|
The MDC is now just as much to blame as ZANU-PF
They have been partners in government for a year now and the Movement for Democratic change (MDC) never passes up the opportunity to blame ZANU-PF for everything that’s going wrong within the so-called unity government.
I was honestly astounded earlier this week when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC “demanded” conclusions to the negotiations in which they are the principal participants.
I am not sure from whom the MDC was making such a demand and why; I am not sure who, if not the MDC itself, has the authority or power to conclude these stupid talks.
But, as usual, they are playing to the gallery and are trying to blame everyone else other than themselves.
Tsvangirai’s party said on Tuesday that there must be closure “soon” to talks on the issues troubling the power-sharing government and urged that the Southern African Development Community intervenes, if there is a deadlock.
Are they kidding?
There have always been deadlocks since these talks started years ago.
This demand, however, was issued to South African facilitators who had arrived in Zimbabwe earlier in the week on behalf of South African President Jacob Zuma.
It was stupid, predictable posturing meant to divert or exonerate the MDC from their active participation in this farce called “talks”.
I put it to you that comedy should be left to professional clowns who entertain people without getting them killed.
Tsvangirai and his party leaders have become dangerously foolish. The MDC is now weaker and not strong enough to contain ZANU-PF because they have already fallen into the net, the ZANU-PF net.
Tsvangirai is definitely confused.
Less than two weeks ago, Tsvangirai himself chided Zuma for calling for fresh elections, something that Botswana has been trumpeting since the electoral charade of 2008.
Suddenly finding himself among world leaders in Switzerland, Tsvangirai was hit with amazement and then was overcome with astonishment at being at the apex of the world, rubbing shoulders with world leaders, and euphorically called for the easing of sanctions on Mugabe and his lieutenants, saying that the “progress” the MDC and ZANU-PF had achieved in Zimbabwe must be rewarded.
Regrettably, the European Union is considering Tsvangirai’s call to ease sanctions on Mugabe and his murderous non-complying lot.
As is usual with amateurs, Tsvangirai’s euphoria wore off and, again, as usual, he made an expected u-turn, which we are now used to and call ‘flip-flopping’.
Hardly a week after chiding Zuma for calling for fresh elections, Tsvangirai, this Monday, said, "We are able to say to president Zuma and SADC that ZANU-PF is refusing to implement (the agreement) and therefore as far as we are concerned the only solution is that let's agree on a road map to an election."
A few days later, Mugabe issued a directive to his ZANU-PF cabinet ministers and deputies that they should not listen to or take orders from Tsvangirai, but should, instead, take orders from Mugabe’s own deputies.
Then, a few days later, Tsvangirai “demanded” from Zuma that the negotiations be concluded.
Pathetic is an effusively kind word.
Tsvangirai and his equally blind party leaders continue to worry about talks that have never yielded anything positive since they started years before the unity government was established.
The MDC, of all people, knows that these talks are a sham and yet they continue trying to make people believe that they are engaged in something meaningful.
The talks have become a source of income for all the participants who have dragged these senseless talks far beyond normal.
If they cannot agree, they should disband and try another angle with new negotiators.
Today these nonsensical and endless negotiations are married to people who have failed to achieve anything in the last three years.
Shame on Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube, both lawyers, who are now literally shortchanging the Zimbabwean people through these talks.
Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche should equally be ashamed of themselves for lying to the people and abusing the word ‘breakthrough’ in the name of these talks.
The lifespan of the unity government is almost over and while ZANU-PF has started mobilizing for the next elections, the MDC continues to blindly try to hold talks for a unity government whose days are numbered.
The talks were supposed to have pried open and concluded the so-called outstanding issues so that the unity government could function in a mutually agreed manner during its lifespan; now its lifespan is almost over and the haggling is increasing.
Who are they fooling?
Is the MDC aware of the campaign for a new constitution or they are so enmeshed in the extravagant US dollars being splashed around these endless talks?
The MDC, supposedly the ruling party, is itching to have ruling powers since Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF effectively politically castrated it.
Tsvangirai has been effectively kept at the periphery of power and is totally stranded, not knowing what to do.
He won the election but went on to be coaxed into accepting an arrangement that took away the powers given him by the people.
This is after endless and useless talks that started even before this government was formed.
The talks still rage on, for what purpose, I really don’t know.
What surprises me is why Tsvangirai and his now comfortably perched people demand a conclusion to the talks that they did not have to be involved in, that they themselves should be leading.
From what has transpired so far, Tsvangirai and the MDC find nothing wrong in soiling themselves then ask Zuma and SADC to clean them up.
Tsvangirai and his people must be real because what they are doing now is a clear example of how not to run a country.
The MDC have fallen into the habit of being in government yet deny responsibility for the bad things that continue to happen in the country under their government.
These senseless talks have been going on for a period longer than the unity government has been in existence yet, a year after the unity government came into being,” torture, harassment and politically motivated prosecutions of human rights defenders and perceived opponents” still persist under both Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
In spite of the MDC’s presence in government, the situation in Zimbabwe remains fragile because of the delay in implementing reforms “as perpetrators continue to escape justice and are instead effectively given the all clear to continue violating human rights”.
Violence has once again picked up again as villagers in parts of Zimbabwe are being threatened with violence by army backed supporters of ZANU-PF, in an attempt to force them to endorse the Kariba Draft constitution that leaves Mugabe’s powers intact.
It was drafted by both ZANU-PF and the MDC without input from civil society. The MDC does not want it anymore while ZANU-PF is beating up people to force them to endorse it since it is very favourable to Mugabe.
The heart of the matter is that the MDC must now shoulder as much blame as ZANU-PF.
The MDC must also be blamed for all our current ills just as much as ZANU-PF is. We cannot continue blaming one and exonerating the other while they both enjoy the same perks and run the country together, calling their bastard government a unity government. If they insist on staying on in this government, the MDC must shoulder its share of the blame as well. They must take responsibility for their actions or lack of action where action is required.
What do you think?
Send me your comments on tano@swradioafrica.com
The MDC can no longer continue to enjoy the best of both worlds, choosing to criticize and to blame their partner in government while their mere presence in that government is shielding one half of a government that continues to abuse the people and violating their human rights.
Now the MDC is campaigning for the removal of sanctions yet Mugabe has not stopped perpetrating terrible ills upon the people.
We can no longer continue to exonerate the MDC simply because they chose to be partners with an evil clique that is obviously overwhelming the MDC.
Our fortunes have not changed so I see no reason why the MDC should ask the world to reward what it calls progress that it believes took place in Zimbabwe since the unity government was formed.
Zimbabwe needs a more responsible government than what we currently have.
In this context, both the MDC and ZANU-PF have failed us; and I blame the MDC.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that my fellow Zimbabweans is the way it is today, Thursday, February 11th, 2010.
......................
Comments
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:50:28 -0800
Sir,
I always look forward to your insightful comments about our nation's woes. I think that the SADC protocol which provides for , among other things, the writing of a new constitution, general elections, and a new dispensation, is seriously flawed in so far as the sequence of these elements or processes is concerned : the reverse order appears to be the logical one.... Otherwise how can people out in the remote areas freely express their opinions torwards constitution-writing amidst intimidation? Or how can polls be free and fair when some segments of society consider themselves worthier than others in respect of the use of state resources and institutions to disadvantage opponents?
Martin
|