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December 24, 2009.
Please, MDC, chinja maitiro in 2010!
Let us get one thing straight right from the start.
I do not believe, nor do I want to be harassed with statements that things are better in Zimbabwe than they were before the unity government was formed.
This is propaganda from the MDC.
Nothing on the ground indicates that there is any change, in real terms, because the horrors and nightmares that existed before still exist only that this time, they are legitimized by the MDC’s presence in this so-called government of national unity.
I hear the mantra that supermarkets are now fully stocked with foods and, because of that, things are better.
That is a load of bunk.
An extra burden has been imposed on the rank and file. Now, not only do they have to look for food but, to get it, they have to come up with the foreign currency required.
I would love for the MDC to stand up and tell Zimbabweans the achievements they have instigated since they went into this government of national unity.
For the entire year, the MDC went into overdrive trying to convince us that they did the right thing and that we would soon enjoy the benefits of their shrewd maneuvers.
They made us hope for the best. They whipped up our frenzy in support, deceptively hinting that they would contain ZANU-PF.
Even in Parliament, they whistled in opposition and frothed at the mouth, resisting what ZANU-PF continued to inflict on the nation.
Now the MDC can’t whistle anymore because their mouths are full. They hide behind press releases and meaningless statements which do not match what is going on on the ground. And we are just supposed to say, “Hallelujah!”
Fat chance.
The MDC has to wake up. They have slowly been ensnared and now look at us as spoilers because we keep clamouring that what they are doing is not what we asked them to do.
While Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is more tolerated than hated by ZANU-PF, Tendai Biti has become the MDC’s most hated man because of some type of control he has on money that is apparently being given to Zimbabwe.
Much as we might deny it, there exists a clear line within Tsvangirai’s MDC. There are those who still remember the mandate from the people and there are those who are having too much of a good time to bother with the rank and file.
The year has come to an end and we do not have any hope that there is going to be a serious challenge to stop ZANU-PF from continuing with its destructive crusade.
I feel humiliated for all the lost opportunities the MDC created and which it could have used to arm twist SADC, South Africa, the African Union and the United nations into imposing the people’s mandate on our country.
The MDC pushed Mugabe and ZANU-PF into a corner and created opportunities which they, in the end, handed over to ZANU-PF.
I shudder to think of all the opportunities that fell into the MDC’s path but which they just did not take advantage of. As if they were deliberately letting ZANU-PF off the hook.
Which they did on numerous occasions.
Of course, the MDC could no longer whistle; they were busy chewing.
The heart of the matter is that the MDC has fallen far too short of the people’s expectations.
The courage belonged to the people, not to the MDC but even when people offered their lives in support of emancipation, the MDC started wining and dining as Zimbabweans continued to be killed, arrested, disappeared and beaten up.
Instead, the MDC chose to use feeble rhetoric to fool the nation into believing that something was being done. And the MDC does not have spin doctors to counter the ZANU-PF propaganda.
The fire and rhetoric is all gone out of the MDC. What happened and whatever happened to Mukonoweshuro?
‘Them bellies are full’, I guess.
It is clear that there is no one advising Tsvangirai.
And before I go any further, I must admit that Tsvangirai did make some difference. Whether it was through conviction or self interest is not clear, although we are about to witness the reasons behind the real reason behind the MDC’s capitulation.
But Tsvangirai is tired and he and his party still remain the opposition in practice, although they are the ruling party on paper.
What a disgusting state of affairs!
And the MDC is smack in the middle of such a scenario, having, of course, we are told, reluctantly joined Mugabe but now having become enthusiastic participants who spend most of their time trying to deflect accusations that they have sold the nation.
Clearly, the MDC is more interested in this government than ZANU-PF is.
Tsvangirai’s courage is hereby duly noted but, apparently, is not enough since he is slowly eroding the support and goodwill that he had worked so hard to cultivate among the people.
Now the year has come to a close and Zimbabwe can’t change because it has suddenly become a colony again.
The so-called principals, if they are at home at all, spend their time haggling over issues that do not benefit the nation.
The Tomana, Gono and Bennett issues might be important to the parties involved but only serve the masses with a dummy.
We have no government.
“This MDC party has let us down badly,” a writer says on a Zimbabwean news site. “They are now singing from the same hymn book as Zanu-PF. MDC opportunists have found the terrain is not as easy as they had envisaged. We are in a mess with people who, now having seen that all doors are closed, will just stick in there for the sake of power which they have tasted and can’t resist.”
He goes on to say that not long ago, MDC-T’s minister, Gorden Moyo, wrote a brilliant article stating how sanctions were not affecting ordinary Zimbabweans, as well as the economy.
“(But) just yesterday Gorden says sanctions indeed need to be reviewed. Is he insane? These MDC people – we voted them into power; they have no other way forward; they just need voting out before they make things worse for us.”
The writer, whose anger and frustration I can very well sympathise with, goes on to say that we are in trouble due to the incompetence of the MDC.
“They will not do anything,” he says, “and they have no plan whatsoever.”
I honestly hope he is wrong. We cannot afford such a scenario and yet, with all its incompetancies, the MDC is the people’s representatives.
God have mercy!
Additionally, the heart of the matter is that the MDC has been a great disappointment. It is a ruling party that remains in the opposition.
It is a people’s party that seems to have lost direction and lost its bite.
The MDC has to, as a matter of urgency, renew itself. It must come out cleaner and offer clear alternatives to what ZANU-PF is espousing and imposing on the nation.
Where and what are the MDC’s policies and alternatives?
The MDC is now sitting on its laurels.
The MDC is not working hard enough; their battle had never been won and they behave as if they are already there, wherever that is.
If they are there, they left the people behind.
The MDC must wake up and notice what is happening around them and around the country.
Mugabe is already campaigning for the next elections while the MDC is enjoying the tidbits of the newly experienced gravy train.
Unless the MDC starts living again, unless it renews itself, unless it remembers how they got where they are, the MDC is going to die.
I see the MDC tying itself up with none issues. They have, regrettably, started fiddling with their own constitution to accommodate certain individuals who, like Mugabe, think the party belongs to them.
The next elections are going to surprise a lot of people. And a lot of hearts are going to be broken.
All the politicians have taken Zimbabweans for granted for too long and I know, at the next elections, the empire will strike back.
Tsvangirai and the MDC better be careful; they don’t even have enough time. The people know what they want.
The MDC better shape up as of NOW, NOW.
There is absolutely no way Zimbabweans are going to tolerate the stupidity and ineptitude that they have generously dished out to the amazed Zimbabweans in 2009.
MDC must follow its own slogan: Chinja maitiro!.
In 2010 the MDC must come back to the people. They can start by confiscating those diplomatic passports and make their government officials stay home and deal with Mugabe and ZANU-PF and the problems the country is facing, instead of travelling around the world to negotiate deals for a government that does not exist.
They can start by going fully to the people and talking to them like they used to do.
The MDC better wake up in 2010 or else they are going to end up as refugees in Botswana and South Africa. They are not even the ruling party.
Chinja maitiro, MDC.
What do you think?
Send me your comments on tano@swradioafrica.com
If the MDC fails to re-establish itself and implement its political imperatives in 2010, they are doomed. Zimbabweans have been through all this nonsense before.
MDC beware!
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my compatriots, is the way it is today, Thursday December 24, 2009.
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