The soul of democracy

i have never been so interested in the ongoing run up to elections in the UK like I have this time around. Of cause I know how I will vote and who exactly will have my vote. I have known the person for many years and if everyone had Basingstoke in mind then they would all vote for this candidate from a massive party. Don’t say I didn’t tip you, it’s not the ruling party.

In my close following of the UK election I have not lost the fact of life that lingers in my looks and in my accent. That I am an African. That I come from Southern Africa. That I come from zimbabwe. That more than a decade later I am still a registered voter in my city of Bulawayo. No I have not forgotten that the freedom to campaign, be campaigned to, vote freely is a freedom that I would not have in my own country. It is in my country where my alternative choice from the ruling party is seen as treason. Not just by an illiterate activist but the real police force, or the candidate themselves.

Obviously this is a developed country, developed in many ways more than my own country but certainly developed in terms of democracy. There are no jingles giving one party unfair inclination. There is no chimurenga slogans shouted out on TV and a minute by minute reminder of blood and bullets and the return of AK wielding sons of the soil. There are not shirts,( to my chagrin). There are no people toy toying singing menacingly like the gang that wanted to force us to shout zanupf slogans way back for no reason than that we met them on a rural road.

I am actually digressing from my real point. My point is the expectation of delivery that is held of anyone including a party that all can say with confidence that it will never rule. That delivery expectation is based on a detailed scrutiny of promises, manifestos and honest discussions. There are no promises of ” ndokuunzirai devoopmendi”, no there is not. There is no chance of a grade 2’drop out making it to parliament because would he jump the hurdle of explaining his role and the budget of his promise?

Look, I have always held this that be it in Africa,Asia or Europe, the fact is an MP is a legislator, a law maker and not a development agent. Any MP who wows his voters by saying he will bring development is talking a secondary part of his job and is lying. Lying because MPs do not get a budget allocation for driving constitutional development and therefore can not sustain a promise of development. If we could grill these members of parliament I bet they have no clue how much the road he is promising would need. Right now we have a Twitter regular and aspiring MP For tsholotsho cde Jonathan.  As soon as an election loomed Jonathan suddenly announced he would build a stadium for the local soccer team. Interesting. If we were to ask how much money is needed I am sure he would go into an abusive tirade that I renown him for.

Then it turns out, though he does not know the budget of the stadium he has found the funding. Hurray! he wants a few elephants shot and the money indirectly raised, to be used for the stadium project. To his credit, this is a last minute plan and coming up with even a plan of that level is genius of Jonathan .

My point is in the UK election that I say I have been following with interest, the parties can not claim to make financial sticks and carrot without saying how they will raise funding for the. Saying we will creat 2 million jobs must be followed by how it will make this possible. Claiming that one will build more schools, should be substantiated by how the proposed many schools will be funded. 

This is where we would be found wanting. We would lose all the muhlupheki ndubos of our politics because they would struggle to be that open and honest. Imagine what chinos would promise the people of buhera, ” ndokuvakirayi zvipatara nemaclinic” then some clever villager, “Mari yacho ichibvepi uye iri mariyi cde?” Chinos, ” unobvunzaani ane chipatara, ma youth Batai benzi re chinja iro!”

We certainly need to be mature in politics so that our legislators are clever people who can create real reasonable legislation and not sleep in sessions. We should vote in people who will see the need to complement the constitution with laws and not the current crop from both ZANU and mdc who just sit in parliament for a chance of cheap gvt issued cars. People who when parliament is in session they keep track of our laws and create an environment that befits all our nation’ s business.

Imagine the grade 2 drop out listening to the minister of finance introducing a change of policy or introducing financial legislation. Even if he was born on a pile of encyclopaedia he would have no clue. The policies pass unchallenged and in their defective form remnant of chinamasa’ ineptitude they sail through and we as a nation are stuffed. 

In the meantime Mugabe comes and addresses the parliament. Instead of challenging or consolidating his speech with legislative and policy content, the MPs we have fall into one another praising the newly found religious icon of their party. Instead of being any better the opposition ones will be singing a refrain that only discordant their ruling party in lyrics but in tune in terms of uselessness.

I wish one day we will have elections and a democracy that is devoid of violence, a one sided taxpayer funded media, a tool like police force, an army that doubles as an official campaign force, a ruling party that does not view anything of the state as its own. Well I will dream on and on and on and on………..