Zimbabweans have become masters
at rationalizing their folly under the disguise it was the better of two
equally unpalatable choices when in fact the choices were a false dilemma.
According to WikiPedia, false
dilemma (also called false dichotomy, false
binary, black-and-white thinking the either–or fallacy) “can
arise intentionally or unintentionally, when a fallacy is used in an attempt to
force a choice or outcome. It can be the result of habitual tendency, whatever
the cause, to view the world with limited sets of options.”
“Would you delay Mugabe's
departure for a year or however long it takes to get the competent leaders to
replace the corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai and Mujuru?” asked Patrick Guramatunhu.
“The people of Zimbabwe have their hearts and minds set on removing President Mugabe they would rather vote for Mujuru and Tsvangirai, knowing fully well the two are corrupt and in-competent; that is how desperate the people are to see the back of the tyrant. They would not want to risk delaying the departure of President Mugabe by even a month because they were out scouting for the competent leaders you are talking about.
“They can deal with the consequences of having the corrupt and incompetent Tsvangirai and Mujuru, the people are confident they can have either removed from office very quickly. They cannot deal with the thought of Mugabe staying in power for a day longer if they can help it!”
Patrick, if I have heard this
argument once I have heard it thousands of time! We are all being asked to
forget that characters Tsvangirai and/or Mujuru are corrupt and incompetent, with
well-documented proven records at that, in the interest of a united opposition
to defeat Mugabe. There are many glaring false choices and follies here:
- Some people have convinced themselves into believing that we can either have Mugabe and Zanu PF to continue ruling the country or a coalition of Tsvangirai and/or Mujuru. This is nonsense because other competent and visionary leaders can easily be found if we created the right democratic political environment.
As long as we have the present
tyrannical dictatorship, that has stifled open debate and democratic competition;
we will continue to have corrupt and incompetent politicians.
The choice before us is between
dictatorship and democracy; Mugabe has fostered the former on the nation it is
up to us to dismantle the dictatorship and replace it with a healthy and
functional multi-party democratic system of government.
If we elect to go into the next
elections without first implementing the democratic reforms designed to
dismantle the dictatorship then we have elected per se to elect leaders from the
corrupt and incompetent leaders the dictatorship produce.
- Tsvangirai has already had many opportunities in the past to defeat Mugabe, with the best chance being during the GNU, he has failed to do so precisely because he is corrupt and incompetent. In 2014 Mai Mujuru amassed the support of eight out of ten provinces in her bid to be elected VP; Mugabe elbowed her out of the way with easy and the contempt of a lion chasing a jackal from a kill. After spending 34 years at Mugabe’s side Mujuru should have known that he rigs elections but she clearly did not know what hit her when she booted out of Zanu PF!
It is sheer folly to believe
that uniting Tsvangirai and Mujuru will somehow transform these corrupt and
incompetent individuals into formidable political opponents; Mugabe will not
bamboozle or cheat them as he did before.
- Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown with its 90% unemployment level, government failing to pay civil servants, etc. has created an economic situation that is socially and politically unsustainable. It is the worsening economic situation that is forcing people to protest, that is fuelling the dog-eat-dog fighting that is tearing Zanu PF itself apart, etc. It is the economy that is delivering to the nation the regime change; something Tsvangirai and Mujuru have failed to deliver.
MDC has been calling on Zanu PF
to implement electoral law reforms as a way to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. It
was just an empty gimmick because only the very naïve would believe Zanu PF
would FREELY implement reforms to end the party’s strangle hold on power. MDC has since abandoned its reform demands and
jumped on the bandwagon of street protests demanding an end to the economic
hardships.
It is the economic meltdown
that is forcing Zanu PF to accept meaningful political change; MDC and the
other opposition parties are positioning themselves to claim all the credit and
profit from the changes.
- Tsvangirai and/or Mujuru are doing their best to have their record as corrupt and incompetent leaders swept under the carpet, they are even offering those who refuse to be so easily fooled the promise they can remove the two from office afterwards. This is just a cheap trick because once elected the two will point to their electoral mandate as proof they are not corrupt and incompetent.
When Jomo Kenyatta died in 1978
many people in Kenya were convinced the corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship he had
fostered on the nation will be interned with his bones; few people believed
Daniel arap Moi, the docile VP who succeeded Jomo would be a dictator. Wrong!
Moi turned out to be even more ruthless, corrupt and incompetent.
Even if Tsvangirai and/or
Mujuru should turn out to be tyrants like Mugabe the very fact that they are corrupt
and incompetent means the country will not achieve the same rapid economic recovery
it would have otherwise achieved with competent leaders.
As for Tsvangirai or Mujuru
implementing the democratic reforms we been dying for, that they will never do.
They are incompetent but not that incompetent to freely implement reforms that
will cost them to loss the next elections.
If Zimbabweans do not force the
implementation of democratic reforms before the next elections then the nation
will have a battle in its hands to force the new government to implement them!
So to answer you more directly Patrick; by rejecting
failed leaders like Tsvangirai and instead concentrating on the important task
of implementing the democratic reforms the nation is rejecting the false choice
of either the tyrant or the incompetent opposition. The real and only choice we
have to make here is either to keep the dictatorship or to implement the
reforms and dismantle it.
I hear what you are saying but just to play the devil's advocate; what would you say to those you who say these arguments are not based on reality?
ReplyDeleteThe people are desperate to get out of the present situation and they will not be putting their faith on some imaginary leader who does not exist regardless of how competent he/she happen to be. They have to go with the reality and the reality in Zimbabwe is a choice between Mugabe on the one hand or Tsvangirai and Mujuru on the other.
I too hear you Nomusa, the challenge here is defining what is real and what is a mirage - having all the appearance of reality when it is an illusion.
DeleteLet us start with something millions of Zimbabweans out there would agree is real; the serious economic meltdown that has seen unemployment soar to 90%, has resulted in the looting of $15 billion of diamond revenue by Mugabe's own admission, forced millions of our people into a life of abject poverty, etc.
Whilst Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies will offer many excuses why the country is in a mess what they cannot deny is that they have been in power throughout the 36 years since independence and therefore at the end of the day the buck stop with them. The reality is the people have tried to change the regime but failed, we are stuck with this corrupt and incompetent regime.
Mugabe and his cronies were the nation's liberation heroes and heroines but that has not stopped them becoming the nation to tyrannical oppressors after independence. Zimbabwe is not the free, just and prosperous nation we had all fought and hoped for before independence but a failed state ruled by corrupt and murderous thugs.
People have risked life and limp to end the Zanu PF dictatorship just as they had done the same to end the white colonial rule. There have been many opportunities to end the dictatorship with the best chance falling to Tsvangirai and his MDC friends during the GNU. They failed to implement even one of the required democratic reforms for no other reason other than that they are corrupt and incompetent.
Mugabe offered MDC leaders the gravy train lifestyles complete with the $4 million mansion for Tsvangirai, just as he had been bribing his own fellow Zanu PF members over the years, and MDC leaders sold-out on delivering change just as Zanu PF members have sold-out on delivering free and democratic Zimbabwe.
If people are serious about meaningful change then they must accept that Mugabe, Mujuru or Tsvangirai will never deliver any change because they have each shown that they care more about securing the gravy train treats for themselves than they do about change. Those who think otherwise are deluding themselves, chasing a desert mirage.
It would have been a lot easier to stop the dictatorship taking root in 1980 than uprooting it now that it has had 36 years to establish itself. Many people are benefiting from the system and do not want it to end.
Both Tsvangirai and Mujuru want Mugabe to go but not the dictatorship, they would like to fashion it in their own image. If the people want the dictatorship to end then they will have to work hard to force the government of the day to implement the reforms. It would be easier to get that done now during the formative stage than after the elections.
I understand what you are saying the trouble here is millions of Zimbabweans out there do not have a clue what you are talking about and it is them not the few rational people like you who determine the destiny of the nation.
DeleteSo as far as the herd is concerned they have the choice of either Mugabe or Tsvangirai /Mujuru. I agree that Mugabe and Tsvangirai are the two faces of the same coin - the dictatorship because it really does not matter who wins the dictatorship will continue. The only way to end the dictatorship is by dismantling it by implementing the reforms.
Zanu PF will never ever implement the democratic reforms before the party knows that with its rotten track record of failure it will never win free, fair and credible elections. The party has known this for years and hence the reason it has devised this now elaborate and well-funded (thanks to the bounty from looting operations in Marange and Chiadzwa) vote rigging system.
Zanu PF members may be fighting amongst themselves like wild-cats; yes this has weakened the party considerably. Still which ever faction has its hands on the State Institutions and thus the party's vote rigging machinery will continue to wield a lot of power to rig the vote and win the elections.
Both Tsvangirai and Mujuru know they will never get Zanu PF to implement any meaningful reforms they have settled for the scraps Zanu PF throws at them; Zanu PF knows that as long as the party does not have a clean sweep of all the contested seats the opposition parties will continue to take part in the elections. Zanu PF needs the opposition to take part to give the election process legitimacy.
The public anger shown during recent street protests have given Zimbabwe's opposition parties hope of winning even more parliamentary seats in the next elections. It was public anger that propelled MDC to win the 2008 elections even in the face of a determined effort by Zanu PF to rig the vote; the same public resolve is going to be repeated in 2018.
I agree, once elected both Tsvangirai and Mujuru will not implement any democratic reforms and invite real democratic competition for power - given their equally rotten past track records of corruption and incompetence.
The challenge is how do we get the masses to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms BEFORE the elections because we will never get the reforms implemented fully afterward?
“The challenge is how do we get the masses to demand the implementation of the democratic reforms BEFORE the elections because we will never get the reforms implemented fully afterward?” you ask.
DeleteThat is an excellent question but to answer it I would want to split it into two parts:
a) These people think they already know what needs to be done; they believe they have the choice of voting for either Mugabe or Tsvangirai/ Mujuru. So the first challenge is to convince them that they do not KNOW and therefore they must open their minds and listen, at the very least, to different ideas.
b) The challenge of getting them to accept that the nation’s key choice is either dictatorship or democracy and that accepting the choice is the vote for Mugabe or Tsvangirai has already pre-empted the first one is formidable but without open-minded people, it is otherwise an impossible task.
We are in this mess because we are a nation of “Mister-know-it-all”! Look at the war veterans, for example, they fought in the war of liberation and when they returned they really believed they and they alone know-best. Imposing the one-party cum one-man dictatorship came naturally to them. When the war veterans said they were the “stockholders” of Zanu PF and Zimbabwe and the rest of the people are merely “stakeholders who can come and go” they meant hence the reason they denying the people their freedom and free vote. The war veterans had the veto on who ruled and we the people are lucky to have a vote!
Mugabe is the extreme case of this arrogant “mister-know-it-all” because even when reality has proven him wrong, he still insists that he is “right”!
The reality is that Zimbabwe is still subject to the same laws of thermodynamics, economics, etc. as everyone else. Common sense economics says you will never prosper from reckless spending and corruption, for example. Mugabe called his reckless spending “scientific socialism” and has made a career of denying there is no corruption in Zimbabwe although he has recently admitted that $15 billion of diamond revenue disappeared! Zimbabwe is facing serious economic meltdown because of the decades of reckless spending and corruption.
The people themselves have failed to see Tsvangirai for the corrupt and incompetent individual he is even with the mountain of evidence put before them; they are simply refusing to open their eyes.
It is not all who see who perceive it is not all who hear who comprehend. Blessed are those who see and perceive who hear and comprehend. The process of perceiving and comprehending starts with the humility of accepting that one does not know-it-all because when you see something you do not perceive the totality of the object and by having an open mind one is able to add and subtract and even discard the old image.
Zimbabweans do not know everything, we would not be in the political and economic mess we are in if we did. Accepting that no one knows best will allow us to embrace democracy in all its multi-colours and appreciate the serious limitation of totalitarian dictatorship!
Disgruntled war veterans have warned President Robert Mugabe of worsening civil unrest in the country if Zanu-PF bigwigs continue with their mindless bloodletting, as well as their current crackdown on dissenting voices, including former freedom fighters.
ReplyDeleteMatemadanda and his rogue war veterans have harassed innocent Zimbabweans in the name of Mugabe and now the tyrant has forgotten the war veterans and they complain. These rogues are getting a taste of their own medicine!
Wednesday shutdown demo calls were largely ignored.
ReplyDeleteOne thing is certain, Zimbabweans will be back demand change because they have no choice; the worsening economic meltdown will force them to demand an end to their suffering!
Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections but has since found out that he cannot rig economic recovery. And in the end it is the economy that is going to force him to accept regime change.
It is the economy, stupid!The economic meltdown has gone nowhere but instead has continued to get worse and worse!
The Herald takes a stab at the Daily News after the flopped Wednesday 1 st September 2016 mass stayaway.
ReplyDeleteAs long as nothing is done to address the underlying problem of economic meltdown we can be certain that the street protests will be back because no people on earth, not even the very subservient and naïve Zimbabwean people tolerate being denying hope and a future and being force to suffer and die in silence like sheep forever. Zimbabwe is storing up for herself more social unrest, worse than what we have seen so far, because the present political and economic situation is unsustainable.
The Herald can celebrate that the Wednesday 1st September 2016 shutdown Zimbabwe turned out to be a none event but is the paper certain that there will be no more street protests in the future, given Zimbabwe's economy is getting worse and not better.
We are weeks away from the introduction of the bond notes; there is going to be public disquiet over this. We are told the bond notes will be equal to the US$ but it will not take long before that parity is lost as people lose confidence in the former. Of course people are going to be angry when it is clear the regime is dragging them back to the hyper inflation days of Z$ that ended with the scrapping of the Z$ in 2008.
The bond notes are Z$ by the back door!
This is nonsense; is the Police now organizing public demos that they can say when and where demos can be held?
ReplyDeleteIn calling off the demo, MDC-T and their friends have shown just how malleable they are!
President Mugabe is in France after stopping over in Dubai “for family business”, he said.
ReplyDeleteHow much is it costing the nation in human lives to keep President Mugabe and his family alive and enjoying their lifestyle of opulence and obscene luxuries; is what I would want to know?