In an effort heed the advice of many of the people who have commented on my MDC sell outs blog, I’ve been reading up about what others have to say about MDC-T’s decision to join this new “inclusive government.” At the suggestion of my colleague, I thought I could make a little table – one column with commentators in favour of this move, the other column citing those more sceptical about it.

Unfortunately, my table as it stands is weighted heavily with the sceptics. And currently all the commentators I’ve seen referenced are men. I haven’t included any leaders of the parties that signed onto the deal, my theory being that of course they’d argue in favour of it; they signed it.

Anyone want to point me in the direction of a few more optimists?

Optimists

Tawanda Mukakiwa, a vendor – “This is a real attempt to address the crises in the country and in that respect the move deserves credit.”

Alex Magaisa – “The only hope is that should it join, the MDC will try to be to any opponents what Zanu PF was never able to manage when the MDC was in opposition. If that is possible, then at least the new arrangement would have achieved one important thing: to free space for political activity and therefore create a culture in which democracy can potentially thrive.”

——

Sceptics

John Makumbe – “The desperate people of Zimbabwe deserve better than a political fix that will keep Robert Mugabe in power.”

Wellington Chibhebhe – “A casual glance at the power-sharing pact only gave the MDC ‘administrative work’.”

Dale Dore – “No to the power-sharing deal! No to collusion with the Mugabe dictatorship!”

Brian Kagoro – “Firstly, there’s nothing national about it, secondly there’s absolutely no unity in it. So as an exercise in futility it’s a waste of precious time.”

Tendai Dumbutshena – “After the June 27 putsch by Robert Mugabe signs were always there that the MDC were headed for surrender. It officially happened on January 30, 2009 when the party hoisted a white flag on top of its Harvest House headquarters. What followed was a pathetic attempt by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to portray this decision to join the unity government without any of their conditions
being met as some sort of victory.”

Lovemore Madhuku – “It’s catastrophic. In so doing, Tsvangirai undermined the intention of the MDC to have a complete change.”

——

Reserving Judgement

Takavafira Zhou – “It brings hope on the surface that there may be better things to come and at the same time we remain sceptical.”

Daniel Molokele – “The big question that remains to be answered is whether or not the decision by the MDC to join up with Zanu-PF was a strategically wise one or not. Well as they say, the jury is still out on this one. Only time will tell!”

This entry was posted on February 3rd, 2009 at 6:37 pm by Amanda Atwood and is filed under Elections 2008, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.