Zimbabwe opposition contemptuous of grassroots voters

They are "stupid", "a complete joke", "mediocre", "dull and dumb", "blind and poor souls" and "crazy morons".

These are some of the scathing terms and expressions used by oppositions officials and supporters to describe the hundreds of thousands who attended the ruling party's Youth League-organised Million-Man March in Harare recently.

There were also outrageous statements used such as "you should have said one million fools march", "they are dumb to attend that stupid march", "they were frogmarched and bussed to the march" and "no sane person would attend such a march".

There were some more disparaging remarks coming from opposition circles to describe those who came to Harare for the march.

There were explicit attacks on the physical characteristics and appearance of some of those who attended, with such assertions as, "emaciated looks of the stupid marchers" and "poor skin pigmentation of crazy morons" being thrown about.

Zimbabwean music ace Oliver Mtukudzi was not spared for performing at the occasion and there was outrage from all ranks of the opposition.

The MDC-T spokesperson went on to boldly state, "I reiterate that Tuku has sold his soul for a few pieces of silver. Period!"

The opposition was unforgiving of those who attended that march and the attacks came flying from all angles.

There were allegations and counter-allegations of those who attended as "having no brains" and having been forced in their many thousands to attend.

Some of the statements directed at those who attended the march are too graphic and despicable to repeat. If those are the depth the opposition will sink, then surely the ruling party will govern for the next millennium.

The reactions from opposition officials and some of their members leave a sour taste and this points to an urgent need of a complete regeneration before they can attain the required standards required to govern.

Those people who attended the march are adults who have the ability to think independently and make very independent decisions like all of us. Thus, for the opposition ranks to label them "morons, stupid and dumb" for thinking for themselves and making their own decisions to attend that march is a blitz on the freedoms that the opposition repeatedly claim to champion.

The undue slander exposes the opposition in Zimbabwe as hypocrites and the contempt they have for the poor and grassroots of Zimbabwe.

Those people who were being described as "mediocre, foolish, silly" and many other epithets too colourful to print, are the same people who vote.

Voters come in all manner of shades, shapes and physical appearances. The ridiculing remarks from the opposition were uncalled for and unnecessary. This is an opposition that needs to start looking inwards to begin to understand their endless shortfalls when it comes to elections.

This contemptuous offensive against ordinary Zimbabweans clearly exposes an opposition that separates itself from the poor and to very different standards from them. Those people who were gathered in Harare are ordinary citizens who made a conscious decision to attend a march and the "elitist" opposition got into a grisly sweat and started hurling insults to discredit them.

Those jibes thrown at the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, who chose to attend the march exposes the opposition as seriously lacking in strategy to counter the dominance of the ruling party in Zimbabwe's politics.

The obsessions of the opposition when cornered focuses on ordinary Zimbabweans who have minds of their own to think independently. These are ordinary people who came to the sober conclusion that they would travel many kilometres to attend a march organised by a party of their choice.

They are free to do that in the same vein opposition supporters are free to do the same without attracting such vile depiction. The opposition responded to the ruling party's Million-Man march by holding their own rally in Bulawayo and no insults came flying their way. They were accorded respect to exercise their right to march without unjustified insults.

The opposition in Zimbabwe lacks grassroots appeal because of their elitist ideals and foundations. They do not understand the grassroots and never will. Those supposedly "emaciated and poor-looking people" are ordinary Zimbabweans who make up a big chunk of the electorate.

I doubt very much that they will take it lightly being referred to in those despicable terms for simply exercising their right to choose which march to attend. The opposition recently had a similar march, although not as well attended, and their supporters did not have expletives aimed at them.

The Zimbabwe opposition "elites" have this "them" and "us" mentality when it comes to the grassroots. This easily explains why they have failed dismally to make inroads in all grassroots constituencies. They are contented to scratch the surface of the Zimbabwe electoral playing field in the urban constituencies and then cry foul when the ruling party wins with a landslide.

The "poor and emaciated" people whom the opposition were busy mocking in fact look up to politicians, and that is politicians who do not look down on them.

The reasons why the ruling party wins the hearts of these "poor and emaciated" people is due to the respect ZANU-PF extends to them. These are ordinary Zimbabweans who face daily challenges and to call them all types of names is disrespect of the highest order.

The condescending and dismissive undertones and attitude from the opposition ranks only repels voters and hence their perennial second fiddle status.

The degrading remarks by the opposition suggest the social distance that exists between the "elitist" Zimbabwe opposition and the grassroots.

That is the ground that opposition will always struggle to gain on the ruling party, which inhales and exhales the grassroots.

The opposition pays scant attention to the same grassroots they despise so much and then cry foul when these "emaciated and poor people" vote for the ruling party in large numbers.

The Zimbabwe opposition is paralysed by its politics of power for the sake of power and they pay very little attention to those people who really matter.

Attention is being solely paid to the urban voters whilst neglecting and looking down upon the grassroots. The snobbish attitude exhibited by those in the opposition extends to dismissing the inconvenient truths about them.

The response from the ordinary Zimbabweans to these unwarranted attacks is a vote for a party that accords them the respect they deserve.

Those people being demonised for attending the march are like any other citizen and they should be accorded the respect befitting other citizens.

The Zimbabwe Constitution is very clear on freedoms and these "poor and emaciated" people exercised one of those freedoms when they gathered in Harare.

bernardbwoni.blogspot.com