MDC Supporters Disgusted with GNU Compromises

THE MDC-T's readiness to compromise on some challenges that have confronted the three-month-old unity government will dent the party's credibility as the country heads for another election in two years, a legal expert warned last week.

A few days after joining Zanu PF in the unity government in February, the party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai shocked many democratic activists when it agreed to proposals by President Robert Mugabe to increase the number of ministers in violation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Mugabe had initially tried to smuggle into cabinet additional ministers among his loyalists from Zanu PF without the knowledge of the MDC formations.The MDC formations said they agreed to the expansion of the cabinet, which even violated the constitution, to save the coalition from collapse.

The MDC-T also appears to have softened its stance on farm invasions and its long-held view that travel bans against Mugabe's inner circle cannot be described as economic sanctions.

Derek Matyszak, a senior researcher at the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), said Tsvangirai's party, which has fiercely fought for democracy and respect for the rule of law for close to a decade, was now singing from the Zanu PF "hymn book".

"Instead of insisting on enforcing the GPA and what are now constitutional provisions, the MDC simply accepts the flouting of its terms in accordance with its policy of propitiation, appeasement and compromise," Matyszak said.

The MDC-T leadership also seemed to be less enthusiastic about the need to push for the removal of Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney-General Johannes Tomana despite the fact that their re-appointments violated the GPA, he said.

Matyszak said signals from the party's leadership, especially Finance Minister Tendai Biti, were that they were prepared to compromise on the two if their powers were curtailed.

Biti recently said reports of serious differences between him and Gono were a creation of the media."It has also been reported that cabinet has approved Biti's proposed amendments to the Reserve Bank Act," he said. "All this indicates that the
MDC-T is once again preparing to capitulate to Mugabe's unilateral exercise of power.

"We will be told that a compromise has been reached and that Mugabe has agreed that Gono will stay but with limited powers." Matyszak said the MDC-T also made a blunder by compromising on the re-appointment of permanent secretaries as most of them were Zanu PF politicians retained from the previous administration.

"So the MDC-T will have us believe that the likes of George Charamba, the permnent secretary in the Ministry of Information, and the likes of David Mangota in the Ministry of Justice who is responsible for the conditions in the prisons are suitable and non-political appointments," he said.

"As they did with Mugabe's unilateral allocation of the ministries, they have simply accepted Mugabe's unrestrained and non-inclusive exercise of power."

But Deputy Minister of Justice and MDC-T MP Jessie Majome said compromise was better than giving up and allowing the country to slide back into a situation where it is run by an "exclusive" government. "We are aware that some of the tactics are meant to frustrate us and push us out of the game but we believe that quitting is not an option," she said.

Responding to criticism that the government had not achieved much since its formation, Majome said resuscitating the country was a process which would take time.

"You need to understand that this transitional coalition government was established to provide first aid to a dying, ailing and traumatised society," she said.

"It is more of a paramedic act on the situation we found ourselves in as a country following widespread atrocities and humanitarian crisis under the former exclusive government.

"Work is in progress to bring about the promised reforms . . . it cannot be an event but a process." But Matyszak said it was unfortunate that the MDC-T had even compromised on fundamental issues such as the opening of the democratic
space.

"MDC-T has now decided to define sanctions the Zanu PF way," he said. "It now says sanctions do not mean targeted sanctions and travel bans against those who supported the Mugabe government.

"The MDC-T now uses the term sanctions to mean the absence of IMF and balance of payments support and the provision of aid from countries that Mugabe continues to insult."

He said instead of calling on donors to "open up their wallets", the MDC-T should be pushing for the opening up of the democratic space which he said was crucial in convincing the international community to come to the country's rescue.

Matyszak was contributing to a public discussion organised by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

The theme of the discussion was "Assessing the Rule of Law, the humanitarian and economic situation in Zimbabwe in the context of the inclusive government's first 100 days and its 100-day action plan".