Social democracy underpins MDC ideology

By Senator Obert Gutu

The MDC brand is under siege from relentless propaganda churned out by the ZANU-PF controlled media such as Zimpapers and the ZBH.These propaganda organs are slavishly assisted by latter-day ZANU-PF apologists and opportunists most of whom have dubious and scandal-ridden profiles.

In this desperate attempt to demonise and in some instances,openly criminalise the MDC and its top leadership,we have witnessed a recent escalation of the hate language that ZANU-PF propagandists have traditionally used against the MDC.Both the Herald newspaper and its sister weekly,the Sunday Mail, have been misused and abused as vehicles to viciously and maliciously attack the MDC as a party and its top leadership in their individual capacities.

The ZBH takes the propaganda war to another level by deliberately imposing a virtual blackout on all activities undertaken by the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.All MDC rallies and important report back meetings are never covered on ZBC television.

The MDC recently celebrated its 10th anniversary at a mammoth rally attended by thousands of people at White City stadium in Bulawayo but this historic event was hardly covered by ZBH; both on radio and television.Contrast this with the massive coverage that ZBH gives to a mundane and poorly attended ZANU-PF district meeting in Mbare!

Since its formation in September 1999,the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has quickly developed to become Zimbabwe’s largest and most popular political party.You simply have to undertake a quick survey throughout the length and breath of Zimbabwe to appreciate how enormously popular the MDC has become.

The thousands of people who throng MDC rallies and report back meetings weekend in and weekend out is clear testimony of the breathtaking popularity of the MDC.It is this remarkable popularity of such a young political party such as the MDC that irks ZANU-PF and ultimately motivates the crude propaganda onslaught against the MDC.

It is pretty obvious that the ZANU-PF leadership is acutely aware of their party’s declining popularity and its gradual breakdown into a rag tag organisation loosely held together by small and ineffective tribal cliques and regional groupings.For what can one say about a party that has dismally failed to organise elections for such a strategic area such as Harare province.

Witness the primitive violence at the recently held ZANU-PF Women’s League’s congress and you then start really appreciating that ZANU-PF is a mortally wounded organisation; a political party that has certainly gone beyond its sell-by date! Move a step further and visit the ZANU-PF Mashonaland West province.Witness the paranoid hatred for people of Karanga origin and just observe how the ZANU-PF provincial executive led by one John Mafa is now literally under siege from the Zezuru supremacists led by some well-known ZANU-PF political heavyweights.And this is a party that dreams of beating the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in free and fair elections? They can dream on.

That ZANU-PF is a party facing inevitable demise and eventual disintegration has never been in doubt.It is now just a question of when and not whether this party will disintegrate into small and ineffective ethnically based factions.And some of us are actually excited by the re-entry of one Jonathan Moyo into the sinking boat that is ZANU-PF.Just watch this space.

This man will,with his usual efferversence and fury,catalyse the disintegration of ZANU-PF; the erstwhile revolutionary party.For us in the MDC,the re-admission of Jonathan Moyo into the ZANU-PF fold should be cause for massive celebration.Only a miracle can serve ZANU-PF from its impending and inevitable disintegration.And Jonathan Moyo is not a miracle! In some of my previous articles,I have discussed the need for any organisation,be it political,religious or even business, to periodically renew and regenerate its leadership.

Simply put,the concept of dialectical materialism entails the inevitable collapse of the old and backward and the emergence of the modern and more forward-looking.Because ZANU-PF has dismally failed to periodically renew its top leadership structure ever since the days of the armed liberation struggle of the 1970s,for students of history and political science,what is happening to this formerly formidable political organisation is not at all surprising.What we are presently witnessing is the inevitable collapse of a once mighty political organisation.

This is a party whose ideology is still stuck in the mantra of the Cold War era; a party completely lost on strategy and stuck in history.A political party that has stubbornly refused to move forward and change with the times and a party that is now the victim of its own former glory.How the mighty have fallen!

By contrast,the MDC is a young and vibrant social democratic party.It’s top leadership consists of a tantalising mix of fairly old and young blood; vibrant comrades from the world of trade unionism and some of Zimbabwe’s finest brains.The MDC’s membership consists of an interesting mixture of the urban poor,the students,the middle class and now; the rural peasantry.

Some misguided political analysts have stoically argued that the support base of the MDC is full of contradictions.Some of them pose the question of how a poor peasant in Dotito can relate to a young and up and coming business executive in Harare or Bulawayo.The answer is simple.As a social democratic party,the MDC easily appeals to all people,across the racial,ethnic and class divide, who aspire to a serious paradigm shift in the manner in which matters of governance have been conducted in our beloved country.

These are people who are sick and tired of the politics of patronage,kleptocracy and autocracy.These are people who sincerely love Zimbabwe and who refuse to hate someone simply on the basis of the colour of their skin or the part of the country where they come from.Primitive concepts like racism and tribalism have no place within the MDC.

Unlike ZANU-PF which somehow believes in some form of gerontocracy( i.e. rule by the elders),the MDC is a vibrant political formation that looks at one’s inherent abilities and talent rather than age when it comes to getting elected into leadership positions.This is one of the reasons why the MDC has some of the youngest cabinet ministers; one of whom is  aged only 31.Contrast this with ZANU-PF who are about to elect a man in his 80s to become one of the country’s Vice-Presidents!

Because social democracy underpins the MDC’s basic ideology,the party is finding it very easy to attract new supporters each and every day; across the racial,ethnic and social divide.The majority of Zimbabweans,both urban and rural,see a future for themselves and for their children by supporting the MDC.ZANU-PF is now generally associated with violence,intolerance,corruption and greed.And the majority of the people now do not support them because of these deeply entrenched vices.

Put simply,in ZANU-PF,the majority of Zimbabweans see more gloom,more hunger,more repression,more corruption and indeed,more suffering.No matter how much crude propaganda the ZBC and Zimpapers continue to churn out,the people have now opened their eyes and they should no longer be taken for granted.If anything,the relentless propaganda against the MDC and its top leadership has had the net effect of making Morgan Tsvangirai the global brand that he has become.

Indeed,for Morgan Tsvangirai to be nominated as a Nobel Peace prize laureate is in itself a wonderfull lifetime achievement which some political leaders will only encounter in their dreams.The ZANU-PF brand is damaged goods and this is why the people of Zimbabwe have repeatedly voted for change since the year 2000.Indeed,the people have spoken.