"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come." Victor Hugo
To have or not to have elections in 2011 that is the question? There have been compelling arguments put forward for both having and not having the elections. I have been grappling with this difficult question for the past few weeks. Every time I have found myself going back to the question: What ever happened to our fighting spirit?
Zimbabweans have been variously described as meek, passive and lacking in fighting spirit by several political and media commentators. It is difficult for me to accept that Zimbabweans have no fight in them. These are the people who, in their different ways, rose up against the evil and supremely armed Rhodesian system. As communities, Mujibhas, Chimbwidos and guerrillas they stood up against the oppressive system that treated them as second class citizens in their homeland. They were not intimidated by the fact that Ian Smith controlled the army and the police. They were not stopped by the fact that Smith was prepared to use violence and the arms of war to stop them from achieving their dream. They stood up to him and other Rhodesians.
It is this that makes it difficult for me to understand the defeatist attitude that seems to have engulfed our nation. Zimbabweans have been cowed down by Mugabe and ZPF to the extent that they have accepted their lot. Everyone knows that elections will be violent; that ZPF will use the army, police and militias to subdue the people. No one would wish to see what happened to people in cities and villages during the 2008 election happen again. But for how long are we going to wait? What guarantee is there that if we wait 2, 3 or 5 years the situation will change? Some arguments seem to suggest that people have completely given up the hope of taking on Mugabe. We seem to be happy to pick up the crumps from Mugabe’s table. There is a long list of political commentators, politicians, journalists and ordinary people who believe it is best to let the unease ‘peace’ that we are currently enjoying last than try to dislodge the ZPF regime. People are quick to point to the fact that things have improved; business is recovering and some international aid is flowing into the country. Why put all this at risk by having an election?
My answer is that we need to have a government directly elected by the people not one cobbled together by politicians under a tree. We need to have a President who makes decisions because he has the people’s mandate not one who owes his presidency to a compromise by politicians. As Zimbabweans we fought a difficult war of liberation for the right to choose our leaders. We must, therefore, dig deep into that fighting spirit that defined us during the liberation struggle. We should not allow Mugabe to kill this indomitable Zimbabwean spirit that helped us fight against all odds. Zimbabwe should be bigger than the politicians and their political parties. We should not be intimidated by the fact that Mugabe and ZPF control the army, police and militias. We should not be stopped by the fact that Mugabe and ZPF, like Ian Smith, are prepared to use violence to maintain the status quo.
Zimbabwe should have elections and the time frame should not be dictated to us by those who use violence and those who threaten violence. I am quite happy for people to argue that systems are not yet in place to run an election so we should delay them. But for people to advocate that we postpone elections indefinitely because we fear violence is unacceptable. Violence has been allowed to define our lives and I think it is time that we take control of our lives again. We fought for this freedom and we must defend it with our lives. The time has come for us to reclaim our homeland from the small clique of politicians who think that they can ride roughshod over us forever. This is an idea whose time has come and we must stand up to be counted.
