What Do You Stand Up For?
Last year December I had the opportunity to observe all the proceedings of the ANC’s annual conference in Polokwane, South Africa on television. Though personally not a huge fan of Mbeki, I witnessed a sad but humiliating rebellion against a president who took South Africa through a decade of solid economic growth in support of one who sincerely believes that taking a bath after having unprotected sex with an infected partner minimizes risk of infection. I’m sorry but I am one of those who will never forgive, nor forget such ignorance especially coming from one who wants to rule a people someday.
Anyway, that was not my major concern. Watching the Polokwane proceedings got me really thinking about our own upcoming March harmonized elections. I long for the day opposition/dissent or whatever else ZANU- PF calls anyone that’s not for it, will not be demonized and brutalized for having a different opinion on things or for merely existing. I long for freedom of speech and expression. I long for accountability from campaigning political candidates like what’s happening in the USA. A chance to grill would be leaders on how, why and when they plan to deal with crucial aspects bedeviling this country, ranging from an economy in chaos to the collapse of the public service delivery system.
Above all, I worry what course of action each fellow citizen will take come March. I know most bone- weary, depressed and hungry Zimbabweans occupy one of three spheres: those who are apathetic, almost to the point of indifference and will not vote in the upcoming election. Those who would rather the MDC boycott the election and let ZANU- PF go it alone because they feel the latter should not be allowed to steal another election but concede to a transitional constitution and election postponement. The last group is of individuals who, no matter how impossible any effort on their part may seem, will still play their part.
March is not so far off and it is time we each start thinking which group we are joining come March. Understandably, a majority of us are really rather preoccupied with matters of survival alone but a decision still has to be made.
Though I know that most people intend to boycott the election, I feel one should not willingly neglect one’s duty to vote, no matter how hopeless it all seems. If not just for the hell of it, I wouldn’t grant any party such an easy victory, but give them a run for it.
At the risk of almost sounding crass, I ask, why deprive ourselves of hope? We have to believe there is a way out of this mess otherwise, what’s the point? Why study, why work, why do anything if it’s all going to hell? I recall vividly the words of a mentor who said, “No matter how badly any football team performs, have you ever seen them giving up mid match and sitting down on the pitch because there is no point in continuing? No. They play to the last whistle, even if they come out with nil.”
Vaclav Havel describes Hope as not ‘the willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed . . . Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.’
I am currently reading The Impossible Will Take a Little While, a compilation of short, inspirational, anecdotal stories by Paul Rogat Loeb. In one of the stories: The Optimism of Uncertainty the author points out the deliberate metaphor; Life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning. To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world.
He goes on to chronicle historical victories that were so unpredictable to be almost impossible:
“Who foresaw the revolution to overthrow the Tsar of Russia? Who would have predicted the bizarre shifts of World War II – the defeat of the German army with Hitler huddled in his Berlin bunker, waiting to die? And then the post war world, taking a shape no-one could have drawn in advance: the Chinese Communist revolution which Stalin himself had given little chance. In other places, deeply entrenched dictatorships seemed suddenly to disintegrate from Portugal to Iran and Iraq. The end of World War II left two super powers with their respective spheres of influence and control, vying for military and political power. The United States and the Soviet Union soon each had enough thermonuclear bombs to devastate the earth several times over. The international scene was dominated by their rivalry, and it was supposed that all affairs, in every nation, were affected by their looming presence. Yet the most striking fact about these super powers was that, despite their size, their wealth, their overwhelming accumulation of nuclear weapons, they were unable to control events, even in those parts of the world considered to be their respective spheres of influence.”
Looking at this catalog of huge surprises, it is clear that the struggle for justice should never be abandoned because of the apparent overwhelming power of those who have the guns and the money and seem invincible in their determination to hold on to it. That apparent power has again and again, proven vulnerable to human qualities less measurable than bombs and dollars: moral fervor, determination, unity, organisation, sacrifice, wit, ingenuity, courage, patience.
There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often in this century we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions by extraordinary changes in people’s thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of powers that seemed invincible.
Political power, however formidable, is more fragile than we think. (Note how nervous those who hold it are.)
People do not have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is not only one of cruelty, but sacrifice, courage and compassion.
So, should March arrive, and ZANU-PF still refuses a transitional constitution and election postponement and all the other demands we have, would you really rather sit and do nothing at all?