Grand coalition: The people are the true grand factor

By Luke Tamborinyoka

The country is at a crossroads. The political and economic malaise is urgently demanding attention from the government; those men and women occupying the citadel of power and who report directly to the President at Munhumutapa building in Harare.

The tragedy, however, is that those expected to provide the solution to the national crisis are themselves helpless by-standers. They are the same characters who think printed bond-paper is money; who lie that bond notes are not for use by the public but are for the exclusive use of exporters. Yet every Zimbabwean is using them and one starts asking themselves, when did the commuter omnibus passengers that are using these bond-notes every day become exporters?

Given the poverty of thought on the part of the party in government, the nation has turned its attention to the opposition in its collective sense. It is true that there is a strong and justifiable national sentiment that opposition parties must work together. The groundswell of that sentiment is that there must be a cow-horn formation on Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF in 2018.

That demand is legitimate and justifiable. Zimbabweans have waited too long for change. People have been killed, raped and maimed not by white Rhodesians but by their own liberators. From Gukurahundi in the early 1980s to the morbid violence of 2008, Zimbabweans have suffered under the regime of Robert Mugabe. Hence the people’s legitimate expectation that the opposition must see sense, unite and dislodge Zanu PF in 2018. No one can dispute that genuine demand by the people of Zimbabwe.

It needs to be said from the outset that what the people need and expect is a coalition of political parties; of institutions and not of individuals. It is those political parties, having built the sufficient trust and confidence with and among each other that the nation expects to field one Presidential candidate in 2018.

However, the media is not helping matters in this healthy debate. It wants a coalition yesterday yet a true and formidable coalition is a result of political parties and leaders having spent sufficient time working together and building sufficient trust and confidence amongst themselves.

It is only after having worked together on common matters that bind and unite them—like the fight for conducive electoral conditions— that the parties can then at the end of the day determine who their Presidential candidate should be. This should not be by media fiat but the end-result of a natural process of working together.

Demanding a coalition now inevitably puts the issue of positions on the forefront of the debate. Unfortunately the issue of positions is divisive, needless and unnecessary at this juncture. It must be the culmination of having worked together and having built the necessary trust and confidence.

What is needed now is a common front in dealing with the issue of electoral reforms; in confronting ZEC as a bloc and in mobilizing Zimbabweans to come out in their millions to register to vote when the exercise kicks off next year.  Electoral conditions must supersede electoral positions. Putting the issue of positions into the fray now, as some want to do, will divide the opposition as that is naturally a subjective and divisive debate.

As already stated, the grand coalition must be a coalition of political parties; of institutions. It should not be a coalition of Kisnot Mukwazhi and Joice Mujuru, Tendai Biti and Morgan Tsvangirai or even Mujuru and Tsvangirai, all in their personal capacities. It must be a coalition of institutions conversing and coalescing with each other.

Any two people or political leaders joining each other are not a coalition. The people in the political institutions, in their collective sense, must be the basis of coming together with the intention of boosting the numbers in 2018. After all, the people are the only true grand factor in politics and this of necessity means that any grand coalition must be a coalition of the people and not a coalition of leaders.

Zimbabweans don’t want a grand team of leaders; they want a grand coalition of the voting public through their political institutions so as to usher in a new political direction for this great country that we all love. That is the first challenge for the opposition; to unite as institutions and not as individual leaders.

The second challenge has to do with the hegemony of the ruling party; an experienced behemoth that has pervaded all institutions and arenas of the State, including the opposition movement itself. The other day, ZEC smuggled in these surrogate political parties into a meeting of electoral reforms and in came unheard political formations with funny names such as OK Mart.

At this ridiculous rate, we could soon be having political parties with names such as Spar People’s Movement, Pick’n Pay for Democracy or even Tamborenyoka Bazaars for Democratic Change. Therefore, as political parties seek to unite, they must budget for infiltration. The stakes are high in 2018.

Thirdly, there are some individuals with no institutions behind them that are desperate for a coalition. These so-called parties have a man as President, his brother as secretary-general and the son as the chair of the youth league.

Any coalition with this kind of institution is a coalition with an individual family and not with a credible political party that encapsulates the collective interests of a diverse people. While individuals and families are important, we cannot have them masquerading as institutions!

Fourthly, there are some arrogant individuals with no people behind them who think they are educated and fit to lead and regard everyone else as an idiot. These are people who are unsure about how to proceed.

In one instance, they want what they call a National Transitional Authority; itself a technical creature that is expected to be the cure for a purely political problem. In the same breadth they also want a coalition and they seem undecided as to where their true conviction lies. What is indisputable is that given the experiences of the past, an inclusive government or a government of national unity is not an option.

But how do you carve out this proposed technical solution to what in essence is a purely political problem? In simple terms, how do you solve a political crisis technically? In any case, how and by whom is that transitional authority chosen and in what sense will it be national? Are the two, the transitional authority and coalitions mutually exclusive or one is subsequent to the other? These are grey areas that have not been explained.

Mkoma Tendai wants a transitional authority. He also wants a coalition with everyone but in the same breadth publicly attacks Morgan Tsvangirai as a fool and an idiot. If he is an idiot, why are you desperate to work with him? This is the kind of toxic and condescending attitude that kills the issue of a coalition even before it even begins.

One begins to see that to some, the calls for a coalition are not genuine. They are meant to ride on the back of the support of other leaders when in actual fact you hold those same leaders in contempt! Sorry, if it were me, I would not surrender my own political traction for others to ride upon when they have no respect for me at a personal level. 

True coalitions are built on mutual respect for each other; not by tweeting every day that Tsvangirai is a fool yet you expect to work with him. It doesn’t happen and it won’t happen until you disembark from that high horse of pride and unbridled contempt of others!

In any case, it would be futile for some of these charlatans to still regard themselves as leaders of political institutions when that whole institution, jointly and severally, has left you to rejoin Tsvangirai and other political formations.

When even your Vice President loses faith in the capacity of the institution to deliver and jumps ship, it is no rime to grandstand but to sober up and reflect.  The grand coalition is happening anyway and one may be wont to ask, may the real fool stand up?

Coalitions must not be downplayed. They are what the people of Zimbabwe want but they should not be rushed in the absence of sufficient trust and confidence among the players. Time is not on the side of the democratic movement but the coalitions certainly cannot be held when opposition leaders hold others in contempt, chide others publicly every day and yet they expect them to agree to a coalition.

There are other leaders who have spent more time attacking Morgan Tsvangirai than Robert Mugabe as if Tsvangirai is at the centre of the national crisis. Yet they want us to believe they are ready to work with Tsvangirai, the very man they publicly vilify every day.

Give us a break!

Coalitions are built with institutions that have followers behind them. Coalitions are not about leaders but about the people coming together.

Yes, the people are the only true grand factor in politics. Grand coalitions are people coalitions. Credible followings are a prerequisite if this proposed coalition is not to become an elite pact of the huge egos of politically small individuals.

The political parties must first worker together on issues, as they are doing under the National Elections reform Agenda (NERA). Opposition leaders must not short-change the people of Zimbabwe who want a truly credible coalition of institutions to drive this Zanu PF madness out of our lives in 2018.

Luke Tamborinyoka doubles as the Presidential spokesperson and Director of Communications in the Movement for democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai. He writes here in his personal capacity as an ordinary Zimbabwean who desires political change.