From democratic to vampire movement
By Wellington Gadzikwa
When Welshman Ncube broke ranks with the MDC and vowed never to reunite with Morgan Tsvangirai many of the self-proclaimed democratic forces and civil society accused him of betraying the democratic dream.
In fact, Tsvangirai fanatics were quick to label Welshman a CIO operative with the conspiracies escalating to opaque levels of claiming he had been given $6 million to split the party.
MDC heretics and apathetics are at it again, postulating Tsvangirai is in fact a saint who neither believes in, nor commits violent acts.
If ever one doubted the intelligence and stance taken by Ncube, it was just a matter of time as events at the dreaded Harvest House which can now be aptly called “Violence House” proved beyond doubt that violence has been firmly institutionalised as a convenient tool to deal with critics.
Journalists were last year bashed for daring to set foot at the axis of violence which is the headquarters of a movement that claims to usher democratic values based on tolerance and accepting the otherness.
A party which claims to be democratic should never condone the silencing of dissent and all party members should behave in an exemplary manner and desist from using pseudo repressive apparatuses.
An effective leader of a party should be respected by followers and if he or she says no to violence, then it’s a NO.
When rowdy and drunk supporters commit acts of violence or threaten such acts in the presence of the leader especially to those questioning his leadership credentials many conclusions can be made.
The most common ones are that the leader is acting in cahoots with the perpetrators to instil fear in his critics and cling to sacrosanct infallible power.
It does not augur well with decent mental faculties for a party that claims to be democratic to be seen to be applying medieval barbaric antics of using knobkerries and machetes to settle internal disputes.
It’s actually a fallacy and a shame for the MDC heretics to insult the citizens’ intelligence by calling itself a party of excellence.
It has also come to the fore that those who are vociferous for power and freedom can be the worst enemies of the values they themselves purport to serve.
The bashing of Elton Mangoma has shown the hypocrisy of those who want to always gain international sympathy for being victims when they are the chief architects of intra and inter political violence.
When party members can unleash violence on their leaders then what more on political opponents?
This culture of factional intra-party violence is detrimental to the country as it can easily become contagious.
The reports of intra party violence and crackdown on senior members who dare criticise the leader is an affront to all those who want a peaceful, prosperous and democratic society.
It is also a strong warning that power should be entrusted in the hands of those who can use it responsibly.
What then are we going to conclude from these crackdowns in terms of democratisation processes in Africa?
What many people see as viable opposition parties are after all self satisfying projects of individuals who are fronting alien interests for personal gain.
If indeed the MDC is a genuine political movement with the sole aim of serving the public interests, why should leaders fight viciously to cling to lead a movement which by nature is supposed to continue going even beyond the lives of the founders until democracy is refined and continues to go on.
The habit of seeing shadows everywhere is cheap talk. For a leader to claim that his party has been infiltrated is a mockery to people’s political literacy and a sign that it has no detective measures to weed out such infiltrators.
If truth be told, the fact remains that fallen no more to rise is Morgan Tsvangirai, forsaken with no one to raise him up!
