Opinion / Columnist
The fight for reforms is the fight for free elections; this is the battle royal, losing it is not an option!
15 Jan 2016 at 16:33hrs | Views
I would like to thank Vivid Gwede for summing up so precisely what our political leaders from all sides of the political divide are doing here; asking Zimbabweans to "democratise within a dictatorship straitjacket". These leaders have been doing this all the time for the last 36 years!
When power is not restrained by the principles of moral justice and reason it has the tendency of transforming a sheep into a wolf. This is what has been happening in our beloved Zimbabwe and the challenge here is to break this cycle.
It is our liberators from white colonial oppression who, as soon as they got into power, abandoned all the pre-independence promises of freedom, justice, one-man-one-vote and even the sanctity of human life. It is President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cabal who have fashioned this dictatorship straitjacket and, for the last 36 years, have forced us to wear it or be damned (as if a sane man forced to wear a straitjacket is not damned already). Tsvangirai and his MDC friends promised to end the dictatorship but as soon as they got on the gravy train they too forgot their promise to the people. Now that they have tasted the sweetness of absolute power and the economic benefits it brings, they are more determined than ever to get back on the gravy train. They know they must promise the people something to win back their confidence and vote and so they are telling the people removing Mugabe is the only thing the nation needs to do; which is nonsense.
When the people elected Mugabe back in 1980 they did not know he would turn out to be a corrupt and murderous tyrant because there was no stamp "dictator" on his forehead to warn them. He has gone on to corrupt the nation's Police, Judiciary, ZEC, etc. so they serve him and his no-regime-change mantra instead of the nation. Removing Mugabe and replacing him with someone who will then inherit a ready-made dictatorship in the hope that he/she will become a benevolent dictator in folly because there is no such thing as a benevolent dictator.
What these politicians are doing is keeping the dictatorship intact because they want the dictatorial powers for themselves when they replace Mugabe. Even with his track record of economic ruin, rigged elections and over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans murdered to establish and maintain his de facto one-party dictatorship, President Mugabe will never admit he is a dictator.
If we do not dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and instead settle for removing the dictator we know, Mugabe, we will be leaving the door wide open for the next president to be a dictator too! Our goal should therefore be to end the dictatorial system of government and with that we are guaranteed to remove current dictators and stop any ever emerging in the future.
The only sure way to force the nation's political leaders to adopt the basic principles of moral justice and reason and to adhere to these values throughout their time in office is for the people to have the power to remove from office any leader found wanting or who falls foul of these principles. The people's right to free, fair and credible elections is therefore not just another political skirmish, it is the battle royal. Zimbabwe is in this political and economic hell-hole because the people have never had the power to remove from office corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical leaders like President Mugabe. As long as leaders retain the power to rig elections, inherent in the dictatorship, then this nation is going nowhere, we will remain stuck in this hell-hole.
No nation in human history has ever enjoyed peace, freedom and economic prosperity when with one half free and the other slave or, as is the case here, the sane majority in straitjackets ruled by a tiny minority whose insatiable greed for power and wealth has robbed them of moral compass and reason. The fight to have all the GPA reforms implemented and finally secure for ourselves and for posterity the right to free, fair and credible elections is therefore the battle royal, we must win it at all cost!
When power is not restrained by the principles of moral justice and reason it has the tendency of transforming a sheep into a wolf. This is what has been happening in our beloved Zimbabwe and the challenge here is to break this cycle.
It is our liberators from white colonial oppression who, as soon as they got into power, abandoned all the pre-independence promises of freedom, justice, one-man-one-vote and even the sanctity of human life. It is President Mugabe and his Zanu PF cabal who have fashioned this dictatorship straitjacket and, for the last 36 years, have forced us to wear it or be damned (as if a sane man forced to wear a straitjacket is not damned already). Tsvangirai and his MDC friends promised to end the dictatorship but as soon as they got on the gravy train they too forgot their promise to the people. Now that they have tasted the sweetness of absolute power and the economic benefits it brings, they are more determined than ever to get back on the gravy train. They know they must promise the people something to win back their confidence and vote and so they are telling the people removing Mugabe is the only thing the nation needs to do; which is nonsense.
When the people elected Mugabe back in 1980 they did not know he would turn out to be a corrupt and murderous tyrant because there was no stamp "dictator" on his forehead to warn them. He has gone on to corrupt the nation's Police, Judiciary, ZEC, etc. so they serve him and his no-regime-change mantra instead of the nation. Removing Mugabe and replacing him with someone who will then inherit a ready-made dictatorship in the hope that he/she will become a benevolent dictator in folly because there is no such thing as a benevolent dictator.
If we do not dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship and instead settle for removing the dictator we know, Mugabe, we will be leaving the door wide open for the next president to be a dictator too! Our goal should therefore be to end the dictatorial system of government and with that we are guaranteed to remove current dictators and stop any ever emerging in the future.
The only sure way to force the nation's political leaders to adopt the basic principles of moral justice and reason and to adhere to these values throughout their time in office is for the people to have the power to remove from office any leader found wanting or who falls foul of these principles. The people's right to free, fair and credible elections is therefore not just another political skirmish, it is the battle royal. Zimbabwe is in this political and economic hell-hole because the people have never had the power to remove from office corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical leaders like President Mugabe. As long as leaders retain the power to rig elections, inherent in the dictatorship, then this nation is going nowhere, we will remain stuck in this hell-hole.
No nation in human history has ever enjoyed peace, freedom and economic prosperity when with one half free and the other slave or, as is the case here, the sane majority in straitjackets ruled by a tiny minority whose insatiable greed for power and wealth has robbed them of moral compass and reason. The fight to have all the GPA reforms implemented and finally secure for ourselves and for posterity the right to free, fair and credible elections is therefore the battle royal, we must win it at all cost!
Source - Patrick Guramatunhu
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