Whose agenda are the men of God pushing?

But can it really be said with equanimity that the present crop of leaders in our Christian church fits into that model with the aspirations of a totality of Zimbabweans, not of a section of them, the first call of the men and women of God in efforts to expose and eradicate any political discontinuities that divide rather than unite a nation with the church a bright light illuminating the way forward?

It has just come to light that a group of church leaders has mounted a campaign in Sadc states, under the auspices of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, to try to have pressure brought to bear on President Mugabe to implement a wide range of “reforms” in the security, electoral and media sectors.

The initiative would certainly have been welcomed by almost every Zimbabwean as plausible, were it not for two goblins that it appears to carry on its back and which, to many, makes the campaign ram a brick wall — so it would appear.

To begin with, the church leaders are said to have produced a position paper which articulates the views and demands of one political organisation in the inclusive government, thereby alienating Zanu-PF whose leader is President Mugabe so working in opposition to his party’s position.

But not only does that one-sided approach make the church leaders campaign a non-starter in the eyes of those who support the President and his party — and their numerical strength is not fictional — that religious leaders appear to parrot the views of those baying for regime change in Zimbabwe makes their Sadc initiative come unstuck again some pessimist might conclude.

The intriguing question some might pose in the light of the fore-going is whether those eminent men of God have not been infiltrated by an evil western goddess to convert them to Trojan horses of regime change.

They and their supporters will predictably say to hell with this pen’s suppositions and maintain that what they want to achieve is to the glory of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Very well, but the Lord Jesus was never a separatist and never will be, so that any claim to unifying Zimbabwe — and Jesus worked to unify people under his father — will not wash when the church people fail to unite politicians at home and unify their political perspective about the country, but instead embark on a junket to Sadc states.

And anyway what justifications do those church leaders have that the Sadc states, which they have made impassioned pleas to effect political change in Zimbabwe, are role models of governance that Zimbabwe should emulate without any qualms?

As things stand, leaders in some of those Sadc countries on the church men’s itinerary continue to scuba dive in the shallow ends of a sea of wealth ceded to them by their erstwhile rulers and oppressors while their own people wallow in huge pockets of abject economic and political poverty.

And you expect such to pontificate anything better to Zimbabwe which is taking huge strides in the indigenisation and economic empowerment of her people as a consolidation of the political independence achieved more than 30 years ago after a protracted armed struggle during which, ironically, those now clamouring for “reform” sat on the fence as referees while whites oppressed our people instead of being counted with the down-trodden masses of this country.

The church leaders in point would do themselves a great favour if they came up with a brand new agenda for the transformation of Zimbabwe’s political order. But to ride, as they are clearly viewed by many to do, on the rickety bandwagon of security, media reforms, et cetera, just goes to expose their bankruptcy in matters of state into which they are being forced to delve by some hideous hand with a secret agenda to achieve.

This pen challenges those men of God to define the concepts “security reforms” to convince those Zimbabweans who are, like this sceptical writer of their knowledge of fundamental implications interfering with a security sector whose performance in policing the peace at home and in the international arena has earned Zimbabwe much deserved praise all round.

Unless a more credible and convincing argument is stood on its legs on the table for all to see, the security reform call passes in the eyes of concerned Zimbabweans as a plot to weaken the security sector and make it amenable to regime change, or to some political pedestrians who suffered no sleep nor pain to limb during the revolution to finally worm their way to power.

Coming to the media — what exactly do those asking for reform in that sector want to see?

The Concise Oxford English dictionary says of “reform”: “make (person, institution, procedure, conduct, oneself), or (or person or body of persons) become, better by removal or abandonment of imperfections . . .”

Now, what “imperfections” are Zimbabwean media practitioners supposed to remove or abandon in order to conduce the kind of political climate that the honourable men of God say, as their masters voice say is lacking in Zimbabwe at present?

In this pen’s humble opinion the so-called media reform is a blunt attempt at emasculating particular patriotic journalists who are the voices and the conscience of the voiceless in our society, and should be resisted with every pen and every microphone because there is free media in existence in the country under which some political parties enjoy unfettered publicity by the so-called independent press and the foreign Press.

Those leaders who want a blinkered press are the most likely ones to surround themselves, when in power, with an inner circle of tranquilisers rather than with one of men and women who keep the leaders on their toes by giving them both the beautiful and the ugly faces of the affairs of state to deal with.

Finally, and considering the reality that some of those prominent, church guides are invested with the eldership of MDC-T one is made to wonder just whose agenda they are pushing.

This whole thing leaves a decidedly uncanny feeling of de ja vu in this pen’s mind, making it wonder if somehow some smart alecks somewhere are not making unsuspecting Zimbabweans line-up behind bad leaders with a tendency to take care of themselves first by feathering their own political nests, instead of taking care of others first by implementing social and economic projects — as is now happening in Zimbabwe — to give people hope, a more secure future and with that true social political and economic reforms that fill the belly and put a smile on people’s faces.