By Nick Mangwana
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| ZANU PF UK Chairman; Cde Nick Mangwana |
You see
comrades, when your column is called Frank Talk you have a lot of latitude. All
you have to do is just say the plain truth as you see it. That's it. Just say
it and the good thing is it will resonate with the reader. And if one is looking for resonance with
their reader, it is easy again. Just fill up your piece with empathy.
Try seeing it from the point of view of the
reader. Now in the case of our Party, if one is looking for a winner its simple
again. Try seeing it from the point of view of the voter. Not even your own child can trust you when
you break promises. Let alone a voter. As a party we have to start delivering
on what we promise in those beautifully written books we call manifestos.
Someone once
wrote that "Election promises" are not e promises in the literal
sense of the word. They said that these promises are just meant to signal
intention and not to be taken as cast iron undertakings! They said that the
voters should not take an election promise like a contract whose failure to
deliver should also be taken as a breach.
I think
we should do just that. Take them literally and make a concerted effort to
deliver. Our electorate are not fools. More so of the Zimbabwean kind. They are
discerning, literate, vengeful and unforgiving. Ask the MDC. In 2008 they
promised a lot and were given an opportunity to showcase their mettle in the
GNU and dismally failed. Come 2013 the voter was so unforgiving that they were
nearly sent into political oblivion.
For argument
sake, let us agree with the angle that election promises are just signals of
intent and not literal commitment, what did we promise? What did we as a party
signal during the 2013 election? One of our major indications was that we would
prioritise jobs for our youths. We were persuaded (hopefully) and went ahead to
also promise that there will be a focus on job creation and retention should the people trust us with their mandate. In this commitment our youths looked for
resonance with their own aspirations and they found it. They believed that our Party Zanu PF was the
only party that would make promises that they could keep because we had a history
of keeping the promises that we made
(make the promises that you can keep, and keep the promises that you make). Are
delivering on those promises?
We know
an election promise is not a contact. This was tested in the English case of Someone
tested whether an election promise is really a contract at law. In a case known
as Wheeler) v Office of the Prime Minister, they
argued that when a promise is made in a manifesto, it creates what is called a
"legitimate expectation" in the electorate. The courts refused to
force the government's hand to fulfil the said promise in this case. The judges
ruled that to do so would be for the courts to "usurp
democracy". In that regard it means
democracy should have a way of punishing those that fragrantly promise
something and invariably not only embark on a different pathway but actually do
not make an effort at all to fulfil that promise. That power is through the
ballot. We have a lot of bi-elections
going on. In one someone is running rings around us. Why? Because when they had
the incumbency, they delivered on their promises to priorities the welfare of
their electorate. This is something we should learn despite our 54 years of
existence and experience.
If there is something
we learnt from the Votes of No Confidence (Vonc) experience it is that a 5 year
term is not guaranteed. There has already been constitutional debates in other
democracies that the electorate by a petition of 20% registered should be
empowered to commence recall an MP who is not delivering on their manifesto.
Whilst manifestos are not legally binding, failing to fulfil them should have
political consequences.
We have to deliver
our own. The opposition might be at sixes and sevens to deliver a knock-out
blow against us but that should not be an excuse for a lacklustre motivation to
deliver good outcomes for our people.
Anyone who believes
in the youth can clearly see that the current state of affairs is not
sustainable. We are losing a generation or 2. We have youth that graduated with
good economic degrees 4-5 years ago. They have not had a single day of
practising what they learnt. Instead they are hawking. Another year or 2 they
can't remember a single concept of what they learnt. What a waste! For that
generation will never be rediscovered. That potential will never be realised.
There are so many like that on our streets. We now have street experts in almost
every field of study.
|Whilst an election promise
is not really a pledge the gap between what we say at election and what we
deliver needs an effort to close. From the case precedence that have been cited
it is clear that the issue of breaking promises is not a Zimbabwean problem
alone. It is neither an African problem alone. It is a problem with politics.
In the UK, the Conservative Government is said to have broken at least 15 election
promises made only in the last election! Doesn't that sound like they didn't t
just bother with the manifesto?
Well, it is about
integrity. Moral principles should not be left to churches alone. We should be
impeccable with our word. When we speak we should say what we mean and mean
what we say. That is the only thing that makes our people less cynical. We shouldn't
be in a place where we end up splitting hairs to explain what actually we meant
by certain words. It will be a tragedy
of our generation when we stop making efforts to fulfil promises because the fact
that we knew what to promise means that we knew exactly what the people's needs
were. Failure to deliver on them when we know what they are is dereliction of
duty.
Everybody counts or else nobody counts.
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