The MDC Backing Down

In a shocking about face, the MDC told the media yesterday that they could live with Gideon Gono because they can "manage and control him" through a revision of the Reserve Bank Act.

This is coming just two days after the Service Chiefs waded into the fray in support of the cornered Governor. This has clearly rattled the MDC-T. Tsvangirai, especially, seems so mortified of upsetting the Generals.

He told the New York Times this year, "We had won the election but did not have the support of the military" in justifying why he decided to play second-fiddle to the man he had defeated at elections.

"We can not unravel the tentacles of the State without Mugabe," Tsvangirai said.

But the party still insists that Tomana is not up for negotiation and must simply go. So, what if the Generals come out in public support of the Attorney General as well? The MDC-T will retreat sharpish as well? Like they have just done on Gono?

There will be an excuse. Perhaps one is being forged now, to explain why they must remain at Mugabe's side even after they fail to dislodge Tomana.

So Gono is not such a big deal after all. Were these not the very issues that had the Prime Minister refusing to consummate his marriage to ZANU PF all through the last six months of 2008?

If they were so important, what has changed? Will the donors whom we are told want Gono gone in order to bring in money bring it in anyway? Just because the MDC-T says it's Ok to do so? You see his happening?

I don't.

They will keep giving to charities and NGOs and no economy ever grew on charity.

Greg Mills and Jeffry Herbst make an interesting argument in the New York Times today for donors to simple ignore Mugabe's presence and put faith in Tsvangirai. They argue the West should release money anyway to the government and help rebuild it.

Their argument rests on the blind faith that the strategy adopted by Tsvangirai, of going into government literally to hack away at the ZANU PF institution that is government, will triumph.

Others, like myself, look for signs as to whether this strategy is likely to come off. If it was, we should be seeing Tsvangirai outwit Mugabe on the peripheral issues that now seize them. That we are not seeing this, and only witness capitulation after capitulation from Tsvangirai, makes us less confident that he will indeed be able to work his way around the dictator.

There is no way  this is going to happen, what with the Mail and Guardian quoting a Western Diplomat in Harare saying of Tsvangirai: 

"He's talking like Mugabe now."

We ain't seen nothing yet. This is a clear a case of "If you can't beat them, join them" scenario. But as the Mail and Guardian story will show you, world opinion is now beginning to turn against Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC.