us in rebuilding our nation and restoring what has been lost, once our peace and freedom are re-established.”

That was Morgan Tsvangirai on July 24 2008, according to The Financial Gazette. Two months later, on September 25 2008, MDC-T chairman and Speaker of the Zimbabwe House of Assembly, Mr Lovemore Moyo, repeated the same hoax, making it clear who in MDC-T thinking is meant by “the entire world” whose heart “is broken” for the sake of Zimbabwe and its people.

The Honourable Speaker attended the New Labour Party Congress in Manchester, UK, where he said: “We look to our friends and comrades in the UK and around the (white Anglo-Saxon) world to help us rebuild our economy and institutions. We look forward to renewing links that have been broken (by the liberation movement of Zimbabwe) and to being welcomed back into the (British) Commonwealth family.”

In other words, what the economic war has destroyed in 10 years can be rebuilt in months! And the rebuilding is to be done on television and in hotel-based workshops in Nyanga and Victoria Falls!

This is an article of faith in opposition ranks: The UK, the US and the EU first help their sponsored opposition in Zimbabwe by destroying the economy through illegal sanctions and media propaganda; the people mistake the genocide-like effects of those sanctions for manifestations of Zanu PF mismanagement alone and therefore vote Zanu-PF out of office or remove it from power through violence; and the same UK, US and EU mobilise the entire North Atlantic to come and install the opposition as the new government of Zimbabwe and to launch the new economic miracle upon the ashes of the devastated Mugabe economy!

People who engage in this type of miracle-mongering should travel through the Mozambican countryside 16 years after the end of Renamo’s campaign to destroy and rebuild the economy of that country. There has been no such miracle recovery. What Renamo destroyed remains unconstructed to this day.

However, pentecostalism is now a global TV phenomenon.

When we call this fantasy economic pentecostalism we are not just being metaphorical. Within the business sector and the religious community there are staunch believers in pentecostal capitalism who, until the recent financial tsunami in Britain, the US and Europe, took seriously the miraculous scenario painted by Morgan Tsvangirai in his post-MOU message.