Coalition of the wounded

Opinion/analysis
Coalition of the wounded
By Frank Matandirotya

Many people now agree with Dr Madhuku's observation that ZANU P F will win the elections next year because of a number of reasons that are engulfing the opposition. Besides the defective constitution that helps ZANU P F, many of the factors in the opposition are self-inflicted. But this is also opportune time to confront some hard questions within the opposition.

Are we fighting ZANU P F for the sake of change or for a progressive political space that will transform our lives? Are we fighting for political space for a new elite of arrogant leaders or for people at the grassroots? The opposition should demonstrate how the anti-Mugabe, pro-opposition project will prove to be different. Have democratic and pluralistic practice flowered or suffered in the M D C during this anti-Mugabe mobilization? Events of past weeks, especially the still to be solved MATIBENGA issue, despite its "democratic coloring", the anti-Mugabe challenge has not been consistently driven by progressive politics.

The traditions and practices of democracy within have been trampled upon left-right and centre. Mob-cracy has taken over. We need pluralities of democratic power before the M D C gets into power. Our hopes and aspirations must not collapse alongside inconsistent leadership. Because holding political office is a revolutionary task that champions popular interests of the people, not of a selected few championing their own selfish parochial interests? We have had enough of politics of the demagogues and self-appointed messiahs. What THE M D C leadership has done is to nurture, among the rank and file politics of factionalism, plots, conspiracies, counter-conspiracies, hype and sensation all driven by the need to deliver the next blow against the other side. The result has been a systematic political demobilization, loss of democratic values and undermining democratic tendencies in broader society especially with the trade unions and civic groups. Politics has been reduced to a circus which the disempowered people have been reduced to spectators with hard choices, to watch, applaud, grumble, protest or walk out.

The party leadership has taken too much for granted. They have underestimated the degree to which they have alienated people in the party over the years. They have created a coalition of the wounded and it seems they have underestimated how angry this alienated sector of the M D C is. The party leadership has alienated this critical strata and civic alliance to the point where they have demanded a leadership change. We have gone to the stage where the leaders appear to have a general disdain for people. There is a feeling that if that could be done to Lucia Matibenga who did so much to get them into power then what can be done to the rest of us or if they are in control of the levers of power? The kind of venom that has been directed against perceived enemies has deeply offended party members.

Leadership almost everywhere is extremely difficult and good leadership needs to be rewarded. Today Zimbabwe is the poster child of a failed state, and ZANU P F is the international symbol of national dysfunction but of late opposition leadership has replaced Mugabe in the caricature of general horribleness. Years back the opposition leadership cut through problems like sharp knives and with focus dialogue and vision managed to do what seemed impossible to do to confront Mugabe and try to get Zimbabwe to work again. Retrospect is a terrible thing, after it got done it seemed as though it was a possible thing. We forget how much was done including sacrifices. We saw Zimbabweans joining the national project on the basis of the M D C promise. Today the M D C leaders are fat and have become pompous, erratic and bullies. It's not entirely their fault. Gratitude has been flowing to them in intense waves for a long time.

We make our leaders and sometimes we are quick to blame them for their "bigness" forgetting that we were dancing. What has happened to these leaders of high function and early discipline who seemed to have the necessary skills and vision to take our tired nation from the impossible to the quite probable? But have we found a way to guarantee their security beyond that? What do we need to do about them? Its clear many of them are not the right people to encourage democracy even in post-Mugabe era. Many of them live with fears and dreams that only grow worse if we do what we have been doing so far – praise them. But for the country's sake the M D C needs a collective leadership that makes a difference in people's lives it is an oft repeated truism that leaders can not exist without followers. In the MDC emphasis should be placed on a dynamic active and ongoing interaction between leaders and followers. Each takes cues from the other; each is affected by the other. The MDC today needs correct type of collective leadership that our generation fighting ZANU P F will leave to tell the story of how our generation emulated those who came before us, leaders who embodied humility, discipline and selflessness. Our generation should be able to tell the story of how they pulled the party back from something bad, ugly, horrible, deep and back into the pride, dignity and unity that characterized the MDC leadership role in delivering the 57 parliamentary seats in 2000. Personal allegiance to an individual in the hope of some post-Mugabe reward is likely to prove a huge disappointment.

Today we are witnessing the seeds of our party's national despair as this has paved the way for mediocrity to take over, stifling efforts to reinvigorate the party and defeat ZANU P F. As the sun continues to rise to banish the unfortunate currency a new light must show a flourishing party with an entrenched culture of plurality of opinions that must forever remain the bed rock of our commonality. Political leadership is an improvisational art meaning that to take us to the Promised Land the leadership must respond to what is happening in society.

Unless the leadership repeatedly moves back and forth from the comfort of the corridors of power, steps back to assess the results of its decisions and continually refines its plants, crises will inevitably set in, as will the crisis leadership mode of functioning. The party leadership must think politically by emphasis not on puerile and parochial intentions but on developing and nurturing the MDC relationships with community organizations, civic groups, and our alliance partners. Such relationships are as vital to the party as air is to breathing. Next year we will then be prepared to end ZANU P F hegemony.