Sounds of strangling
AAW, AAR, AAG, AAJ, AAU, AAI – I was struck this morning by the subliminal message conveyed by our new number plates here in Zimbabwe. And it got me wondering what water would have to pass under the bridge before we got to YAY, YES and YEA.
I was in this frame of mind because I was reflecting on the events of this past week – notably the violence that has unraveled around the thwarted Save Zimbabwe Campaign Prayer Meeting scheduled for Highfields in Harare on March 11.
Opposition activists got aggressively beaten, tear gassed, arrested and held for extended periods in dirty cells without access to medical treatment and legal assistance. Policemen and women got bashed, firebombed and tear gassed. Some members of the public got stoned – because they were traveling in a bus that the activists wanted to burn; vendors had their goods stolen – because a mob mentality had developed in the absence of leadership and direction.
What do we make of all this?
Many people are secretly pleased that the “opposition” has finally got its act together and shown the regime what they’re made of i.e. Dangerous Elements That Need To Be Taken Seriously. It’s not hard to understand this view – everyone is sick to the back teeth of the heavy handed policing that is used to subdue us. Police, army, politicians and business people with Zanu PF connections act with impunity. The illegitimate is made legitimate by promulgating suffocating, disenfranchising legislation.
But for me, if this is the way that our new dispensation is going to evolve, I want none of it.
Why? Because I want to believe in and work for a future that is not built using bully tactics. If we win our freedom from the current regime using violence, what are the prospects for the next regime being any different?
Expeditious propagandists on both sides of this struggle are trying to take profit from this ugly week. If we want a future different from what we have now, we’re going to need to choose our tactics with much more care.