Opinion / Columnist
Prof Simango's single-track mindedness is winning us the rat race to the bottom
17 Jul 2015 at 14:52hrs | Views
"...ARISE ZIMBABWE ARISE..." argues Professor Richard M Simango in Bulawayo24.com opinion column. "RISE ZIMBABWE RISE FOR A VICTORY. Let's all united to fight for a free Democratic New Zimbabwe. Let's stop to fight within ourselves but to divert all our anger and effort to Zanu-PF. United we stand. Divided we fall."
The rhetoric is the easy bit the devil is in the detail. It is easy to say take the first step and move forward but unless we know where we are going we will just be running around like headless chicken.
"Take tangible or visible Action for the Dictator to feel our present," advised our Professor Simango.
"MDC-T is the only Excellent Political Party that can bring Democracy in Zimbabwe which is denied by failing Zanu-PF party. MDC-T is not the first opposition political party, but, is the first popular strong opposition party to disturb and gives Mugabe sleepless nights."
Never mind the sleepless nights, it is the democratic change the nation is after. MDC had the golden opportunity to end the Zanu-PF dictatorship and bring real and lasting democratic change in Zimbabwe during the GNU; all the party had to do was to implement the reforms. After five years MDC failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
Even if one accepts that Professor Simango as with many other Zimbabweans, was no paying attention during the GNU years and thus failed to notice that MDC leaders had sold-out - they accepted President Mugabe's gravy train bribes in return for doing nothing regarding implementing the reforms - the Professor has had two years now to review what happened during the GNU. There is a mountain of irrefutable evidence that MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and sell-out.
So Professor Simango is disregarding (he did not deny it but just disregarded) the mountain of irrefutable evidence that MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and sell-out to stick to his long-held position drummed into his head by the likes of Nelson Chamisa that MDC is a party of "excellence".
In his book Animal Farm, George Orwell encapsulated the immovable single-track mindedness of Professor Simango in his character Boxer, the stupid horse. Boxer took weeks to learn the first four letters of the alphabet when he finally moved on to the next four letters he promptly forgot the first four!
"Comrade Napoleon is always right!" was Boxer's motto just as Professor Simango's motto is "MDC is a party of excellence!"
After the failure by MDC to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU SADC Head of State, International Donors and anybody else with any brain finally gave up on MDC and accepted they will never accomplish anything of substance.
Since the July 2013 rigged elections, the EU has restarted its re-engagement overture with President Mugabe and Zanu-PF in earnest not because the EU was not aware of the blatant vote rigging that took place. They were aware of it. They are going ahead with the re-engagement because they accept that opportunity to stop the vote rigging was lost and as long as MDC remains the only opposition, they will never force Zanu-PF to implement any meaningful reforms. In short therefore, the EU is re-engaging with Zanu-PF because the latter is the only game on the Zimbabwe political stage!
It took 20 years for many Zimbabweans to accept that President Mugabe was a corrupt and murderous tyrant. For the last 15 years the nation has been fighting to remove him from power but failed because those championing the democratic change, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, have proven to be corrupt and incompetent. Still the nation is stuck with MDC as the opposition because most people will not accept the reality that MDC is anything else other than "A party of excellence!"
According to a recent report Zimbabwe is now the second poorest nation on earth, second to the DRC. When the nation attained its independence 35 years ago it was considered a middle income nation on par with Bolivia; we have fallen a long way in 35 years for a nation that is not at war!
Our war is not a physical one but a mental one; we must have the highest percentage of the population of people with Boxer, the horse's, immovable single-track mindedness. It is people like Professor Simango's immovable Boxer mentality that is winning us the rat race to the bottom, the poorest nation on earth spot.
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Patrick Guramatunhu can be contacted at patguramatunhu@gmail.com
The rhetoric is the easy bit the devil is in the detail. It is easy to say take the first step and move forward but unless we know where we are going we will just be running around like headless chicken.
"Take tangible or visible Action for the Dictator to feel our present," advised our Professor Simango.
"MDC-T is the only Excellent Political Party that can bring Democracy in Zimbabwe which is denied by failing Zanu-PF party. MDC-T is not the first opposition political party, but, is the first popular strong opposition party to disturb and gives Mugabe sleepless nights."
Never mind the sleepless nights, it is the democratic change the nation is after. MDC had the golden opportunity to end the Zanu-PF dictatorship and bring real and lasting democratic change in Zimbabwe during the GNU; all the party had to do was to implement the reforms. After five years MDC failed to get even one reform implemented. Not one!
Even if one accepts that Professor Simango as with many other Zimbabweans, was no paying attention during the GNU years and thus failed to notice that MDC leaders had sold-out - they accepted President Mugabe's gravy train bribes in return for doing nothing regarding implementing the reforms - the Professor has had two years now to review what happened during the GNU. There is a mountain of irrefutable evidence that MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and sell-out.
So Professor Simango is disregarding (he did not deny it but just disregarded) the mountain of irrefutable evidence that MDC leaders are corrupt, incompetent and sell-out to stick to his long-held position drummed into his head by the likes of Nelson Chamisa that MDC is a party of "excellence".
In his book Animal Farm, George Orwell encapsulated the immovable single-track mindedness of Professor Simango in his character Boxer, the stupid horse. Boxer took weeks to learn the first four letters of the alphabet when he finally moved on to the next four letters he promptly forgot the first four!
After the failure by MDC to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU SADC Head of State, International Donors and anybody else with any brain finally gave up on MDC and accepted they will never accomplish anything of substance.
Since the July 2013 rigged elections, the EU has restarted its re-engagement overture with President Mugabe and Zanu-PF in earnest not because the EU was not aware of the blatant vote rigging that took place. They were aware of it. They are going ahead with the re-engagement because they accept that opportunity to stop the vote rigging was lost and as long as MDC remains the only opposition, they will never force Zanu-PF to implement any meaningful reforms. In short therefore, the EU is re-engaging with Zanu-PF because the latter is the only game on the Zimbabwe political stage!
It took 20 years for many Zimbabweans to accept that President Mugabe was a corrupt and murderous tyrant. For the last 15 years the nation has been fighting to remove him from power but failed because those championing the democratic change, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends, have proven to be corrupt and incompetent. Still the nation is stuck with MDC as the opposition because most people will not accept the reality that MDC is anything else other than "A party of excellence!"
According to a recent report Zimbabwe is now the second poorest nation on earth, second to the DRC. When the nation attained its independence 35 years ago it was considered a middle income nation on par with Bolivia; we have fallen a long way in 35 years for a nation that is not at war!
Our war is not a physical one but a mental one; we must have the highest percentage of the population of people with Boxer, the horse's, immovable single-track mindedness. It is people like Professor Simango's immovable Boxer mentality that is winning us the rat race to the bottom, the poorest nation on earth spot.
-------------------
Patrick Guramatunhu can be contacted at patguramatunhu@gmail.com
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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