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Most of our MPs do not deserve to be in parliament
The goodwill that the people of Zimbabwe extended to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has now been abused to above the normal decay whose parameters of corruption were set and are still maintained by ZANU-PF.
We, people authority, stand and watch from across the road and get dazzled by women and men in three piece suits, contemptuously walking into parliament as if they are going into a tomb to replay the waking of Lazarus from the dead.
We brought them to this parliament and we now know that they are morons, for none of them echoes the voice of their constituency, whether they are ZANU-PF or MDC.
Since independence, ZANU-PF parliamentarians have always been party patsies with no mind of their own.
They were expected to echo their master’s voice and they obliged.
MDC lawmakers now march into Parliament and Senate of Zimbabwe, not to raise Lazarus from the dead but to snuff out Zimbabweans who had put all their hopes in them.
Now before those jocks, who are chronically blinded by party loyalty and affiliation at the expense of the nation, re-affirm yet more blind loyalty to those we gave misplaced electoral mandates and support in efforts to fight for our liberation, we must, of necessity, pause and take stock.
Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF set the sub standard for lawmakers when those who could shout louder and sing better praises to the Dear leader made it up the ladder.
I dare say that hardly a few, if any, ZANU-PF parliamentarians, or so-called Senators, would dare deliver the people’s messages in either Parliament or Senate.
The reason behind that is that ZANU-PF has always lowered its standards to the extent of accommodating anyone who could do nothing better than to sing praises to Robert Mugabe.
In the end, we were garlanded with charlatans as MPs and we jeered at any other political party in parliament, as if those ZANU-PF stooges were any better.
No player is greater than the game they play, yet we made Mugabe more important than the party and the country that he led.
As Mugabe’s praise singers, many among whom had begun to rot, walked all over well-meaning supporters, the supporters started to wonder.
For amongst them were decaying minds.
We all watched as those intellectuals we used to depend on were incited into supporting Mugabe and ZANU-PF at a time when Mugabe and ZANU-PF started abusing the people.
I reluctantly recall my former workmate at the ZBC, Claude Mararike, a friend from school days in the US, Vimbai Chivaura, and Anesu Mupepereki, who did a wonderful job to sanitise Mugabe’s errant governance, especially in culture and agriculture.
But all of them, with heavyweight support and assistance from one Jonathan Moyo, were all University of Zimbabwe affiliated and yet were propelling policies of a malignant regime.
But these were and still are ZANU-PF praise singers, what about ZANU-PF parliamentarians?
Eighty percent of them have no reason to be anywhere near the Parliament of Zimbabwe.
Over the years, we noticed that ZANU-PF parliamentarians are empty but are full of what even plumbers won’t touch.
The reason?
Party structures use faces and are strictly jealous of anyone outside their area of influence.
In the end, ZANU-PF won a majority at independence yet we never had true representatives that we choose for ourselves.
We were made to vote for the party, not the candidate and, in the end, we were stuck with utter rubbish as our representatives.
Years down the line and under different political circumstances, a political party came into being, it was the Movement for Democratic Change.
It was given almost no room to campaign; there was no time for the MDC to vet any of those who had embraced the new political party.
As it was being installed into the people’s psyche, anyone who offered an alternative to Mugabe and his ZANU-PF was welcome to the new party.
At its maiden appearance on the national scene, the MDC was not given any opportunity to parade its philosophy nor did they have the “luxury” to display their political soldiers who had “somehow” been chosen to carry and implement their message to the nation.
The MDC was not even given an opportunity to tell the nation what its intentions were, except their opposition to Mugabe.
In the end, people voted more against ZANU-PF than for the MDC because the MDC could hardly campaign to sell their political philosophy.
Even today, 2010, the MDC stills clings to the hope of being the alternative without offering any political or economic philosophy different from ZANU-PF.
What is the MDC’s philosophy and what is its agenda for the nation?
ZANU-PF won elections at independence mostly because we wanted to “rule ourselves”.
Parliamentary candidates sailed into parliament on the coattails of ZANU-PF and PF-ZAPU.
Remember the ZANU-PF parliamentarian who, to create jobs, wanted Zimbabwe to have a navy and suggested that since we were landlocked, we could dig our own Suez Canal through Mozambique into the Indian Ocean?
Remember the parliamentarian who told parliament that Mugabe was “the Son of God” and was rewarded with a cabinet post?
Two decades after independence, the MDC capitalised on ZANU-PF and Mugabe’s declining popularity and entered dubious people into parliament.
And, as we did with ZANU-PF before, we are paying for installing unfit people to be our lawmakers.
“We are saying Zimbabweans in the Diaspora should leave us for now because the electoral system has to change first before they are allowed to vote,” said mainstream MDC legislator for Masvingo Urban, Tongai Matutu.
No, my fellow Zimbabweans, although this is the first of April, Tongai Matutu is real and not an April Fools’ Day person.
Matutu wants us in the Diaspora to leave them for now.
Ok then, but since he is a legislator aware that the electoral system has to be changed, is he sure that any voting, whether by Diasporians or locals, is not prone to rigging?
The current set up is not even conducive to voting of any kind even by those at home.
Is that not what I said just a few weeks ago when I pointed out South African President Jacob Zuma’s wrong priorities when he visited Zimbabwe?
Matutu appears content with internal rigging of elections but not those from Diasporians.
But Matutu is not done yet.
“Someone who has been living in the Diaspora for almost 30 years cannot decide you destiny,” said Matutu.
I was not aware that Zimbabwean citizenship, or any citizenship for that matter, has a statute of limitations.
If I am a citizen, I have the right to vote from wherever I am and Matutu neglects his responsibilities and, instead, goes on a witch hunt to disenfranchise fellow Zimbabweans of their right to vote.
Besides, this is in stuck contrast to what his party used to say.
But I guess that now, after receiving millions of US dollars and British pounds, the MDC got itself where they have always wanted to be and now have no use for Diasporians.
“If there is hunger in this country exiled Zimbabweans will not be affected,” continued Matutu. “If there are diseases in the country they will not be affected.”
I have always thought morons are scarce.
We are only affected when we have to send money and medicines to our relatives when the government and the health system is supposed to cater for that.
“What kind of democracy are we talking about when someone who does not reside in the country decides things on your behalf?” asked Matutu.
This little fool asks this question knowing full well that there are millions of people who are in exile today because of their support of the MDC.
This disgraceful parliamentarian says such things after milking diasporians dry in campaign funds or is it true that the millions of dollars they get is from the American and British governments not from us in the diaspora?
This little kid did, however, concede that that there should be a complete overhaul of the current voters roll since it is in a shambles.
The heart of the matter is that Zimbabweans in the Diaspora have as much right to contribute to the future of their nation as anyone else. You cannot tell those in the diaspora that you need their money to win national political office but deny them a say in what direction our country should take.
Given the forthcoming elections, Zimbabweans in every political party must vet their parliamentary candidates thoroughly. These people end up as lawmakers and we certainly do not need the likes of Tongai Matutu in that august house.
The MDC itself must be careful because they have exposed a lot of their weaknesses and their propensity for luxury during a time of difficulties.
We can no longer afford to send people into parliament who end up selling our mandate for a comfortable trip to Iran or Malaysia.
I am disgusted by the MDC’s shifted priorities.
I am appalled that the MDC, born and nurtured by the people, now makes unilateral decisions that benefit only themselves, not the people they are supposed to be representing.
What do you think?
Send me your comment on tano@swradioafrica.com
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way I feel today, Thursday, April 1st, 2010.
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