On the equitable distribution of power: Democracy cannot exist when there is one political party that has the majority of power
It has been a while since I wrote about Zimbabwe and this has been out of choice. It seems that no matter what some of us have to say the situation continues to get worse on the political front with no end in sight. Recently I watched a video of Mugabe's interview in 1976 at the Lancaster House talks and he was being asked what kind of Zimbabwe he looked forward to.
In it he said that his vision was for a united country that focuses not on race, but on the equality and that he had no intention at all of creating the very system that he was fighting against. He also stated that he had no issue at all with other political parties contesting the elections as it is their right to do so.
What went wrong?
I think that we primarily failed to implement democracy in Zimbabwe from day one. Although blacks became free from colonialism they did not free themselves from the wrong idea that democracy can be alive where there is inequitable distribution of power.
The establishment of a de facto one party state in Zimbabwe did not happen when ZANU (PF) and ZAPU established a unity agreement but happened at the ballot box in 1980 when Zimbabweans through the naive euphoria of "independence" from the British voted for ZANU (PF) and gave them a majority stake in power. For me that was the beginning of the dictatorship.
Democracy cannot exist when there is one political party that has the majority of power and South Africans also fell into the same trap.
It definitely made sense and felt patriotic and emotionally uplifting to get rid of the past by giving a mandate to the political party that had done most to cause the change; however, this in itself exposed us to serious consequences that we hardly imagined. There is something inherently evil with political power in that, the more one gets the more one wants and the more one abuses it.
With regard to South Africa, it is quite interesting to note that there has been incessant focus on the transformation of the economy and yet, the vital challenge we shall face sooner or later, is the equitable distribution of political power. Is it not time that we reexamine our political system and argue that what we need most is the equitable distribution of power as a perquisite for economic equity?
Just as we seek to promote the equitable distribution of economic power and wealth, we should seek to ensure that political power is not concentrated in the hands of a few. This is becuase the consequences are the same, capitalism delivers poverty and a "democracy" where power is inequitably distributed delivers tyranny and corruption.
This means that as citizens of Africa, we must encourage the multiplicity of political formations so that no one single party can claim a majority in parliament. For me, that is the crucial step we must take in order to preserve political equity and the protection of individual rights. This means that we must educate the masses so that they do not deliver this political power en mass to a single political party.
I know for example that in Zimbabwe it is highly likely that most will vote for the MDC in protest to ZANU(PF) but without taking into account the reality that, majority parties who attain dominant political power behave in similar fashion regardless of climate or race or geographical location. That is one criticism I have with the so called democracies we have created in Africa. Our democracies have not delivered liberty of the masses and continue to be political structures that encourage arrogance and bullying. The African political elite hide behind democracy and create oligarchies just as the bourgeoisie hide behind free enterprise and create monopolies.
As a matter of principle, we ought to support opposition parties not because of their goodness but because of their necessity in avoiding tyranny. We ought to support interest groups that seek to protect minority rights not because we agree with racism but because they ultimately serve to protect majority interests. The more noise these groupings make and the better organized they are in protecting their interests, the more likely we are to protect ourselves from political predators and the abuse of power. A free media is of course the cherry on top. In My opinion there is nothing "neo liberal" as history has shown us that without these the majority can never be free.
Shall we allow Plato to be right in his observations that democracy passes into despotism or shall we reshape the future by understanding that when one single man or group of men who think alike and possess power , liberty cannot prevail.
Vince Musewe is an economist he is promoting new thinking about Africa under the topic "New African Minds" and you may read his philosophies about change by going to vincemusewe.blogspot.com or email him on [email protected]
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