Political bullies will end with devolution of power

Zimbabwe has become a highly toxic political environment in which politics has unfortunately become the art and science of coping with overpowering political bullies that has gone beyond the moral limits of humankind. The hideous political bullies are found in the kingdom of ZANU PF.

Political bullying  by  ZANU PF impinge on the political process of respect of the electorate, electoral law, constitution, human rights, rule of law and general social order.

The general impact of political bullies of the national culture and behavior in Zimbabwe society is generally aggression that spread across all levels of society where existence is now defined by how aggressive one is and connection to the bullies.  The international view of bullying is that it is generally a crime that relates to undue control and power over others.  Zimbabwe politics is normalizing bullying in our culture by making political bullying something that should be socially acceptable. Zimbabwe political bullying is synonymous with domestic violence where the abuser in a relationship uses violence to feel in control and powerful. Bullies feed on negative emotions because deep down within them they feel insecure and inadequate about themselves.

Bullying becomes the only way the bullies feel secure and raise their self-esteem by making others feel bad. ZANU PF political bullies do this by undermining their perceived opponents by hate speeches and violent aggression.

ZANU PF political bullies are generally angry, impulsive and unpredictable people. Just try talking to them and watch their responses to simple points of view. These bullies avoid open debits about the state of the country to look for solutions to problems; they just want to be in control. The way they win is to personally destroy anyone who opposes them.  Unfortunately ZANU PF political bullies often succeed driving out good people and shutting down honest debates.  The reason is that we allow bullies to continue and by so doing we may then be the part of the problem. If we continue to allow political bullying as society our civility, civil debates and freedom of thought, we endanger democracy as we attempt to live within the bullies' scope of political game.
ZANU PF political leaders are using bullying to campaigns for office and they are not being stopped. If as a society we do not stop these political bullies we are making bullying socially acceptable  and that will lead to country  of aberrant and violent people.

ZANU PF has always been leading by aggression, intimidation and bullying. They have been let to getting things their way. They never try to reason with anyone, they connect with people emotional not logically. They use every weapon in their arsenal to evoke emotions of fear to avoid an encounter of reasoning because they are not usually reasonable people and fear that if they engage in dialogue they are likely to give in to pragmatic factors.

The bullies are normal very afraid and unsure of their capabilities. ZANU PF bullies work as a team. They get the courage to bully if from a group and by having more bullies stand up with them. Their success comes from lies, violations of human rights killings, causing disappearances and manipulation of the constitution but welding it selectively. They have learnt the art of character assassination of other politicians in a way that end up calling into question the character of their targets.

Bullies only hold power as long as the crowds let them to wield it. Political bullies are rendered powerless when they are challenged.

The devolution process in Zimbabwe is clearly becoming a natural process to get rid of these political bullies where every one in every sphere of life is thinking and embracing the call for the   devolution of power model of governance which governs by the people's needs, wishes and aspirations.

The dominant concern of a significant number of people has been the centralization of power in the president by giving unlimited the powers to the executive. Devolving substantial powers to lower levels of governance to the regions will enable full economic and political participation of everybody. The other objective for the devolution of power is to ensure a more inclusive form of governance that embraces multiparty democracy; that is closer to the people and that leads to equitable social and economic development. Zimbabwe needs fresh and new ways of thinking about the nature of our democracy. Zimbabwe needs new ways of engaging the citizens in decision making within a viable and inclusive political system. The new ways of leadership are a must if the country is to extricate itself from stagnation.

The balance of power has to be struck, between the extreme, exclusive, dictatorial governance system as backed by ZANU PF and the inclusive, democratic system which is based on people's aspirations and people power advocated by ZAPU. ZANU PF is no longer the people's choice as no benefits have accrued to ordinary citizens since its inception, nothing new and miraculous can be expected apart from destruction of the well-being of the people of Zimbabwe. People now want to be governed in ways that promote basic democratic principles and human rights in Zimbabwe. People are now tired of being told to be patient with their poverty mocking the intelligence of people while the ZANU PF elite indulge in luxury and high life.

The devolution of responsibilities into the hands of locally elected representatives will ensure that resources are more accurately targeted at the things that local communities actually want and need. The local elected leaders will become answerable to the electorate contrary to the ZANU PF system of governance whereby elected local leaders can be easily dislodged by the political patronage power holder at will.

Various regions in Zimbabwe have their distinct cultures, customs and political constituencies which are not shared anywhere across the country; therefore to expect that the people who live in Manicaland, Matabeleland, Mashonaland, Masvingo and Midlands should to accept to be managed by a culture of universally imposed decisions on them that are not consistent with their local social and economic needs is wrong and irrational. The devolution of power to regional assemblies is democratic and fair. It is democratic as the regional assemblies can decide on policies purely for the people of those regions and those decisions will be seen by the local communities in those regions as fair and enforceable.

The Government will become more efficient and effective as regional assemblies would only have to deal with local issues and will concentrate their work accordingly. This will have a positive effect on central government as it will not be burdened by provincial issues but to concentrate on the broader and bigger issues of the national relevance rather than having its time tied up on decision that only affect a particular region in the country.

The system of devolution allows multi-political parties' participation as the different parties are happier to work towards a common goal of advancing the well-being of the regions where they have strong hold constituencies while paying allegiance to nationalism. This will have the effect of minimizing the traditional clashes of parties that we see in Zimbabwe and thereby civilizing the political discourse.

The devolution of power will create stronger institutions and democratically elected leaders at a level that matches the real economy which in turn will help to strengthen the relationship between national government and the electorate. The current Zimbabwean system with one centre of power gives unbelievable power to an individual because the central power holder is not accountable to anyone. The decision in this type of governance is not influenced by people but by the interest of the power patron.

In a devolved power arrangement it would have been virtually impossible to send elected ZANU PF provincial chairpersons and some members of parliament packing without any reasonable cause. The behavior of political bullying during the 6th ZANU PF congress was illegal, immoral and unacceptable. It happened in daylight without a sense of shame and guilt. Office bearers were simply handpicked and put into positions. The model of devolution of power is truly indigenization. It is not cosmetic, it is not patronage centred and does not allow the same bullies benefiting again and again unperturbed. Empowering people in a dictatorship is viewed as a threat to the centre of power so monetary empowerment of people is avoided.  The perception is that the more people become financial independent they won't look up to the centre of power for survival. The evidence is that this power arrangement has the vital ingredients of anarchy, corruption and violent elimination of those perceived to be a challenge to the status quo.

 The concept of a united devolution of power coalition of democrats is extended to all progressive individuals, political parties and civic organisations to demand nothing less than the respect of human rights and democratic principles which give full power and respect to individuals, civic society and the right multi-party politics. There is nothing more powerful as people power, which brings full freedom; however, we should accept that freedom comes with sacrifice as dictators will not give away their oppressive control willingly.

Different political parties and those anticipating to form new political parties must begin to think of a union of parties taking advantage of the benefits of the strengths of their individual political constituencies and fight an election as a united front. Opposition political parties that include ZAPU, all the MDC parties, Kusile/Dawn, ZANU PF victims of purging, other political parties and civic society can easily come together and form a winning union. The common goal of the opposition parties and individuals should be driven by the desire for restoration of democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe. Power sharing arrangement amongst the union of opposition political parties can be negotiated along the lines of the concept of devolution of power by exploring the benefits, risks and leadership practicalities. Individual opposition parties within a union can take advantage of their constituencies of strong electoral following these combined together can form a strong and formidable political force. It is time individual political parties stop putting their interests first and focus on what matters most on saving the country from ZANU PF destruction.

The process of the devolution of power revolution needs to be an inclusive process, by which the proposals are drawn up by all parties and the processes treated as important as the proposals themselves. People spoke out during the last constitutional outreach program in Zimbabwe; people are eager and willing to engage about the nature of the inclusive devolution revolution process and indeed people deserve the right to be put at the centre of these decisions. The deliberations must be broad, inclusive and across political parties as well as across civil society.
It is right that all parties should heed the calls already made by the people of Zimbabwe. The consent of the people is well documented of their interest in the devolution of power, decisions taken to devolve powers to regions is an opportunity to resolve once and for all the evil patronage politics, economic retardation, social and cultural polarization and the eroded judiciary system, law and social order
 
ZAPU president, Dumiso Dabengwa has made it public that ZAPU is ready to engage in serious and honest discussions with other political parties, civic organisations, individuals; and invites others to come forward to unite and develop a road map for a devolved united future democratic Zimbabwe.

The united union of people of Zimbabwe has the capacity to reform and strengthen the state institutions in addressing basic life issues that face ordinary people in Zimbabwe. A united union of citizens has the prospects of addressing political values, cultures and shared norms that underpin the prosperity of economic growth, social development, free and fair elections, and respect of civic society.

A union of Zimbabwe citizens and the parties to which they affiliate and when the union is functional provides greater prospects of transparency, accountability, fairness, checks and balances. The prospects of devolved political constituencies revolve around equitable share of material, financial and political resources.  The system of shared power, shared responsibility, shared authority and influence across the cultural, regional and political divide is likely to be trusted, enforced and supported by people.

All progressive peace loving people, political parties and civic groups let us come together and rescue our beloved country. Get into the dialogue of the collusion of democrats to find a common ground acceptable to all for a united front to defeat post Zimbabwe independence oppression. Choosing to stand alone or work as splinter will achieve no results but prolongs suffering. There is only one centre of power in every society, ‘The people power.'  People should therefore demand, preserve and guard the power they have on political matters.

 Join the devolution revolution today and purge political bullies.