Washington, DC — I gained a new appreciation for Morgan Tsvangirai’s unique position recently. I had the good fortune of attending his first on-the-record event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC.
Barely into his second 100 days as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, the veteran opposition leader’s handling of the Washington, DC press and intelligentsia would have impressed most seasoned political hacks.
The prime minister got off to a slow start. His opening remarks were filled with the expected courtesies to his hosts and the “American people,” though I cringed a little as, in obvious reference to the political cliché of the times, he talked of “hope” – the hope of humanity as conflated with the hope of America and how that “light of hope” has been shone on to the people of Zimbabwe through American humanitarian aid and “indeed to all the dark places of the globe.”
Hardly a talented orator, the prime minister managed to maintain a straight face as he paid tribute to Barack Obama and America’s literary history, through imitation, by describing how as a younger union leader he had toured the United States and seen the country “from sea to shining sea.” His opening remarks revealed nothing particularly profound but touched the right places with the audience and struck the appropriate political tone.
Tsvangirai’s strengths came to the fore only in the ensuing conversation and Q&A. Without skipping a beat, the prime minister and former mine-hand moved from questions about the extent of his authority and the complex intricacies of the coalition government to inquiries about economic reforms, the competitiveness of Zimbabwean industries, transitional justice, land reform, foreign policy and the constitution.
Save for a few awkward attempts at humor, such as an off-color joke about road safety in Zimbabwe, the prime minister was remarkably well spoken and exuded self-confidence. From question to question he seemed completely in command of the broad strokes of the issues, if not the minute details.
After the event, as I left the room I whispered to a friend, “I am pleasantly surprised!” but even as I voiced that thought, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss. While I couldn’t place a finger on it at first, I knew it wasn't the careless jokes or his somewhat contrived opening remarks that had me ill at ease. Another friend confirmed that discomfort by whispering back, “Yeah, but something felt off”.
After mulling the event repeatedly and going through a transcript, the source of my discomfort became clearer. The prime minister had projected extreme confidence but left his audience uninspired. As noted by various questioners during the Q&A, he was almost impossibly hopeful but barely reassuring. His delivery was peppered with repeated assertions that he and his party understood the strange position that their marriage of convenience with Zanu-PF placed them in, but I was hardly convinced.
Contemplating my response, I realized how hard it might be for the MDC leadership to respond to inquiries about the coalition government. While most people are probably relieved that Mugabe’s chokehold on power has finally met a credible challenge, everyone wants to know how much real authority the MDC has. The public remains suspicious of Mugabe’s commitment to the coalition and many believe that the MDC is being taken for a ride by the cunning old man. This approach of cautious optimism largely explains the sit-and-wait position that western governments have adopted.
However, there is an alternative view. In the twilight of Mugabe’s political career and life, it remains under-appreciated how ironic it is that his legacy has become inextricably bound to the success of a man whom he once branded a traitor. Few entertain the possibility that it was Tsvangirai, and not Mugabe, who gained the strategic political advantage when the coalition government was formed in February.
Therefore, I suspect that each successive round of questions about Tsvangirai’s personal authority and the MDC’s capacity to ‘handle’ Zanu-PF which ignores that history sounds increasingly insulting to the collective intelligence of the MDC leadership and to Tsvangirai in particular. Given that possibility, the prime minister’s boisterous but otherwise non-infectious confidence and hopefulness was unfortunate but should not be surprising.
Faced with well-intended, but nevertheless patronizing questions about the soundness of his judgment, it is perhaps understandable for Tsvangirai to overcompensate for his incredulous audiences. The danger of overcompensating is that the act may be transparent and fail to convince some in his audience, such as myself, who would have appreciated the honesty of more guarded optimism.
Worse still, at a time when he needs to stay on his guard, unchecked overcompensating might start to blur the lines between what is real and what the prime minister feels compelled to project in order to reassure everyone he knows what he is doing. For example, when asked about the impasse over Mugabe’s unilateral appointment of a central bank governor and attorney general in violation of the terms of the agreement that led to the coalition government, Tsvangirai said all he could do was defer to the SADC leaders who are curators of that agreement. That response was particularly revealing of how, regardless of Mugabe and Tsvangirai’s entangled political fortunes and the prime minister’s bluster, the coalition government remains fragile.
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The MDC would do well not only to stay vigilant, but for its leaders to better manage expectations and be comfortable enough to express their wariness without dampening the public’s confidence.
Nonetheless, the core of the prime minister’s message as he tours western capitals remains clear. The people of Zimbabwe would be better served if there was less obsession with palace intrigues about the coalition government and greater emphasis on the threat articulated by the prime minister himself that “the alternative is too ghastly to contemplate.”
Tsvangirai’s mission is to improve the fortunes of the people of Zimbabwe, but he must communicate a command of the complex issues, realism about the difficulties his mission will involve, but project enough confidence to maintain the public’s faith in his government – a tough set of priorities to balance. He may not have completely succeeded in imparting this complex message, but perhaps with a little more benefit of doubt and more resources, the coalition government might have the chance to deliver on its promises to the Zimbabwean people.
Only then will the old guard’s stranglehold begin to weaken and Zimbabweans themselves add their voices to the demands for a better and accountable government in Harare.
Proud Dzambukira is a native Zimbabwean and AllAfrica staffer based in Washington, DC.
