These actions are a clear reminder of what your previous partnership with Zanu (PF) can do to destroy the very meaning and substance of our independence. (Pictured: Professor Jonathan Moyo)I must mention, dear Professor Moyo, that you have become part and master of a terrible political culture that treats political divergence as an unpatriotic attempt to disturb the natural order of our national politics.
While more urgent issues such as deaths caused by man-made disasters like cholera, state-sponsored political violence and drought are in need of attention, we still have members of parliament like you who have the time, vision, and intelligence to abuse public space to insult alternative voices and political opponents, and your expectations are that Zimbabweans should render unquestioning audience and allegiance to their selfless liberators Zanu (PF).
Concerned Zimbabweans find this political conduct a part of the grand and regrettable, selfish political manoeuvring and opportunism that continues to contaminate our national politics. You still, on behalf of Zanu (PF), act as the ill-functioning apparatus of threatening, insulting and intimidating alternative voices and opinions that are demanding accountability from their leaders.
Are you really confessing to the suffering and expectant Zimbabweans that your task in joining Zanu (PF) is to waste your energies in exposing MDC rather than improving their terrible plight? Well, they say that a people without a vision for the future will always hang on to the past, and what a dirty past it is.
Do you not realise how much pain and suffering under violent and brutal punishment Zimbabweans have had to take for simply disagreeing with Zanu (PF)? Do you not marvel at their audacity to still question, challenge and even disagree with Zanu (PF) nevertheless?
I must tell you that it is not the MDC, but the power within the people of Zimbabwe that scares you into this thoughtless and careless frenzy. The people of Zimbabwe may be poor and hungry, but they do have aspirations.
Your attack on the only remaining papers that give truth-seeking Zimbabweans alternative platforms for information and discussion is very much a chilling reminder of your hatred for open governance and transparent leadership; the very hatred that consumed you in crafting AIPPA, POSA and the Broadcasting Services Act, all draconian pieces of legislation that destroyed our celebrated freedom of speech and expression.
These actions are a clear example and reminder of what your previous partnership with Zanu (PF) can do to destroy the very meaning and substance of our independence as a people and nation, and that will not be forgotten.
You spoke authoritatively about Gukurahundi in your interview and because of that, I think it may help you to know that this very act of silencing political opponents and insulting alternative views you are performing is the perpetuation of Gukurahundi.
The Gukurahundi you talk about and care about so much never really did end with the cessation of political violence in Matabeleland and Midlands, but has continued in different and hidden forms to this day. It has even expanded its focus to the new political opposition supporters like the MDC.
Dear professor, let me end by telling you that we, the people of Zimbabwe, have a dream. Our dream is of a Zimbabwe where politics will neither be about winning arguments nor about total devils and total angels. A country where politics and political debate is promoted on the understanding that it is about influencing decisions that serve the interests of all our citizens. Our dream is of a varied political leadership that does not spend sleepless nights thinking of the next line of attack on Tendai Biti.
We dream of leaders who get into office to serve the nation better by contributing to policies that will get Zimbabwe working again. It is very painful for me to say that your conduct stands in the way of our dream. I say so because you are part of the political leadership, the so-called liberators that have kept the nation trapped in the blame-the-next-person-but-myself psyche, a victimhood mentality that assumes we are all passive recipients of whatever happens or happened to us.
Let this be known to you, Oh professor, that Zimbabweans will never again live within the confines of a controlled political and public space!
Post published in: Opinions