The MDC Alliance Petition: Instead an Overwhelming Loud-sounding Nothing!
Sunday News Online
Aug 26, 2018 | 130 views
Meluleki Moyo
IMPRESSINGLY diverting from the usual violence route and taking the commendable legal path apparently propelled by the trust in the country’s judiciary system yet unfortunately devoid of concrete evidence whilst taking the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to the political Golgotha for simply playing midwifery when Zimbabwe recently delivered a bouncing political baby which announced its arrival crying pfee, pfee, pfee on 30 July, the MDC Alliance’s attempt to trick the nine-member Judges panel into committing infanticide by strangling the little innocent soul, hit a brick wall.
This happened in the full glare and multiplicity of the global political optical paparazzi.
Besides telling a very attentive and lenient court about fulcrums and piths, the so-called team of a thousand lawyers who arguably spoiled the broth, fell short of the simple Affirmati Non Neganti Incumbit Probatio principle which postulates that he who alleges must prove.
The team mumbled and failed to keep its case simple and to the point, much to the frustration of the MDC faithful who were all along in dire need of a Bartemaeus moment.
Supposedly reinforced with South Africa’s legal celebrity, Daluxolo Mpofu who many argued had never lost a case, the much hyped about “A Team” hinged arguments on the mere admission by Zec of the inaccuracy of the figures and the sometimes not-so-social social media speculation, minor clerical issues and petty grievances which could not discredit President Mnangagwa’s victory, yet the rule has always been De Minimis Non Curat Lex! (Of small things, the law knows no cure).
And the regrettable moment the MDC Alliance invested on Social Media!
Seemingly projecting a passive, docile and an easily gullible society, Marshal McLuhan developed the concept of Technological Determinism.
Through this line of thinking, he argued that technology shapes society and seemed to suggest that technology by itself was the only factor that determined human behaviour.
Through this reasoning, he seemed to ignore human agency and many contributing factors that needed to be reckoned with, something which drew criticism from scholars like Logan.
In face of a global proliferation of new media technologies, studies have emphasised the ease with which new and social media technologies allow citizens to participate in communicative spaces. When properly utilised, new media platforms arguably play a crucial role in creating spaces for socio-economic and political participation, amid constructive ideological resistance, which is good.
However, experts posit that spending too long on social networking sites can adversely affect one’s mood. In fact, one is more likely to report poor mental health, including symptoms of anxiety and depression amid unrealistic expectations and predictive analysis.
For the MDC Alliance, these and other symptoms manifested the moment the now at sixes and sevens political bloc chose to thrust hope on social media, a domain which has as well become home to political sour grapes.
The MDC Alliance in its totality lived in the social media political utopia, foolhardy believing in the power of the fingertips and shying away from realities.
The excruciating pain emanating from the hard to bear sting of defeat was collectively felt by many including some émigrés like Prof Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Zhuwao who seem not to tire in rendering the country ungovernable in their desperate bid to come back home.
With lost ideas, they are now wandering souls, but amusingly today trying to play vanguards of democracy.
Frustrated by their set political suns, it’s in the public domain that their hatred for President Mnangagwa and not the concern over the welfare of the generality of Zimbabweans arguably shape their daily discourses on social media as they seek to relentlessly socially engineer literate Zimbabweans into some revolt.
But Zimbabweans are more learned than that and will never forget how heartless and egotistic these elements were when they were still in the echelons of power.
Lessons from the 2018 polls are replete with what happens when one allows these elements to surround them. They surrounded, misled and misguided Nelson Chamisa and cabal, in the process, spoiling an otherwise good effort by Chamisa.
On the run down to the 30th July elections for instance, the MDC Alliance was grossly misled by the likes of Edmund Kudzai who went miles and made unfounded allegations against Priscilla Chigumba, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) Chairperson, in a desperate attempt to set a wrong agenda, making the electorate lose confidence in the electoral body, but alas.
Coupled with being misled by social media malcontents and monopolising God as if the MDC Alliance is the only political movement written in the heavens, whilst living up to the tradition of fuelling public discontent and discord probably owing to the fear of being a political nobody for the next five years oblivious of the fact that he has a huge and constructive role to play in the country’s politics, the Alliance leader took to Twitter even before the verdict was passed:
“Praise be to God! Our esteemed Constitutional Court has just heard our solid case on the theft of the people’s vote. I congratulate our ‘A’ legal team led by Adv T Mpofu for a superb job. The world now knows the truth. What remains is for justice to be done. #Godisinit”
Social media suddenly became a space for peddling falsehoods, amid a proliferation of false prophets who prophesied an MDC Alliance victory.
They were not alone in this campaign; dubious opinion poll articles purportedly authored by embedded scholars like the renowned Ibbo Mandaza were plastered all over social media, whilst tweets and likes on their social media platforms gave the MDC Alliance the false impression that they had won the 2018 harmonised election and the bloc’s principals relaxed and proclaimed themselves winners.
Well, like King Solomon dealing with that complicated case in 2 Kings 3:16 when two women stood before him both claiming to be mothers of the living child, the courts have decided and the ruling has been made.
What’s worth noting again is neither the still to rule Zanu-PF party nor Zec approached the courts of law but the MDC Alliance did, and this they could only have done out of trust on the country’s judiciary system.
As the president is being inaugurated today, let’s think positively and bury our differences. Pferorists and Nerorists aside, we are all Zimbabweans and we need each other.
It would as well suffice to shun divisive discourse and ignore external influence for the good of our nation.
My Lords and Ladyships, I rest my case!
#PardonMyFulcrum
 |
| ZEC Chairperson Justice Priscilla Chigumba. |
Aug 26, 2018 | 130 views
Meluleki Moyo
IMPRESSINGLY diverting from the usual violence route and taking the commendable legal path apparently propelled by the trust in the country’s judiciary system yet unfortunately devoid of concrete evidence whilst taking the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to the political Golgotha for simply playing midwifery when Zimbabwe recently delivered a bouncing political baby which announced its arrival crying pfee, pfee, pfee on 30 July, the MDC Alliance’s attempt to trick the nine-member Judges panel into committing infanticide by strangling the little innocent soul, hit a brick wall.
This happened in the full glare and multiplicity of the global political optical paparazzi.
Besides telling a very attentive and lenient court about fulcrums and piths, the so-called team of a thousand lawyers who arguably spoiled the broth, fell short of the simple Affirmati Non Neganti Incumbit Probatio principle which postulates that he who alleges must prove.
The team mumbled and failed to keep its case simple and to the point, much to the frustration of the MDC faithful who were all along in dire need of a Bartemaeus moment.
Supposedly reinforced with South Africa’s legal celebrity, Daluxolo Mpofu who many argued had never lost a case, the much hyped about “A Team” hinged arguments on the mere admission by Zec of the inaccuracy of the figures and the sometimes not-so-social social media speculation, minor clerical issues and petty grievances which could not discredit President Mnangagwa’s victory, yet the rule has always been De Minimis Non Curat Lex! (Of small things, the law knows no cure).
And the regrettable moment the MDC Alliance invested on Social Media!
Seemingly projecting a passive, docile and an easily gullible society, Marshal McLuhan developed the concept of Technological Determinism.
Through this line of thinking, he argued that technology shapes society and seemed to suggest that technology by itself was the only factor that determined human behaviour.
Through this reasoning, he seemed to ignore human agency and many contributing factors that needed to be reckoned with, something which drew criticism from scholars like Logan.
In face of a global proliferation of new media technologies, studies have emphasised the ease with which new and social media technologies allow citizens to participate in communicative spaces. When properly utilised, new media platforms arguably play a crucial role in creating spaces for socio-economic and political participation, amid constructive ideological resistance, which is good.
However, experts posit that spending too long on social networking sites can adversely affect one’s mood. In fact, one is more likely to report poor mental health, including symptoms of anxiety and depression amid unrealistic expectations and predictive analysis.
For the MDC Alliance, these and other symptoms manifested the moment the now at sixes and sevens political bloc chose to thrust hope on social media, a domain which has as well become home to political sour grapes.
The MDC Alliance in its totality lived in the social media political utopia, foolhardy believing in the power of the fingertips and shying away from realities.
The excruciating pain emanating from the hard to bear sting of defeat was collectively felt by many including some émigrés like Prof Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Zhuwao who seem not to tire in rendering the country ungovernable in their desperate bid to come back home.
With lost ideas, they are now wandering souls, but amusingly today trying to play vanguards of democracy.
Frustrated by their set political suns, it’s in the public domain that their hatred for President Mnangagwa and not the concern over the welfare of the generality of Zimbabweans arguably shape their daily discourses on social media as they seek to relentlessly socially engineer literate Zimbabweans into some revolt.
But Zimbabweans are more learned than that and will never forget how heartless and egotistic these elements were when they were still in the echelons of power.
Lessons from the 2018 polls are replete with what happens when one allows these elements to surround them. They surrounded, misled and misguided Nelson Chamisa and cabal, in the process, spoiling an otherwise good effort by Chamisa.
On the run down to the 30th July elections for instance, the MDC Alliance was grossly misled by the likes of Edmund Kudzai who went miles and made unfounded allegations against Priscilla Chigumba, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) Chairperson, in a desperate attempt to set a wrong agenda, making the electorate lose confidence in the electoral body, but alas.
Coupled with being misled by social media malcontents and monopolising God as if the MDC Alliance is the only political movement written in the heavens, whilst living up to the tradition of fuelling public discontent and discord probably owing to the fear of being a political nobody for the next five years oblivious of the fact that he has a huge and constructive role to play in the country’s politics, the Alliance leader took to Twitter even before the verdict was passed:
“Praise be to God! Our esteemed Constitutional Court has just heard our solid case on the theft of the people’s vote. I congratulate our ‘A’ legal team led by Adv T Mpofu for a superb job. The world now knows the truth. What remains is for justice to be done. #Godisinit”
Social media suddenly became a space for peddling falsehoods, amid a proliferation of false prophets who prophesied an MDC Alliance victory.
They were not alone in this campaign; dubious opinion poll articles purportedly authored by embedded scholars like the renowned Ibbo Mandaza were plastered all over social media, whilst tweets and likes on their social media platforms gave the MDC Alliance the false impression that they had won the 2018 harmonised election and the bloc’s principals relaxed and proclaimed themselves winners.
Well, like King Solomon dealing with that complicated case in 2 Kings 3:16 when two women stood before him both claiming to be mothers of the living child, the courts have decided and the ruling has been made.
What’s worth noting again is neither the still to rule Zanu-PF party nor Zec approached the courts of law but the MDC Alliance did, and this they could only have done out of trust on the country’s judiciary system.
As the president is being inaugurated today, let’s think positively and bury our differences. Pferorists and Nerorists aside, we are all Zimbabweans and we need each other.
It would as well suffice to shun divisive discourse and ignore external influence for the good of our nation.
My Lords and Ladyships, I rest my case!
#PardonMyFulcrum
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