Surviving Zimbabwean ‘democracy’

Most people interested in Zimbabwe will know by now that the current stand-off in the MDC opposition party has resulted over differences of opinion on whether or not they should participate in the senate elections. SW Radio Africa presents the arguments for and against participation; and in our latest release Sokwanele provided an overview of some of the arguments here. A couple of international bloggers – Normblog and Richard Schwartz (via Norm) following the debate and reading the summaries have come down in favour of participation rather than a boycott. ZimPundit advances an emotive case for participation based on ethnicity as well.

I am very suprised, however, that so few discussions on whether or not the MDC should or should not participate have encompassed the nitty gritty reality of how elections in Zimbabwe currently impacts on voters. Don’t forget that when Zimbabweans are asked by political parties to turn out and vote, they are in effect being asked to deal with intimidation, violence and with the likelihood that they and their children – I emphasise, their children – will be deprived of food if the area votes against zanu-pf. To be fair to the people of Zimbabwe, any arguments for or against electoral participation have to engage with their grassroots reality.

When this is factored into the discussion, the decision on participation becomes very uncomfortable. I, like anyone else, can see how deciding not to participate on the basis of a violent reality is in effect signalling to the ruling party that violence as a campaign strategy works. I know too that the desire for change in Zimbabwe is strong and fierce, and that elections provide people with one of the very few opportunities they have to en masse signal their discontent, even if it is by no more than standing shoulder to shoulder in a voting queue.

I’m not trying to argue in favour of, or against, participation here, but I am appealing to people to understand that debates about electoral participation in our country force decent people to grapple with indecent realities. These decisions are not a clinical analyses of the merits or demerits of participation or about the ideals of democracy – that’s the future that we’re fighting for – this is about whether we ask the poorest of the poor, the frail, the invisible and the ignored, to go through even more violence and terror. It’s not an easy thing to do.

And there’s more: I looked back to where we were in March 2005 when we had the parliamentary elections and re-reading my words then reminded me to throw yet another harsh reality at the doorstep of the international community, and especially at the doorstep of our regional leaders. Like everyone else in our country, I was geared up to fight the best fight we could in the face of a monstrous regime that we knew would stoop to the lowest levels to win. The days that followed the elections were among the hardest I have ever experienced – on April 14th I wrote this on this blog:

It’s been two weeks since the elections were stolen from us, but it feels much longer. My mind is still struggling to engage with the reality of what happened. I’m still trying to work out how on earth the SA and SADC observers can get away with declaring these elections as ‘legitimate’. How do they manage this, and not hugely discredit themselves?

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It’s the lack of will that I perceive of ordinary ‘good’ people in the rest of the world to do anything to help us that appals me. I feel that I can fight and withstand anything when it’s against evil, but I honestly don’t know what to do in the face of world indifference.

Mugabe is appalling, he is cruel, he is awful. He has taken so much from us, and left us in a daily fight for basic survival. But we’ve always found the strength to kick against the injustices of his regime. And then the Southern African ‘liberation mafia’ rocked up. It feels like Mugabe stole the elections, but that the liberation mafia are doing all they can to rob us of our hope for a better future. I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve that, and I don’t know which action is more criminal.

Even today, months later, I cannot begin to tell you how devastating that experience was. It is impossible to even pretend to know how unbearable that finding by the observer teams must have been for those who experienced the worst excesses of zanu-pf’s campaign techniques. The indifference that Africa showed to their experience was as good as telling them that they and their lives were of no significance. It’s incredibly difficult to describe how isolated we all felt, and how exposed and vulnerable the observer teams from South Africa and SADC left us when they departed. When they made that pronouncement, they ensured that we would face certain hell. And, predictably, we saw zanu vengeance in its most awful hideousness in Murambatsvina – the devastating effects of which are still going on.

I learned then that democracy was as much about the world’s committment to democracy as it was about our committment to democracy. Zimbabwean voters are heroic in their determination to vote, Southern Africa has been much less so in ensuring that the will of the people prevails. If democracy withers in Zimbabwe, it won’t be because Zimbabwean people have given up on it, it’ll be because the Southern African region have rendered the word democracy meaningless. Until that changes, people in Zimbabwe are left with the untenable position of asking the poor and the vulnerable to face more violence and intimidation, this time knowing that the region will not do the right thing, and that the world will impotently wring its hands.

But to decide that democracy is no longer a solution…? How can any peace-loving pro-democracy activist easily arrive at that conclusion? The costs of that are huge.

ZimPundit said “Zimbabwean democracy is about survival”. Frankly, I don’t believe that we have anything in Zimbabwe that could be described as “democracy”. We have a system in name only, horribly defaced by zanu-pf — but I do know what ZimPundit is trying to say and I agree. I would go on to say, however, that if Zimbabwean democracy is about survival, then we need to ask this question: Can the people of Zimbabwe survive zanupf-style democracy; how do we ensure that they do? It is ethical and responsible to ask that question.

I can’t, as someone who believes so deeply in democracy and who is fighting so hard for it, easily say that I am opposed to participation. But nor can I, as someone who has witnessed the mass trauma inflicted on our national psyche over the last few years, easily say we should participate. Both conclusions leave me feeling emotionally battered and with a horrible sense that we’ve already lost something priceless.

I also know that the fight for freedom continues, and that I’m in it for the long haul.

Zimbabwe, South Africa, Senate Elections, Democracy, Voters

This entry was posted by Hope on Monday, November 14th, 2005 at 9:16 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.