Opinion / Columnist
Zim's mess is not for lack of self-belief, we punch-drunk of it especially our leaders!
01 Oct 2015 at 23:17hrs | Views
Vince it is not so much that "we are caught in a spider's web of lies about our history, our potential and our future as a country." But rather that we have spin these lies of super heroes and the nation's greatness that when things started to go pear-shape we refused to believe the facts. Even today with the nation in a real mess there are some people who still refuse to believe we messed up and need to embrace change; they want us to stay the course confident we can still have the free, just and prosperous Zimbabwe we are all after.
"The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside," wrote Vince Musewe, quoting Allan David Bloom the American economist.
Allan Bloom was spot in his assessment it is your interpretation, Vince, which is wrong. on but if we are to apply his observation to our case then it is important to understand that Mugabe has very successful dragged us into this hell-on-earth these last 35 years by convincing us that we were on the right path and we will pull through if we remain united and focused. We have not looked for other ways or possibilities because we were convinced we were on the right path already.
"The archaic paradigm of victimhood which accepts that we as Zimbabweans are incapable of creating our own prosperity and cannot create self-sustaining economy despite the fact that we have all the necessary knowledge base spread all over the world and the necessary resources to do so must be rejected and expunged from our minds," you are argued.
This is exactly what Mugabe has been saying all these years; are you sure you did not up lift this rhetoric from one of Mugabe's UN speeches. You blame our failure to create the prosperous Zimbabwe on Mugabe and he blames the "sanctions imposed by evil British imperialists and their allies".
In his recent speech to the UN a few days ago Mugabe said Africa did not need hand-outs from donors or the West in its development quest and Zimbabwe would have achieved her development goals if it was not for the "illegal sanctions imposed by the West"!
Of course it is not because of the sanctions that we are in this economic mess just as it is nonsense to blame the West's hand-outs for Africa's backwardness. We are in this mess because we have created this lie that we can do anything only if we believe we can. When you hold such a strong view, over compensating for the years of being made to feel we are inferior to the whites, you back yourself into a corner.
Zimbabwe is in this economic mess because of three and half decades of mismanagement and corruption we have instinctive recoiled from acknowledging this because to do so was tantamount to acknowledging that we are fallible and thus inferior.
It is this absolutism that is behind Mugabe's imposition of this de facto one-party state and his unshaking determination to remain president for life – he believes he alone KNOWS what is best for the country absolutely no question. So imposing a one-party state becomes natural in the circumstances.
Tsvangirai has already proven to be corrupt and incompetent but that has not done nothing to shake his own belief in his own capabilities and infallibility hence the reason why he has disregarded the party's own constitution to extend his stay as MDC leader beyond the fixed maximum of two terms.
"We must now create a paradigm that says that our country Zimbabwe has all it requires to create trillion dollar economy within 30 years at the most. We must also believe that we can shape a self-sustaining inclusive economy with full employment without relying aid on the West, or the East for that matter, to determine what we can become. We must stop being slaves to the self-serving political rhetoric or to international capital. We can control our destiny as a country if only we believe," you with the absolutism of a tyrant who know-all the answers.
We are in this political and economic mess not because people have been "blinded by the unceasing rhetoric and propaganda of the Zanu-PF machinery" into believing there is no future beyond the present the party is offering.
"The Zimbabwe we wish to build is grand and in my opinion, we continue to be limited only by our imagination and belief. That must change," argued Vince.
If there is one thing this nation have never lacked for the last 35 years it is imagination and self-belief; especial our national leaders they have been punch-drunk.
Even with the national economy in the doldrums caused economic mismanagement and corruption and the country up to its eyes in debt because of decades misrule under his leadership; that did not stop Mugabe producing his 2013 $ 27 billion ZimAsset economic recovery plan with promises to create 2.2 million new jobs. It should be remembered that the regime was not getting any financial assistances from anyone at the time, not even from its "all-weather friend" the Chinese, because it had failed to service it $10 billion foreign debt. Still the regime was confident it would raise the necessary funds.
Of course Mugabe failed to raise the money for ZimAsset and the regime has failed to create any new job but has been losing jobs instead as more and more companies have closed. Even now with ZimAsset dead in the water Mugabe still talks of the plan beaming with confidence as if he only has to snap his fingers and the plan will be back on track!
As if not to be out done Morgan Tsvangirai and the laid-back Joice Mujuru have each produced their economic blue-prints for Zimbabwe's economic recovery and prosperity called JUICE and BUILD respectively. The two release their plans accompanied by some prolonged chest drumming normally associated with silver-back gorillas to underline their self-confidence and self-belief.
Tsvangirai would have done better is he had listened to all those, including SADC Heads of State, who advised him to implemented the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA; at least the nation would have had its first free, fair and credible elections in July 2013. He did not listen; a silver-back in the middle of its macho display does not listen to chattering monkeys.
The nation's military success in the war of independence has left everyone beaming with self-confidence and self-believe especial Mugabe and his fellow war heroes and heroines; they really do not believe there is anything they cannot do. They won the war and ended white colonial exploitation and racial discrimination but at great price. We have become one of cockiest nation on earth because after defeating the whites we have become absolutely certain that there nothing we cannot do. Nothing!
We can talk about mismanagement and corruption being the cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown until we are all blue in the face; Mugabe and many of his Zanu PF friends will never believe a word. They believe it is the "illegal sanctions imposed by the British imperialist and their Western allies" that has done all the damage. To spice up their story further still; Mugabe has said the sanctions were imposed to achieve regime change. What makes all these hen's teeth stories "believable" is that Mugabe is a war hero who is so cocksure of himself and there is his war record to "prove" he is an extra-ordinary hero who can do anything!
India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru recognized the danger a cocky self-assured war hero can be to a nation.
"What kind of leaders would an armed struggle throw up?" asked Nehru of his fellow Congress Party leaders when the question arose whether or not the party should abandon the Mahatma Gandhi's none violence passive resistance route in favour of an armed struggle to end British rule of India. "Are they the kind of leaders we would want to rule our country?"
We in Zimbabwe throw caution to the wind and went for fully fledged and bloody armed struggle. We defeated the white colonialist but at a great price – the war throw up the cocky tyrants who believe they know best and consider being held to account in a free and democratic election an insult, the leaders Nehru warned about!
Even those who did not fight in the war of independence have copied Mugabe's arrogant autocratic leadership style. Tsvangirai has changed his party's constitution to extend his stay as leader beyond the original fixed two terms confident he is the only person competent to lead MDC. He following Mugabe's example who has remained his party's leader for 35 years and counting, he has rigged both national and Zanu PF elections because he believes he is the only person competent of leading the nation regardless of his track record of economic ruin and brutal oppression!
I too believe Zimbabwe has the potential to be a great nation and what has dragged us backwards into the Dark Ages for the last 35 years is not the lack of "imagination and self-belief", as you think Vince. We have a political system that has allowed corrupt and incompetent tyrants to stay in power even when they have become so dopy they read the same speech twice. That is what is wrong here.
What we need to do is implement ALL the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA so that we have free, fair and credible elections. The lack of democratic accountability has made our current crop of leaders cocky and punch-drunk on absolute power; for the good of the nation, that must end.
Yes implement the same democratic reforms that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to get even one reform implemented in five years in the GNU because they are corrupt and incompetent. The same Tsvangirai you have been doing you best to promote as a potential president of this nation! He is corrupt and incompetent and has already failed to get even one reform implemented; what part of corrupt and incompetent do you not understand Vince!?
"The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside," wrote Vince Musewe, quoting Allan David Bloom the American economist.
Allan Bloom was spot in his assessment it is your interpretation, Vince, which is wrong. on but if we are to apply his observation to our case then it is important to understand that Mugabe has very successful dragged us into this hell-on-earth these last 35 years by convincing us that we were on the right path and we will pull through if we remain united and focused. We have not looked for other ways or possibilities because we were convinced we were on the right path already.
"The archaic paradigm of victimhood which accepts that we as Zimbabweans are incapable of creating our own prosperity and cannot create self-sustaining economy despite the fact that we have all the necessary knowledge base spread all over the world and the necessary resources to do so must be rejected and expunged from our minds," you are argued.
This is exactly what Mugabe has been saying all these years; are you sure you did not up lift this rhetoric from one of Mugabe's UN speeches. You blame our failure to create the prosperous Zimbabwe on Mugabe and he blames the "sanctions imposed by evil British imperialists and their allies".
In his recent speech to the UN a few days ago Mugabe said Africa did not need hand-outs from donors or the West in its development quest and Zimbabwe would have achieved her development goals if it was not for the "illegal sanctions imposed by the West"!
Of course it is not because of the sanctions that we are in this economic mess just as it is nonsense to blame the West's hand-outs for Africa's backwardness. We are in this mess because we have created this lie that we can do anything only if we believe we can. When you hold such a strong view, over compensating for the years of being made to feel we are inferior to the whites, you back yourself into a corner.
Zimbabwe is in this economic mess because of three and half decades of mismanagement and corruption we have instinctive recoiled from acknowledging this because to do so was tantamount to acknowledging that we are fallible and thus inferior.
It is this absolutism that is behind Mugabe's imposition of this de facto one-party state and his unshaking determination to remain president for life – he believes he alone KNOWS what is best for the country absolutely no question. So imposing a one-party state becomes natural in the circumstances.
Tsvangirai has already proven to be corrupt and incompetent but that has not done nothing to shake his own belief in his own capabilities and infallibility hence the reason why he has disregarded the party's own constitution to extend his stay as MDC leader beyond the fixed maximum of two terms.
"We must now create a paradigm that says that our country Zimbabwe has all it requires to create trillion dollar economy within 30 years at the most. We must also believe that we can shape a self-sustaining inclusive economy with full employment without relying aid on the West, or the East for that matter, to determine what we can become. We must stop being slaves to the self-serving political rhetoric or to international capital. We can control our destiny as a country if only we believe," you with the absolutism of a tyrant who know-all the answers.
We are in this political and economic mess not because people have been "blinded by the unceasing rhetoric and propaganda of the Zanu-PF machinery" into believing there is no future beyond the present the party is offering.
"The Zimbabwe we wish to build is grand and in my opinion, we continue to be limited only by our imagination and belief. That must change," argued Vince.
If there is one thing this nation have never lacked for the last 35 years it is imagination and self-belief; especial our national leaders they have been punch-drunk.
Of course Mugabe failed to raise the money for ZimAsset and the regime has failed to create any new job but has been losing jobs instead as more and more companies have closed. Even now with ZimAsset dead in the water Mugabe still talks of the plan beaming with confidence as if he only has to snap his fingers and the plan will be back on track!
As if not to be out done Morgan Tsvangirai and the laid-back Joice Mujuru have each produced their economic blue-prints for Zimbabwe's economic recovery and prosperity called JUICE and BUILD respectively. The two release their plans accompanied by some prolonged chest drumming normally associated with silver-back gorillas to underline their self-confidence and self-belief.
Tsvangirai would have done better is he had listened to all those, including SADC Heads of State, who advised him to implemented the democratic reforms agreed in the GPA; at least the nation would have had its first free, fair and credible elections in July 2013. He did not listen; a silver-back in the middle of its macho display does not listen to chattering monkeys.
The nation's military success in the war of independence has left everyone beaming with self-confidence and self-believe especial Mugabe and his fellow war heroes and heroines; they really do not believe there is anything they cannot do. They won the war and ended white colonial exploitation and racial discrimination but at great price. We have become one of cockiest nation on earth because after defeating the whites we have become absolutely certain that there nothing we cannot do. Nothing!
We can talk about mismanagement and corruption being the cause of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown until we are all blue in the face; Mugabe and many of his Zanu PF friends will never believe a word. They believe it is the "illegal sanctions imposed by the British imperialist and their Western allies" that has done all the damage. To spice up their story further still; Mugabe has said the sanctions were imposed to achieve regime change. What makes all these hen's teeth stories "believable" is that Mugabe is a war hero who is so cocksure of himself and there is his war record to "prove" he is an extra-ordinary hero who can do anything!
India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru recognized the danger a cocky self-assured war hero can be to a nation.
"What kind of leaders would an armed struggle throw up?" asked Nehru of his fellow Congress Party leaders when the question arose whether or not the party should abandon the Mahatma Gandhi's none violence passive resistance route in favour of an armed struggle to end British rule of India. "Are they the kind of leaders we would want to rule our country?"
We in Zimbabwe throw caution to the wind and went for fully fledged and bloody armed struggle. We defeated the white colonialist but at a great price – the war throw up the cocky tyrants who believe they know best and consider being held to account in a free and democratic election an insult, the leaders Nehru warned about!
Even those who did not fight in the war of independence have copied Mugabe's arrogant autocratic leadership style. Tsvangirai has changed his party's constitution to extend his stay as leader beyond the original fixed two terms confident he is the only person competent to lead MDC. He following Mugabe's example who has remained his party's leader for 35 years and counting, he has rigged both national and Zanu PF elections because he believes he is the only person competent of leading the nation regardless of his track record of economic ruin and brutal oppression!
I too believe Zimbabwe has the potential to be a great nation and what has dragged us backwards into the Dark Ages for the last 35 years is not the lack of "imagination and self-belief", as you think Vince. We have a political system that has allowed corrupt and incompetent tyrants to stay in power even when they have become so dopy they read the same speech twice. That is what is wrong here.
What we need to do is implement ALL the democratic reforms agreed in the 2008 GPA so that we have free, fair and credible elections. The lack of democratic accountability has made our current crop of leaders cocky and punch-drunk on absolute power; for the good of the nation, that must end.
Yes implement the same democratic reforms that Tsvangirai and his MDC friends failed to get even one reform implemented in five years in the GNU because they are corrupt and incompetent. The same Tsvangirai you have been doing you best to promote as a potential president of this nation! He is corrupt and incompetent and has already failed to get even one reform implemented; what part of corrupt and incompetent do you not understand Vince!?
Source - Wilbert Mukori
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
