Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabwean politics of hero worshiping has to change
09 Oct 2017 at 13:27hrs | Views
Zimbabwe is seeing the politics of a partisan and self realignment, and the total absence of a policy and ideology driven one. The country is now covered in a dark cloud of bitterness towards each other and some are abusing the ears of the First Lady to settle their scores and ambitions. There is now politics of insults on twitter on rallies and no way forward at all in most gatherings. Journalists and book makers are treated to a free bout of verbal freedom at the expense of humanity. The whole nation now enjoys the politics of gossip scandalising each other and seriously dissecting each other. The politics of dragging each other in the mud cheered by a mob. The politics of hero worshiping and villain creation. This politics has to change or we are doomed.
Our Zimbabwean democracy is the one party led race with only a shadow calling itself opposition. The inefficiency and stupidity of the opposition has created a government which is not tested or corrected which has no fear of its future. This is because the opposition is not threatening to wrestle the power off the incumbent hands in any election. Because of the opposition in action the ruling party abandons its ideals and adopt the politics which is foreign to the revolution.
Instead we have an opposition which fights to remain opposition and indeed their democracy is to remain the opposition.
As usual they come with all excuses and are afraid of their shadows. They never dream of power and thus they are useless and an insult to democracy.
For political observers, 2018 feels like an earthquake - a once-in-a-generation event that will remake Zimbabwean politics. ZANU PF party is fracturing around SUCCESSION and seriously fragmented into fears factions which is dividing the party. Thank heavens we have an opposition which is centred on one man and worship him like a god. Avowed patriots are not making an insurgent challenge for the Opposition Party's leadership. They are all praising the ailing leader. Even the coalition is built on serious hero worshiping of failed leaders who are prepared to pull the party to the grave. On left and right, it feels as though a new era is beginning. But a dark cloud of confusion envelops the politics of the country. The effects of hero worshiping are seen when the incumbent celebrates corruption without any shame. Where corrupt leaders are tried at rallies and no word from the drunk opposition. They are acquitted at a rally and the country is ok with it.
And a new era is beginning, but not in the way most people think. Though this election feels like the beginning of a partisan realignment, it's actually the end of one. The partisan coalitions that defined the Democratic and Revolutionary parties should break apart now or we are domed. over the past years their component voting blocs - ideological, demographic, economic, geographic, cultural - have reshuffled. The reassembling of new Democratic and Protest coalitions is nearly finished. The sad thing is they are concentrating on who will lead and not on how we will be led.
What we're seeing this year is the beginning of a policy realignment, when those new partisan coalitions decide which ideas and beliefs they stand for - when, in essence, the party platforms catch up to the shift in party voters that has already happened. The type of the patriotism long championed by ZANU PF is destined to fall as soon as we turn the revolution to a cult. ZANU PF needs candidates who could rally its voters without being beholden to its donors, experts and pundits. The future is being built before our eyes, with far-reaching consequences for every facet of Zimbabwean politics.
The culture of using rallies as insulting platforms and demonstrating against yourself is pathetic.
The 2018 race is a sign that Zimbabwean politics is changing in profound and lasting ways; by the 2020s and partisan platforms will have changed drastically. You may find yourself voting for a party you could never imagine supporting right now. What will that political future look like?
Politics should be used for building the future. We do agree that ZANU PF is the indomitable lion but its being abused. Overzealousness and working under the influence is destroying the party from within.
As a country we are cursed, opposition is imploding the ruling party is being hijacked.
Today's Party is predominantly a Youth wing and women's league working-class party with its geographic epicentre in the Rural and interior East. Today's Opposition Parties are a coalition of relatively untested and hard core rejects powered by tribal injectors.
In both parties, there's a gap between the inherited ideologies of the freedom times and the real interests of today's electoral coalition. And in both parties, that gap between voters and policies is so wide a slight transition in the case of ZANU PF but a dramatic one in the case of the opposition.
During the Campaigns pundits are focused on the clash between Factions and missed a story that illuminated this shift: remnants of the revolution are silenced and sidelined no body seems to understand that they are still important in the party.
But by 2018 tables might turn. Most thugs in the party will be out of place among the politicians seeking the Real ethos of the fruits of freedom. We must not forget that in ZANU PF the exemplary living fossils are Mugabe and his team of liberation elders. Social issues spurred a partisan realignment by changing who considered themselves Patriots.
Like a tide of discipline that reveals a reshaped coastline, the culture war remade the parties' membership and is now receding. In its absence, we are able to see a transformed political landscape.
The culture war and partisan realignment are over; the policy realignment a clash between nationalists, mostly on the right, and drunk leaders mostly on the dop must just end.
For the nationalists, the most important dividing line is that between Zimbabwean citizens and everyone else-symbolized by Command everything. On the right nationalism is tainted by strains of those who wish to be seen and tribal and religious nationalism and nativism, reinforced by their incendiary language about Other tribes.
But while there is overlap between nationalists and leaders the two are not the same thing. The most extreme young nationalists don't advocate nationalism as a governing philosophy in our country; they hope to withdraw from Zimbabwean life and create a clique within the nation. Nationalism is different than corrupt nationalism, and a populist nationalism untainted by vestiges of tribal bigotry might have a united appeal, like versions of national populism.
The rise of populist talks confusing it with nationalism is paralleled by the rise of tribalism. Zimbabwe does not need such.
Tribalist chants and insults are becoming increasingly obsolete and perhaps even immoral. According to the emerging progressive orthodoxy, the identities that count are subnational gender, orientation and supranational (citizenship of the world). While not necessarily representative of voters, progressive pundits and journalists increasingly speak a dialect of ethical cosmopolitanism or globalism - the idea that it is unjust to discriminate in favor of one's fellow faction against others.
The disagreements within both parties on is a living example of the inchoate policy realignment. Every major Party is embroiled in personalities.
The policy realignment of the present and near future will complete the partisan realignment of the past few years. And though it's impossible to know exactly how it will end, one thing is clear: In 2018 the insulting political system is crumbling, and a new political order is being born.
Our youth must learn respect. People should not use His Excellence and First Lady as a means of gaining political relevance. Insulting seniors is not a campaign. Reshuffling them could be a wake up call but for how long.
Vazet2000@yahoo.com.uk
Our Zimbabwean democracy is the one party led race with only a shadow calling itself opposition. The inefficiency and stupidity of the opposition has created a government which is not tested or corrected which has no fear of its future. This is because the opposition is not threatening to wrestle the power off the incumbent hands in any election. Because of the opposition in action the ruling party abandons its ideals and adopt the politics which is foreign to the revolution.
Instead we have an opposition which fights to remain opposition and indeed their democracy is to remain the opposition.
As usual they come with all excuses and are afraid of their shadows. They never dream of power and thus they are useless and an insult to democracy.
For political observers, 2018 feels like an earthquake - a once-in-a-generation event that will remake Zimbabwean politics. ZANU PF party is fracturing around SUCCESSION and seriously fragmented into fears factions which is dividing the party. Thank heavens we have an opposition which is centred on one man and worship him like a god. Avowed patriots are not making an insurgent challenge for the Opposition Party's leadership. They are all praising the ailing leader. Even the coalition is built on serious hero worshiping of failed leaders who are prepared to pull the party to the grave. On left and right, it feels as though a new era is beginning. But a dark cloud of confusion envelops the politics of the country. The effects of hero worshiping are seen when the incumbent celebrates corruption without any shame. Where corrupt leaders are tried at rallies and no word from the drunk opposition. They are acquitted at a rally and the country is ok with it.
And a new era is beginning, but not in the way most people think. Though this election feels like the beginning of a partisan realignment, it's actually the end of one. The partisan coalitions that defined the Democratic and Revolutionary parties should break apart now or we are domed. over the past years their component voting blocs - ideological, demographic, economic, geographic, cultural - have reshuffled. The reassembling of new Democratic and Protest coalitions is nearly finished. The sad thing is they are concentrating on who will lead and not on how we will be led.
What we're seeing this year is the beginning of a policy realignment, when those new partisan coalitions decide which ideas and beliefs they stand for - when, in essence, the party platforms catch up to the shift in party voters that has already happened. The type of the patriotism long championed by ZANU PF is destined to fall as soon as we turn the revolution to a cult. ZANU PF needs candidates who could rally its voters without being beholden to its donors, experts and pundits. The future is being built before our eyes, with far-reaching consequences for every facet of Zimbabwean politics.
The culture of using rallies as insulting platforms and demonstrating against yourself is pathetic.
The 2018 race is a sign that Zimbabwean politics is changing in profound and lasting ways; by the 2020s and partisan platforms will have changed drastically. You may find yourself voting for a party you could never imagine supporting right now. What will that political future look like?
Politics should be used for building the future. We do agree that ZANU PF is the indomitable lion but its being abused. Overzealousness and working under the influence is destroying the party from within.
As a country we are cursed, opposition is imploding the ruling party is being hijacked.
Today's Party is predominantly a Youth wing and women's league working-class party with its geographic epicentre in the Rural and interior East. Today's Opposition Parties are a coalition of relatively untested and hard core rejects powered by tribal injectors.
In both parties, there's a gap between the inherited ideologies of the freedom times and the real interests of today's electoral coalition. And in both parties, that gap between voters and policies is so wide a slight transition in the case of ZANU PF but a dramatic one in the case of the opposition.
During the Campaigns pundits are focused on the clash between Factions and missed a story that illuminated this shift: remnants of the revolution are silenced and sidelined no body seems to understand that they are still important in the party.
But by 2018 tables might turn. Most thugs in the party will be out of place among the politicians seeking the Real ethos of the fruits of freedom. We must not forget that in ZANU PF the exemplary living fossils are Mugabe and his team of liberation elders. Social issues spurred a partisan realignment by changing who considered themselves Patriots.
Like a tide of discipline that reveals a reshaped coastline, the culture war remade the parties' membership and is now receding. In its absence, we are able to see a transformed political landscape.
The culture war and partisan realignment are over; the policy realignment a clash between nationalists, mostly on the right, and drunk leaders mostly on the dop must just end.
For the nationalists, the most important dividing line is that between Zimbabwean citizens and everyone else-symbolized by Command everything. On the right nationalism is tainted by strains of those who wish to be seen and tribal and religious nationalism and nativism, reinforced by their incendiary language about Other tribes.
But while there is overlap between nationalists and leaders the two are not the same thing. The most extreme young nationalists don't advocate nationalism as a governing philosophy in our country; they hope to withdraw from Zimbabwean life and create a clique within the nation. Nationalism is different than corrupt nationalism, and a populist nationalism untainted by vestiges of tribal bigotry might have a united appeal, like versions of national populism.
The rise of populist talks confusing it with nationalism is paralleled by the rise of tribalism. Zimbabwe does not need such.
Tribalist chants and insults are becoming increasingly obsolete and perhaps even immoral. According to the emerging progressive orthodoxy, the identities that count are subnational gender, orientation and supranational (citizenship of the world). While not necessarily representative of voters, progressive pundits and journalists increasingly speak a dialect of ethical cosmopolitanism or globalism - the idea that it is unjust to discriminate in favor of one's fellow faction against others.
The disagreements within both parties on is a living example of the inchoate policy realignment. Every major Party is embroiled in personalities.
The policy realignment of the present and near future will complete the partisan realignment of the past few years. And though it's impossible to know exactly how it will end, one thing is clear: In 2018 the insulting political system is crumbling, and a new political order is being born.
Our youth must learn respect. People should not use His Excellence and First Lady as a means of gaining political relevance. Insulting seniors is not a campaign. Reshuffling them could be a wake up call but for how long.
Vazet2000@yahoo.com.uk
Source - Dr Masimba Mavaza
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