I didn’t even write O-level history. That is probably why I still read history widely and with interest, but maybe I have my own slant on it.
One impression I get from my reading is that for a couple of decades in the 19th century, British parliamentary elections were repeated contests between Gladstone and Disraeli. That sounds to me a lot healthier than what happens today, when a party leader who loses an election is sacked instantly. One day he’s a hero, the next he’s a zero. There’s no place between those two.
Of course, the news media encourage this attitude. Spectacular success is news. Disastrous failure is news. Blood flowing in the streets is news. Small successes, small failures and small disasters don’t sell papers or keep people glued to the TV.
But, in real life, how many people are heroes? How many are zeroes? Most come somewhere in between, so let’s remind ourselves of a few things:
To some people Robert Mugabe is still a hero. They aren’t all villains. Some just haven’t fallen out of love with him and Zanu (PF) yet.
Some have fallen out of love so heavily they see no good in him, now or ever in the past.
Likewise, there are people who, as soon as they discovered Morgan Tsvangirai was not perfect (meaning he’s human) assumed he had become a zero.
Although the top leaders of ZANU-PF have reduced their party to a machine for holding all-singing all-dancing rallies to approve whatever the chefs announce to them, there are still some people lower down who are embarrassed by a lot of the antics of the chefs but still believe they can do some good by staying in the party. We might compare them to the people who didn’t leave the Anglican Church just because Kunonga seemed to have hijacked it. They may be right, they may be wrong, but you have to take them seriously.
Although the newspapers and the chattering classes in Harare are trying to make out that the MDC is finished, it still has a large following on the ground. Beyond the ranks of the party faithful, there are a lot of people who would vote for a donkey as long as it isn’t Zanu (PF) if there was a free election. Most of them expect that if it comes to that, it will be an MDC donkey.
But that raises another question: can we expect free elections in the near future?
People are asking whether we were mistaken to vote in rigged elections in the past. We must decide for ourselves whether we vote next time. If we don’t expect the election to be free and fair, would-be candidates must be made to know that we will not vote for them. And if they still stand, we will never vote for them again.
After all, we put them there to serve us, not to collect an MP’s salary and perks.
Post published in: Opinions