Do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong
with Nelson Chamisa’s 800 km/hour bullet trains (faster than the current world
record holder 431km/hour maglev train), spaghetti junction at every growth-point,
Wi-Fi for goats and every village will have its own airport! Many provinces
much less village have a barely functioning hospital but who needs a hospital
or clinic when every village has an airport!
“They have helped to fire people’s
imagination!” many have argued. There is nothing wrong with firing one’s
imagination as long as that does not become the excuse for burying one’s head
in the sand in the vain hope that ones’ problems will all go away. They never
go away but only get worse!
In 1980, when the country attained her independence,
Zimbabwe was one of the top five richest countries in Africa with all the
potential to do even better. Today we are the poorest nation in Africa with
unemployment rate soaring to dizzy heights of 90%, ¾ of our people live on
US$1.00 or less a day, etc. The root cause of our economic meltdown is because,
for the last 38 years and counting, the country has been stuck with this
corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime that has systematically rigged elections
to stay in power.
After the two decades of blundering from
pillar to post the people of Zimbabwe finally came to the consensus decision in
the late 1990s that the nation needed democratic changes designed to stop Zanu
PF rigging the elections. The people have risked life and limp to elect Morgan
Tsvangirai and his MDC friends in power on the ticket they would deliver the
democratic changes the nation was dying for. Sadly they have failed to bring
about even one democratic change in their 20 years on the political centre
stage!
MDC leaders are the golden opportunity to
end the Zanu PF dictatorship during the 2008 to 2013 GNU when all they had to
do was implement the democratic reforms SADC had managed to force Mugabe and
his Zanu PF cronies to sign onto. They failed to get even one reform
implemented in five years.
SADC leaders wanted the 2013 elections
postponed until reforms were in place. “If you go into next month’s elections,
you will lose; the elections are done!” they warned Tsvangirai and the rest of
the MDC leaders.
As we now know, MDC leaders participated in
the July 2013 elections and, as we also know, Zanu PF blatantly rigged the
elections, as SADC had predicted.
Initially MDC leaders have said they will
not take part in any more future elections until reforms are implemented. “No
reform, no elections!” they said repeatedly. True to their party resolutions no
MDC faction has ever contested any of the many by-elections from 2013 to date. However
they have all decided to contest the national elections although not even one
reform was implemented.
Nelson Chamisa is on record claiming MDC
has “stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections!” He has failed
to name even one such measure; it is all hot air, to impress the naïve and
gullible! Still the question of why was MDC taking part in the elections they
know will be rigged kept coming back again and again.
However, ever since Chamisa started talking
about bullet trains travelling from Bulawayo to Harare, a distance of 400km, in
35 minutes; spaghetti junctions at every growth-point, etc.; he has certainly
captured and captivated many people’s imagination! They have all but forgot
about the immediate need to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF
rigging elections as the pre-requisite for any meaningful political and
economic change.
Zimbabwe is in a real serious economic and
political mess and the only way out of the mess is for the country to implement
the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. Chamisa
and his MDC friends have failed to carry out this important task but rather
than admit they a corrupt and incompetent to carry out the task they want to
divert the people’s attention away from the important and urgent task in hand
and talk of the imaginary sugar-candy-mountain where elections are free, fair
and credible.
On the morning of 31 July 2018, the people
of Zimbabwe will wake up to the news of another Zanu PF landslide election
victory because in the real Zimbabwe, as contrast to Chamisa’s sugar-candy-mountain
imaginary world, Zanu PF will blatantly rig the elections. So let us talk of
the real Zimbabwe.
What the Zimbabwe needs right now are competent
leaders who will accept the country needs to implement the democratic reforms
and address the problem head-on with the single-minded and unwavering resolve
the matter demands.
Ever since the nation decided the nation
needed democratic reforms in the late 1990s the choice before us has not changed.
Either, we bite the bullet and implement the reforms and thus give ourselves
and posterity a real chance of getting out of this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has
landed us. Or, do nothing about the reforms, content with twiddling our fingers
and listen to MDC’s empty promises, and thus condemn ourselves and generations
to come to Zanu PF misrule.
“The 19th century
German thinker Karl Marx, the founder and primary theorist of Marxism, had
an antithetical and complex attitude to religion, viewing it primarily
as "the soul of soulless conditions", the “opium of the people” that
had been useful to the ruling classes since it gave the working classes false
hope for millennia,” explained Wikipedia.
Each nation and each generation has always
found its own opium allowing them to escape into their sugar-candy-mountain and
justify their false hope for millennia for the people of Zimbabwe – Chamisa bullet trains and spaghetti junctions has sure hit the sweet-spot of given to escapism!
When Zimbabwe attained her independence in 1980 some people said the country had the potential to be come the South Korea of Africa. If we had not taken the wrong turn and were the free, open, dynamic and rich democratic nation there will be a decent clean and efficiently run railway system and would not be surprise if we had bullet train too. We would have a decent roads network with no potholes and, no doubt, with some spaghetti junctions.
ReplyDeleteWe took the wrong turn and became the North Korea of Africa and so we a delapidated railway system, our roads are full of potholes and our people are poor.
Some people think Chamisa is being dismissed as a dream for talking of the country buying bullet trains and having spaghetti junctions, these are signs of the country's level of development and therefore are good things. In so far was economic development goes, the worst criticism I would voice against Chamisa's bullet trains is the there other project more important than bullet train such as making sure everyone has clean drinking water, decent accommodation and every child gets a decent education. I would hate to see a bullet train shooting through a country side with mud-brick huts with no decent sanitation.
My real criticism of Chamisa and his bullet trains sterms from his failure to appreciate that there will be no meaningful economic change until we change our political system. As long as Zanu PF is allowed to rig elections we will remain a North Korea of Africa.
Chamisa and his MDC friends were elected on the ticket they will deliver democratic change and they have not only failed to bring about any change but worse still they sold-out. Chamisa is making a big song and dance about his bullet trains just to avoid having to answer the difficult questions. Why MDC failed to implement the reforms during the GNU? More urgently, why MDC keeps contesting flawed elections?
There is no reason why Zimbabwe would not have bullet trains by now if we had followed the South Korea of Africa the Asian political system. Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party dictatorship just like North Korea and it is no surprise that our economy is similarly in a mess. We need to address the political problem if we are ever to make any meaningful economic recovery. It is nonsensical to think we can ever have economic prosperity whilst Zanu PF is allowed to rig the elections and stay in power.
Chamisa has his reasons talking endlessly about bullet train and avoid for any mention of democratic reforms, the ordinary people have no such inhebitions. Since there will be no economic recovery without first stopping Zanu PF rigging the elections those of us who know MDC sold-out are angry with Chamisa talking about bullet train just to avoid answering why he sold-out! So it is not the bullet train per se we object to but that they are being use as a smoke screen to avoid talking about the democratic reforms!
MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa has received sudden ZBC profiling.
ReplyDeleteThe development comes a day after a top US senator criticised President Emmerson Mnangagwa for failing to complete electoral reforms.
If Zanu PF real thinks that a few minutes each day coverage of the opposition party’s activities the last two months before voting day will be sufficient to be considered free public media, then the regime is sick in the head!
These elections should not be taking place without first implementing the wide ranging democratic reforms agreed at the onset of the 2008 GNU. The only reason the flawed elections are going ahead is because the opposition is greedy. They are fighting over the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart in his recent book.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
Senator Coltart was commenting on why he and his MDC friends contested the 2013 elections. The MDC factions have since come together to form the MDC Alliance and they are contesting this year’s elections although not even one reform was implemented. Why? Same reason as 2013 – greed!
One hopes that the international community can see through all this nonsense and will act decisively to help the long suffering people of Zimbabwe end this circus. These flawed elections must be ruled null and void and Zimbabwe given a chance to go back to the 2008 reforms and implement them!
“First, government has guaranteed a peaceful poll, which is why the President has been unambiguous in his call for peace as well as taking the unexampled decision to meet with opposition parties once the Nomination Court has confirmed who is genuine and who is not,” the state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba as saying.
ReplyDeletePresident Mnangagwa and his junta must not make the mistake of treating everyone the same way it treats the MDC leaders. We all know that MDC leaders are corrupt and incompetent and having sold-out big time during the GNU they are in Zanu PF’s back-pocket. Everyone else is insulted to be treated the same way Zanu PF treats MDC.
Whilst MDC leaders are clearly honoured to be invited to this all party meeting to agree on a code of conduct for peaceful elections. Every thinking person out there know the meeting is no substitute for the wide ranging democratic reforms designed to restore the Police’s power to investigate arrest and bring a court of law all those accused of politically motivated violence and crimes.
These elections should not be taking place without implementing the reforms first. The only reason the flawed elections are going ahead is because the opposition leaders are greedy. They are fighting over the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gives away as bait.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained Senator Coltart in his recent book.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
Senator Coltart was commenting on why he and his MDC friends contested the 2013 elections. The MDC factions have since come together to form the MDC Alliance and they are contesting this year’s elections although not even one reform was implemented. Why? Same reason as 2013 – greed!
One hopes that the international community can see through all this nonsense and will act decisively to help the long suffering people of Zimbabwe end this circus. These flawed elections must be ruled null and void and Zimbabwe given a chance to go back to the 2008 reforms and implement them!
The only acceptable outcome of these elections is that they are declared null and void!
“I wrote to Mnangagwa offering him advice, but he refused fearing that I would grab power from him. I did that after realisation that we could only take this country forward through collective leadership, but he refused to meet me,” said Chamisa.
ReplyDeleteIt does not matter how much some African leaders may prophesy to believing in democracy and the need for open debate and meaningful democratic competition, it is only skin deep. Scratch off the potato skin and you will find an autocrat whose instinct is to silence everyone and to have a one-party, one-man dictatorship.
These autocrats do not understand the concept of a healthy and functional democracy in which the ruling party’s job is to govern and the opposition has the equally important role of holding the governing party to account is not understood. These in government would much rather have the opposition join them in government; bribe them with a few cabinet positions. The opposition give up their set task of holding the ruling party to account for an appropriate inducement.
The very fact that Chamisa is already talking of forming a coalition long before the elections are even held goes to show just how keen MDC is to be absorbed into a de facto one-party system. As longer as MDC leaders are offered the appropriate incentives they will do whatever the ruling party ask them to do – now we see why MDC leaders were utterly useless during the GNU!
A United States senator has reportedly accused Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa of making “empty promises” and “deliberately delaying the implementation of electoral reforms in order to disadvantage opposition parties in the forthcoming polls”.
ReplyDeletePresident Mnangagwa has pointedly refused to implement even one of the raft of democratic reforms everyone, at the onset of the 2008 GNU, had agreed were necessary for free, fair and credible elections. If is laughable that the elections can be free and fair with no free public media, ZEC cannot be trusted to produce a verified voters’ roll, Zanu PF is free to rob the nation blind to bankroll its vote rigging schemes, etc.
The best outcome for Zimbabwe is for these elections to be declared null and void so the nation can revisit the 2008 raft of reforms and, this time, make sure they are implemented!
Chamisa is wasting time, money and the golden opportunity to bring about meaningful political change by talking about bullet trains when the big issue before us is making sure there are free and fair elections. If Zanu PF is allowed to rig these elections we are not going to get out of this hell-hole of the corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteChamisa is like someone who keeps talking about how great life will be on the other side of the river but refuse to address the problem of how to cross the flooded and crocodile infested river. We know Chamisa and his MDC friends wasted the golden opportunity to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections during the GNU. MDC do not know what to do now and so they want to pretend Zanu PF will not rig these elections.
We will be very foolish to let Chamisa witter about bullet train and not tell the village idiot we know what he is up to and must therefore shut up!
Runaway bullet train Chamisa is now promising to bring the World Cup and Olympic games to Zimbabwe. No doubt, he is thinking of the 90% unemployment who will be able to sell the vuvuzela and other cheap Chinese trinkets!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Chamisa is talking about bullet trains just to draw the nation's attention away from the vexing problem of how to stop Zanu PF rigging elections. The MDC wasted the opportunity to implement the reform designed to stop vote rigging during the GNU.
The nation can pretend vote rigging is not a problem but that is only burying our heads in the sand. On the 31 July, the day after voting is done, Chamisa will be complaining that Zanu PF stole the elections. He will forget about the bullet train and focus on the political reality of vote rigging is doing so much to pretend does not exist!
We must make sure the international community do not lose sight of the reality of Zanu PF rigging the vote and they condemn this flawed process. We want these elections declared null and void!
Yes, Zimbabwe is a one-party state and Zanu PF is blatantly rigging these elections to deny the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
ReplyDeleteUSA Senator Chris Coons has reportedly accused Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa of making "empty promises" and "deliberately delaying the implementation of electoral reforms in order to disadvantage opposition parties in the forthcoming polls".
President Mnangagwa and his junta thought that they would get away will all manner of vote rigging antics as long as there is no blatant violence. They are surprised that they are being put under increasing pressure to honour their promise to hold free, fair and credible elections. This is clearly a bridge too far for the junta that has survived this far by rigging elections.
Even this early in the elections there is already a mountain of evidence proving these elections are being rigged. The American are not the only ones who can see that the regime is not honouring its promise to hold free and fair elections, everyone with eyes can see it! It is already clear that it will near impossible to judge these elections free and fair. By dismissing the election process as fraudulent the international community will allow Zimbabwe to revisit the 2008 raft of reforms and make sure they are implemented this time!
Nelson Chamisa's MDC Alliance took its march to President Emmerson Mnangagwa's doorstep. Chamisa marched side by side with Jim Kunaka the former leader of the Zanu-PF youth militia Chipangano.
ReplyDeleteHas Kukana renounce the use of violence or is Chamisa recruiting him to boost MDC's own violence gang activities! We all know how hard Chamisa has tried to woo some of the rogue war veterans like Jabulani Sibanda and Victor Mahiya to join MDC after they fall out with their Zanu PF master, Robert Mugabe. The fact that many of the war veterans were responsible for the beating and even murder of innocent MDC members did not bother Chamisa in any way.