IN ONE of the many famous sayings by Robert Green Ingersoll, the American statesman and orator said, “Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.”
Since the advent of the modest success in the Parliamentary elections by the MDC-T, we have witnessed a change in how Zimbabweans supporting the Tsvangirai grouping behave towards their fellow Zimbabweans that hold a different opinion when it comes to the politics of Zimbabwe.
There has been a sudden surge of personal attacks of those that have supported and still support Zanu PF especially amongst, but not limited to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora.
Immediately after the announcement of the Parliamentary results in Zimbabwe, we saw the gruesome and embarrassing invasion of the Zimbabwean Embassy in London by MDC-T hooligans who proceeded to shout profanities to embassy staff, whilst destroying property at the same time. I remember I walked into the embassy and the President’s portrait had been vandalised by those that where claiming their party (MDC-T) had won and therefore the staff at the embassy “were now fired.”
Surely, if this the kind of behaviour we should expect in the event of any MDC-T government, it seems Zimbabweans holding alternative political views may just as well stay away from Zimbabwe.
We have so much negative energy circulating amongst Zimbabweans in the Diaspora such that we are in danger of missing the bigger picture.
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora have resorted to using the internet to slander fellow Zimbabweans who hold alternative political views to the detriment of any meaningful progress we should be making in seeking solutions to the economic problems caused by western interference back home.
Tolerance is non-existent amongst Zimbabweans that support MDC-T to a point that they are seen heaping abuse on those that have taken a decision to express different opinions with regard to politics in Zimbabwe. It is now a crime of sorts to support or voice one’s consensus with the current government policies and the future of Zimbabwe.
The bulk of Zimbabwean news websites have taken it upon themselves to campaign for the MDC-T party without understanding the policies they stand for, if any at all.
We have ‘news websites,’ or campaign organisations masquerading as such, that have taken it upon themselves to personally attack those that have dared to be different, let alone express a different political point of view with regard to Zimbabwean politics.
One shudders to think what will happen should by some miracle Morgan Tsvangirai happens to form the next government. There is zero tolerance for divergent political views on the world wide world in as far as Zimbabwe is concerned.
The web is meant to be a platform for Zimbabweans now scattered all over the globe to meet and debate issues affecting our country without stooping so low as to personally attack one another in our personal capacity.
Let the web be a platform for debate of ideas and not a place to off load ones personal frustrations to other fellow Zimbabweans.
Of late the editor of the Zimbabwe Guardian was paraded on another Zimbabwean ‘news website’ and slandered in his personal capacity for simple running a news website that looks at Zimbabwean news as objectively as possible without following the usual run in the mill views.
This behaviour exhibits the low tolerance and negative energy that our generation has for one another and this seed, if not checked, will grow and eventually manifest itself in national politics in the future.
I believe this generation will play a role in leading Zimbabwe tomorrow.
Zimbabwe as a nation is a product of divergent political views hence the proliferation of different political parties since the sixties ranging from the ANC, UANC, Zanu (Ndonga), PF Zapu, UANC, Zanu PF and others. These organisations where run by people who obviously had different political outlooks, but guess what they respected their differences of opinion. This respect exhibited then has made it possible for them to work together today. If they had any issues amongst themselves, and I am sure they had, they must have thrashed out their differences like man and woman of stature.
In our current generation of Zimbabweans we have ‘cowards’ that are not man or women enough to state who they are, but instead hide in internet chatrooms and fire cheap shots at those that dare make their positions clear when it comes to national politics.
This is tyranny at its worst.
It is time we grew up as a people and learn to co-exist with our differences. Using false names to attack others is not only cheap politicking but highly immature and cowardly. Let’s learn to be progressive as a people.
Lloyd Msipa
lmsipalaw@googlemail.com
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