#zimelections #zimdecides Tsvangirai: Prisoner of his own rhetoric Wednesday, 24 July 2013 02:48 View Comments Morgan Tsvangirai Itayi Garande Anyone who has read Harry Porter novels will understand the narrative misdirection that MDC-T sympathisers are feeding the Zimbabwean people. JK Rowling has employed it in each of her books to create the impression in the reader’s mind that they have a good idea of what is going on when really all they have is Harry’s view. Harry is a little slow, thus his perspective is quite a restricted one. We find out about this at the end of every book when circumstances reveal all the mistakes Harry made in judgment, often from lack of information or just misunderstanding and neglecting clues on the periphery of his vision. This slap-in-the-forehead revelation confounds not just the reader but the protagonist Harry himself. The characters in the Harry Porter books also practise narrative misdirection, for example, Voldemort in Chamber of Secrets where he used his diary presentation of Hagrid-as-Heir-of-Gryffindor for that purpose, and again in Order of the Phoenix where he convinces the wizard world of what they want to believe — that he isn’t back, when he is clearly in front of them. This is the world of make-believe, we love it. What’s life without hyperbole? The fact that the readers see almost everything through Harry’s eyes is what keeps them fooled. They only know that they were being fooled at the end. The reader of Harry Porter forgets that they are reading Harry’s restricted thoughts, not seeing the story from the objective narrator. It is all too easy to be tricked. The point is, that people aren’t what they seem. That people can be playing other people using, in Harry Porter’s case, Polyjuice Potion, of course, only makes it that much more important that we be sceptical about what we think we know and that we try to be “penetrating” in our reading and experience of others. Accomplished writers know that this virtue of mind, penetration, is the end and aim of thoughtful reading. But are we with them? I am. We’re nothing if we’re not neptic, right? In Orthodox Christian theology, nepsis is watchfulness, is sobriety; but it does not come cheap. It is a result of sustained carthasis or purification and purgation of emotions. When we become neptic, we can hear and not feel because we have already felt. Our tragedy allows us to overcome fear and anxiety because we have gone through some form of carthasis. Zimbabweans over the last decade in particular have gone through some form of carthasis and have become neptic. Thanks to the raft of illegal sanctions and the dysfunctionality of the inclusive Government or that three-headed monster that could easily form the subject of Harry Porter’s wizardry. No amount of spin or narrative misdirection on the Zimbabwean story can transfix us anymore into the hypnotic state that we experience through reading Harry Porter, or any other wizardry script. In that light, it is difficult to threaten us or call our emotions in a manner that is reminiscent of 2008 as the MDCs are trying to do — filled with cholera images, images of hunger and starvation, of bucket loads of cash. Because we hit rock bottom in 2008, carthasised and emerged somewhat triumphantly, and because we now know the sources of those troubles, we can no longer feed on the 2008 narrative, the narrative of hunger, that we will all die if the MDC-T is not voted into power. Cholera has come and gone, without the lifting of sanctions, it can’t come worse than it did in 2007. Our people have carthasised and are now neptic. Simply put, they have moved on from the political narrative of hunger and now focus on nation-building and ownership of the means of production. Carthasis is great because once people are enlightened they can no longer think in simple terms. Our intellectual clarity does not allow us to accept narrative misdirection like “Vote for me and investor money will pour into Zimbabwe”. Which investor, what money? The same investor that failed Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola, DRC, Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania, Madagascar, Swaziland and Lesotho for decades? People are no longer thinking in such simplistic terms, because they already voted for the MDCs in 2008 and manna did not fall from heaven for them. We cannot wallow in orgies of emotion and passion in perpetuity. After five years of the inclusive Government, Zimbabweans are more enlightened. Zimbabweans cannot rest content with a lie, they have already torn away the last veil from the illusion in which they have been made to live so long — that salvation comes from those who damned you in the first place — the West. “Mugabe is too old to rule” The “Oracle” that is Tsvangirai has told Zimbabwe, which has the highest literacy rate on the continent, that we should vote him as President of Zimbabwe because “Mugabe is old”. Did they ever vote Mugabe into power because he was young? This failure to understand why after such vilification (nationally and internationally) Mugabe holds sway is the reason why the MDCs have failed to appeal to large sections of the Zimbabwean population. The “We hate Robert Mugabe”, “Robert Mugabe is old” narrative cannot generate electoral victory in a country where the conscience of the people has gone through years of catharsis through a protracted liberation struggle. This sort of Quill Club top-down analysis that the MDC-T survives on, based on boardroom or senior common room notions of what people want, cannot guarantee electoral victory in a country like Zimbabwe, given the genealogy of its struggle. The Quill Club is a social space for imbibers and we all know such people cannot generate national electoral success. The psychology of the ballot box is much more complicated than the numbers of red berets displayed at rallies or the variety of ludicrous dances displayed by wannabe leaders. No Harry Porter wizardry will translate that into electoral victory. Tsvangirai’s story-telling during this election round is tired and time warped. Delgado will tell you that storytelling in court is meant to convince judge and jury and the storyteller’s narrative has to resonate with the psyche of those two groups. If not, the case will be lost. One simply cannot discredit a presidential aspirant because of their age. This is a tired story, a misdirected narrative. In fact Zimbabwe will not be in the Guinness Book of World Records if President Mugabe is voted into power, as Tsvangirai said. President of the State of Israel, Shimon Perez, turned 90 in June. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia still reigns supreme at President Mugabe’s age, so does Giorgio Napolitano, current President of Spain. Napolitano, born in 1925, was elected on the fourth round of legislative balloting, on May 10 2006 and re-elected to a second term on the sixth round with 738 votes, much more than the 504 necessary for a simple majority on 20 April 2013. Age is not an issue, capacity is. Is Tsvangirai capable? Does he have a story to sell the Zimbabwean people, apart from his protest politics? The Castro family is loved not because of age but has a national story which resonates with the Cuban people. The Cubans gave a solid 52 years to Fidel Castro, the Chinese 46 to Chiang Kai-Shek, the Spanish 39 years to Francisco Franco, the Portuguese 39 years to António de Oliveira Salazar, and the Bulgarians 35 years to Todor Zhivkov. Winston Churchill started his second term at a senior age of 77, even after suffering a series of strokes prior to that. Why did the British vote him into power? They were facing a danger and needed Churchill’s skill and dexterity to handle national and international affairs. Why was he recently voted as the Best Briton that ever lived, surpassing Shakespeare? At 87 years, Queen Elizabeth II is Head of State, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Head of the Commonwealth, queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylo. The national story is told and handled better by the Queen and she is a symbol of continuity of Britishness. John McCain’s resurgence in US politics is inspired by his role as a veteran soldier, and his ripe age is immaterial. Long service is not only characteristic of Africa, that’s a lie peddled by those who are lazy to read, or those bent on narrative misdirection for personal gain. “We will generate a million jobs in five years” How does one generate a million jobs in five years from a sanctioned economy whose key economic players are subjected to the panoptic scrutiny of the Office for Foreign Assets Control (Ofac)? A million jobs cannot be generated by economies who are pampered by the West. EU is generating zero jobs at the moment and the economies of the constituent countries are flat lining or registering negative growth. What more can Zimbabwe do under Zidera, under the Ofac noose? Sanctions are here to stay, especially US Zidera. It needs a Senate committee to remove the restrictions, then a bill to be passed by the House of Representatives, and that’s no walk-in-the park. Ask Nelson Mandela who had the embarrassing moment as president of South Africa of getting special certification from the US secretary of state that he was no longer a terrorist in order to visit the country. Ofac has, and will continue to lynch our economy. That lynching cannot be atoned by Tsvangirai’s narrative misdirection. Zimbabweans are smart people, that’s why the Winter of Discontent, the Final Push, the Last Mile and other such ridiculous mottos suffered stillbirth. Enter the “Grand Coalitions” They are not grand, and they are not coalitions. The last political unity in Zimbabwe was in 1987 between Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu. It subsists today with the fault lines getting blurred. You cannot create a grand coalition with your fraction, the two MDCs were once one, they became rhizomatic. You cannot create a grand coalition with a non-existent political party — Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn. That is not a party, it’s a project, and projects have a shelf life, as we saw with Makoni’s chickening out of the presidential race. Zapu also is no more. It already merged with Zanu on two major occasions: in 1979 to form the Patriotic Front, and the PF was superglued in 1987 by the Unity Accord. Anything calling itself Zapu is not a people’s union, but a “Zimbabwe African Personalities Union”. The Zanu Ndonga that supposedly merged with MDC-T is neither a party nor a project, but a one-man Muppet show by a man who submitted his nomination papers to run for Parliament under the name of the MDC-T, so it cannot form a coalition with itself. There is a narrative misdirection implied in the term “grand coalition”. Tsvangirai is a brand that has been propped up for some time to promote certain foreign policy interests of certain countries. There has been some investment by someone and that investment cannot be dispensed willy nilly. However, Tsvangirai lacks the precision of a technocrat; he needs some hand-holding as WikiLeaks revealed. This is where Makoni fills the hole, yes there’s a hole. He’s a local hand-holder. Combine the two; you have good surrogates for a grand foreign policy, not of Zimbabwe, but for whoever calls the tune — the payer of the piper. For Makoni, it is also about personal ambition, therein lies the problem. So the MDC-T hole will never be filled. Let’s admit, since Willowgate and since Sadc, things have not been as rosy for Makoni on a personal level. Tipped, back in the day, as a future Zanu-PF leader — he astonished people by breaking away from the party, in the hope that he would send shockwaves in national politics. There was no reading on the Richter scale — and no other dissenters came forth except Dabengwa. Now he is preparing for a role in an imaginary GNU. He is rooting for one, just like Tsvangirai, just like Welshman. Like in the Harry Porter offing, “Phoenix” the GNU co-conspirators are convinced of the world they believe will exist. They have already carved a live ox, and partitioned a government of make-believe. They are living in a 2007-8 time warp. Unlike Harry Porter, Tsvangirai, Ncube, Dabengwa, Makoni do not have the Polyjuice Potion to alter the national story, or bring about another GNU. The catharsis that Zimbabweans experienced cannot be altered, it is a lived experience. You cannot alter people’s past experiences, you may try to influence the future experience, but even that is a surmountable task. Besides, it is too late, indigenisation and empowerment are upon us, and our boardrooms are filled with harbingers of 51 percent, the mind has been set, the mindset cannot be altered. Our farms are occupied and functioning, or well on their way to functioning. Our people have the entrepreneurial spirit, not the worker mentality and the colonial economy of 1980 was replaced by a different mindset. Thanks to sanctions, people now know the importance of owning their own, working their own, trading their own. Just ask the Chief Registrar of Companies how many names are still available for company registration. Not many, you’d have to come up with very creative name permutations to register a company in Zimbabwe. I tried it. Security Sector Reform There is a footprint to the narrative of security sector reform. Whose footprint is the question? Surely it is not a national one, inspired by national sentiment. It is someone locked in the Africom project, in military expansionism, in unipolarity, in replacing diplomacy with something very sinister, very alien. Security sector reform was completed in 1980 with Zanla, Zipra and the Rhodesia Front coming together. Why do you think Dabengwa “the Black Russian” has no appetite for it? Propping the security sector debate is another classic example of narrative misdirection. The Constitutional exercise relegated this issue to the dustbin together with media reform. They never featured, why should they feature now? There is simply no national appetite for these issues. The national debate is and has always been about land. Lancaster House negotiations almost collapsed over land ownership debates. Chimurengas were about land, ask the Tangwena people. It is as important today as it was at Lancaster House, and it divides political players as it did back in the days of Chimurenga. The preamble to the new Constitution highlights this. National discourse about security sector reform and devolution has failed to take off, but through narrative misdirection they have been catapulted into national debates with disastrous consequences. Our troops are professional and well respected globally, and cannot be disbanded to be replaced by a paramilitary group composed of unprofessional renegades who do not have an understanding of the history and struggles of the Zimbabwean people. “We want devolution” Who wants devolution? The word features only once in the new Constitution in Chapter 14, Section 264 “Devolution of governmental powers and responsibilities”. So why is it an electoral issue if it’s already in the Constitution? Is there selective amnesia here? The MDC had representatives during the constitutional exercise; they campaigned for a “Yes Vote”. Why did they do that if they wanted a different form of devolution? There’s lack of detail with regards to the call for devolution. The warped call for, and debate over, devolution, is couched on the hidden agenda that Matabeleland is home only to Ndebeles and they are left out of development. This is narrative misdirection. Its genealogy dates back to the invasion of the Kalanga Rozwi Empire by Ndebeles from the Zulu Kingdom in the 1830s. The Kalanga are incorporated into that group. Matabeleland houses Bulawayo, the second largest city. Why not devolve to less developed Binga or other areas? In any case, who lives in Matabeleland? The histories of Tegwani Mission and Mpilo Hospital, for example, tell a different story. Many non-Ndebele people live in the region having settled when Tegwani was the centre for education in the domestic sciences for girls and teacher training for men, and Mpilo was centre stage for nurse training and where many black doctors practised. As far as secondary education was concerned, in 1951 Tegwani became the second school after the Seventh Day Adventist mission at Solusi to admit students for the Junior Certificate. The people living in Matabeleland have no tribal inklings — they are simply Zimbabweans — and don’t care about devolution, only development, and the two are not conjoined twins. The people of arid Gwanda and other areas in Matabeleland include those Shonas who were moved by Ian Smith from fertile lands in Mashonaland. They do not have any appetite for devolution. They recognise the importance of working together as a nation. In fact Matabeleland is a construct of the colonial administration with arbitrary boundaries drawn for colonial administration’s convenience. “We want media reform” What is media reform? It is not an event, it is a process that is iterative, never-ending. Britain is still battling with that. Ask Mr Leveson . . . Much of the “momentum” for regulatory reform of the media in this country has stemmed from the MDC-T’s annoyance and frustration with The Herald’s editorial. Why does Zanu-PF not complain about the anti-Mugabe editorial of the Daily News, the Zimbabwe Independent, the Standard or NewsDay? Anti-MDC-T media coverage may be uncomfortable for Tsvangirai and his party, but taking offence is no reason in itself to impose constraints on what the Press can say. The Zimbabwean churns out anti-Mugabe and anti-Zanu-PF rhetoric, yet it was licensed in the country. We may disapprove of what the more trigger-happy journalists say on this or that issue, but we should defend to death their right to say it, as Voltaire is said to have put it. With the exceptions of hate speech and defamation, that is an essential principle for a democracy to follow. The media should never be used for political payback, or as a solid foundation on which to introduce far-reaching legislative reform. The media itself is oblivious to the implications of such a call by the MDC-T. They even publish statements in favour of media reform, but fail to demand detail from detail-deficient Tsvangirai. Talk about hanging a noose on one’s throat. With Tsvangirai in power the country would be on a precipice of a ham-fisted attempt to restrain, contain and, at its worse, punish the media in a way which is totally out of step with the energy and character of modern media and technology. Remember his threat to journalists if he wins the election? Let’s go to the polls While we go to the polls, let’s remember the tired story-telling from a man who says Zimbabwe will go down in history for electing a senior man (Mugabe) as president. That kind of stuff is fun in meetings held in rooms above pubs, over a meal funded by handlers, at the Quill Club and in blog comments, but it has no future as mainstream electoral politics. Should they, alternatively, go into the history books for electing a known “bunga bunga” Berlusconisque type womaniser instead? A country that elects a politician of Tsvangirai’s calibre, simply to drive out a revolutionary with a solid history, is practising self-harm. In the cacophony of politics, we need leaders that give intellectual form to modern challenges and to explore the challenges facing post-independence African countries in the 21st century. Comments and suggestions to info@talkzimbabwe.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 05:50:33 +0000
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