Professor of African History at the University of
Liverpool, Dr Diana Jeater, has torched a Twitter storm when she described MDC-T
leader Nelson Chamisa as out of depth, over-excited about the idea of winning
an election.
20 Tweets on @nelsonchamisa at @AfricaProg on Monday #CHAfrica— Diana Jeater (@RoseofAcademe) 10 May 2018
The MDC Alliance is undergoing generational renewal. I had heard great things about #Chamisa as an orator. So I arrived expecting to be impressed and encouraged. Alas, I left unimpressed and discouraged. 1/
#Chamisa mapped out the five pillars of his programme: governance (devolve, decentralise, decorrupt); economy (depoliticise,); social rights (women, children, disabled, weak); infrastructure ('lines of civilisation'); and international relations (rejoin 'family of nations'). 3/— Diana Jeater (@RoseofAcademe) 10 May 2018
More importantly, though, some things just didn't add up. A call for Big Ideas is not in itself a Big Idea. #Chamisa's only Big Idea seems to be changing the government. There were a lot of technocratic fixes, but most of them are in Zanu-PF's programme as well. 5/— Diana Jeater (@RoseofAcademe) 10 May 2018
That doesn't mean that the policy is wrong-headed. But it's wrong-headed to present it as your Big Idea, rather than as an already-existing difficult problem to be *resolved*. What is MDC's solution to the lack of processing capacity in the chrome industry? That's the issue. 7/— Diana Jeater (@RoseofAcademe) 10 May 2018
Economy/governance proposal. If Zanu-PF wins, will MDC Alliance continue to call for sanctions? It's a nice sound bite to say that Zimbabwe 'can't be open for business if it's open for corruption'. But it's not a Big Idea for getting DFI. I didn't hear that Big Idea. 11/— Diana Jeater (@RoseofAcademe) 10 May 2018
Governance: very thin, mostly about elections, not what happens after. Questioned on what MDC Alliance will do if electoral process reforms don't meet all their demands. Response: we won't boycott but we won't accept result. How? 13/— Diana Jeater (@RoseofAcademe) 10 May 2018
I'm sure #Chamisa doesn't want external invasion. But there was no sense of strategy behind this absolutist posturing, and that feels dangerous. It encourages those who prefer military solutions to Zimbabwe's political problems. 15/— Diana Jeater (@RoseofAcademe) 10 May 2018
Overall, #Chamisa came across as out of his depth, over-excited about the idea of winning an election but failing to recognise the seriousness of what happens after the counting is finished. 18/— Diana Jeater (@RoseofAcademe) 10 May 2018
'...the day when President Chamisa enters Zimbabwe House and begins to reign'.— Diana Jeater (@RoseofAcademe) 10 May 2018
Govern is the word he was looking for. Govern.
I really hope, for Zimbabwe's sake, that he knows the difference. 20/
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