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The MDC invited mosquitoes to cure malaria
Even if I were to believe that what the MDC did last year was for the good of the nation, current events on the ground prove that joining Mugabe and hoping to rule democracy with him was a big mistake.
The MDC is busy making their seats in government as cosy as possible; they are in it for the long run.
Nothing that Mugabe does will ever make them aware that they jumped and slept under a wet blanket somehow hoping that body heat would make it dry.
It won’t; all we are getting are bad colds.
The MDC’s long fight for democratic change was ambushed by the MDC’s greed and desire to be in government.
They erroneously believed that by joining the man who destroyed democracy, they could make him a reformed democrat.
Last Thursday, Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai came close to admitting that the unity government is a failure and that a new approach is indeed needed if Zimbabwe is to escape the sad state in which it finds itself.
Tsvangirai and his partner in government, Robert Mugabe, have spent more time squabbling than running the country or formulating and implementing policies for the resuscitation of Zimbabwe.
From the day the unity government was formed, the two have always bickered over issues that are on the periphery of what our nation urgently needs to be done and both have, at one point or other, threatened to abandon the unity government.
They disagree on just about everything; there is no unity even of purpose.
Last year, Tsvangirai invited a United Nations human rights expert, Manfred Nowak, to Zimbabwe to study the human rights situation in the country and Mugabe simply instructed that the man be sent back.
Nowak was not even allowed to leave the airport terminal building.
This act highlighted the tug of war between the two leaders.
This year, Mugabe invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to open the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.
The MDC cried foul and described Mugabe’s invitation of Ahmadinejad as “a colossal political scandal”.
“As a party,” said the MDC, “we feel that a country is defined by its friends. We want to place it on record that judging by his record, Ahmadinejad is coming not as a friend of Zimbabwe, but an ally of those that unilaterally invited him.’’
The MDC continued, “Choice of friends defines character and inviting the Iranian strongman to an investment forum is like inviting a mosquito to cure malaria.”
Is this a lovers’ spat, I wonder.
The MDC is in bed with a dictator called Mugabe and when Mugabe jumps into bed with another dictator, the MDC is so jealousy they call it a colossal scandal.
This is obscene and deceitful. The MDC is more in cohorts with Mugabe, not the Iranian president.
Tsvangirai’s party said that “hobnobbing with dubious political leaders confirms stereotypes that we are a banana republic”.
Well, aren’t we a banana republic, and all thanks to the MDC?
It is the MDC that is hobnobbing with dubious political leaders like Mugabe.
To drive their point home, Tsvangirai not only snubbed Ahmadinejad’s welcoming ceremony at Harare International Airport, he left Harare altogether, embarking on what his party said was a regional trip to South Africa and Botswana.
What a cowardly, shallow and expensive way to show displeasure!
Tsvangirai, instead of staying in Zimbabwe to show his party’s displeasure at the Iranian devil’s presence, decided to use public funds to embark on a useless trip that had absolutely no objective.
Why didn’t he stay in Zimbabwe and boycott all state functions at which the Iranian was being hosted?
And, as if to underline the chaotic policies in the party, the Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo, from Tsvangirai’s MDC, wanted his glass of wine.
Not only did he attend state functions for the Iranian leader, he went on to say that “people” must recognize the difference between state functions and party functions.
Such are the disagreements the MDC and ZANU-PF have traded for over a year since they agreed to a power-sharing deal, which, in effect, is not a power-sharing deal since it is only Mugabe who has power.
But this lack of cooperation has taken its toll on the nation and most government work grinds to a halt when the two protagonists go after each other, refusing to concede to the other.
Last week, Tsvangirai felt compelled to say something about it, telling a business leaders’ conference on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, which Ahmadinejad had come to officially open, that, “As a government we acknowledge that we have not been able to implement policies that ensure predictability for investment in our economy.”
Tsvangirai and Mugabe also differ not only over the continuing farm invasions but on Mugabe’s recently announced indigenisation policy.
Early last week, Tsvangirai, wanting to force broad revision of Mugabe’s unilateral indigenization regulations, told cabinet that the indigenization program should be put on hold until consultations are completed, forcing Attorney General, Johhanes Tomana, himself another bone of contention who sparks friction and disagreement between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, to step into the controversy over corporate indigenization.
Vowing that he was going “to act to bring coherence in government policy to attract investment capital, Tsvangirai further conceded that conflicting messages and lack of consultation had created an air of uncertainty in Zimbabwe’s investment climate.
He alluded to “incidents of violence, farm disruptions and other illegal practices that continue to mar Zimbabwe’s image”.
He then conveniently boarded a plane for South Africa and Botswana; so much for the vows.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai are also locked in an acrimonious battle over Reserve bank Governor Gideon Gono.
Then there is the issue of the constitution.
Mugabe wants the Kariba Draft but the MDC, having initially agreed to it, has now changed its mind and wants an outreach consultation, to afford the people the opportunity to contribute to the new constitution.
Mugabe and his people don’t want that.
They have brought out their vicious youth brigades, accompanied by army personnel.
They are beating up people, ordering them to vote for the adoption of the Kariba Draft and promising them death if they do not do so.
AS the two parties and their leaders are locked in political battle, the nation’s polarization deepens and their supporters are picking up rocks, boulders and sticks.
The intimidation and mugging of the population is steadily picking up as the constitutional outreach exercise starts to move.
This, obviously, is just a training exercise in preparation for the mooted forthcoming elections.
People are not going to be safe from their own government and the MDC is part of this government.
Mugabe behaves this way because Tsvangirai is standing next to him. There is absolutely no reason why the MDC should not take drastic action to protect the people at the same time it maintains its pro people stand.
But curiously, the MDC appears to now be caught in a trance of sorts. They know the right thing to do yet they are not doing it.
The heart of the matter is that the MDC is the one that hired mosquitoes to eradicate malaria.
With or without the MDC, Mugabe cannot bring democracy and good governance to Zimbabwe; doesn’t the MDC know that?
What are they doing in Mugabe’s government? What justification do they have in criticizing government policy debated and agreed to in Cabinet? And, if no such agreements exist in Cabinet, what is the MDC doing in both cabinet and government?
What do you think?
Send me your comments on tano@swradioafrica.com.
Sure as mosquitoes will not remove malaria from our midst, Mugabe will not help the MDC to rule democracy in Zimbabwe and the MDC knows it.
We know it.
The MDC has a clear choice: it’s either it stands with the people now or it continues to stand with Mugabe.
They must take a stand; they must show leadership.
The MDC is now playing more dangerous games than ZANU-PF yet this is just the right time for them to take a principled stand.
They want to have it both ways; they won’t.
I see a bad moon rising, for both the people and the MDC.
I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my compatriots, is the way it is today, Thursday April 29th, 2010.
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