It's MDC-T that needs reform

IT'S an art that has been perfected by Western rabble-rousers and, it is hardly surprising to see Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T try to employ it here. It is the art of deception that was used to start wars in Vietnam, Iraq and now Libya.

After flying the kite for the firing of Zimbabwe's war-tempered generals, a stunt MDC-T euphemistically calls "security sector reforms," the party has decided to manufacture the need for such reforms. This agenda setting follows Zanu-PF and the Sadc facilitation team's insistence that there won't be any renegotiation of the GPA through the back door since "security sector" reforms were never part of the GPA.

The need to manufacture a reason for reforms explains the potshots Tsvangirai has been throwing at the country's service chiefs. His game is to provoke a verbal exchange with them in the hope that the service chiefs say something that MDC-T could cite as grounds for the said reforms.

The whole campaign escalated with the abortive, amateurish job on Tendai Biti's security wall in the run-up to the extra-ordinary Summit of Sadc heads of state and governments that was held in Sandton, South Africa this month.

When that stunt proved to be an embarrassment for the super-victim himself, Biti and the MDC-T, focus had to turn to provoking the service chiefs. This explains Tsvangirai's so-called challenge, and the unprovoked statements like "come and shoot me," "am ready to rot in jail," that he has been spewing at his rallies and the obliging headlines from the captive private media that allege a state security plot to kill Tsvangirai.

Overnight, Tsvangirai, a confirmed lilly-liver is being cast as a braveheart who can stand eyeball to eyeball with the country's generals. Reading the headlines in the private media, one would never believe this is the same Tsvangirai who lasted no more than 24 hours in a liberation training camp before fleeing to work in a textile mill in Mutare, before joining Bindura's Trojan Nickel Mine en route to the ZCTU. One could hardly believe this is the same man who fled his family home in Strathaven to hide in the Royal Netherlands Embassy claiming he feared for his life during the 2008 presidential run-off campaign. Anyway, enough about the man and his warts.

The so-called security sector reforms being called for by MDC-T are nothing more than an attempt to effect regime change through negotiation rather than through a constitutionally acquired mandate, which mandate can only derive from a national election. Contrary to popular belief, regime change does not only refer to a change in the government of the day, but entails the replacement of all or part of a state's existing institutions, administrative structures, bureaucracy and other elements. This is why the poll roadmap the MDC-T is pushing is all about changing key institutions ostensibly to create an environment conducive for free and fair elections, yet MDC-T leaders are mum on the economic sanctions that were imposed to influence voting patterns.

This focus on negotiated regime change should help us understand why the MDC-T is demanding, among other things, security sector and media reforms. They feel these sectors are central to the sustenance and survival of the Zimbabwean State. The whole MDC-T campaign can be traced to the statement made by service chiefs in the run-up to the 2002 presidential election when they made it clear that they would only stand in support of political leaders who support and advance the objectives of the liberation struggle. The statement that was read by the then Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe in the presence of fellow service chiefs on January 9 2002 made it clear that the ZDF are the custodians of the gains of the struggle and would never support anyone with a different agenda:

"We wish to make it very clear to all Zimbabwean citizens that the security organisations will only stand in support of those political leaders that will pursue Zimbabwean values, traditions and beliefs for which thousands of lives were lost in the pursuit of Zimbabwe's hard won independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interests. To this end, let it be known that the highest office in the land is a straitjacket whose occupant is expected to observe the objectives of the liberation struggle. We will therefore not accept, let alone support or salute, anyone with a different agenda that threatens the very existence of our sovereignty," the service chiefs said.

On his retirement in 2003, Gen Zvinavashe was succeeded by then ZNA Commander, Lieutenant General Constantine Chiwenga on January 1 2004. Gen Chiwenga has since, on numerous occasions, reiterated the ZDF's resolve to stand by a progressive, patriotic political leadership. So what is Tsvangirai's problem? In demanding that the generals be fired, Tsvangirai is in effect saying he can't fit into the straitjacket for which over 50 000 patriots paid the ultimate sacrifice during the liberation struggle.

Tsvangirai is saying he is an enemy of the struggle. By refusing to cut the umblical cord that links his party to the Westminister Foundation, Tsvangirai is saying he would rather have regime change so that the quisling politics his party stands for can be accepted by pliant security forces.

The ZDF is a professional army with officers, who distinguished themselves in liberating this country, have excelled on UN duties and have kept the peace even in the MDC-T's favourite haunts in Europe.

ZDF personnel and officers have acquitted themselves well at home and abroad, hence there is no call at all for changing the command or reforming their operations. What MDC-T is demanding is akin to having apartheid South Africa functionaries demand a reform of the South African and Namibian Defence Forces on the grounds that they back the ANC and Swapo. Akin to having Unita and Renamo contest the command of the Angolan and Mozambican Security Forces on the grounds that they back the MPLA and Frelimo! Tsvangirai and his party, as currently constituted, have no leg to stand on as long as they continue proving they are under massive western handholding.

Instead of trying to pick unnecessary fights with the security forces, Tsvangirai must walk his party's mantra of change and transform his party from a British regime change project into a progressive Zimbabwean party that differs with Zanu-PF on the modalities of governing but not the objectives.

Judging by the way he has gone about his politics and the company he has kept since his party's launch on September 11 1999, it is Tsvangirai and MDC-T, and not the security sector, who are in need of reform.

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Caesar Zvayi writes for the government controlled papers and is a former Herald political editor. He can be reached at caesar [dot] zvayi [at] zimpapers [dot] co [dot] zw. This is article is reproduced from The Herald