Opinion / Columnist
Tendai Biti - To be Paul or remain Saul
11 Mar 2014 at 13:49hrs | Views
MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti and organising secretary Nelson Chamisa engrossed in the Zanu-PF manifesto ahead of a rally in Mhondoro last year
A picture tells the story of a thousand words.
That is one of the most accurate maxims of all time; and when pictures appeared in the media of the top of brass of the MDC-T reading the Zanu-PF manifesto during an MDC-T rally in Mhondoro in the run up to the July 31 elections, the impact was significant.
It was damning, too.
The subject, setting, characters, mood and the body language were significant.
MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti holding the manifesto, face curious and studious and tongue lolling out, almost salivating; Nelson Chamisa, the national organising secretary, bending over and pointing at some detail; party leader Morgan Tsvangirai looking jovial in the discussion.
It was a Godsend for Zanu-PF: they crafted a message around the picture saying "Our manifesto has excited everyone", which graced billboards across the country. It may have been an indiscretion and lack of tact on the part of the MDC-T leadership (even if they would have wanted to use Zanu-PF's words against it) but it now turns out that Biti was not salivating for nothing after all!
His recent revelations that MDC-T lost because it did not have a message to win the hearts of the people of Zimbabwe discredits all the platitudes about the "grand theft", "monumental fraud" and other high sounding nothings the MDC-T used in the aftermath of the elections.
Biti himself wrote a letter to the British Embassy claiming that thousands of voters had been assisted to cast their ballots, which he later retracted.
He even came up with a tale that some west Africans had been bussed to vote in Mt Pleasant, which from the onset was just another cock and bull tale.
There was even a dossier purported to highlight the "monumental fraud".
Now, last Thursday and Friday, Biti finally owned up that the MDC-T lost the elections not on the basis of fraud but on the basis of a failed message: a message that did not resonate with the ordinary man and woman anywhere in Zimbabwe.
Biti is now telling the world that; "Even a little woman in Chiendambuya or Dotito knew and appreciated" the Zanu-PF message while MDC-T was "too sophisticated" and caught in a time warp calling for change for its own sake in changed circumstances.
He said: "We were selling hopes and dreams when Zanu-PF was selling practical realities. We (Zanu PF) are going to give you a farm, it's there. We are going to give you $5 000 . . ."
This admission by Biti puts paid to claims of vote rigging which the MDC-T has been holding onto both as a diversion after July 31.
The other leaders in the party are livid.
They cannot bear being undressed and their electoral and political n*kedness exposed. Some of them are calling for the dismissal or resignation of Biti.
He should shape up or ship out of the house of lies!
It is the house that Morgan Tsvangirai built. Morgan Tsvangirai is adamant.
Tsvangirai told a rally in Harare's Mabvuku suburb over the weekend that; "Let those who have doubts about a stolen election stay the way they are."
Biti is as good as ousted from the party, just like Elton Mangoma, who was recently suspended for calling on Tsvangirai to step down.
Tsvangirai would rather live a lie.
With the lie of electoral theft being snuffed out, as his stranglehold on the party is being challenged, Tsvangirai has little room to manoeuvre.
He only has about one more lie to hold onto — that he has the masses of the people hence his self-serving rallies.
The problem is that, as numbers show in terms of attendance, even in the captive areas of Harare, this lie will soon be voided too.
One is tempted to describe the current scenario in the MDC-T as simply that of cabin fever — the impatience of a group of people that have stayed together for a long time hence the restlessness — but it is more than that, figuratively, politically and scientifically.
But you cannot avoid the image of cabin fever as it applies to the MDC-T. Take, for example, a 2002 horror film "Cabin Fever" in which a group of five college graduates rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a horrifying flesh-eating virus, which attracts the unwanted attention of the homicidal locals. The MDC-T today cuts a picture of a body that is being cancerously eaten from within; wasting away.
Its existence is under serious threat and a second split is now within uneasy propinquity.
The internal fighting, the cannibalising, the mudslinging and back-biting may only get worse.
MDC-T's enemies are rubbing their hands in glee.
The reasons for the troubles that the MDC-T is facing can be explained in the context of internal contradictions that are bound to afflict any movement, moreso one that is made up of disparate people, groups, interests, ideologies and objectives.
It was a long time in coming.
The socio-economic and political dynamics have changed since the turn of the century, a fact which Biti admits, and the reality of which the party failed to create resonant and relevant messages.
The party stuck to the "Mugabe-must-go" message or change of leadership, which in earlier desperate times could have been a rallying point but got exhausted of its currency.
The MDC-T has lost partners in the National Constitutional Assembly because the two differed on the crafting of the Constitution once the MDC agreed to a negotiated constitution in the ambit of its inter-party agreements with Zanu-PF.
MDC-T lost a number of partners when it agreed to forming a coalition government with Zanu-PF: some interests would have wanted to win an out and out war with the revolutionary party.
White former commercial farmers were aggrieved once the MDC-T conceded that the land reform programme was irreversible when the former had banked on the party to reverse the same.
Just recently, one member of the white group calling itself Zimbabweans Against Sanctions, said they were denouncing the sanctions as the people on whose behalf the sanctions were imposed. Their loss of confidence in both the capacity of the sanctions and MDC-T, the public defender of sanctions in Zimbabwe, cannot be overemphasised.
Workers became disillusioned with the party, which rode on the back of trade unionism, when its members seconded to the labour ministry began to show arrogance and would even refuse to talk to workers' bodies.
MDC-T did not bring manna from heaven.
The plight of students did not look healthier. They are disillusioned and divided and MDC-T itself is involved in factional politics of the students, hence the strong denouncements from the student bodies.
The MDC-T has lost a number of notable people besides the October 12, 2005 split. They have lost Welshman Ncube, Priscillah Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Trudy Stevenson, Job Sikhala and Munyaradzi Gwisai.
A rift is now apparent in the MDC-T, largely along intellectual/labour movement divide with technocrats and intellectuals like Biti and Mangoma on one hand and Tsvangirai and Thokozani Khupe on the other.
Biti's camp has been gaining currency of late, and as always, for better or for worse, its views are welcomed in academia and diplomatic circles.
Tsvangirai sticks to, and believes he has the support of the grassroots.
Another reason why the MDC-T is staring uncertainty is its failure to adequately heal the fracture of 2005 by addressing the key issue of internal democracy.
There is very minimal level of internal democracy in MDC-T largely due to the personality cult around Tsvangirai which tends to preclude decisions and mechanisms that do not favour the former trade union leader.
One could be forgiven for a sense of déjà vu last week as Douglas Mwonzora emerged from the national council meeting to announce a purported decision to suspend Mangoma.
Biti said the decision was "voidable" because of technical and procedural elements involved, for example the alleged non-existence of a proper vote, the absence of numbers to make up a quorum and the sidelining of the office of the secretary-general in the drafting of charges against Mangoma.
It is all intriguing.
It follows a well-worn Tsvangirai template in dealing with internal foes: divisive, contemptuous and arrogant.
And the MDC-T has also not learnt from 2005 how to arbitrate internal differences as violence has been shown to be the preferred instrument at the hands of Tsvangirai.
Never-learning, Tsvangirai can be trusted to use it again sooner or later.
The coming days are going to be critical as the drama and contradictions unfold.
That is one of the most accurate maxims of all time; and when pictures appeared in the media of the top of brass of the MDC-T reading the Zanu-PF manifesto during an MDC-T rally in Mhondoro in the run up to the July 31 elections, the impact was significant.
It was damning, too.
The subject, setting, characters, mood and the body language were significant.
MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti holding the manifesto, face curious and studious and tongue lolling out, almost salivating; Nelson Chamisa, the national organising secretary, bending over and pointing at some detail; party leader Morgan Tsvangirai looking jovial in the discussion.
It was a Godsend for Zanu-PF: they crafted a message around the picture saying "Our manifesto has excited everyone", which graced billboards across the country. It may have been an indiscretion and lack of tact on the part of the MDC-T leadership (even if they would have wanted to use Zanu-PF's words against it) but it now turns out that Biti was not salivating for nothing after all!
His recent revelations that MDC-T lost because it did not have a message to win the hearts of the people of Zimbabwe discredits all the platitudes about the "grand theft", "monumental fraud" and other high sounding nothings the MDC-T used in the aftermath of the elections.
Biti himself wrote a letter to the British Embassy claiming that thousands of voters had been assisted to cast their ballots, which he later retracted.
He even came up with a tale that some west Africans had been bussed to vote in Mt Pleasant, which from the onset was just another cock and bull tale.
There was even a dossier purported to highlight the "monumental fraud".
Now, last Thursday and Friday, Biti finally owned up that the MDC-T lost the elections not on the basis of fraud but on the basis of a failed message: a message that did not resonate with the ordinary man and woman anywhere in Zimbabwe.
Biti is now telling the world that; "Even a little woman in Chiendambuya or Dotito knew and appreciated" the Zanu-PF message while MDC-T was "too sophisticated" and caught in a time warp calling for change for its own sake in changed circumstances.
He said: "We were selling hopes and dreams when Zanu-PF was selling practical realities. We (Zanu PF) are going to give you a farm, it's there. We are going to give you $5 000 . . ."
This admission by Biti puts paid to claims of vote rigging which the MDC-T has been holding onto both as a diversion after July 31.
The other leaders in the party are livid.
They cannot bear being undressed and their electoral and political n*kedness exposed. Some of them are calling for the dismissal or resignation of Biti.
He should shape up or ship out of the house of lies!
It is the house that Morgan Tsvangirai built. Morgan Tsvangirai is adamant.
Tsvangirai told a rally in Harare's Mabvuku suburb over the weekend that; "Let those who have doubts about a stolen election stay the way they are."
Biti is as good as ousted from the party, just like Elton Mangoma, who was recently suspended for calling on Tsvangirai to step down.
Tsvangirai would rather live a lie.
With the lie of electoral theft being snuffed out, as his stranglehold on the party is being challenged, Tsvangirai has little room to manoeuvre.
He only has about one more lie to hold onto — that he has the masses of the people hence his self-serving rallies.
The problem is that, as numbers show in terms of attendance, even in the captive areas of Harare, this lie will soon be voided too.
One is tempted to describe the current scenario in the MDC-T as simply that of cabin fever — the impatience of a group of people that have stayed together for a long time hence the restlessness — but it is more than that, figuratively, politically and scientifically.
But you cannot avoid the image of cabin fever as it applies to the MDC-T. Take, for example, a 2002 horror film "Cabin Fever" in which a group of five college graduates rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a horrifying flesh-eating virus, which attracts the unwanted attention of the homicidal locals. The MDC-T today cuts a picture of a body that is being cancerously eaten from within; wasting away.
Its existence is under serious threat and a second split is now within uneasy propinquity.
The internal fighting, the cannibalising, the mudslinging and back-biting may only get worse.
MDC-T's enemies are rubbing their hands in glee.
The reasons for the troubles that the MDC-T is facing can be explained in the context of internal contradictions that are bound to afflict any movement, moreso one that is made up of disparate people, groups, interests, ideologies and objectives.
It was a long time in coming.
The socio-economic and political dynamics have changed since the turn of the century, a fact which Biti admits, and the reality of which the party failed to create resonant and relevant messages.
The party stuck to the "Mugabe-must-go" message or change of leadership, which in earlier desperate times could have been a rallying point but got exhausted of its currency.
The MDC-T has lost partners in the National Constitutional Assembly because the two differed on the crafting of the Constitution once the MDC agreed to a negotiated constitution in the ambit of its inter-party agreements with Zanu-PF.
MDC-T lost a number of partners when it agreed to forming a coalition government with Zanu-PF: some interests would have wanted to win an out and out war with the revolutionary party.
White former commercial farmers were aggrieved once the MDC-T conceded that the land reform programme was irreversible when the former had banked on the party to reverse the same.
Just recently, one member of the white group calling itself Zimbabweans Against Sanctions, said they were denouncing the sanctions as the people on whose behalf the sanctions were imposed. Their loss of confidence in both the capacity of the sanctions and MDC-T, the public defender of sanctions in Zimbabwe, cannot be overemphasised.
Workers became disillusioned with the party, which rode on the back of trade unionism, when its members seconded to the labour ministry began to show arrogance and would even refuse to talk to workers' bodies.
MDC-T did not bring manna from heaven.
The plight of students did not look healthier. They are disillusioned and divided and MDC-T itself is involved in factional politics of the students, hence the strong denouncements from the student bodies.
The MDC-T has lost a number of notable people besides the October 12, 2005 split. They have lost Welshman Ncube, Priscillah Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Trudy Stevenson, Job Sikhala and Munyaradzi Gwisai.
A rift is now apparent in the MDC-T, largely along intellectual/labour movement divide with technocrats and intellectuals like Biti and Mangoma on one hand and Tsvangirai and Thokozani Khupe on the other.
Biti's camp has been gaining currency of late, and as always, for better or for worse, its views are welcomed in academia and diplomatic circles.
Tsvangirai sticks to, and believes he has the support of the grassroots.
Another reason why the MDC-T is staring uncertainty is its failure to adequately heal the fracture of 2005 by addressing the key issue of internal democracy.
There is very minimal level of internal democracy in MDC-T largely due to the personality cult around Tsvangirai which tends to preclude decisions and mechanisms that do not favour the former trade union leader.
One could be forgiven for a sense of déjà vu last week as Douglas Mwonzora emerged from the national council meeting to announce a purported decision to suspend Mangoma.
Biti said the decision was "voidable" because of technical and procedural elements involved, for example the alleged non-existence of a proper vote, the absence of numbers to make up a quorum and the sidelining of the office of the secretary-general in the drafting of charges against Mangoma.
It is all intriguing.
It follows a well-worn Tsvangirai template in dealing with internal foes: divisive, contemptuous and arrogant.
And the MDC-T has also not learnt from 2005 how to arbitrate internal differences as violence has been shown to be the preferred instrument at the hands of Tsvangirai.
Never-learning, Tsvangirai can be trusted to use it again sooner or later.
The coming days are going to be critical as the drama and contradictions unfold.
Source - The Herald
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