I think the pursuit of popularity in politics can easily make one loose focus of the their ultimate objective which is to serve and bring in new ideas that can improve people's lives. Perhaps the question is why do individuals choose to become politicians? What does it entail to be a politician?
I have on many occasion been told by different individuals that I am not visible and that means my message will not reach every Zimbabwean. If I want to be considered as a national leader i should do more to spread my message on a national scale.
I have however made it clear from the word go that my entry point is Luveve Constituency which is where I am trying to focus my current strategies in terms of working with members of that constituency in various ways, not just to highlight what everyone already knows but to also explore solutions in consultation with various stake holders in the community. It's a process to leadership not a destination to a position of leadership.
I do appreciate the fact that Freedom Justice Coalition Zimbabwe Political Party is a national institution that I have been elected as it's Interim President and I am trying to balance my efforts with both roles based on the commitment levels of current leaders of the party and the availability of resources to manage a national campaign.
I think it's not secret that most political environments do not have a level playing field in terms of access to campaign resources. The challenge is we do not have any transparency in terms of funding of political parties, anyone irrespective of their background and source of funds can donate campaign funds to any candidate they favour to win the elections.
Our local media also seems to ride on the popularity brand to sell their papers and do little justice to the new unknown entities whose views are suppressed based on the notion their brands are unknown and therefore will not attract readers to buy their papers and visit their websites. Perhaps they subconsciously promote the recycling of the same names in our politics without realising the impact of their actions, though some argue it's because those names have the resource capacity to spend on endless public events.
There is a different view of politics in Zimbabwe that seems to only see value in aspiring leaders only if they are willing to make great sacrifice like getting arrested for confronting the government, keeping up public appearances through demonstrations and protests demanding answers from government which I do appreciate are all democratic rights.
How about changing that narrative of demanding answers to offering working alternative examples? Most opposition parties argue there is little they can do to offer alternatives as they do not have the power in terms of authority to do so. So what happens in local government levels where some representatives belong to opposition political parties, is that not the first level to show what one can do before they are government?
Surely these political parties have a network of affiliated Business who can also channel investment to their target constituencies, should the burden of developing our country only be blamed on a sitting government or should we all seek different ways to offer more competitive alternatives.
I think whilst we demand answers we should also be working towards offering and implementing alternatives that can be good examples of development. The elected MP's should do their jobs of fighting for policy changes that can help make such alternatives become a reality, that includes a more intense legal battle to fight corruption and ensure more transparent policies are put in place to hold officials accountable to the electorate.
We can't afford to continue with this us and them stance when we are all Zimbabweans who probably have far more in common than that which we differentiate ourselves with...just saying..
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