Turning our backs on democratic processes a dangerous tendency
Electorate needs a lot of education on power of voting
In the early days of Zimbabwe’s independence in the 1980s, the political space in Harare was just as vibrant as it was stimulating. On television, radio and in the newspapers and magazines, there was a lot of enlightened political and social discourse that those of us who were in exile there enjoyed enormously.
In retrospect, some of us are beginning to realise that there was a regrettable downside as well. There was a huge intolerance of parties and ideas that were not Zanu-pf. The intellectuals who took part in the discourse in the various media forms gave these other parties short thrift.
Edgar Tekere, Ndabaningi Sithole and Enock Dumbutshena and their parties had a torrid time.
These commentators did not realise at the time that they were crowding out the political space and laying the ground for intolerance in the political life of Zimbabwe. Maybe they are now paying the price for that.
With the passage of time and the monotonous winning of every election by Zanu-pf, some in the electorate simply lost interest in the electoral process. It was only with the advent of other voices later, such as the Movement for Democratic Change, that interest was sparked once more.
In the current season of electioneering for local government polls in South Africa, there has been some voices, though few, murmuring against the mushrooming of political parties and independents. In some places, the ballot paper might be as long as your arm.
In my book, that is preferable than a disinterested and sulking electorate.
Citizens who turn their backs on democratic processes are very dangerous indeed, often inclined to anti-democratic actions. We should welcome the desire by many to take part in the democratic processes.
Also, we have seen and heard things that suggest our electorate needs a lot of education on the meaning of its vote.
There are frequent declarations by some communities that they would not vote because they are unhappy with the performance of their elected representatives.
It is as if the vote belongs to someone else, not them. It is as if they do not realise that at election time, they, as the voters, are kings and queens. It is not political parties or politicians, but they, the people, who have the power to “hire” public representatives to work for them for the next five years.
Yet, they are likely to hit the streets in the near future protesting against so-called poor service delivery. Those protests are likely to be directed at the same people whose election they refused to participate in.
In fact, during this election campaign, there are almost daily reports of communities protesting against supplies of water, electricity and housing, etcetera. Instead of mobilising hard to “hire” men and women who would do their bidding, they expend their energies on almost jarring activities.
It might be a good idea for this country to embark on a robust programme of civic education. We might have to start with school children.
We may have to start with things like littering, spitting in public right up to the importance of voting and the principles of democracy.
The higher you go in the education system, the more sophisticated may be the teaching of civic education. Other nations around the world include the sanctity of their national anthem and constitutions.
In our case, we might have to mandate and resource the public broadcaster to embark on such civic education for the public. That would be money well spent.
If we think that would be too expensive, we should try the cost of chaos and daily destruction of property by a civic education-starved society.
It might be good to embark on a robust programme of civic education