By Pearson Mbendera.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – Politics, which is defined as the process of making decisions applying to all members of each group plays a significant part in our lives. You don’t have to be a politician to be affected by politics, but its grip on people’s lives needs to be limited, we should move beyond politics, at least is some way.
In a country that is struggling on so many fronts, the political situation gains more ground and dominates people’s conversations. After all, it is within the political realm that major decisions affecting the nation are made. And because of that, it is hard for a day to go by without hearing something about politics.
With the public already questioning the hands governing this country, having the same hands reach far and deep into the mechanics and operations of everything else has only but worsened our problems. But its not just the political hands that are destroying our country, but members of the public too, who see every issue through political lens.
To begin with, our political structure is one that needs revision. The politicians have too much power as it is, thus when politics extends to everything we care about, it means their power even increases, meaning they end up controlling more of our livelihood.
The far reaching hand of politics has affected the distribution of resources equally, with a lot of emphasis placed on partisan lines other than the nation as a whole. Politics has created divisions among the people that has negatively affected the need to work together to develop this troubled nation.
From land to agricultural inputs, from residential stands to sports, from government contracts to job placements, the interference of politics has had no limits in Zimbabwe and has affected distribution. Political connections carry more weight over academic and work experience qualifications.
But there is more to a society than political issues, and making every issue a political one has affected the coming up of solution to mitigate the challenges we face everyday. This comes about either by lengthening the decision making process or by simply creating unwanted opposition.
While I admire the fact that the people of Zimbabwe are very much aware of the political situation of our country, it is concerning how all consuming politics is, and how it distorts the way people look at the country and the issues that affect them.
With everyone affiliated to a certain political party, their views and thoughts tends to align with the general views of the party making individual thinking almost impossible as the party does the thinking for the individual and passes along their opinion on matters affecting the nation as facts.
Everything seems to have some connection with politics, and even if one isn’t seen, it is always assumed to exist. The fact the we have politicized almost anything means, for every situation we face, we have to address the politics surrounding it first before we can even dive into the situation at hand. This only creates divisions and we have enough divisions as it is, we don’t want anymore reason to be divided.
A lot needs to be done to bridge the gap created by politics. And separating it from other issues affecting the people’s lives would be a major step towards bridging that gap. Right now, it is seems as if the only way for us to develop and grow is to address the political situation.
However important politics is, it has created a lot of divisions amongst the people. And the worst part is that, sometimes the people being affected by these divisions are those drawing little direct benefits from their political affiliations.
We need to move beyond politics, and attack every issue as it come, regardless of people’s political affiliations. For the country to develop, we have to join hands and work together as one, and politics impedes us from doing so. Maybe it is because our politics hasn’t matured enough to look beyond partisan lines, so maybe e have to create connections outside of politics and then factor politics in.
Comments
About Author
