NERA, nothing but just a signed paper

The recent signing of National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA) document by few opposition political parties is nothing but just a mere waste of time and few resources within those political parties.

 MDC-T had been crying for electoral reforms. But what surprises me and most people is that during the Government of National Unity (GNU), the ex-premier, Morgan Tsvangirai was among the people who made the electoral forms. The big question that I can direct to Mr Tsvangirai is what has changed now that is driving him into his trivial ideology of electoral reforms.

To be very honest, Tsvangirai has lost his grassroot support hence calling other political parties to join him through signing NERA document. Noone can deny that NERA was a brainchild idea of Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party. The problem with Tsvangirai is that he sees himself more superior than other opposition parties. He wants to control his party and other opposition political parties which have their own leadership.

No wonder why most opposition parties didn't join Morgan at the signing in ceremony of NERA. People's Democratic Party (PDP) which is led by Tendai Biti did not attend the event. Also, Welshman Ncube's MDC did not show up to the ceremony although all opposition parties were invited. This alone tells it all that NERA is an irrelevant document. Other opposition political leaders who snubbed the event were able to see beyond the smokescreen that Tsvangirai wanted to use them.

What Tsvangirai wants is to garner political relevance using other opposition parties. It's a shame that Tsvangirai is competing against learned people from other opposition parties who refuse to be fooled by his foolish strategies.

Tsvangirai had been trying all strategies to remove President Robert Mugabe and the ruling party, ZANU-PF from power. The embattled MDC-T leader has failed for three consecutive years to remove ZANU-PF from power through ballot box hence calling other opposition parties to help him fight the revolutionary party.

As it stands, grand coalition of political parties does not work in Zimbabwe. Opposition parties are led by overzealous and power hungry people. All they want is power and nothing else. Opposition party leaders are self centered. They consider themselves at the expense of the electorate. Some of these opposition parties are led by political rejects that were dumped from their original political parties because of various reasons. One will wonder, who then will the coalition if they are to unite.

Surely, signing of the NERA document by Tsvangirai and his sympathizers will not cause the revolutionary party to lose sleep. Instead of finding useful strategies that help the Government to recover the ailing economy, Tsvangirai is busy planning different strategies to fight the ruling party from power.

On electoral reforms, MDC-T had been criticizing the Police force and Zimbabwe Defence Forces saying they should be apolitical. Contrary to Tsvangirai's line of thinking, I believe the army and police are not aligned to any political party. Their role is to serve the ruling government through supporting its policies and ideology. They also support a political party that respects their aspirations. So, there is nothing to reform here Mr Tsvangirai.

On media coverage, Tsvangirai had also been complaining that The Herald, which is a publicly owned print media, had not been doing justice to him. Surprisingly, there are quite a number of privately owned print media which are Tsvangirai's mouthpieces. Besides being covered by the privately owned press, Tsvangirai also receives wide coverage from the international media. In that case, there is indeed no tangible reasons for the MDC-T to continue making noise about in the media.