Opinion / Columnist
I am not 'killing the democratic spirit'
03 Mar 2015 at 08:30hrs | Views
....but setting the benchmark for democratic accountability!
Dear Patrick Guramatunhu, you have accused me of "killing the democratic spirit" in asking the failed MDC leaders to apologize and leave politics (Opinion column).You have the wrong end of the stick, I am the one blazing the true democratic values and principles and holding these failed leaders to account - in this case their betrayal is so serious they should have resigned on mass and left. I am here to make sure that they never get to hold public office ever again.
I glad that you agree with me that in failing to implement the democratic reforms MDC leaders showed that they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent; that is a very good starting point because many of the MDC wildebeest herd has completely failed to reach that point. I will deal with these MDC supporters first.
They are hard wired to follow blindly like sheep to the slaughter. They continue to consider leaders like Tsvangirai as infallible regardless the mountain of evidence of his blunders, regardless the grim reality that Mugabe is still lording over the nation contrary to the MDC promise to end his tyrannical rule and no amount of reasoning can get though those hermetically sealed MDC supporters' heads that Mugabe is still there because Tsvangirai is not to the task to remove him.
Man is a creature of reason but you would not think so to look at that sea of MDC supporters in their regalia of red, orange and green for each of the three main factions - changing from one colour to the other and then back again like leaves with the changing seasons.
A healthy and functioning democracy demands a thinking electorate who understand issues and receptive to reason. Democracy give the people the right to vote but like all rights this one comes with the duty and responsibility - the duty and responsibility to use the vote wisely and to hold the elected officials to account at all time. This is only possible when the voter understands the issues at stake are receptive to reason and will therefore not be bamboozled with bull.
What is the point of being given a choice if the options are incomprehensible to the voter they might just as well be in Chinese?
So our MDC supporter who has yet completely failed to comprehend that MDC leaders are corrupt even now with all the benefit of hindsight we can safely classify as the wildebeest voter who has failed to take the duty and responsibility as a voter with the seriousness it deserves. They are incompetent to be trusted with the responsibility to hold anyone, including their MDC leaders to account
"Still it is for the electorate and not for Mukori or anyone else to decide whether MDC leaders like Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, etc. should "walk into the political sunset", you argued. So the section of the electorate that can make such a judgement must exclude the wildebeest herd.
Now I will turn on those voters like you Patrick who agree that MDC leaders are indeed "corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent". I would like them to revisit this important point; was MDC leaders' failure to implement the reform a genuine mistake out of failure understand the reforms or what they were expected to do to implement the reforms. Or was it a deliberate and calculated act of betrayal.
The evidence on the ground shows that MDC leaders did not even try to implement any reforms. Even when SADC heads of government literally begged them to implement the reforms as MP Sipape Nkomo has since admitted. There is no doubt that MDC leaders were enjoying the trappings of power that Mugabe granted them, the same gravy train lifestyle the tyrant gave his own Zanu PF cronies. The politicians from both sides of the political divide have all enjoyed the gravy train lifestyles and have gone out of their ways to ensure they did nothing to upset their chief benefactor - Mugabe. Zanu PF cronies have turned a blind eye to the corruption, vote rigging, human rights abuses including the murder of over 30 000 by Mugabe and for MDC, they ditched the reforms.
The little assertiveness Tsvangirai had shown in the first few months of the GNU completed disappeared when Mugabe gave him the keys to the $4 million Highlands mansion.
SADC heads accused Tsvangirai and his friends of "enjoying themselves in government and forgetting why they were there", in sheer frustration at MDC's failure to implement even one democratic reform.
There is no doubt that MDC leaders' failure to implement even one reform was a deliberate act of betrayal born out of greed.
The other point that must be considered is the seriousness of the consequences of MDC's failure to implement the reforms. The nation is still stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical regime which has cause the economic meltdown forcing unemployment to soar to 90% plus, two million Zimbabweans are already living in abject poverty, etc.
This need not have happened if MDC leaders had not been so corrupt and sold the whole nation, not just a few thousand people but a whole nation, for what has to be the modern day slave price of a piece of calico cloth and a handful of beads!
Tell these corrupt, breathtakingly incompetent and treasonous MDC leaders to apologize for selling the nation out to the tyrant and then walk into the political sunset is the very least anyone who really understand what they have done and the tragic suffering it brings would say.
No Patrick, I am not "killing the democratic spirit" but rather setting up the bench mark of true democratic accountability; if you are a public official and you are found to be corrupt and/or breathtakingly and/or murderer and/or treasonous, you will be punished and/or banished from holding public office ever again.
After what Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have done it would be sheer folly for the nation to entrust them with the task of delivering the democratic changes the nation has been dying for when they failed to do so during the GNU, when the task was a hell lot easier to accomplish!
"In any case MDC are the only opposition on the ground at present; Zimbabweans would be very foolish to listen to people like Mukori to ditch the only politically active opposition the country has," you argued. I would expect to hear that from those who have yet to get the heads round the fact that MDC is a party led by some of the most corrupt and incompetent individuals in human history. It is totally irrational for some would have accepted this basic fact to say such a thing because no thinking person would want to be led someone who has already proven beyond doubt that they are incompetent.
Zimbabwe has 12 million people; I refuse to accept that they are all corrupt and incompetent. What I would accept is that we have more than our fair share of voters who refuse to think for themselves and follow blindly like sheep. We are in this mess because of them and as long as they remain in this mental state, the nation will remain stuck in this mess.
Dear Patrick Guramatunhu, you have accused me of "killing the democratic spirit" in asking the failed MDC leaders to apologize and leave politics (Opinion column).You have the wrong end of the stick, I am the one blazing the true democratic values and principles and holding these failed leaders to account - in this case their betrayal is so serious they should have resigned on mass and left. I am here to make sure that they never get to hold public office ever again.
I glad that you agree with me that in failing to implement the democratic reforms MDC leaders showed that they are corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent; that is a very good starting point because many of the MDC wildebeest herd has completely failed to reach that point. I will deal with these MDC supporters first.
They are hard wired to follow blindly like sheep to the slaughter. They continue to consider leaders like Tsvangirai as infallible regardless the mountain of evidence of his blunders, regardless the grim reality that Mugabe is still lording over the nation contrary to the MDC promise to end his tyrannical rule and no amount of reasoning can get though those hermetically sealed MDC supporters' heads that Mugabe is still there because Tsvangirai is not to the task to remove him.
Man is a creature of reason but you would not think so to look at that sea of MDC supporters in their regalia of red, orange and green for each of the three main factions - changing from one colour to the other and then back again like leaves with the changing seasons.
A healthy and functioning democracy demands a thinking electorate who understand issues and receptive to reason. Democracy give the people the right to vote but like all rights this one comes with the duty and responsibility - the duty and responsibility to use the vote wisely and to hold the elected officials to account at all time. This is only possible when the voter understands the issues at stake are receptive to reason and will therefore not be bamboozled with bull.
What is the point of being given a choice if the options are incomprehensible to the voter they might just as well be in Chinese?
So our MDC supporter who has yet completely failed to comprehend that MDC leaders are corrupt even now with all the benefit of hindsight we can safely classify as the wildebeest voter who has failed to take the duty and responsibility as a voter with the seriousness it deserves. They are incompetent to be trusted with the responsibility to hold anyone, including their MDC leaders to account
"Still it is for the electorate and not for Mukori or anyone else to decide whether MDC leaders like Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, etc. should "walk into the political sunset", you argued. So the section of the electorate that can make such a judgement must exclude the wildebeest herd.
Now I will turn on those voters like you Patrick who agree that MDC leaders are indeed "corrupt and breathtakingly incompetent". I would like them to revisit this important point; was MDC leaders' failure to implement the reform a genuine mistake out of failure understand the reforms or what they were expected to do to implement the reforms. Or was it a deliberate and calculated act of betrayal.
The evidence on the ground shows that MDC leaders did not even try to implement any reforms. Even when SADC heads of government literally begged them to implement the reforms as MP Sipape Nkomo has since admitted. There is no doubt that MDC leaders were enjoying the trappings of power that Mugabe granted them, the same gravy train lifestyle the tyrant gave his own Zanu PF cronies. The politicians from both sides of the political divide have all enjoyed the gravy train lifestyles and have gone out of their ways to ensure they did nothing to upset their chief benefactor - Mugabe. Zanu PF cronies have turned a blind eye to the corruption, vote rigging, human rights abuses including the murder of over 30 000 by Mugabe and for MDC, they ditched the reforms.
The little assertiveness Tsvangirai had shown in the first few months of the GNU completed disappeared when Mugabe gave him the keys to the $4 million Highlands mansion.
SADC heads accused Tsvangirai and his friends of "enjoying themselves in government and forgetting why they were there", in sheer frustration at MDC's failure to implement even one democratic reform.
There is no doubt that MDC leaders' failure to implement even one reform was a deliberate act of betrayal born out of greed.
The other point that must be considered is the seriousness of the consequences of MDC's failure to implement the reforms. The nation is still stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical regime which has cause the economic meltdown forcing unemployment to soar to 90% plus, two million Zimbabweans are already living in abject poverty, etc.
This need not have happened if MDC leaders had not been so corrupt and sold the whole nation, not just a few thousand people but a whole nation, for what has to be the modern day slave price of a piece of calico cloth and a handful of beads!
Tell these corrupt, breathtakingly incompetent and treasonous MDC leaders to apologize for selling the nation out to the tyrant and then walk into the political sunset is the very least anyone who really understand what they have done and the tragic suffering it brings would say.
No Patrick, I am not "killing the democratic spirit" but rather setting up the bench mark of true democratic accountability; if you are a public official and you are found to be corrupt and/or breathtakingly and/or murderer and/or treasonous, you will be punished and/or banished from holding public office ever again.
After what Tsvangirai and his MDC friends have done it would be sheer folly for the nation to entrust them with the task of delivering the democratic changes the nation has been dying for when they failed to do so during the GNU, when the task was a hell lot easier to accomplish!
"In any case MDC are the only opposition on the ground at present; Zimbabweans would be very foolish to listen to people like Mukori to ditch the only politically active opposition the country has," you argued. I would expect to hear that from those who have yet to get the heads round the fact that MDC is a party led by some of the most corrupt and incompetent individuals in human history. It is totally irrational for some would have accepted this basic fact to say such a thing because no thinking person would want to be led someone who has already proven beyond doubt that they are incompetent.
Zimbabwe has 12 million people; I refuse to accept that they are all corrupt and incompetent. What I would accept is that we have more than our fair share of voters who refuse to think for themselves and follow blindly like sheep. We are in this mess because of them and as long as they remain in this mental state, the nation will remain stuck in this mess.
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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