The trouble with regime change as sold to us by civil society and political parties, is that it is not as simple as it is made out to be. Changing one government for another in the hope of ushering in democracy is not the answer. Democracy itself should not be reduced to a periodic election, yet this is what ordinary people are told. Elections are not a salve that will automatically repair failing or failed states. Zimbabwe has held regular elections for the past thirty years, but that does not make us a democratic state. Neither will replacing ZANU PF with MDC.

In his opinion piece for the New York Times Chinua Achebe writes:

First we have to nurture and strengthen our democratic institutions – and strive for the freest and fairest elections possible. That will place the true candidates of the people in office. Within the fabric of a democracy, a free press can thrive and a strong justice system can flourish. The checks and balances…and the laws needed to curb corruption will then naturally find a footing. And there has to be the development of a new patriotic consciousness.

This entry was posted on January 25th, 2011 at 2:15 pm by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.