Thursday, August 25, 2005

Has Tsvangirai seen the light?

Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president is reportedly returning to the masses. The Fingaz reports that he is going around the country engaging the public in consultations on the way forward.

"AFTER three futile attempts to dislodge the ruling party from power, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai has resolved to go back to the people to brainstorm for ideas to end the stalemate between his party and ZANU PF.

MDC insiders said Tsvangirai had launched a series of rallies countrywide to consult party supporters after President Robert Mugabe snubbed talks on Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.
Cracks have reportedly been widening within the MDC after the March 31 parliamentary elections as frustrations heightened over the six-year-old party's failure to end ZANU PF's 25-year grip on power.
The MDC tried to use the ballot box to gain ground but failed amid an outcry over vote rigging, intimidation and an uneven electoral playing field."

This is exactly what democracy is about; empowering and enabling society to have voice and be abel exert that voice as it relates to governence and slef determination.

The MDC has been criticized for riding on the desperation of the people to gain political solvency and then turning around and neglecting the people's cries once they gained acces to parliament in 1999. From the get go I said that the MDC needed to make engaging and consulting the Zimbabwean people priority numero uno; before seeking parliamentary equality with ZANU-PF, before seeking the help of people outside the country, and before undoing the injustice at the ballot box. Months ago I wrote,
"Somehow, after the MDC debuted as a political party, Tsvangirai's leadership began to distance itself from the realities and hardships faced by the proletariat. [regime] Change became his party's clarion call. As early as the run up to the 2002 presidential elections, MDC began to emphasize the need for regime change louder than they articulated wishes of the masses.

But these continued cries for change didn't alleviate the pinch of an economy imploding under high inflation and unemployment as well as the detrimental effects of AIDS. Those were and remain the immediate concerns of the public in Zimbabwe.As long as ordinary Zimbabweans don't hear the MDC championing their cause, for food security, employment and sustained economic growth, MDC can rest assured all the sympathies for them will come from a small minority.

And that spells doom for them unless they change the mainstay of their platform and it's not too late to do that yet."

See this too.

I hope Tsvangirai has seen the light.

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