Since time immemorial, politics has always been a battle for the hearts and minds of the target political market.
Those that have been able to correctly package, deploy and deliver their message to the intended audiences, have recorded political victories against opposing forces.
For the politically uninitiated, they appeal to emotions and end there. It is an approach that is not ideologically rooted and grounded, but bankrupt.
It is a protest approach and nothing else. Beyond the protest, there is nothing substantive and bankable.
The aforesaid characterisation fits the Zimbabwean political landscape and many other countries in the global south whose political landscape is replete with movements masquerading as political parties.
Emotional argument
This speaks to the heart and it ends there. The opportunists in the political arena in Zimbabwe have seized the difficulties that visited Zimbabwe post the land reform and the subsequent imposition of punitive sanctions via the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) by the United States Congress in 2001 and the subsequent repeal in 2018.
The MDC right from its inception in 1999, and in all its manifestations was a movement, and its offshoot in CCC is another movement.
They are a protest movement bent on advancing a regime change agenda sponsored by the neo-colonial West.
They ran the “Mugabe Must Go” campaign. When former President Mugabe decided to go, they did not have a plan. To the extent that they stampeded to the ZANU PF leadership looking for some accommodation in a post-Mugabe era and arrangement.
Their propensity to soil the name and image of the country stinks to high heavens.
Besides, their desperation is such that any murder case is politicised. This is as sad as it is low.
Because they think with their hearts, they are not aware of the long-term effects on the country, or they just do not care or both. As long as they receive a few freebies from their western handlers, it is all good.
Applying the mind
Those that think with their heads, those that apply the mind, see near and far. They seek the opinion of history to inform the present and the future in terms of strategic direction. They are measured, strategic, agile, given and convicted to sacrifice for the greater good.
They know that every wilderness gives birth to greatness, that pain, persecution, betrayal, humiliation, crucifixion, vilification and all, precedes resurrection.
Genuinely burdened and disturbed by the aforesaid, the Zanu PF leadership and the Government under the stewardship and direction of President Mnangagwa has been strategic in terms of defending our territorial integrity, independence and national heritage juxtaposed to the urgency of re-engagement with the global family of nations.
Ideological grounding
Zanu PF realises the importance and benefits of being ideologically rooted as a people and country.
Their investment in the Chitepo School of Ideology is a clear testimony to their conviction and how much they are ready and prepared to invest in the defence of the territorial integrity and independence of our great country.
They are ready to walk alone as a matter of principle as opposed to submitting to the whims, will and machinations of puppets and neo-colonialists.
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act
Because theirs is protest for the sake of it, they are not even alive to the fact that even the countries that they celebrate as beacons of democracy, do have laws that are the equivalent of the “Patriotic Act” in Zimbabwe, and for good reason.
Once upon a time, in 1778, there was an American called John Logan who had an unsanctioned meeting with the French.
He discussed issues that were potentially damaging and considered a security threat to the US, and on January 30, 1799, President John Adam signed the Logan Act into law after Congress okayed it. Some 224 years ago the US had the equivalent of the Zimbabwean “Patriotic Act” signed because they were and are still alive to the need for such law to be in place.
National Youth Service
Zimbabwe will have the winds in its sail if the programme is re-introduced and well managed. We have a lost generation, youths that are radarless misguided and ideologically malnourished, but pretending to be leaders. Pretenders to the throne!
The Chitepo School of Ideology takes care of the ideological deficit inherent in the operations of this lost generation so that they are brought back in the fold for their own good and for the greater good. For without an ideology, it is akin to building a bridge to nowhere.
Operation restore hope
Hope for a great future and hope for a great Zimbabwe. There has to be a shared vision across the political divide.
We are commonly denominated by one factor; we are one people because we are Zimbabweans. From the foregoing, our interactions and interventions should be domesticated.
Let us look inwards for solutions to the challenges confronting our country paying allegiance to our national flag and singing our national anthem in unison.
The escape route to the realisation of a great Zimbabwe is via national youth service so that there is proper orientation of our people from a tender age.
The tragedy of our youths is that they celebrate anything foreign and think that anything local is inferior. What they do not get is that they will never be what they are not.
They are Zimbabweans first and foremost, and are obligated to build their country brick by brick, brick upon brick, leaving no one and no place behind.
To restore hope for a great Zimbabwe, we need to catch them young. Our curriculum in our schools needs some revision.
While we invest in STEM, we also need to invest in socio-political capital so that we build a youth base that is grounded in nationalism, our ethos and values, youths that are ready to drop the last of their sweat and blood defending their motherland.
It needs a sober mind, a cool head and to take out emotions for us to be able to tell the true Zimbabwean story. Let us continue to think with our minds and not with our hearts!
Sam Matema is the MP for Buhera Central Constituency and Zanu PF Manicaland provincial spokesperson.
Herald
