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GRANDSTANDING as well as the peddling of hate speech by politicians should be deplored. Throughout the Libyan revolution, the former strongman Muammar Gaddafi used crude language –– such as rats, infidels and so forth –– to try to portray the rebels as usurpers, amateurs, thieves, robbers and anarchists, whose brief was to make Libya an Italian colony again. Sounds familiar?
Gaddafi, in the political trenches for a good 42 years, seems not to have learnt and fully understand the age-old cliché that in politics or international relations, there are no permanent friends but permanent interests. Even his own envoy in Harare ditched him.
It is a historical truism that when dictators are cornered, their spin-doctors go into over drive as they use the blame-game technique in their horrendous propaganda campaigns.
In Libya, who has had the last laugh now? The rats have outwitted the cat in its lair.
Much has been said about former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith’s words that black Zimbabweans will never attain majority rule in his lifetime. He lived long enough to be ruled by his nemesis, President Robert Mugabe.
In the two scenarios above, the grandstanding received joyous applause. However, when the end came the dictators had to eat their words.
Who can forget Zanu PF’s claim that they would rule until donkeys grow horns?
Ironically, Morgan Tsvangirai is ensconced in the Prime Minister’s office despite Zanu PF’s claims.
Recently MDC-T secretary-general, Tendai Biti, was quoted in the press as having said the death of General Solomon Mujuru was the work of Zanu PF. Granted, politicians have a knack of scoring political “goals’’ whenever a window of opportunity presents itself.
However, Biti’s speech did not match his normal think-before-you-speak wisdom. A cataclysm can easily become the consequence of grandstanding.
Indigenisation has been on the cards in Zimbabwe since the dawn of Independence. A mindset was developed over the years that political independence bereft of economic emancipation was farcical. Noone disputes that.
Higher and Tertiary Education minister Stan Mudenge recently urged youths in Masvingo to grab foreign-owned companies in the province. Of course such a clarion call can be sweet music to the throng but one must ask whether the call is consistent with the agenda of making Zimbabwe moving again.
Such a speech threatens the economic stability of the country.
Speeches have been the defining moments of many a politician. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s “Britain’s finest hour’’speech emboldened a nation that was almost on its knees in the wake of incessant attacks by the German Luftwaffe.
Who can forget Mugabe’s “turn guns into ploughshares” speech in 1980?
Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech has remained etched in the collective history of the human race. These are speeches that edified generations.
As Zimbabwe hobbles into the next electoral theatre, my hope is that speeches that poison the chalice will be put on the back burner. In the context of the inclusive government, tolerance will help nurture our young democracy.
Politicians, business leaders, opinion leaders and the generality of the public must beware of grandstanding giving rise to security threats.
Humans are not robots; they think. Silence might not necessarily mean acquiescence or docility.
Freedom Mutanda,
Harare.
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