It has taken the Movement for Democratic Change eight years to go from a being potent symbol of change to an organisation torn apart by divisive, childish rivalries and personality cults. And as the situation deteriorates, the party’s fractious and self-important leadership may irrevocably turn the once vibrant party into an empty shell, its once inspiring name and slogans into bywords for indecision and ineptitude.
To be fair to the MDC, one of its difficulties is the simple but telling fact that it is not a party born of a liberation movement; this, coupled with its naivety in dealing with the cunning Zanu-PF machinery which used the opposition party’s white support as incontrovertible evidence that the MDC was bent on ‘reversing the gains of the liberation struggleâ€.
This major weakness meant that the MDC was forever going to be viewed with suspicion by Africans and the rest of the Third World. The scenario wasn’t helped much by the fact that, apart from its hatred of Robert Mugabe and its cataloguing of the ills associated with his rule, the MDC doesn’t seem to know quite what should be done to reverse the slide in Zimbabwe.
The fact that some of the party’s leadership has known little other than Zanu-PF’s top-down culture has manifested in its own intra-party violence and dictatorship. The party leadership’s disregard for its own constitution was demonstrated by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s recent suspension of Lucia Matibenga, head of the party’s Women’s Assembly, a move which did not follow party procedure.
Eldred Masungunure, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, said the MDC is afflicted by the ‘founding leader’s syndromeâ€, in which disregard for the constitution and the supremacy of the individual over the people are problems. ‘We are very good at drawing up perfect constitutions but we have little respect for the documents we come up with.†He added that if ‘those who crafted the constitution disregard it they should leaveâ€, before tellingly asking, ‘But who will bell the cat?â€
In spite of the many pressing issues that the MDC could be pushing — inflation, unemployment and poverty — the party is largely reactionary, allowing the ruling party to set the agenda.
Following the disputed presidential elections in 2002, urban voters were willing to defend their votes and take to the streets, but Tsvangirai refused to channel this anger, saying instead ‘the people will decideâ€. Soon after, most people decided to leave the country in droves. Operation Murambatsvina, the state clean-up campaign in which tens of thousands of urban dwellers lost their livelihoods and their homes presented yet another opportunity on which the MDC failed to capitalise.
Most observers accuse the MDC leadership of having become too comfortable. ‘They want to be party to the gravy train,†said one analyst, adding that Tsvangirai has built a bureaucratic wall around himself, turning simple matters such as a request for an interview into a mission impossible.
While some analysts have said the MDC’s raison d’être has expired, Masungunure pointed out that the party still occupies an important space but is in urgent need of renewal. ‘It needs to be reborn so that it not only channels the people’s discontent but aggregates all the forces†that are fighting for change. He added that if the MDC is to remain relevant it must go beyond serving the whims of its leadership to serving the interests of its diverse constituencies.
Masungunure expressed surprise at the fact that it is Zanu-PF that is being revitalised while the MDC is struggling to be relevant. Perhaps, as a liberation party that has been around for more than 40 years, Zanu-PF has the means to reinvent itself and come out renewed and raring for a fight with a bloated opposition that can’t expel noisome gases from its system.