Maravi

(HERALD) Sadc should stick to revolutionary ideology

Sadc should stick to revolutionary ideology
Wednesday, 31 August 2011 02:00

Ships plying their route in placid or stormy seas see their way through by means of a technological eye that neither blinks nor is prone to blindness otherwise they might veer off course in tempestuous weather and rush headlong into reefs with telling results. In Southern Africa, revolutionary ideology is to liberation governments what a compass is to ships and radar to aircraft.

What this scenario suggests is that any deviation by ruling revolutionary parties from their ideologies that guided them through thick and thin during the war years is a potential disaster for the governments and the country's independence and sovereignty.

When the going seems too smooth and the political parties ungird their waists by throwing away their loin skins which might be chewed up by mangy political dogs, they render themselves vulnerable to the enemy lying in wait.

Ever since liberation movements freed southern Africa, the enemy has been lying in ambush in anticipation of an opportunity to pounce and reverse the gains of the struggle.

This is because in their desperation and confusion these revolutionary parties in power will run here and there searching for fig leaves to try to cover up their nudity, and in the process find themselves roasting in the frying pots of their gleeful enemies.

This should be premised on that the ideological goals and objectives acted as compasses during the wars of liberation that put paid to white minority and racist regimes by ushering in democracy.

Any rust that might have become encrusted on the revolutionaries like soot on rafters is dusted off during indabas such as the one just held in Angola and attended by the ANC, MPLA, Frelimo, SWAPO, Chama cha Mapinduzi and Zanu-PF.

That now these movements reportedly have resolved to meet annually on the sidelines of Sadc summit meetings of heads-of-state and governments must bode well for these organisations, their governments and the people that they rule.

It is expected that at their meetings, the leaders of the ruling parties, the fighters during the liberation wars, re-visit the objectives and tasks that they set prior to independence to see whether these are being fulfiled for the benefit of the people.

They also need to see whether they have been forgotten about as leaders in government and other political functionaries engage in a rat race for obscene riches, or whether their parties and governments have been infiltrated by political dandruff.

While in theory the revolutionary parties in power might allow such prefixes as "ex" or "former" to be used in describing them, they should in practice continue to regard themselves as active liberation movements because they are still far from completely achieving what they fought for in the bush; namely the social, economic and political emancipation of their people most of whom are raven by grinding poverty and ignorance.

Similarly the end of the journey upon which the governments in question are embarked upon should be a "sea" of total benefits of developments for the people in all its spheres. What is even more critical is that international political dynamics appear to have shifted their course to target Africa for a kill - witness the coalescence of imperialists forces against oil-rich Libya.

Southern Africa which is rich in mineral resources and with most of the countries in the region ruled by political parties that the West pejoratively described as "terrorist organisations" during the wars of liberation should therefore not lower their guard as a coalition of imperialist forces unleash surprise attacks against them one at a time to promote expansionist foreign policies after Africa's wealth in some cases using their local surrogates. A revolution is not like a driveway which runs from one's forecourt to the gate at the other hand this pen contains, but is like a road without an end. Viva revolutionary parties and their governments. As time passes, none believers in the revolution, people with dubious political marrow or with none at all-might jump onto the revolutionary road out of their own volition to be seen to be with the people or might be sponsored by the enemy in exchange for political financial support or both.

Latter-day relaxation saw lackeys of imperialism worming their way onto the political landscape all the while purporting to be the people's saviours and with their former colonial masters in tow. If pretender-liberators are cleared off the revolutionary road and into the shade, political discontinuities that bedevil some of the countries that went through a baptism of fire, might also come to an end so that the people from Sadc countries are united to push ahead various developmental initiatives in solidarity and for the benefit of all.

Some of these countries are lucky to be led by an unwavering, old revolutionary crop that refuses to be chocked by imperialist political weeds and remain resolute on fulfiling the goals set by the revolution. Zimbabwe has a distinct example of that type of leadership in President Mugabe and other revolutionary cadres that are tried and tested.
Other countries are luckier still to have younger people whose clarity about the revolutionary course that their countries should follow into their future is so startling as to create butterflies in the bellies of the old guard.
The latter are the people wearing "revolutionary" muscles but wish to cruise their country's political landscape without "juvenile" revolutionary delinquents disturbing the peace.

They might even want to steal a bite on the sidelines along the way with no one blowing the whistle for them. Their espousal of "leave and let leave" had obscured their vision to the extent that they fail to celebrate such youth as the conscience of both the revolution and the masses.

Such young people should be accepted as an asset, "wake-up call" for leaders who sleep on the job at their own political peril. As already alluded to above, a revolution such as that which freed Southern Africa from oppressive regimes, is not a picnic but an enduring hard struggle against the forces of evil, be they locals or contemporary imperialist. Those political formations that did not participate in the liberation of their countries and emerged after independence, as creations by former colonial masters have a tendency to rubbish the work done by liberation movements, claiming to be latter day, saints or super democrats.

In their folly and former colonial master-earned dignity, they claim that revolutionary parties have run down the countries and that they want to bring back sanity, democracy, good governance and accountability. Liberation movements, despite feeling insulted and cheated by these pseudo-democrats, should understand that it is the work of the western governments, trying to tear apart revolutionary ethos, beliefs and ideology and bring back the old order, except that it will be fronted by blacks.

In this case, the parties formed by former colonial masters are well-funded and in some cases backed by military interventions or economic sanctions, all meant to weigh down liberation movements and effectively remove them from power, one by one.

Once that is done the liberation ideology goes down the drain and the west will be too happy to deal with governments whose ruling parties, they will have formed, natured and hoisted into power. This gives the west the leverage to exploit the country in question's natural resources. Going forward, liberation movements should remain vigilant and continuously introspecting and regenerating themselves, to beat continued subversion antics of the revolutionary ideology.

No revolution is static and there is need for dynamism if the revolutionary parties are to match measure for measure and even win against the new political parties that owe their allegiance to former colonial masters and survive on rubbishing the gains of the struggle. The biggest tragedy will be the day liberation movements will be wiped out of the governance of Southern Africa, as that will signal the demise of the liberation ethos.

l Stephen Mpofu is a former editor of The Sunday Mail and Chronicle.

Labels: SADC

posted by MrK @ 4:07 PM