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Martin Stobart
In politics there are two phraseologies that are sometimes employed by analysts and commentators. These are space annexation and space contraction. The former simply means that one party is making in-roads into the support base of its rival or competitor. The latter, that the other is losing the support it once enjoyed. I find that these phrases are useful as barometers with which to make an informed prognostic analysis especially by the parties themselves and not by the media and their partisan analysts or embedded journalists.
All too often partisan analysts and commentators can obfuscate the true picture on the ground regarding the party whose brief they hold, very much to the detriment of their party.
It is therefore in the best interests of a party to be discerning and discriminative when mandating individuals to articulate party positions. I would aver that only party stalwarts, those cadres who boast an unmistakable and unprostituted ideological rooting of their organisation, should be entrusted with the responsibility of endearing their party to the electorate.
Of course, this is not to insinuate only the above mentioned should monopolise the privilege of articulating the organisation’s politics. Far from it; a supporter, sympathiser, well-wisher and the sundry, should have that privilege extended to them as well if the organisation has to have a gravitational pull.
The top brass of party should be consistent and lead from bottom up: this is to say that the leadership should be on the ground with the people, at practically all levels of structures of the organisation, organising, educating and generally indoctrinating the masses with the philosophy and ideology of the organisation.
Political parties are not companies which may choose to break up or go into judicial management. Some parties flounder or lose support simply because the leadership is not on the ground with the majority. The leadership should lead as if there is no election tomorrow and not as if an election will never come.
Who does not know that elections are squalls: they just emerge from nowhere with a gust, hence the need for vigilance at all times. Fire fighting has never been the best option.
This writer is a keen observer of how political organisations are led right across all the levels of leadership. Districts are, in my opinion, the cauldrons of party upheavals. All too often cliques constitute themselves into “leaders” and then weave a cocoon around themselves; never to be seen by those which they purport to lead, and never to see the outside world.
At district levels of leadership it’s not surprising to find individuals with a notorious track record involving a brush with the law, occupying top positions and these individuals ascend to these positions with the tacit help from some provincial leaders.
For this reason, inter alia, vetting by the national chair is an indispensable imperative when choosing leaders right across the board. Party ideology is sacrosanct. And at every hierarchy of leadership one needs individuals who hold strong party tenets.
What happens is those individuals who understand party philosophy and ideology would not want to associate themselves with, let alone serve under a leadership of persons whose names are associated with criminal conduct.
A cursory glance at some of Zimbabwe’s neighbouring countries will attest to the fact that revolutionary organisations that gave birth to majority rule have been ejected from power by black neo-colonialists who have not a pedigree of revolutionaries or nationalists politics nor an ideological orientation.
Most of the revolutionary organisations have been buried under the rubble of emergent neo-colonialist parties whose leaders masquerade as champions of democracy, or are rendered impotent as they are relegated into abject oblivion wherein they wallow in perpetuity. Those revolutionary organisations who are still in power are finding it extremely tough to elongate their stay in office as their power has been severely attenuated by all manner of punitive measures by the rich and powerful western countries, making the revolutionary governments vulnerable beyond redemption.
Have we come to the end of, should I say, the demise of Africa’s revolutionary politics? To argue the contrary would be tantamount to unmitigated self-delusion. Neo-colonialists are at work, full time and truly and sufficiently funded. Some of them even have the pleasure and liberty to choose or better still, cherry pick the kind of funder to bed. The demise of revolutionary politics in some former colonies is unfortunate to say the least.
As parties prepare and some of them frantically and desperately I should say for the 31 July national ballot, there is a din right across the political spectrum emanating from the younger generation demanding to be included as parliamentary candidates. Are the youth correct in their demands? Prima facie they are, however, based on analysis they are not. The forthcoming election is certainly one to beat all others before it. I agree with some politicians who have set a 10-year threshold for the inclusion of young politicians into parliamentary politics. Experience is the best teacher.
Politics is an all-out game.
In any case, it is a historically established fact that even in Western democracies the average age of one to become a parliamentarian, let alone a prime minister or head of state is between 38 and 46 years.
Running a government and legislating require experience as we have noted above. Having said all this, the party leaderships should always inject young blood into their ranks if they want to preclude the demands as we hear from the young generation now. In order for the youths to be effective leaders of tomorrow, they have to start from the deep end where the whips are cracking, progressively ascending to the pinnacle of national leadership. There is no other possible route to that end.
Politicians are not princes or princesses who are enthroned. They are elected by the people. Therein lies the difference.
For political organisations, it is imperative to deploy the youths into the strategic reaches of leadership where they will serve as leadership apprentices. It goes without saying that a well nurtured cadre of young politicians with the right political orientation and direction is always dynamic and organic and has the potential to elongate their organisation’s term in office as well as perpetuate its life in politics altogether.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo