adminits power by outwitting its political opponents. Politics is not a game of angels or of lesser evil men. It is a game characterised by competition, conflict, co-operation, prudence and pragmatism.
Morality rarely matters in the political realm.
Politics involves a continuous struggle for power.
Those who wield power want to maintain their power by all means possible and those who are not yet in power are also doing all sorts of dirty tricks as to get into power.
In politics, when a political opponent calls for sanctions against his or her country it all boils down to the fact that those who are struggling to be in power can do anything
that can advantage them in trying to acquire power. Some have rightly called politics a very dirty game.
Those who fail to keep up with the political heat always end up complaining about being short-changed by their political opponents.
These political charlatans want ordinary citizens to believe that they are victims of an evil and ruthless political system.
Jesus once challenged the men who wanted to throw stones at the harlot if anyone of them had not once done such a dirty act. The humiliated hypocrites all walked away in great shame and guilt.
Every political party wants and quests for power as it is the fuel that drives politics. All political parties want to govern. Hobbes actually points out that a man seeks power and that pursuit for power only ceases at death. Each party wants to determine who gets what when and how.
It wants to be at the helm of authorising values to society. This is what political power stands for. Ponton and Gill point out that power is the ability to get others to do what you wish, assuming this is different from what they would otherwise have done, with the use of threat or sanctions if necessary.
What all political parties want is to wield power in order to decide how resources are distributed in a political system.
It therefore becomes very interesting when some political parties hide behind the guise of morality in their pursuit for public office. There is absolutely nothing “holy” when it comes to competition for control of government. Every politician manipulates the electorate as to get in power.
Obama, Sarkozy and Cameron did the same. That is how the game is played. You lie, cheat, steal and do all sorts of sordid things as to win public office.
Political power according to John Locke is the right of making laws, with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of community in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the state from foreign injury.
It is therefore, this very power to make decisions on behalf of the general populace that political parties engage themselves in power struggles. Some people do not like the concept of political power since it involves coercion, inequality, and occasionally violence and brutality. Such people ignorantly end up sympathising with victims of political struggles.
There is no political party worldwide that is immune from engaging in very evil and dirty power struggles. No political party should ever give the false impression that it is a victim in the political game.
The media have also taken sides in this struggle as they usually report in favour of certain political parties.
That in itself also shows how politicians can manipulate journalists to lie to the masses who always believe in anything that is printed. This illustrates how dirty politics is, especially when certain politicians are shown as victims that need people’s sympathy whilst the others are portrayed as hooligans who should be voted out of power.
The commercialisation of violence through print and electronic media is meant to make mountains out of nothing.
Media in Rwanda was at the forefront of fuelling violence during the 1994 genocide. It is through the media that old tribal wounds are opened as a way of creating tension amongst the masses.
A careless media should not be tolerated and it should never hide behind the façade of media pluralism as to incite citizens to hate their political opponents. The African pluralised media is creating animosity amongst citizens.
It now makes interesting reading to see how the media in Africa has been turned into a campaigning arena for the journalists’ favourite political parties; a platform for squaring political grudges and an avenue for fermenting hatred and division among communities.
Political parties in their continuous struggle for power are now in the sinister, unethical and dirty habit of quickly claiming victims of any violent engagement as their own. This is merely a way of gaining political ground and winning a few sympathetic and gullible supporters to their side.
Yes, that is politics. It is sad to note that violence perpetrated on people who belong to other political parties is reported more as a “necessary evil” while that unleashed on individuals they sympathise with has been seen as being totally “evil and barbaric”. What is shocking about the way violence is reported is the selective treatment given to such cases?
The problem with some political parties and the media houses which support them is that they see their supporters as victims of violence as well as innocent targets of an unjust political and legal system. Africans should not accept this false perception of justice were political thugs are not arrested because they belong to political party A or B.
The days of political immunity are over. When you unleash violence on political opponents as well as innocent citizens you should face the complete wrath of the law.
Every state resorts to coercion of one form or another in order to make citizens comply with the decisions of their country’s government. It would be inaccurate to assume that democratic governments do not use coercive means to get compliance of their citizens.
Democracies have prisons, prisoners, police forces, courts etc.
In order to avert or avoid political violence a government should use a lot of force relying heavily on the police, intelligence service, judiciary and the army. The government should wield immense power on these instruments of state coercion to make them act against political thugs. In addition, there should be the necessary legislation, constitutional doctrine and previous practices to enable the government to employ coercive means.
The British state unleashed raw force as to contain rowdy youths who had turned extremely violent. The state could not just watch from a distance as youths destroyed public property and also looted and burnt down some shops.
Malawi, through the use of coercive force also managed to keep under control a demonstration that had turned very violent. The state is the only entity that has the legal right to use force on its citizens. Violence in any given state can best be controlled and contained by the state’s coercive apparatus. The xenophobic killings in South Africa only came to an end when the army, which is another coercive arm of the state, was called in to help.
The so called “political violence” in Zimbabwe is nothing that the state cannot contain. It will not take it a single day to bring these thugs to book.
The British had such thugs on camera and it was very easy to pick them up after the skirmishes. Africa and Zimbabwe in particular should do the same as to weed society of such undesirable elements. It is the duty of the state to protect its citizens from such political thugs.
In Africa we are now tired of political parties which always cry foul when the going gets tough. Every political party involved in the arena of power politics creates autonomous zones that can be called the party’s political stronghold.
No political party can have strong holds in every part of a political system. Such a scenario is very rare in the field of politics bearing in mind the divergent viewpoints people have. However, it must be noted that strongholds are not permanent.
The political party might fail to deliver on its electoral promises in its autonomous zone. This might see some supporters crossing the flow or joining a party they feel best addresses their grievances. Failure to meet people’s demands may also lead to voter apathy.
The disgruntled and disillusioned voter sees no reason why he or she should keep on voting for a party that totally fails to honour its election promises.
Political rhetoric and oratory can work in politics especially during the formative years of a political party but when people start seeing through the threadbare lies of that political party then their support base will become very questionable.
Most political scientists can easily tell the popularity of a party by the power it controls within its stronghold.
The vulnerability of a party’s autonomous zone is seen when other political parties start to gain political mileage within these “sacred zones”.
This usually sends shock waves to those political parties which once enjoyed a lot of support in such areas. An example to demonstrate this point is the Chitungwiza political clashes which clearly show how porous the MDC stronghold has become. Political parties are always in a continuous struggle to lure supporters as to consolidate their power.
Parties which sense a fracture in their strongholds always come up with flimsy and lousy accusations of their opponents yet politics wouldn’t be as interesting as it is without such struggles. Political parties in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular should learn to deliver on their promises as to enable them to maintain their political support bases.
Crying foul when their strongholds are turned into playgrounds by other political actors is no solution. Pointing an accusing finger on other political competitors is failing to understand the dynamics of power politics.
Politics is not for cry-babies and neither is it won through being showered with praises by the media.To be a credible politician one needs to at least deliver on a few of the electoral promises. Lies can only work once not all the time.
- Bowden Mbanje and Darlington Mahuku are lecturers in International Relations, and Peace and Governance with Bindura University of Science Education.
Online Reporter