Upload Image Chamisa explains MDC-T decision to withdraw election petition While we must confess that we are not the first borns and last borns in the field of foresight, strategy, courage and skill, the decision to refuse to give Zanu PF an open cheque to write and confirm their false legitimacy of the rigged and stolen election through the courts is the best under the circumstances. Understandably Zanu PF is shocked and angry at our refusal to be kowtowed and shepherded into the political slaughterhouse by allowing them to narrow and define the four corners of our political song and dance. Zanu PF advised us to stick to the legal route. We refused to accept Zanu PF advice. Hell can never be Heaven’s consultant firm!!! By refusing to dance to the Zanu PF tune, we have redrawn the battle lines and contours as well as terms of the political struggle/battle. From the onset, the reasons for going to courts were political. The legal route was inherently designed as a validating act to the political one which I may not be at liberty to delve into at this juncture. We were aware from the first day that with the inarticulate major premise and political colour of those who control the levers of the legal route, little if not nothing would come out of the courts. We however occasioned to extract the maximum take home political value out the evidence that would be adduced and played out during the trial. The key reasons for the legal route were premised not so much on the axis of a favourable outcome but primarily on the pivot of the court process and evidence that would be exhumed during the trial and submission of viva voce (oral) evidence as a way of proving beyond any shadow of doubt that the election was encyclopaedically rigged. The trial process would have entailed the summoning of key witnesses and election material to prove the veracity of our well founded claims. As you may know, our lawyers have been denied the opportunity to inspect the voting and election material. In addition, no oral evidence would be submitted for the case. With the aforementioned circumstances, participating in such a hopeless and futile case would have been fatal and would be to allow ourselves to be dragged into the washer. Zanu PF would have wanted us to remain tethered on the legal route without some of the crucial material evidence being adduced during the court process. Quite evidently, our case was going to be attenuated and subsequently dismissed. That would weaken our political case and be the centre of focus away from the election skulduggery and shenanigans that unfolded in the context of the July 31 farce. The court decision would have pre-empted the actions and judgment of forces and friends of Zimbabwe who would want to help the loving people of Zimbabwe to ward off illegitimacy and return to majority will. The key question was, do we proceed to give a veneer of legitimacy to Zanu PF on a silver platter through the courts by sheepishly going to court regardless of the imposed restrictive and prohibitive conditionalities or we deny them the grandstanding opportunity provided by the slippery legal route and continue to strengthen the political route to undermine the pillars of illegitimacy. The key question is, what next? Our major narrative is that the Zimbabwean crisis is essentially a political one not a legal one. The crisis in Zimbabwe is a crisis of legitimacy. In short, a crisis of governance. The latest development firmly places the Election matter back into the province of politics and the people where it rightfully belongs. The key starting point is that both the AU and SADC, the people of Zimbabwe including those in Zanu PF have not pronounced the Zimbabwean election as free and fair by arriving at the conclusion that whereas the election was contest-ably free, fairness was totally contested a terrain and function of evidence to be provided by all aggrieved parties. In this regard, we have tonnes of evidence and acres of dossier of the alleged manipulation. We need a forensic audit of the election process and material. Above all we need a new, fresh, credible and proper election in Zimbabwe. As a student, activist and practitioner of democratization I posit a five-pronged approach for a return to legitimacy and democracy: a) Refusing to be swallowed or cohabit with fraudulent schemes and outcomes b) Guarding zones of autonomy by maintaining the mass line as our punch line c) Increase the cost of cheating d) Erode the pillars of autocracy and dictatorship that undermine our nationhood and people sovereignty e) Build and strengthen a credible alternative, the people’s party of Excellence anchored on better policies and better strategies. While we may not have cruelty, blood and sorrow as our DNA and default setting, we have the people and Our God on our side. We continue our march to a New Zimbabwe. God willing, a new beginning is around the corner !!!Real Change is in the air. God bless you!!! Nelson Chamisa is the National Organising Secretary of the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai and also the outgoing Minister of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the just ended coalition government.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 12:51:03 +0000
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