Unity Without Freedom is a Sham
Following is a New Year reflection by Jesuit Communications regarding the political situation in the southern African nation.
The prisoners in a police cell are certainly united. They all use the same bucket, eat the same 'chikafu' (food), suffer the same insults, feel the same hardships and yet share the same hope of regaining their freedom. But that is not the unity we mean.
In recent days, Zimbabwe has been fed with propaganda about Unity, meaning the Unity Accord signed on 22 December 1987 between the ruling party and its rival, ad nauseam. Even the dead had to be brought back to (electronic) life on the TV screen to sing the same 'Unity' tune: Joshua Nkomo especially, Simon Muzenda and Canaan Banana. (Do we no longer respect the dead and their eternal peace? They, of course, are defenceless and cannot protest about how their recorded words and images are being taken out of context and manipulated.)
Unity without freedom is a sham. True unity is based on the free, unforced agreement of the united. The fusion of two political parties may or may not be appropriate. It is not national unity.
The unity of a people is expressed and realized in a constitutional state to which all can subscribe, in a constitution which has the support in its essential parts of all citizens, in the acceptance of a Bill of Rights guaranteeing equality before the law for all, based on a firm belief in the inalienable dignity and worth of every person, of every woman, man and child.
Christmas which we celebrated just now gives us the ultimate reason why every person must be respected as of infinite worth and dignity: if God, as we Christians believe, became Man and accepted our human condition, the same in all things as us humans except for our sinfulness, then every human being has been given infinite value as a son or daughter of God the Father and a brother or sister of Christ, the Son.
The constant manipulation of our (admittedly inadequate) constitution for short-term political gains and the unwillingness of government to allow the people to write their own constitution show complete lack of respect for the people.
What the 'Unity' propagandists have not been telling us is that it was also in 1987 that the executive presidency, then introduced, was given uncontrollable powers. This has alienated the majority from this state. There is division in fundamentals, not unity.
We did not find unity in 1987. We are still to find it in a constitutional agreement sometime in the future. May the year 2006 bring us nearer to that day.
The prisoners in a police cell are certainly united. They all use the same bucket, eat the same 'chikafu' (food), suffer the same insults, feel the same hardships and yet share the same hope of regaining their freedom. But that is not the unity we mean.
In recent days, Zimbabwe has been fed with propaganda about Unity, meaning the Unity Accord signed on 22 December 1987 between the ruling party and its rival, ad nauseam. Even the dead had to be brought back to (electronic) life on the TV screen to sing the same 'Unity' tune: Joshua Nkomo especially, Simon Muzenda and Canaan Banana. (Do we no longer respect the dead and their eternal peace? They, of course, are defenceless and cannot protest about how their recorded words and images are being taken out of context and manipulated.)
Unity without freedom is a sham. True unity is based on the free, unforced agreement of the united. The fusion of two political parties may or may not be appropriate. It is not national unity.
The unity of a people is expressed and realized in a constitutional state to which all can subscribe, in a constitution which has the support in its essential parts of all citizens, in the acceptance of a Bill of Rights guaranteeing equality before the law for all, based on a firm belief in the inalienable dignity and worth of every person, of every woman, man and child.
Christmas which we celebrated just now gives us the ultimate reason why every person must be respected as of infinite worth and dignity: if God, as we Christians believe, became Man and accepted our human condition, the same in all things as us humans except for our sinfulness, then every human being has been given infinite value as a son or daughter of God the Father and a brother or sister of Christ, the Son.
The constant manipulation of our (admittedly inadequate) constitution for short-term political gains and the unwillingness of government to allow the people to write their own constitution show complete lack of respect for the people.
What the 'Unity' propagandists have not been telling us is that it was also in 1987 that the executive presidency, then introduced, was given uncontrollable powers. This has alienated the majority from this state. There is division in fundamentals, not unity.
We did not find unity in 1987. We are still to find it in a constitutional agreement sometime in the future. May the year 2006 bring us nearer to that day.
posted by Anneke | 7:50 AM
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