News / National
Opposition prepared to sacrifice citizens for power
13 Dec 2017 at 05:09hrs | Views
Operation Restore Legacy and subsequent measures implemented by President Emmerson Mnangagwa have caught the country's opposition flat-footed and left them at sixes and sevens as to how to win the hearts of the electorate in next year's crucial elections.
One would argue that President Mnangagwa's no-nonsense policies so far have rendered the opposition quite irrelevant and unnecessary. This view gains traction each day as the opposition is now exposing itself as career critics and cry babies who cannot soberly analyse what their imagined "opponent" Zanu-PF is doing. A case in point is the recent pooh-pooing of the 2018 National Budget by the MDC Alliance, a grouping of seven or so opposition parties that are set to collectively contest against Zanu-PF's presidential candidate in 2018.
While the Budget has been applauded by renowned economists and even the international community, the MDC Alliance came out last week trashing the major points for nothing more than political expediency. Evidently, the Alliance is not prepared to give Budget proposals and projections a chance to manifest and, instead, has chosen to be prophets of doom. This is perhaps an indication that the country's opposition thrives better when all is doom and gloom in the country and people are suffering.
This writer was shocked at the levels the opposition is prepared to sink to in their unbridled quest for power as MDC-T vice president Nelson Chamisa vowed that his party would hold citizens to ransom and not vote for the Budget when it is presented in Parliament. He was quoted in local media as saying: "We are not going to just take it lightly and absorb it hook, line and sinker and we will make them adjust the Budget and be serious about the issues we are raising." This translates to nothing short of withholding food from one's own child because you are afraid the child will thank and appreciate the person who bought it and not you.
It's high time the country's opposition moves from its mantra of criticising anything and everything that Zanu-PF and the President of the country do and say, and start contributing positively if at all they have anything to contribute. The constant whining and attacking of Government ideas and policies that are intended to benefit the generality of Zimbabweans only exposes the opposition as power hungry, intellectually challenged and ideology-less people.
In this light, it does not come as a surprise that the MDC Alliance leaders have reportedly gone on a diplomatic foray in the West in what appears to be an attempt to seek relevance in that part of the world after being left flatfooted at home.
Of course, this has the hallmarks of treachery – which we shall examine elsewhere in the paper. Suffice to say that Zimbabwe's opposition has lost relevance and lost it fast and the criticisms directed at Cabinet appointments and the Budget are desperate acts to maintain a semblance of respectability. It is clear, though, that Zimbabweans will not be pulled in that wrong path as they move on with their lives and expect the best out of a new dispensation.
One would argue that President Mnangagwa's no-nonsense policies so far have rendered the opposition quite irrelevant and unnecessary. This view gains traction each day as the opposition is now exposing itself as career critics and cry babies who cannot soberly analyse what their imagined "opponent" Zanu-PF is doing. A case in point is the recent pooh-pooing of the 2018 National Budget by the MDC Alliance, a grouping of seven or so opposition parties that are set to collectively contest against Zanu-PF's presidential candidate in 2018.
While the Budget has been applauded by renowned economists and even the international community, the MDC Alliance came out last week trashing the major points for nothing more than political expediency. Evidently, the Alliance is not prepared to give Budget proposals and projections a chance to manifest and, instead, has chosen to be prophets of doom. This is perhaps an indication that the country's opposition thrives better when all is doom and gloom in the country and people are suffering.
It's high time the country's opposition moves from its mantra of criticising anything and everything that Zanu-PF and the President of the country do and say, and start contributing positively if at all they have anything to contribute. The constant whining and attacking of Government ideas and policies that are intended to benefit the generality of Zimbabweans only exposes the opposition as power hungry, intellectually challenged and ideology-less people.
In this light, it does not come as a surprise that the MDC Alliance leaders have reportedly gone on a diplomatic foray in the West in what appears to be an attempt to seek relevance in that part of the world after being left flatfooted at home.
Of course, this has the hallmarks of treachery – which we shall examine elsewhere in the paper. Suffice to say that Zimbabwe's opposition has lost relevance and lost it fast and the criticisms directed at Cabinet appointments and the Budget are desperate acts to maintain a semblance of respectability. It is clear, though, that Zimbabweans will not be pulled in that wrong path as they move on with their lives and expect the best out of a new dispensation.
Source - the herald
