Tsvangirai acting like paid piper

Martin Stobart
ZIMBABWE as a nation seems to be drifting from one “problem” to another.
I use inverted commas deliberately in order to indicate that the problems are not real but perceived.  There are Zimbabweans who do not want to see peace in this country. Peace and tranquility do not bring food into their homes. National unity is something alien to them.
I am talking here about “politicians” such as Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and his ilk. Recently he predicted a “blood bath” if the harmonised national elections were held as scheduled.  I must admit that my vocabulary is rather penurious to delve meaningfully into Mr Tsvangirai’s “blood bath” hogwash. My vocabulary is rich and abundant, but only in so far as substantive pertinent national issues are discussed.

Mr Tsvangirai has been listened to by Sadc, the EU and US for far too long now, not because he is an intelligent person or because he talks sense. He is a puppet of the West.

Let me explain.  Following his recent toxic outburst regarding the announcement of the election date by President Mugabe and his visit to some Sadc countries on the same issue before the Maputo Sadc summit, the US started ratcheting for the retention of sanctions (unless….) and the compliance with the Global Political Agreement (by Zanu-PF only according to the positions of the EU and the US).

And yet what we see on the ground is a flagrant disregard for the GPA by these superpowers especially the provisions of Article IV (External Interference). This is blatant bullying of Zimbabwe by these rich and powerful nations. Just a reminder, Mr Tsvangirai himself called for the imposition of sanctions, including targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe. He even implored South Africa to switch off the supply of electricity to this country. Since his emergence as a politician more than a decade ago, I have been racking my brain to find a place for Mr Tsvangirai in the political realm but this has proved to be an exercise in futility. What I have been able to establish is that he is a speechifier, as opposed to a speech maker.

In fact, I find Mr Tsvangirai’s rantings shallow and typical of a paid piper. In politics the man is in a wrong practice. Politics is not a stroll in the park. Nor is it moonlight and roses. It’s about national leadership. Unlike born leaders such as President Mugabe, Mr Tsvangirai is a made leader (by you know who), a disaster and a liability to Zimbabwe.

He is a dyed-in-the-wool oppositionist. He does not know anything about co-leadership. He is unable to differentiate between parliamentary opposition and party opposition. Again this is typical of a paid piper.  By the way, Mr Tsvangirai has never been a parliamentarian; even his senior parliamentarians are unable to separate their roles as MPs and as party officials:  Mr Douglas Mwonzora, his party spokesman with his profusion of hollow rantings; and Tendai Biti with his  uncouth mouthings!

A party does not necessarily have to be in power to take part in the running of national affairs. Since its formation the MDC-T has not shown any plausible reason or cause that it understands democracy. Its leadership has imbued and irretrievably obsessed itself with removing President Mugabe and Zanu-PF from government – only that.

Mr Mwonzora, alias Chokutanga Ndechokuti, has denied what the Sadc meeting in Maputo resolved (or suggested) regarding the Constitutional Court ruling that the harmonised elections be held by 31 July 2013.

This is not surprising, of course. MDC-T insists on reforms as per GPA. But then these “reforms” do not come gratis on a platter. They are tradables, if I may employ that term. Or they are a quid pro quo.

AIPA and POSA came into effect to protect and safeguard the independence and sovereignty of Zimbabwe. And, I repeat, their repeal is not automatic but conditional: the US, Britain, the EU, the foreign and local private media must cease their onslaught on President Mugabe and Zanu-PF as well as remove the unilateral, illegal sanctions.

If the MDC-T really wants change in this country the only democratic and quickest way, without implying let alone guaranteeing a win for them, is to go for elections as per the Constitutional Court ruling. The raucous noise the party’s leadership is making is a clear indication that they are scared of the outcome. The MDC-T is wishing it was in government or is hoping to form the next government. There is nothing wrong with that.

However, wishes are not horses by any stretch of imagination and similarly hopes can never be transmitted into reality even by the best of all alchemists. There is also talk that some smaller parties are aiming to join the MDC-T in an effort to come up with a single candidate who will stand against President Mugabe at the forthcoming harmonised elections. Speaking in an interview with a foreign-based radio station, an MDC spokesperson summed up this issue succinctly and precisely: “These parties are funded. They have the money. They have to justify that they deserve the funding.”

We know some of these organisations through the lenses of binoculars.
There are not visible to the naked human eye. Some of them hibernate while others are simply dormant to the extent that they have over-slept.
It’s extremely baffling that Dr Simba Makoni, a former Cabinet Minister and senior Zanu-PF member, a world-renowned academic and business administrator and a former Sadc executive secretary, can descend or stoop so low as to play second fiddle to the Jonny-come-latelys of Zimbabwe politics all in the name of trying to unseat Zanu-PF.

We want to repeat what we said above in this article and that is that leaders are born and not made. Perhaps Dr Makoni found himself in nationalist/liberation politics by circumstances prevailing at the time, just as most of us did. I would believe that not everyone who runs a race gets to the finishing line. Born leaders do. Leaders by circumstances don’t, that’s the difference. Since independence we have had turncoats in Zanu-PF.

However, the fact is that they should not forego or reject their role in the liberation of this country just because they do not want Zanu-PF. This, to me does not, or ceases to make sense.

As far as I understand functional democracy it is that if at a certain point or at a certain stage one radically disagrees with one’s fellow leaders you don’t destroy your organisation because you want to remove a particular leader or particular leaders. Democracy can be likened to charity which begins at home. And so for democracy to pervade the nation and be indelibly etched in the ideology, ethos and character of that nation, it has to be nurtured and cherished and inculcated in the collective mind of the people without let or hindrance.

It’s a lifetime process. Dr Makoni failed dismally and ignominiously to justify the favourable attention of the President.  His stints at the helm of Zimpapers and as Finance Minister in the early 2000’s are testimony to what I am saying. Maybe he wanted to be hand-picked and imposed on the people of Zimbabwe. That it did not happen has made him bitter against Zanu-PF and President Mugabe, but then the President leads the nation by mandate and consensus and not by edicts or dictatorship.

Now, Mr Tsvangirai and MDC-T say that the option of an election boycott is on the table. Who did not expect that? If Sadc were a mature and serious regional body they would now put their foot down on Mr Tsvangirai and his MDC-T. He and his party cannot hold this nation to ransom. The people of Zimbabwe are paramount in this equation.

Sadc has had too much or rather too big a soft spot for Mr Tsvangirai and his neo-colonialist MDC-T party. My personal opinion is that the regional body is kind of inept, lackadaisical as well as having a soft spot for MDC-T, if not for Mr Tsvangirai as an individual.

In dealing with the Zimbabwe issue, Sadc is always looking over their shoulders to see how far back the US, EU, Britain, and so on is.  When Mr Tsvangirai flew out of Zimbabwe recently his entourage comprised a slew of NGO and the private media representatives and there was so much noise emanating from the US in particular. There were comments from both the EU and Sadc.

Oh boy… were these comments non-committal and impotent! Mr Tsvangirai is holding this country to ransom. He has actually transformed Zimbabwe from a revolutionary country into a banana republic.

It’s unfortunate that President Mugabe is just about the only surviving architect of the pre-independence and pre-majority rule governments of the African continent.

The AU and Sadc should realise that some of these issues contained in the so-called GPA are really irrelevant and impracticable given the changing nature of global politics; what was a decade ago is not today.