MDC-T split: A $5 million mystery?

By Conway Tutani

When friends fall out, it’s something else. The erstwhile MDC-T political bosom brothers and sisters are now throwing drums of dirty linen at each other in public.

What a difference electoral loss can make!

In the war of words, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been labelled “Gumbura” by his opponents in reference to serial rapist Pastor Robert Gumbura, who was jailed for 40 years this year. This is crudity writ large.

As they say, in war the first casualty is the truth. In throwing back the insult, some in the Tsvangirai camp have highlighted health issues surrounding Tendai Biti, the leader of the rival faction.

This is beyond the bounds of decency. Capitalising on this, an obviously anti-MDC-T and pro-Zanu PF commentator wrote this week in a pro-Zanu PF paper:

“. . . we are now being told that Biti is sero-positive, and that somehow this is somewhat relevant to whatever issue might be at hand.”

Well, the writer should rewind to last year when there were more than hints from senior Zanu PF officials that Tsvangirai was sero-positive with one of them even going to the extent of challenging him to disclose his status.

There is no need to express self-righteous disgust and to omit or twist facts to validate your bias. Let’s look at this from all angles if we are to serve the journalism mission of informing and educating.

This sort of bias surrounding the MDC-T split can be explained in psychology in terms of the “horns effect and halo effect”. It can cloud your judgment and cause you to make sub-standard decisions, draw flimsy conclusions or hold irrational beliefs by allowing one trait or characteristic, either good (halo) or bad (horns), to overshadow other traits, behaviours, actions or beliefs. Horns effects and halo effects happen all the time.

Attractive people are, on average, presumed to be more intelligent even though this isn’t true. Overweight people are thought to be lazy, which is not necessarily the case. This is mere association at work. People believe that traits are interconnected, so the presence of one trait means the presence of other characteristics, which isn’t true. While Tsvangirai has been a philanderer, he is no rapist. So the interconnection being made between him and Gumbura is as false as it can be.

Now, the MDC-T protagonists are seeing total good on their side and total evil in the other camp, which cannot be true, because how could they have worked with each other for so many years?

Yes, the opposition is not lily white, but it has kept Zanu PF on its toes; it has forced Zanu PF to be responsive and make tentative moves towards reform. Zanu PF broke out in cold sweat after being defeated by the opposition in 2008. Now, they have put all stops to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

They have never slept since 2008, playing clean, not so clean and outright dirty to cripple the opposition. Now, if someone cannot see this, they must be in comatose sleep.

If the MDC-T was a nonentity or mere irritant, ZBC wouldn’t demonise it at every turn. The greater part of whole news bulletin can be dedicated to lampooning it.

But the horns effect and halo effect can lead to oversimplification and complacency, which last year resulted in the opposition writing off Zanu PF as totally clueless, completely out of sorts — only to be handed a stunning defeat, as Zanu PF fought clean, not so clean and outright dirty.

Who does not know that the opposition collectively — every one of them — was run to the ground by Zanu PF? Zanu PF listened attentively and did absolutely nothing to level the political playing field.

What is happening in the MDC-T is being wise after the event; that is, it’s easy to say what could have been done to prevent something from happening after it has happened. Tsvangirai must not be solely blamed for taking part in the election against reported Sadc advice. Welshman Ncube and Zapu’s Dumiso Dabengwa also took part, didn’t they?

Now, in counting their losses, the Biti faction is reportedly courting “distinguished outsiders”. A leader must come from the people.

He/she must not be parachuted in. The Biti camp could be condemning themselves to bit-part players. Remember the disaster that sank the Ncube-led MDC when they plucked an unknown quantity, Arthur Mutambara, from somewhere and he led them into a dead end with his strident scholarly approach? You need to catch on to the sentiments of the people, not demand that they look up to you.

Unless you put yourself in other people’s shoes, you will never relate well with them and succeed politically. People need to cultivate humility in order to accept advice from others even though they might be less educated than them.

Every idea must stand on its own merit regardless of who proposes it. A good idea is a good idea even if it is proposed by Joseph Chinotimba.He might not be educated, but he is not ignorant. A bad idea is a bad idea even if it is proposed by a professor.

After all, atrocious policies that have destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy have been drafted and implemented by degreed people, the latest being the indigenisation regulations which are being quickly adjusted and revised because in their original form they would hurt the country grievously.

That said, could money games be also at play in the MDC-T split as a whopping $5 million is reported to have been factored into the equation? Like a wife who kills her husband after he takes out an insurance policy for $1 million because he is worth more dead than alive to her?

So, for all we know, the MDC-T could be worth more dead than alive to some of these protagonists. In that dirty game, politics, people have been known to sell their souls to the devil for money.

I am not deep into conspiracy theory, but it’s just a thought!

This opinion piece was initially published by NewsDay