I know many of you hate Robert Mugabe with a passion. This epistle is not about praising Mugabe, but it is going to be critical of one of his rivals. Please lend me an ear.
This epistle is about a man whose qualities we all know are not up to standard. A man whose indecisiveness and lack of self-confidence is legendary.
Morgan Tsvangirai is not the best opposition leader that Zimbabwe could have. Besides his well known name, there is no other quality he exhibits that marks him as a leader. Let me remind you that his ending up as a leader was entirely opportunistic. He just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
Let me also remind you that the place where he was, he was put there by Zanu-PF. He was secretary general of the ZCTU during the years, when the labour movement was hand in glove with Zanu-PF, similar to the relationship between COSATU and the ANC today.
When one thinks back, you begin to get ideas of why Tsvangirai has proved to be so inept as a leader. With a propensity to minimize potential leadership challengers, Robert Mugabe would have endorsed for the ZCTU, a potential source for challenges, a leader least likely to be successful as a challenger. If that was his strategy, then we all have no choice but to add another feather to Mugabe's hat of cunning tricks.
Given the list of unbelievably bad management decisions, Zimbabwe's leadership has been open to any COMPETENT challenger for the past 15 or so years. While many would like to attribute Tsvangirai's inability to unseat Mugabe to dirty tricks, his own lack of strategic vision is the chief culprit. Perhaps that he is the main challenger was actually part of Mugabe's strategic vision.
In short Tsvangirai was a Zanu-PF faithful who saw an opportunity and took it, without any particular passion for a cause. That lack of passion is one of the reasons why the MDC seems so lethargic when it comes to being outfoxed by Zanu-PF.
The reason why Tsvangirai is leading the MDC today is because many of you believe he is the best chance for unseating Robert Mugabe not because he is the best leader for Zimbabwe. I have no doubt that even within his own party, there are many who are more capable than he is.
I also firmly believe that if the natural dynamics of leadership contests had happened without biased financial backing of one man by you, the MDC will have evolved a much better leadership than it has today.
You do not understand our politicians as well as we do. Some of us have been telling you from day one that those guys are after money. Remember also that they are not fools who will throw away the chance to enjoy the money they make, simply for the sake of fighting Zanu-PF. In their quest for your money they will tell you what you want to hear, not what they believe.
You have stuck with Tsvangirai not because he represents the best interests of the nation, but because he has been your best hope of advancing the interests of the white minority on whose behalf you have shown such tremendous interest in Zimbabwe.
Of course you are aware of his naivete, his gullibility and his manipulability. I believe those are exactly the qualities that attract you to him because you believe that once he has the right powers, you can use him to advance your narrow interests. Those interests are in no way guaranteed to be the same as the interests of the majority of Zimbabwe's people.
Given the power you have over the international media, you can always panel beat the message to whatever you want it to be. Like you are panel beating the message in Libya to make it sound positive when it is so, so depressing.
Do not think we haven't noticed how you abandoned the people of Libya to the vagaries of uncontrollable militias once your narrow interests were achieved. Indeed some of us believe that you like such a scenario because it leaves the people of Libya weak and unable to assert their will over their resources.
In the case of Zimbabwe, it is evident that a weak manipulable leader like Tsvangirai will be easier to manipulate and use him to prevent the people of Zimbabwe from asserting their will over their resources.
It also does not escape us that Zimbabwe is a useful testing ground for policies that might also be applicable to South Africa.
Your money is propping up a bunch of politicians merely opposed to Zanu-PF but not necessarily committed to greater democracy. You money is building a small elite that is competing with the Zanu-PF small elite. By encouraging these groups to fight and distract each other from running Zimbabwe, your money is worsening the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans.
In this way, you are part of the problem that Zimbabwe is facing.
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