National Youth Development Trust is appalled by the behavior and conduct
of some youths who have taken a deliberate stance to disrupt progressive
consultative meetings that provide Zimbabweans an opportunity to shape
democratic transition processes. The
recent orgy of violence that has characterized public consultations on policy
issues are an indication of the regressive nature of some political parties
that continue to bus young people to these meetings for the purposes of
disrupting progress.
A case in point is the violent occurrences at Mucheke hall in Masvingo
on Wednesday October 19 as well as at the Bulawayo City Hall on Friday October
21, 2011 that led to the desertion of the meetings. The parliamentary portfolio
committee on, Justice, Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs,
consultative meetings on the Zimbabwe Electoral Amendment Bill were violently disrupted
by youths who tried to suppress contributions from other people during the
meetings. Such expressions of a lack of tolerance amongst these youths are a
strategy being used by their sponsors to make intolerance
of political dissent a postcolonial culture with a consequent effect of derailing democratization processes in
Zimbabwe.
What is disheartening, and deserving strong condemnation, is the
continuous use of young people as perpetrators of violence during these
disruptions. Such anoetic behavior, by these youths, is surely an appearance
of the sad realities of ideological indoctrination from a regime that is
refusing to die. The net effect of such indoctrinations have been the survival
of a Zimbabwe with a terribly stunted democratic culture,
antipathy towards and hatred of democracy; and disdain for human rights,
tolerance and pluralism.
In a political climate, like the one prevailing in Zimbabwe, where the
old is dying and the new cannot be born, it becomes inevitable for the
consequent political vacuum to be occupied by political monsters. The
disruption of meetings facilitating citizen participation in legislative
reforms is part of a reflection of a monster occupying the political vacuum
hence the speed traps on the train of transition and
attempts to extinguish the embers of democratisation.
As part of the development of a new social contract between citizens and
their leadership, there is a need to rebuild the people’s confidence in
political processes by;
· Allowing space for various
institutional and legislative reforms, which are needed to recreate the state,
as a sensitive and people-oriented institution.
·
Compelling
political players to start building a culture of tolerance
·
Ensuring
that state security institutions conduct themselves in a non-partisan and
apolitical manner
·
Exorcising
the ghost of political violence through a proper national healing process as a
basis for building a peaceful, tolerant and just Zimbabwe.
Most importantly, NYDT urges young people to desist from engaging in violent
behavior for cheap political gains.
