admincould be written and this was heavily opposed by the partners in the fragile Inclusive Government, who today, a year later are calling for a negotiable constitution.
What is it that was non-negotiable about the Kariba Draft that will today be negotiable under any circumstances? If the Kariba Draft was not a proper document to be used as the basis for negotiations at that time, why then did the MDC formations not buy the concept of a negotiable constitution and suggested a framework outside the Kariba Draft.
Instead the MDC formations chose to pursue grandstanding, singing about the need to come up with a people driven constitution.
Resultantly, the MDC formations forgot that democracy informs that those elected to represent various spheres of the society have the right to speak and make life changing decisions on behalf of those who would have catapulted them to the positions of power.
Is it that the MDC from the beginning wanted a negotiated constitution but at that time they could not accept it as a result of the prospects of pocketing the green-bag through direct allowances netted by way of participating in the CMP and hiring out their vehicles?
Could it be that the MDC formations and their handlers thought they owned the people of Zimbabwe and wanted to use the process as a window to show the outside world that they indeed were in charge of the country, not Zanu-PF?
Maybe this is the reason for their grandstanding calling for a people driven constitution in the process deliberately defeating the purposes of reasoning.
To this end the MDC formations together with their handlers went on to unleash unjustified onslaught of the Kariba draft tearing it apart before the outside world and dismissing it as Zanu PF constitution.
Zanu-PF as democratic as ever, consented to the writing of the “people” driven constitution, which resulted in the establishment of the Parliamentary Constitutional Select Committee (Copac) comprising of 25 members of parliament drawn from each of the three parties to the inclusive government.
This gave birth to the COPAC stakeholder conference that took place in Harare where the thematic committees were reviewed and adopted paving way for outreach teams to unpack their exercise to gather people’s views countrywide. Under the exercise each of the country’s wards established three centres where people gathered to air their views in the writing of the new constitution. The establishment of the three centres per ward was a deliberate move meant to reach out to as many people as possible to enable the results to be a reflection of the people’s views.
Prior to the outreach programme political parties took it upon themselves to conscientise the masses on the importance of the exercise and the need for them to actively participate.
The MDC formations aided by civic organisations – funded by the West – such as ZimRights, Bulawayo Agenda, Crisis Coalition Zimbabwe, Habakkuk Trust just to mention a few streamed all out to sell the imperialist position which of all among its values sought to promote same sex marriages.
On the other hand Zanu-PF was a lone soldier with individual members digging in their pockets to sell the party position. Despite a few hitches here and there the outreach exercise was a success and indeed the people spoke. Zanu-PF talking positions prevailed over that of the post imperialist and their MDC formations despite the huge injection of cash and other resources towards the programme.
It is important to note that MDC formations went into the CMP not giving Zanu-PF a chance, only for the people to speak in favour of the Afro-centric values enshrined in the founding principles of the revolutionary party. MDC formations and their alliances have regrouped and started to discredit the outcome of the outreach programme at the same time calling for a negotiable constitution where they want to smuggle their imperialist values.
To this effect on August 23, the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) held a workshop in the capital where it shockingly told a bemused crowd that in a survey it had just undertaken one of the major findings was that the Copac outreach programme was not reflective of the people’s views.
The workshop centred on the findings of a recent survey which was co-ordinated by the MPOI on how citizens view the inclusive government and its performance and was said to have been conducted in urban and rural areas.
Amongst those in attendance at the workshop were civic organisations that included Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and Zimrights just to mention a few. MDC formations and civic organisations together with the non-governmental organisations claim to be representing people in the fight for democracy, but how true is this?
If anything the events of the CMP distances these formations from both the people and democracy they claim to be subscribing to. A closer look at what in simple terms is meant by “people” and “democracy” makes interesting reading.
Who are the people?
- Humans considered as group or in indefinite numbers
- A body of person living in the same country under one national government: nationality
What is democracy?
- Government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.
- a state having such a form of government
Now during the CMP a body of persons living in the same country, Zimbabwe, under one national government — inclusive government – exercising the supreme power vested in them by the constitution of the country expressed their views on what they would want the new constitution to capture. Those responsible for capturing the people’s views included members of parliament across the political divide, minister of religion and traditional leaders.
The capturing part was not undertaken manually, but using computerised devices. No part of Zimbabwe was not touched by these men and women who were so dedicated to the call of duty, and people participated freely.
But surprisingly today institutions like the MPOI stand out and shout that the CMP was not reflective of the views of the people.
This is a finding pregnant with meaning. In terms of the constitution of the civic society and non-governmental organisations inclusive of the MDC formations, people, can only be people when they are affiliated to their social circles and espouse their values as informed by their American and European handlers.
Online Reporter