Mojo no substitute for lack of policy

Joram Nyathi Spectrum
There is little doubt that Zimbabweans are being primed for the 2018 general elections. Going by the noise accompanying last week’s demonstrations by the MDC-T in Harare, there are even hints these protests might be designed to precipitate an early election. Listen to Morgan Tsvangirai’s address to the demonstrators; “Mugabe has no solution to the crisis we are facing because he is tired. We are not demanding an overthrow of the Government, we are demanding a dignified exit for tired Mugabe.”

This is echoed by MDC-T secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora; “This is not a demonstration for regime change, but about issues affecting ordinary people in the country. We are demonstrating against poverty, against high unemployment and indeed against corruption.”

Nothing arcane, no need for rocket science. Simply to read, as they say, between the lines. Which is not the same when it comes to what the party stands for.

American elections are noisy. They involve a lot of, if not, too much money.

They grab global attention.

After all, America is the global superpower, if a bullying one.

Which is why many, not only in Africa but Europe too, don’t really love America. Europeans have to suffer its arrogance because of its protective shield against an imaginary red terror.

So American elections are too noisy to be ignored. Involve too much money to be matched.

But there is one redeeming feature about American candidates which Africa should begin to emulate even as new political parties muddle things up with the new revolutionary but illusory evangelism passed as democracy and human rights.

To a certain extent, American presidential candidates behave like Zanu-PF.

They state their position on issues and make you hate them if you want.

You are not left in doubt for too long about what it is they stand for or what they want or will do when they get into power.

I am thinking in particular of one Donald Trump, the boorish straight talker the Republican Party have unleashed on the American voters.

I can’t remember how many countries he has threatened to bomb out of existence once he lands at the White House.

He has told the Latinos his piece of mind, and how he would make them pay for the great wall between their countries and the United States of America once he becomes president.

African Americans have no illusions about where they stand in Trump’s esteemed gaze. They have been kicked out of his campaign venues because they don’t reflect enough light.

So after a taste of power, impotent though it was, under Barack Obama, they must know it would be back to the trenches if Americans felt Trump was the best person to direct the affairs of their nation for the next four, if not eight, years.

Further afield, Trump has promised, no, in fact, threatened, to roll back the shield of American protection over Japan and South Korea or make them pay in full for it.

His option is that they arm themselves and fight their own wars.

In this epoch of nuclear weapons!

Our dear Lady Clinton has been no less clearer, making herself as unlady-like as they come in her electoral and foreign policy belligerence against nations deemed and judged by America to pose a challenge or “threat” to its hegemony.

Like Trump, she doesn’t like Iran.

As the brains behind and midwife to Zidera, we know she doesn’t like the “threat” posed by Zimbabwe to America.

Lady Hillary Clinton wants to demonstrate to her Democratic Party voters that she is more man than Obama.

This loop, dear reader, focusing on American elections and their presidential candidates, has a single, simple purpose: to show that when other nations talk of elections they engage their brains before they look for “mojo” to mask their lack of policy or vision.

The parties and campaigners must have an idea to sell.

To the contrary, Zimbabweans are being primed for a “much-anticipated election” in 2018 whose most desirable outcome is predicated on a media-engineered coalition of the opposition, but without solid policy options to vote for, only against, no principles to advance but the cult of the individual.

You see, I have no reason to push a Zanu-PF propaganda. There is a lot which is wrong in the party.

Corruption. Abuse of the land reform programme and failure to account for resources allocated to the beneficiaries.

There is more, but everything which matters is in the public domain.

The party’s 1001 ills are like a mountain which can’t be hidden while those of the MDC-T its and soul-mates we can carry in a basket.

I am not a member of Zanu-PF, but when I look at the bigger picture of where Africa has come from, where it is today (the looting of its resources and manipulation of its leaders and intelligentsia by the West) and what Zanu-PF stands for despite the venality of its members and President Mugabe’s vision of an empowered society, I feel proudly African, not beholden to some foreign saviour.

The new African Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina almost captures the ideals which should inspire any leader who wants to move us forward when he states: “I am driven constantly by a greater ambition for Africa. This can be a greater continent. I want us to develop Africa with pride.”

I don’t experience the same exalting spirit when I look into the opposition basket because I can’t discern a vision in the noise and clutter.

I don’t want to sound frivolous, but Tsvangirai is a seasoned politician. He is not a product of the GNU or the MDC as it was formed in September 1999.

He had long before then been an active Zanu-PF member or supporter. So he should know what he is talking about.

Not a novice any longer to be overly excited in front of a crowd.

And this is what he said of the ZRP in front of his expectant, cheering and excited supporters on the day of the demonstration at Africa Unity Square on Thursday April 14; “This is how civilised police officers behave in a democratic country like Zimbabwe.” (Not like America. Not like Britain. Not like China or Russia.)

That is why he enjoys the freedom to lead his movement for democratic change in a democratic country like Zimbabwe.

The much-maligned Posa has often been misused or misapplied by the police.

The law requires those who want to hold a meeting only to “notify the regulating authority”; it doesn’t require the police to grant authority for the meeting.

This is what the court clarified, and the police, alive to the rule of law, faithfully obeyed and let the MDC-T proceed with its demonstration. The police were there purely to protect life and property, not to intimidate or threaten anyone, as childishly claimed by the media.

Back to the vision and policy alternatives.

Zanu-PF can without doubt enumerate its own failures.

The opposition and their media have been very helpful in this respect.

No doubt they must have a huge journal of who committed what crime and when. But that is not enough to sell to me as a solution to poverty, to corruption, to incompetence and mediocrity.

That doesn’t reveal to me a better tomorrow, a principled leadership whose integrity can withstand external manipulation and move this nation forward.

The media have whipped themselves into a frenzy, promising the mother of all “surprises” by way of the Zimbabwe People First. None have materialised. We are now being asked to witness Tsvangirai’s “mojo”, expect the mother and grandmother of all demonstrations. What are the policy options after the demos?

The reason people can criticise or attack Zanu-PF policies is because we know them. Like them or hate them, that is your democratic right.

You can hate or love Trump or Clinton. That is because you know what they stand for; the policy and the vision. In Zimbabwe we are being asked to vote for people because of their past injuries fighting Zanu-PF!

How many injuries does Zanu-PF carry from the liberation war?

So the country’s vision must revolve around a cult of past injuries?

Is that the best the local media can offer the people of Zimbabwe as we prepare for the next elections? Some therapeutic mojo indeed.