Maynard Manyowa, you have put your finger on the heart of
the matter as regards Pastor Evan Mawarire, his #ThisFlag campaign and, most
important of all, Zimbabwe’s political weakness – “we are a nation obsessed with
personalities”.
“Pastor Evan Mawarire, the man who filmed a video about his
plight and found himself stumbled into activism has now fled Zimbabwe - after
the citizen movement pressured for his release. Admittedly there is some
deflation, but that points to a bigger problem,” argued Manyowa.
“Those that are angry that the protest leader left, and
those that believe he is some form of god are two sides of the same coin - a
nation obsessed with personalities.
“Its sad because, it seems we have not learnt since Mugabe was anointed the face of the freedom movement that a liberation should have the face of values and not a man.
“The absence of the Pastor does not translate to the absence of the values that the movement he started represents. Ideas and values should never be tied to the face of a man. Values must be enough inspiration to fuel a genuine revolution.
“The messenger must never be bigger than the message itself. A revolution cannot be embodied in one man. The MDC tried to make Morgan Tsvangirayi the face of opposition politics, and today they sit in limbo. Zanu PF did it, and earned us a dictatorship.”
“Its sad because, it seems we have not learnt since Mugabe was anointed the face of the freedom movement that a liberation should have the face of values and not a man.
“The absence of the Pastor does not translate to the absence of the values that the movement he started represents. Ideas and values should never be tied to the face of a man. Values must be enough inspiration to fuel a genuine revolution.
“The messenger must never be bigger than the message itself. A revolution cannot be embodied in one man. The MDC tried to make Morgan Tsvangirayi the face of opposition politics, and today they sit in limbo. Zanu PF did it, and earned us a dictatorship.”
Indeed, I would go so far as to say in all the cases, of
Mawarire and his #ThisFlag, Tsvangirai and his MDC and Mugabe and his Zanu PF,
it was never a case of the messenger become “bigger” than the message; there
was no message. In all the three cases the messenger has each said the current
system is unjust, stating the obvious, and they will make it better without
saying how, when or anything.
It is the people’s failure to pressure leaders to give
details of the plans and to closely scrutinize every aspect of the plan that
has left the people are the mercy of the leaders to deliver on their promise. The
departure of Mawarire have left many #ThisFlag followers are completely lost
because, whilst they had shown their willingness to let him lead, they had no
clue where he was taking them.
If the truth be told, and it must be told; I doubt if Pastor
Mawarire knew where he was going. One of his demands was for Mugabe to “fire
corrupt ministers”, for example. A pretty ineffective demand, given corruption
has been going on for 36 years and had become so rampant as much $15 billion is
looted in a few years from the diamond sector alone. Time would tell if Pastor
Mawarire is to be another failed leaders as happened with Tsvangirai and
Mugabe.
Tsvangirai promised the nation democratic change and his
performance during the GNU showed he had no clue what changes were required. As
for Mugabe, Zimbabwe would not be up to her eyes in this political and economic
mess is he was a competent leader!
The very fact that Pastor Mawarire was able to get so many
Zimbabweans to show some active interest in politics or be it at a very
superficial level (there is an intellectual limit to one can convey in 140
twitter characters) was a great achievement. The real challenge here is for the
people themselves to take their political interest to the next level one gear
at a time.
We are in this political and economic mess because we have
a very naïve and gullible electorate whose understanding of politics,
economics, etc. is so shallow it is comparable to seeing in monochrome, black
or white, right or wrong. If we are ever going to get out of the mess then the
people must up their game so they see all the colours of the rainbow. A healthy
and functional democracy can only exist when the electorate cannot only judge
good from bad but can split the good from better and best. What is the point of
being given a democratic choice if one cannot tell the difference?
After 36 years of independence we cannot deny we have the
government we deserve; the corrupt and
tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its coterie of corrupt and
incompetent opposition parties. If we want a competent government that will
take us out of this mess then we will have to earn such a government by
deepening our understanding of issues such as the democratic reforms beyond the
#ThisFlag level!
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss
events; small minds discuss people," said
Eleanor Roosevelt.
As long as we continue to limit ourselves to discussing
people we will continue to sink as a nation!
I have just been watching a video clip discussing the level of intimidation by Zanu PF in the 1980 elections. Given the country has never really held free and fair elections it is easy to see why most have not bothered to take any active role in politics. If you cannot change anything, there is hardly any point in bothering.
ReplyDeleteSo Zimbabweans' political interests, born of desperation, over the last 36 years have come in short bursts lasting a few months. Under these condition it is not surprising that most people would have a superficial understanding of anything and so will believe anything they are told, no questioned asked. Like all easy and quick solutions they rarely accomplished anything.
Of course, for one to ask any sensible questions one must necessarily have some basic under-standing of the subject matter. So the months of indifference have worked in the tyrant’s fa-vour and not that of the people.
A clueless electorate will elect mediocre leaders resulting in bad government. Tsvangirai has made a political career of promising the nation democratic change, for example, although even today he still has no clue what these changes are. Since most of the voters too have no clue what these changes no one has asked him about reforms or asked him to account why he failed to get even one reform implemented during the GNU when he had the best chance to do so.
What matters here is not whether or not the people have a valid reason for throwing in the towel and giving up hope of changing anything politically, what matters is that the people failed to see the futility of throwing in the towel.
Zimbabwe is suffering the ill effects of a serious economic meltdown; unemployment has soared to 90%, over 76% of the people now live in abject poverty, there is no clean running water for weeks on end and electricity power cuts are the norm, etc. Mugabe and his cronies do not even seem to notice! If the people do not do something to end this economic mess then they have per se accepted to suffer because the situation is set to get worse.
What the people must accept is that throwing in the towel to forcing meaningful political change and good governance is something only someone who is incapable of thinking of to-morrow would do. Human beings are creatures of reason and those who deny themselves of hope, tomorrow as denying themselves their own humanity!