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Benny Tsododo
The current power tussles in the MDC-T have exposed the opposition party’s disconcerting penchant to blame external forces for engineering its political misfortunes.
Since the dawn of leadership renewal calls in the MDC-T, the party has tried to accuse some hidden hand(s) for the resultant apocalyptic developments.
This became clear when the party’s deputy treasurer-general, Elton Mangoma, was bashed at the party’s Harvest House headquarters.
Some senior MDC-T officials tried to duck responsibility for the violence by apportioning blame either to ZANU PF or the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
Last week, the party issued a statement warning its supporters and backers to stand guard against supposedly secret operations by the CIO to sow seeds of disharmony between it and its British partners.
MDC-T spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora, said the spy agency had originated and circulated some letters portraying a gloomy relationship between it and the British.
Commenting on one of the letters, Mwonzora said, “It’s a sting operation. This letter was not originated from any office. The inconsistences (in the letter) include failure to show the office the letter was coming from and a font type that was very different from the one used by the party.”
Without really interrogating the veracity of Mwonzora’s claims, it will be instructive to note the supposed leaking of the letters, depicting a frosty relationship between the MDC-T and the British Embassy, came in the wake of a publicly played out tiff between the opposition party and a cabal of western embassies.
The MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, torched the storm when he complained during a rally in Budiriro that western envoys had told him to step down and allow another “capable” cadre to take up the baton.
Tsvangirai publicly rebuffed such overtures when he said, “We have our friends out there.
We are surprised by people who say we want that one to lead the party. Is that the work of diplomats? Why can’t you just write and send to your countries? We want to tell the diplomats that we are united as a party”.
The envoys could not swallow such a brazen display of insubordination and quickly sought to vilify Tsvangirai by publishing a string of press statements lambasting the increasing culture of violence and leadership deficiencies in the MDC-T.
One of the telling messages was made by the Canadian Embassy and was unmistakably directed at Tsvangirai for suspending Mangoma for his call for leadership renewal.
The statement read, “We call on political parties to demonstrate leadership by taking resolute actions to speak out against violence and intimidation. This includes engaging in open dialogue and demonstrating respect for diversity of views.”
Similar statements reprimanding the MDC-T were also issued by the US and the Australian Embassies in Zimbabwe.
When such issues play out in the public arena, it is foolhardy for any of the actors to try and apportion blame for the fight to some unconcerned observers. The nation heard Tsvangirai attacking the westerners and subsequently saw the westerners hitting back.
As such, it is baffling how the MDC-T can now seek to blame the CIO for its leadership row with western envoys.
It is apparent that the letters now being ascribed to the CIO by the MDC-T are part of the brickbats and salvos exchanged between the beleaguered party and its western handlers during the leadership ruckus.
The refusal by the MDC-T to take responsibility for its inadequacies has also hounded the party’s supporters. During a recent rally in Glen Norah, Tsvangirai accused the supporters of inaction or cowardice and failure to rise up against the elected Government of President Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai said, “You have to act and not sleep in the house while the country is burning and only blame Tsvangirai. Don’t be cowards, why are you afraid of going to jail.”
In other words, the MDC-T leader was blaming his supporters for failing to get him into power.
When a whole political party takes such an unscientific and unaccountable approach to issues, it becomes laughable and comical.
Such an approach reduces the party into a puppet whose actions are not attributed to itself but blamed on some overbearing forces.
The party had on numerous occasions tried to pull off such incredulous antics.
Just last year, the MDC-T tried once again to pin Tsvangirai’s marriage fiascos and sexual indiscretions on State security agents.
We appreciate that the MDC-T is trying to push for security sector reforms, but for it to drive such an agenda through implausible conspiracies about the CIO is to defile its whole cause.
It is clear to all and sundry that the MDC-T is on a self-propelled path to destruction due to Tsvangirai’s congenital leadership defects aggravated by the party’s unparalleled ideological barrenness.
Given such a scenario, would it not be sheer folly for the CIO or any other convenient scapegoats to waste their precious time and resources trying to engineer the destruction of a party already teetering on the precipice of oblivion?
It would be like flogging the proverbial dead horse.
What the MDC-T requires at the moment is not the blame game but self-introspection.
The party and its leadership must accept that they are not infallible.
They must take blame for the MDC-T’s political missteps and electoral shortcomings.
They must reconfigure the party’s ideological drift in line with essential feedback from the electorate and other party members such as Mangoma.
Only then would it be able to identify its flaws and possibly chart the way forward.
Failure to accept blame and to reconfigure its philosophy spell doom for the western-sponsored party.
Online Reporter