MEDIA,CIVIC SOCIETY :IMPROVE THE SHINING HOUR

When i received the news that the constitutin making process has finaally resurrected,i began to question why the constitution making process had become an anathema to the top echelons in the ZANU PF camp and why it was met with stiff opposition among Mp's.The answer to this is not hardfind.When you have a senior member of the Parliamentary Select Committee Paul Mangwana,reiterating every time that he doesn't want to cut his term of office short because the new constitution will have ushered in a time for new elections,it prevaricates and contradicts the Committees commitment to the constitution making process.There is a high posibility that he will not dedicate himself fully to the success of the process because of his own parochial interests.For several months the arcane maneuvres of the committtee has left the population in the dark in terms of full comprehension of the process which has roared back into life.Many people still have a hard time defining Machiavellian terms such as "thematic sub committee" and their function in the constitutional making process.Honestly who is going to break it down for the ordinary person what a constitution entails,its contents,what a draft bill is and what voting a yes would mean.There is a lot of obfuscation surrounding the constitution making process itself and a lot of people are not informed.The same applies to the sycomphantic retort by the Parliamentary Select Committee that the outreach teams will be deployed in the next 2weeks to "educate" the populace on the process.History has taught us never to trust politicians to lead the educational process.Of course the Parliamentary Committee has reassured the population that the teams will comprise of members from churches,farmers,youth,women,human rights,traditional leadersetc.The question however is that are these groups autonomous from political interference?Zimbabweans are still in the throes of struggling and the untimely process gas offered the media and civic society a chance to wake up to the blowing of the trumpet and take their positions.Gone are the days when they were always engrossed in petty issues such as more workshops that at times are crippled by absenteeism of politicians.They must now rechannel their focus and resources on the constitution making process,educating people and sell the content of the bills and not names.The time for living in a fool's paradise is over.A simple mistake especially especially in choosing a favourable constitution might plunge the country back into the abyss because the media together with the civic society would not have neglected their role.The truth of the matter however is that an arduous task lies ahead of the media and civic society and in their bid to educate people on the constitution,they are going to be labelled agents of regime change.ZANU PF has made it clear that the independent media and civic society remain a whimsical western proxy for regime change so they must expect harassment,detention but this is all part of the struggle.Political power is an extreme aphrodisiac and most of what ZANU PF has rolled up on its sleeves boarders on inanity because the time for people to decide has come and there is nothing that they can do about it because in the end it is the people who are going to vote.The rhetoric by ZANU PF that they want to adopt the Kariba Draft as the basis for the new constitution is rather escapist and misleading.Political parties are also going to use their rallies to propagate their own gospel of what a suitable bill is.There is going to be a lot of polarisation among the population especially when it comes to suitable bills and the media and civic society have to work on efficient strategies on how best they can educate people.The whole process of the constitution process will involve training of outreach teams for a week and the second week will see the trained teams being deployed.The outreach teams willl be comprised of 8 people who will work closely with Councillors and District Councils.The public will also have a represantation of 3people and the other five will come from civic society.No peace loving Zimbabwean wants to see the debacle of the constitution process but the pyrrhic victory that the media and civic society are yet to bring,is no easy task.The media and civic society must educate people to choose a draft bill that at least represents their views and opinions on how they want to be governed.The opaque that lies ahead of the constitutional making process is a caveat of the high levels of polarization where once people's perception on the bills is biased,it really becomes difficult to get them back to their soberly habits.One wonders the next step that the media and civic society is going to take.Is the surreal silence of the media and civic society going to continue or come to an end?We just have to wait and see.BY Rawlings Magede