- Recently, under pressure to sell the misguided and mischievous idea that Zimbabwe was in a constitutional crisis, prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party took to Sadc and hoped to use a Defence and Security Troika meeting to legitimate the same. The meeting did not take place and, naturally the MDC-T party was disappointed and frustrated...
By Tichaona Zindoga
SADC is a toothless bulldog.
This, the guess is right, can only be the gospel according to an 11-year-old western-created and funded political outfit (or misfit) called the Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
This is the same group that once described Sadc, the revolutionary grouping that derived from the liberation movement of the Frontine States, as a “bunch of dictators” when it acted the obvious of rejecting to kowtow to Western imperialist designs in and of the MDC.
One can remember the one time that former South African president Thabo Mbeki, tried to knock some sense into the party particularly through the head of Tsvangirai.
Mbeki suffered MDC insults in the course of his duties as Sadc-appointed mediator in Zimbabwe’s inter-party talks pitting the two MDC formations and Zanu-PF that gave birth to the current inclusive Government.
He had to remind Tsvangirai in a strongly worded letter that the party’s future and prospects better reposed on the continent and on its neighbours rather than far away in the West.
The latest misgiving about the regional body comes against the backdrop of MDC-T not having had a chance to sell its idea of a "constitutional crisis" it makes-believe exists in Zimbabwe and one which analysts have identified is crucial to this a party that feeds on confusion.
Much to the chagrin of MDC-T, the recent Sadc summit in Gaborone, Botswana, failed to discuss Zimbabwe on its organ on Politics, Defence and Security as two of its members, chair Zambian President Rupiah Banda and his Mozambican counterpart Armando Guebuza were not present.
That is if they believed that a crisis exists in Zimbabwe warranting expenditure of their energies.
(Banda, we hear, had just come all the way from Brazil and perhaps rightly needed a deserved rest.)
But the authors of a pseudo-crisis in Zimbabwe, plus the letters purporting the same that of course bore no more than embarrassment for those behind them, were understandably upset.
The forum would be a chance to redeem the lost pride and cause.
(The "toothless dog" insinuation, one has to own, was a gratuitous offer by a paper sympathetic to the cause of MDC-T.)
So Nelson Chamisa, MDC-T spokesperson, told the local daily that "they were disappointed by the way Sadc was handling the Zimbabwean crisis, adding that the regional body’s capacity was being tested."
Chamisa said: “The credibility and legitimacy of Sadc is certainly put in jeopardy with such developments…This matter deserves urgency and seriousness because there is a risk of a political slide which is not good for the people of Zimbabwe."
Trying to perpetuate the myth of a constitutional crisis espoused in the "notorious" October 7 letters, as some would put it, Chamisa added: “Rome is burning and we don’t want to be consumed in the fires of violence and acrimony.”
The party's secretary general Tendai Biti weighed in saying he was "extremely disappointed with Sadc’s capacity or lack thereof because the confusion that was there is unparalleled.”
He wondered: “The critical question is whether people are able to stand up to the truth. Is Sadc able to stand up to bullies? ls Sadc able to stand up to errant members?”
No matter how hard the two MDC-T officials - the one the motor-mouth spokesman and the other the supposed think-tank - tried to be diplomatic about it, the subtext of their speeches reeked of contempt of Sadc.
One temptation would be to sympathise with their cause for the simple reason that, as they say, they had been invited to the meeting only to be told that it could not take place and this understandably could not have gone done well with a desperate party trying to gain a modicum of legitimacy.
But as the quoted text above would reveal, they betrayed more than the setback would warrant.
The assonance of the general sentiment contained therein with the stated and well-known contempt for Sadc makes the MDC-T's grief with the Troika issue something not beyond reproach.
For, MDC-T, as represented by Chamisa, wants to call into question virtues of "credibility" and "legitimacy" when in fact the agenda they are driving in particular the "constitutional crisis" lack both credibility and legitimacy.
It is well known that had Sadc entertained the issue it would be the one that would have brought value to the idea of "constitutional crisis" which the United Nations, Sadc and even the European Union rejected by disregarding Tsvangirai's purported nullification of constitutional appointments by President Mugabe.
In effect, Chamisa tried to get the Sadc that his party villifies, whether in secret or public, to give credence to that which everybody else had found bereft of such.Namely, that somewhere in Zimbabwe is a Rome burning.
And as expected, when he couldn't get his way he only fell short of stating that his party's long-held Western inspired view that Sadc lacked credibility and legitimacy - all for obvious reasons.
As for Biti it was "the club of dictators" all over again.
"Bullies" and "errant members" in his words are no more than euphemisms for "dictators" made softer in light of the suit for the support for the cause.
Yet the usual cynical MDC-T echoed in the insinuation that Sadc might lack capacity to deal with these "errant members" and "bullies", after all.
However, Biti might need reminding that after all is said and done, the "errant members" and "bullies" in the region are none other than his party as backed by the western powers who seek to drag the region back to the days of colonialism and sow the seeds of destruction.
Biti should know that seeking to get Rupiah Banda to legitimate MDC-T's myth of "constitutional-crisis" in Zimbabwe, when Zimbabwe has rejected the notion and would have its own apparatus to deal with the same if the matter arose, would be nothing short of playing Banda against Zimbabwe's sovereignty.
The MDC-T is a champion of blackmail.
This is largely seen in the party trying to play moral high ground in matters of the region, to the extent of trying to bully Sadc members into taking hook line and sinker whatever the party believes in.
It is known that the party assumes its fine airs from its western creators and benefactors whom they trust to "fix" Sadc members for refusing to submit the fifth column in the MDC-T.
To demonstrate this, it is on record that the western powers have increasingly sought to pressure South Africa into "pressuring Mugabe", failure of which African biggest economy has been threatened with "going the Zimbabwe way".
That South Africa has in parenthesis with its role on Zimbabwe, as prescribed by the West, been touted as a "democracy" and suchlike exhortations is also meant to influence the country in fearing loss of these ideals.
This very much seems the MDC-T strategy.
Chamisa's calling into question aspects like Sadc's "credibility" and "legitimacy" are very much in the mould of the democracy that South Africa is said to have and risk losing in its leaders do not "get tough with Mugabe."
It will be noted though that for all its pretences and attempts at appearing a serious party deserving of respect or even support abroad, at home the party does not warrant that much.
Ever wondered why in this day of the inclusive Government, even the learned amongst us continue to call the party "opposisition" when it technically ceased to be so upon accessing Government?
This can only be explained in light of the party's lack of seriousness in matters of State and national importance.
Just recently, the party caused two disruptions of Senate business, which resulted in the adjournment of the House to next year.
MDC senators heckled in the Upper House in protest over the reappointment of provincial governors who were constitutionally appointed by President Mugabe.
Then came the strip incident involving which MDC-T appointee, Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Australia Jacqueline Zwambila.
She pulled off the stunt as she confronted embassy staff that she accused of leaking information on a website on which she had denied the existence of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the European Union.
She had said that these sanctions, which have drawn worldwide condemnation, did not affect the country even though her party, which invited the sanctions from its Western friends, acknowledged their presence in the inclusive Government-making Global Political Agreement.
The region, Sadc, the African Union, the Non-Aligned Movement, among other world bodies have all been seized with the matter and calls have been made for their immediate lifting.
Rightly, she has earned herself recall from the posting while the hosts have also called her to explain the reports.
Now that should provide one pointer or the other on who should teach anybody anything on legitimacy and credibility.
No comments:
Post a Comment