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(HERALD ZW) MDC-T’s last mile to demise

MDC-T’s last mile to demise
Wednesday, 12 September 2012 00:00
Reason Wafawarowa

In Nelson Chamisa’s world Zimbabwe “saunters towards the demise of the ultimate phase of a hard transition,” and he believes the people of this country have “subliminally” long stored decisions about an ideal future. But have they?

It is just as good that the MDC-T organising secretary realises the pending MDC-T demise coming with the last phase of the misnamed Global Political Agreement, and the confession that the MDC-T has been in Government for three years doing nothing but “subliminally” stalling decisions about an ideal future for the country is quite telling.

Dear reader, something subliminal is something inadequate to produce conscious awareness. So in reality the MDC-T is hardly conscious of its presence in Government, and that explains a lot of the behaviour portrayed by the leadership of the party.
Nelson Chamisa, Morgan Tsvangirai and one Abednico Bhebhe have all said something to the effect that the MDC-T is in the constitution-making business only for

political expediency but are totally uncommitted to the process since the party envisages a day in the future when it will be in power and able to write for

Zimbabweans a Constitution democratic enough to meet the standards of MDC-T sponsors, whose code name is always “the international community.”

Chamisa’s October 21 2010 contribution to this unpalatable rhetoric reads like this:

“Zimbabweans will be given another chance to write a Constitution in a free environment after elections. “That’s why we want a transitional constitution now to create a conducive climate for elections, after which a new charter will be written.”

His boss Morgan Tsvangirai was more brazen about it. He said on December 20 2011: “a new Constitution for Zimbabwe, which is now with Government drafters (meaning Copac), with a referendum to follow, will be abandoned as soon as the MDC party wins power”.

The political climate created by the presence of the MDC-T in Government guarantees that no patriotic Zimbabwean will vote for the reckless indiscipline and corruption now synonymous with the MDC-T leadership, with Tsvangirai’s character now written hopelessness all over it, not least because of his scandalous sexual lifestyle. The man is probably the fastest zipper of our times, albeit done with a completely shut mind.

Nelson Chamisa recently wrote in an article titled “MDC-T: Last mile towards real change,” that the MDC-T is “a force for real change and a locomotive for real transformation.”

The only explanation given to what this change and transformation is all about is the vacuous statement that it will be about “a decisive response to hopelessness, disempowerment and break down of the rule of law through state-sponsored violence.”

The economic crisis of Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2009 was a direct result of the isolation of the country by the major Western economies through illegal sanctions imposed on the country at the instigation of Nelson Chamisa’s party, and this is the hopelessness that Chamisa says his party is worried about.

The only decisive response to this hopelessness is for the MDC-T to start joining every other sane and patriotic Zimbabwean in defending the motherland by calling for the unconditional lifting of these illegal and irrational sanctions. The fight against Western sanctions is a national cause, which the MDC-T leadership needs to embrace with all others.

It is ironic to read Nelson Chamisa saying the MDC-T has a plan to change and transform the state of disempowerment for Zimbabweans, especially when one takes into consideration the position of the MDC-T regarding economic empowerment as implemented by Minister Saviour Kasukuwere.

Morgan Tsvangirai was quite explicit about his party’s position on the indigenisation policy when he addressed a rally in Marondera in March this year.

He said: “We are totally opposed to this programme being undertaken by (Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Saviour) Kasukuwere and Zanu-PF. There are some people who are moving around saying: ‘indigenisation, indigenisation’. How can you implement a party programme hiding behind the Government? Ours is a job plan. Our plan is of jobs and starts by encouraging investment.”

A job plan based on encouraging Western investors is the MDC-T idea of responding to disempowerment, and Chamisa calls this culture of capitalist dependency an approach of excellence.

The MDC-T was never formed because its founders had an idea what to do in terms of policy formulation or solutions to the challenges facing Zimbabwe.

The party was formed as a reactionary movement whose sole occupation was protesting the rulership of Zanu-PF. Chamisa explained it all in his little and exciting essay. He wrote: “The absence of a people-framed Constitution, weak growth by industries, poor economic policies by Government gave birth to the MDC.”

Chamisa believes his party “stands for the supremacy of the nation and its people over partisan and individual interests,” and he writes this at a time his MDC-T adamantly prides itself in having disregarded the national report on the views of the people about what should constitute the Zimbabwean Constitution — an abrogation inspired not only by selfish partisan interests, but also by the influence from Western imperialist interests.

Indeed the MDC-T stands for the supremacy of the nation and its people over individual interests, and this is precisely why the MDC-T leader sees no contradiction in moving into a multi-million dollar mansion barely ten kilometres from a national university failing to operate because of critical water shortages that could easily be eradicated by a fraction of the dollar value of his mansion.

Nelson Chamisa rhapsodises that his party is “pro-poor, labour-centric, social democratic and human-centred development party.”

This is a pro-poor people party that finds it logical to align itself with disparaged whites bidding to reverse the pro-poor land redistribution program, when it is not vehemently opposing the indigenisation policy designed to transfer majority ownership of business into the hands of indigenous Zimbabweans.

The MDC-T is indeed a labour-founded party, but white interests sadly hijacked the party when Morgan Tsvangirai was openly bought out by white capital from ex-white commercial farmers and Western moneybags way back in 2000.

A social democratic and human-centred party that openly calls for the sanctioning of its own country in order to strangulate the populace to a point of rebellion against the incumbent government is an insult to the philosophy of social democracy, and it is a mockery to humanity.

Chamisa candidly wrote that his party had a real prospect of attaining “political power” by “walking on dead bodies (of starving Zimbabweans) to State House.” He aptly describes in his essay what the Western sanctions imposed at the instigation of his MDC-T had done to the people of Zimbabwe.

Nelson Chamisa wrote, almost braggingly: “People were dying of cholera, bread was being bought from South Africa, prices were changing every second and we had no food in shops.” That is the ungovernable state of affairs his party has always advocated for.

The young politician was quite audacious in crediting his party for every little success associated with the lifespan of the inclusive Government, even boasting that tobacco farmers are now in good business because of the MDC-T presence in Government, and not because of the land reform program that gave them the land on which they are doing tobacco farming, of course at the expense of the white commercial farmers.

The daring contriving of glory in the restoration of the welfare fund for war veterans stands in sharp contrast to Minister Biti’s efforts to frustrate the disbursement

of the same fund, and is a stark contradiction to the vilification of war veterans by the MDC-T, as evidenced by Chamisa’s own utterances in 2000, when he told a gathering in Harare CBD that “Chinotimba, Hunzvi and the so-called war veterans are thugs. They are the ex-combatants, and we are the current combatants. They can take Zimbabwe back to colonialism and we will fight and free it better than they ever did.”

The admission by Nelson Chamisa that “the ‘party of excellence’ is not full of angels” is the summary of the MDC-T to most Zimbabweans today. Nelson Chamisa’s explanations and excuses will never make up for the missing angels.

Morgan Tsvangirai is not angelic from any angle of imagination, and moralists would dare say the man is in fact diabolic. Emmanuel Chiroto, the Harare deputy mayor who built himself a 24-bedroom house as soon as he made it into the local council, stands out as a prototype example of MDC-T councillors across the country — a corrupt lot that loots with reckless abandon.

Here is a party whose winning candidates brazenly compete in the game of self-aggrandisement, corruptly parcelling pieces of land to each other to the point of not sparing even football fields and public parks.

Chamisa writes about something called the “New Zimbabwe blue print Vision 2030 JUICE Plan,” and one is tempted to think that this is a plan to juice up the lifestyles of MDC-T politicians.

Apart from coming up with fancy names for its policy documents, the MDC-T has never really impressed in articulating what it stands for, much as the party postures very impressively on what it stands against.

The mediocrity in MDC-T leadership is encyclopaedic; to borrow Nelson Chamisa’s complex vocabulary. The party leadership stands tainted as keener on corruption than its rivals in Zanu-PF.

Morgan Tsvangirai has transformed himself from a fiery opposition leader to a sexual weakling throwing himself wantonly on all manner of women, when he is not displaying his shortcomings on political etiquette like he did in Germany where he made a perfect fool of himself; saluting a guard of honour meant to salute him, and speeding away from his host in a walk to the podium, only to end up standing bouncingly under the wrong flag before a packed auditorium.

If there is one thing the GPA has done, it is exposing the MDC-T as a party of hopelessness, even in the context of a habitually blundering Zanu-PF. We have at the very most about nine months before the country goes for elections, and the MDC-T is indeed sauntering towards a well-earned demise.

Zanu-PF, in all its numerous shortcomings, is capable of defining what it stands for, and its policies often attract international attention, controversially or otherwise. The MDC-T has, on the other hand, publicly stated what it stands against, only to fail to practice the gospel the party so much preaches about.

Unholy people never really make good listening when they preach against sin, and the MDC-T stands naked whenever they chant this rhetoric on change and good governance.

The only change that has happened since the MDC-T came into office is the increasing fatness of its leaders and, of course, their mobility up the social ladder, drifting away from the voting masses. The credibility of the MDC-T in matters of transparency is currently no more than that of a pastor preaching holiness in front of a congregation that includes his mistresses.

The MDC-T has become a party too used to people following its pursuits, not because the pursuits are noble but because people are hunting for an alternative.
Now the time has come for the MDC-T to start following the pursuits of the people and the party simply has no idea how to do it.

Barring a radical miracle, the MDC-T may in fact be walking its last mile towards real demise, and no amount of blame apportioning will be good enough to revive the lost myth of glory that the MDC-T used to enjoy as an opposition political party. The aura of invincibility that was part of the myth around the name Tsvangirai has been replaced by the raucous laughter of citizens watching the unmasking of a fake hero.
Zimbabwe, we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!

* Reason Wafawarova is a political writer based in Sydney, Australia.

Labels: MDC, NELSON CHAMISA, REASON WAFAWAROVA

posted by MrK @ 2:48 PM