A Nation-State was conceived out of popular sovereignty arising from the 'will of people'. The Nation-State derives legitimacy, and the natural right from a collective shared meaning and identity of those subjects who are constitutive of it, this creates a unity (socio-economic and political unity). A classical case is the conception of the USA from the declaration of independents on the 4th of July 1776. Society is the one that shapes the rules of the game and social order emanating from the wants of the collectivity of a people, who comprise the Nation-State.
Nation-States in much of postcolonial Africa collapse in most instances because of leadership failures and leadership decisions which are in conflict to the socio-economic and political unity that underpins a Nation-State, these are instances when the leadership (On behalf of the Nation-State) can no longer deliver positive political goods (e.g. Health, education, economic opportunity etc), and this eventually triggers a legitimacy crisis and to some extent a legality crisis or both.
A shared meaning and understanding in postcolonial Zimbabwe is under attack from some offensive false mental revolution, called economic discipline being propagated by none other than Dr Gono, through his RBZ, the Chief conveyer belt of the face serving propaganda that the economy is under siege from detractors. Gono has caused wide spread panic and anxiety in many law abiding and moral citizens of this beloved nation in the name of his false and elusive economic turnaround slogan.
Dr Gono has vigorously campaigned to position himself as the greatest threat to the founding principles of a Nation-State by necodemosouly re-writing the rules of the game from outside the society's wants, by criminalizing rationality rather than supporting it. A lot of minds, crucial for the economic resuscitations are being externalised out of his devious efforts through his externalisation crusade, which targets the so-called cash barons, the case of Hon Butau is the most recent one to hit the headlines, after he was made to flee for his dear life to the UK.
To what extent is Gono determined to destroy the shared meaning and identity of the economic unity (Nation-Sate) espoused by the Zimbabwean people? Economic regulations must be designed in such a way that they deliver, in continuum economic opportunities to the people of Zimbabwe. In fact all laws to be functional they should make practical and moral sense to the people.
When Gono was appointed and not elected he immediately sought to undermine the shared economic understanding and identity of a collective people by trying to convert people to submit to a warped, immoral, illogical, and criminally undervalued exchange rate, which militates against the economic vision of competitiveness to which the liberation struggle was predicated.
This clearly raises questions as to what extent are the so-called cash barons/economic fugitives actually victims themselves, since there are defying an unjust and immoral law? It is not a contested reality that the Zimbabwean Diaspora is now remitting huge remittances to their loved ones in this economically dysfunctional Zimbabwe, which finds its way to the so called black Market, which is a euphemisms for Gono's externalisation crime.
To What extent is Gono responsible for trying to criminalize the whole nation by making these rational efforts of engaging in financial exclusion a crime? Gono also knows it facts, that once you carry out your transactions via the banking system you cannot access your money any more, so who wants to sacrifice his resources just to satisfy the quest for Gono's irrationality?
A deeper understanding clearly shows that Gono is part of some broader and sinister political propaganda considering the much power he holds in entrenching all these nonsense solutions predicated on failure is not an option. Gono's efforts are designed to divert national discourse from his own failures and those of his principals, who are supposed to face a legitimacy interrogation because of their leadership failures.
The so-called cash barons like the sanctions myth are just mere sacrificial lambs in an election gimmick premised on a false anti-corruption drive. People should be awake to the fact that the financial exclusion by the so called cash barons is not responsible for causing the cash shortage but an issue of just a correlation/coincidence in occurrence, which does not necessarily mean causation but resultant of the cash shortage, hence the two being intertwined.
Who are the beneficiaries of the fixed exchange rate policy? What happens if we adopt a managed float exchange rate, which is more realistic? Are all top officials, including the executive arm of government submitting and carrying out their personal transactions using this nonsensical exchange rate?
What harm has been done to the Zimbabwe brand through the widening of the fugitive list? Are other international foreign investors prepared to invest in Zimbabwe given the treatment offered to indigenous born businessmen?
To what extent is Gono a paradox of what he purports to represent? Where does he source foreign currency for government programmes?
How can there be an economic turn around devoid of popular collective national vision and wisdom? How can we police a law, which everyone is making an effort to break? To what extent is Gono assaulting our natural liberties? To what extent is Gono trying to fool us to runaway from our shadows? Answers to all these questions will reveal that Gono is now a liability to this nation; in fact more costly than the inflation he purports to fight.
What we need as a nation towards a failed state is to find each other based on the economic unity, which was in the past used to underpin us as a Nation-State. We need to foster a full partnership in economic progress not witch-hunting by building sustainable regulations, not over-regulation in order to create domestic and international investors who are psychologically liberated and secure
I submit that building a truly prosperous competitive economy, which is robust, entrepreneual, and resilient is the only way we could get out of this vicious cycle of economic decay. We must ditch old-fashioned economics of controls for exchange rate parity to allow more increased private sector participation if we are to secure an economy which continuously deliver political goods in order to avoid a popular legitimacy crisis.
We cannot afford to abandon a winning formula, government leadership should be pro-active and ensure a healthy fiscal and monetary management of the economy. The rest of the world is entering an accelerated industrial drive, a drive not based on fascination with industry but on simple truth that we want to develop rapidly-a situation where the developed economies are moving out of industrialisation to a post-industrial age.
As for Gono, all elected officials with a mandate from the Zimbabwean electorate should work tirelessly to reclaim all the stolen and illegal authority he now holds. Of which I presume reclaiming the abused authority will be difficult because he has already outgrown most of the elected office bearers in orchestrating his externalisation war with the blessings from his illegitimate principals.
Hillary Kundishora is a scholar of Strategic management. He can be contacted at hkundishora@yahoo.co.uk or http://www.zimchaiyo.blospot.com/
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