Zimbabweans are crossing the thin line between love & hate

It is exactly three months after the signing of the Government of National Unity (GNU) deal on the 15th of September and yet nothing has come out of it. It has proved
to be a Going Nowhere Union. As I went down memory lane to the euphoria following the signing of that deal I couldn't help remembering the article I wrote on my blog soon after the signing of the deal which was entitled, "A penny for my thoughts." If you read that article and its comments you will remember this part of a comment on that article when I was advising the GNU leaders. "My word to Mr Prime Minister is that we know that you are not very learned but we believe that one doesn't have to be very learned for one to be able to run a country. As long as you choose the right intelligent people to advise you and to run the key ministries you are home and dry. Make sure that power doesn't go into your head and make you arrogant and refuse to listen to advice. Also remember that your strength lies in the fact that most Zimbabweans love you because you are in touch with the plight of the ordinary Zimbabweans. Always remember that there is a very thin line between love and hate so if you want most Zimbabweans to continue loving you, make sure you remain in touch with the ordinary people's needs and deliver those needs. Zanu PF has always labelled you as a puppet of the West and how you handle the issue of land redistribution will determine whether they were right or not. Everyone will be watching that issue very closely and it is an issue that can make or break you. Let me conclude by thanking you Mr Prime Minister for bringing democracy back into Zimbabwe. Had it not been for you I wouldn't have the freedom to write all this on my blog and the comments from my friends wouldn't be so frank and straight to the point. With these few words of advice I rest my case."

When I made that comment I had hope that the signed GNU deal was going to be implemented. Anyway the point I am trying to make is that it seems Tsvangirai did not heed my advice. His slow reaction to the cholera pandemic & the hunger ravaging the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans has caused many of his supporters to cross the thin line from love to hate. His refusal to come back home from Botswana citing the fact that he has no passport has made even more of his supporters to cross the thin line between love and hate. If he managed to go to Botswana without a passport, he can easily come back home without a passport. Zimbabweans see that as running away from them at a time when they need him most, a time when they are dying and would want their leader to be there for them right there on the ground & not remotely. Showing concern and organising medicines and food supplies for them. What Tsvangirai is forgetting is that his power lies in the people who support him and he should always make sure that he is addressing the problems in those people who support him. The fact that the equitable power sharing deal has not been agreed upon is no excuse to desert his supporters. Many Zimbabwean intellectuals have always thought that Tsvangirai is not President material due to the fact that he is not very learned and that fact affects his reasoning power but they still rallied behind him because he is a better devil than Mugabe who allowed his ministers to run down the country when he was in power. Besides, Tsvangirai was the only other credible election candidate because Simba Makoni had lost timing to announce his divorce from Zanu PF & his candidacy in the elections so people were left with no option but to support Tsvangirai. It seems, that support has gone into his head and made him loose focus so it is about time we tell him the truth that most people support him only because there is no other party besides the unpopular Zanu PF party and not because they think he is fit to be President. If he wants people to continue supporting him he should maximise his one strong point & show his love for ordinary Zimbabweans instead of running away to Botswana every time the ordinary Zimbabweans have major problems in their lives. It is not the first time he has done that, if you remember well he did that again soon after the 29th of March 2008 elections when Zanu PF green bomber militia started perpetrating gross violence to his supporters in the rural areas. While his supporters in the villages were being killed, maimed and beaten up for supporting him, he was in hiding in Botswana and South Africa. If a leader shows such cowardice by running away and not standing up to defend his supporters, it is no wonder that his followers follow suit and rarely stand up to defend their rights. He is instilling the cowardish behaviour into his supporters of taking flight or hiding when things get tough instead of standing up & fighting. The situation here in Zimbabwe is going to continue to get worse through his strategy of waiting for Zimbabwe to collapse totally, (whilst he & his family live lavishly in Botswana)hoping that it is only then that the Mugabe regime will relinquish power to him. The question is has he taken consideration of what the ordinary people want? Do ordinary Zimbabweans want to continue suffering until the country totally collapses and most of their relatives have died from hunger and cholera, so as to pave way for his getting into power.? Does he honestly think that he is so great that his getting into power is more important than the lives of Zimbabweans who are dying as he waits patiently for the country to collapse.? Is he worth dying for? I am not saying that he should submit to SADC or Mugabe's unfair demands in the power-sharing deal, all I am saying is that he shouldn't sit on his laurels just because an equitable power sharing deal hasn't been signed. He should be seen to be working here in Zimbabwe towards making sure that the hunger and cholera human catastrophes in the country that are affecting the ordinary Zimbabweans who love or loved him have been eliminated.

Let me conclude this article by telling you about a certain American whose arrogance and pride when he tasted power caused his downfall. The press called this particular American a "fallen power figure," after his arrogance and pride forced his resignation from a top political advisory post in Washington DC. Looking back on how it all happened the man said, "I started out being excited working for the President, then I became arrogant, then I became grandiose and then I became self-destructive. I am prone to being infatuated with power and believing that the rules do not apply to me." An Associated Press article said that during the months leading up to his resignation, he ignored his workmates' advice, his friends' advice, his supporters' needs, his wife's advice as well as the rules.

That man's story is the trap that I see Tsvangirai falling into if he allows pride to shape his attitude and determine his actions instead of embracing humility in his life. As he reads this article his pride might say, "Rubbish I don't want to hear it", but wisdom will say, "You are close to the edge, humble yourself, stop & listen." If he is wise he will listen to this advice and make sure that from now onwards his behaviour, actions and reactions will not cause more supporters to cross the thin line between loving him and hating him.

The reason I wrote this article is because I don't want to nurture a dictator by not pointing out when a leader does something wrong. I urge all Zimbabweans not to repeat the mistake they did with Mugabe of not telling him when he was in the wrong and in so doing nurturing him into a dictator. Let us all learn to point out to our leaders the areas were they go wrong instead of keeping quiet and letting them neglect us or do as they please with our country and our lives.