Shaping government system is the duty of society, which is itself impacted by government system and activity. We recognise shaping politics, and our government is not merely an ideological but human issue, and we all have a responsibility to participate in that process. Critically, let us recognise that we do not serve an ideology or a political party; we serve the people.
Ideology is the mirror of our thinking, including our world view; ideology does shape an organisation’s world view and policy projects that view, but ideology is not the reason for a political party to exist, serving people is the purpose; an obsession with protecting ideology and related rigidity is the graveyard of many political careers.
Political ideology is defined here as the system of political beliefs that provide a blueprint for some social, cultural, and political order, but it must never be lost to the public that ideologies are a human construct and as such do not automatically translate to justice, but require close scrutiny from everyone if they are to meet even the minimum threshold of justice and acceptability; it must never be lost that ideologies do not come ahead of the people, if anything, they are subordinate and subservient to society.
Arguably, an intoxication with power and access to it is the real driver behind politicians or political party obsession with serving ideology. Politicians and their sympathisers will deflect society from real situations worth dealing with by narrowing down life challenges to a few ideological stances, ignore real public challenges but identify their own version of society’s problems before they turn themselves into experts with solutions to those imagined problems.
We argue that finding solutions to people’s challenges is not the exclusive property of any party; and we remind our leaders that public office is a quiet place where you park your political ideologies; it must never be lost to the public that our needs are neither static nor unchanging therefore, ideological location should be the last call in all we do; our politics must reflect intellectual versatility to adapt and adjust to an everchanging socioeconomic and political environment.
Justice must be at the core of our systems; political parties and politicians must not be allowed free rein to turn their individual and organisational agendas into national priorities. They must be reminded at every opportunity that serving political party ideology must never come ahead of serving the people. And we must be consistent in ensuring that any political party that puts ideology ahead of the people is not heard of again in our political history.
Today we demand justice for the politically marginalised public. We are neither content with the public playing a bit part in local politics nor accept political marginalisation as the inescapable fate of vulnerable communities. We desire and expect inclusive political systems. That demand is extended to the whole society, not just politicians; we note with concern that when confronted with the enormity of injustice and what it demands of us, we have tended to retreat into the familiar ritual of intellectualisation and moral posturing, recycling deflective ideals from a safe distance.
Society must demand accountability from politicians, and we have observed with concern within politics in Zimbabwe that many politicians are obsessed with protecting party ideology regardless of the damage it may have on their constituencies. There is an unhealthy intellectualisation of political failures and political party deficiencies.
Academics and scholars are deployed to draw policy while the public remains on the margins; these scholars make it their duty to explain away failures of political leadership creation because if they do not massage egos of their political bosses, they risk losing jobs and favours that go with it. Such an approach risks creating good sounding policies that are detached from the public meant to be beneficiaries.
Survivability in politics requires good connectivity with the public. We argue that, to survive, organisations need inbuilt flexibilities and tolerance to critic that enable quick and relevant policy responses to change. Significantly, space must be created for public participation in politics, so they are co-creators of policies.
Great ideas are but nothing if they do not serve the people. Ideologies are theoretical guidance of how a society can manage its resources, politics, protect its cultures, etc. but the politics we do must indicate the intellectual versatility to adapt and adjust to the reality of a constantly changing world. It must fully accommodate the realisation that life is neither static nor unchanging. Political parties must be open to both internal and external criticism; and constantly reviewing how our political parties engage with the public is critical and must be normalised to keep politics relevant to citizens. It must be made clear that parties exist to serve the public and not the other way around, and the goal must be to maintain that balance.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 