Showdowns will not work

Opinion — By on January 6, 2010 10:54 pm

By Courage Shumba

Notwithstanding there being other issues still to be resolved in the power sharing agreement between the M.D.C and Zanu PF it must be noted that the power sharing arrangement of last year in itself was a sane and mature political decision on the part of all key partners to the unity government.

These key partners must be encouraged to adhere to this process and not be derailed by careless, irresponsible and shameless utterances as made by one Eddie Cross promising a year of showdown between the M.D.C and its partners. A showdown is only likely to result in a stalemate and a stalemate will only serve those who seek to protect the status quo.

A lasting solution as Eddie Cross should know will not be brought by heightening tensions and war-mongering but by building trust and confidence in the ability of both party’s to see each other as mutual partners driven by the urge to correct past wrongs and deliver a solution to a country that is beggining to show rays of hope.

There is no room for vindictiveness. There is little doubt that M.D.C through Tendai Biti’s office in the inclusive government has delivered real relief to the people of Zimbabwe through its many very sound and practical policies but a reckless spoiling for a showdown will be severely counterproductive. Mr Biti’s job to which he is selflessly, fearlessly and so visibly personally assigned must not be interrupted by this shallow urge for a showdown.

The electorate will vote on the basis of the changes they will see through this window of opportunity the M.D.C has in its grasp to market its ideals and driving philosophy. It is in the electoral interest of the M.D.C to come up with capable economic policies that will rescue the people from abject poverty.

It is in the electoral interest of the M.D.C to implement a deliverable economic policy that will generate revenue for the state and incomes for families through employment creation by facilitating the rescuscitation of the productive sectors of the economy.

It is in the electoral interest of the M.D.C to inject cash into housing and social sectors so that those who remember Operation Murambatsvina will see the opportunities awaiting them at the onset of a government that takes a radically different view to matters of national housing and policing.Whilst the M.D.C has the purse and leverage of being in government its main priority must be to use its control of the Finance Ministry to set the “Economy” as the main subject and matter upon which the next election will be decided.

Eddie Cross’s enthusiasm for a showdown will trap M.D.C in a fight with an inferior political organisation that has no policy beyond bludgeoning the electorate and looting.Zanu PF is a thug party with no hindsight,vision or foresight.It is a party that exists solely for the retention of power. It is mandatory therefore on the part of the Zimbabweans that they overthrow such a system of political patronage and replace it with a genuine multiparty democratic system which is accountable and just.

This is a fact which everyone is clearly aware of.There is therefore little need for a public showdown but rather a surgical, methodical and systematic approach to changing the election debate from the usual anthem about the heroism and sacrifice of Mugabe and his cronies in the liberation struggle to a debate based on economic competence and desirable national policing.

That Mr Zuma (as suggested by Eddie Cross)should shout orders from Pretoria which Mugabe and loyalists will be expected to follow without resistance ignores the fact that Mugabe’s retention of power through the army has more to do with matters of the personal future and security of him and his comrades (in the army ,party and government) with whom he ransacked the economy and committed henous crimes for which they can be arrested and prosecuted.

These people are not prepared to relinquish power and take that risk.Mr Cross must therefore come alive to the fact that anything that forestalls any progress on the work of the unity government will be used to buy time mainly by Mugabe who may easily benefit from such until his time is up. Others may well take refuge in the fact that they were merely following orders and blame it on the departed commander in chief.

We can speculate forever but what is clearly not in the interest of the M.D.C is to create a situation in which they will be no government of national unity and no global political agreement before a new constitution is written and adopted.

There is no dispute about the need for tactical pressure on Zanu PF given its lethagy and unwillingness to commit itself to a process in which it is visibly and suicidally undermining its own hold on power. But Zanu PF has no choices.

The brief of the M.D.C now is not to make it harder for Zanu PF to relinquish power through threats of vengeance or vindictive attitudes but by contrast to negotiate this power through an array of assurances, cautions and confidence building gestures done both openly and secretly.

We must wish to create a lasting understanding in which the former enemy has an interest in protecting the new system. That is the only way those who are in the last line of defending Zanu PF’s patronage will allow fully operational civilian rule in Zimbabwe.

It must be emphasized that the priority for now must be to allow a new constitution to be written and adopted. Nothing will be as tragic as fighting for positions and high office and failing to prioritise the need to change a poisined fundamental law,our constitution, which has been repeatedly used to defend a one man show in which the president is everything and anyone he wants to be. A new constitution is a must.

A point must also be made that Zanu PF must not abuse itself in the fantasy that there ever will be a government formed by that party as a result of winning an election in Zimbabwe. It will be complete lunacy to entertain such an imagination.Forgetting the militant resolutions of the recent congress it is in the interests of the party to work for a Zimbabwe that is just and free.

Change is inevitable.That last recent congress missed an opportunity to refashion itself and re-shape its leadership for a new political age in Zimbabwe.The only thing that this congress did for Zanu PF was to expose its divisions and complete lack of hope.

As for Eddie Cross’s ill-thought statements about showdowns it would be my suggestion that the policy coordinator general takes a good look at his utterances and appreciates what a missed opportunity it will be for a party that controls the most important and strategic ministry in the government if everyone cheered on his idea of endless bickering.

It must dawn on Eddie Cross that the reason why Zanu PF is what it is today is because it failed to deliver on the work and task of this important ministry which already under the M.D.C has brought recovery and some stability to a country that was nearing a cannibalistic stage.

It is not all about bickering.It will take less showdowns,less bickering and more agreement to make Zimbabwe work.Our country is at crossroads we cannot afford to devout a whole year to bickering especially from the start.

Courage Shumba is a Human Rights Advocate

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