Debunking Mutambara’s Self-Serving Mythologies

by TTS 14th August 2008

Mutambara, it seems, never misses an opportunity to engage in shameless self-promotion. In the past, his erratic behaviour often provided a rich seam of joking material. Lately though, Arthur’s hideous outbursts have reduced him to an ideologically unbalance and dangerous demagogue. As the zimdaily.com contributor, Mbuya Rennie, duly noted, Arthur Mutambara is going to cause Zimbabwe a lot of grief if we are not careful. It is his quest for personal glory that apparently will drive him and the nation, if not the Southern Africa region, into a maelstrom. The eve of Heroes’ Day saw Arthur Mutambara pen a widely circulated jeremiad overtly lambasting the west and covertly scolding Zimbabweans in the diaspora and the democratic preferences of the Zimbabwean electorate. It was an incredibly rambling communiqué bereft of a coherent message. Mythologies and half-baked truths were hastily patched together in what appears as an effort to ingratiate himself with the Mugabe regime.

Under the pretext of honouring those who died for universal suffrage in Zimbabwe, Mutambara attempted to teach us basics of the corporate discussion-making process. Of course, he botched it badly. A number of salient points stand out as he attempted to draw analogues between business practices and Zimbabwean politics. Firstly, the “professor” tells us, and I quote: “ [T]here is a lot of wisdom, institutional memory and revolutionary best practices that we have not sufficiently leveraged for the advancement of our nation.” Mutambara uses sophisticated phraseology to tell us a self-evident truth, id est, the Liberation War heroes were betrayed. Some of the men and women, but not all, who decided to fight the repressive and illegitimate regime of Ian Smith were driven by one very simple ideal; unfettered liberty for all regardless of race and creed. The brave and honest son of the soil, Josiah Tongogara emphatically declared, and I quote; “What some of us are fighting for is to see that this oppressive system is crushed. We don’t care! I don’t care whether I will be part of the top echelon in the ruling class. I am not worried [about it]. I am dying to see a change in the system. That is all! That is all! I would like to see the young people enjoying together, black and white, enjoying together in a new Zimbabwe. That is all! ”

Under Ian Douglas Smith, the right of all citizens to choose their leaders freely and without fear of reprisal was denied by brutal force, legal shenanigans and political mechanizations under the rubrics of maintaining law and order. The God-given right to the enjoyment of life was severely curtailed. Robert Gabriel Mugabe inherited the very same organs that Smith used to deny the people their liberty. The Joint Operations Command was not dismantled. The feared Central Intelligence Organization was kept in place. Ian Smith needed these institutions to safeguard his unpopular minority government against a restive and disenfranchised majority. Out of political expedience, at the time when his popularity was at its peak, Mugabe copied and bolstered all of Smith’s evil practices. Now we understand why he did that. The good things that the UDI regime did, Mugabe’s regime jettisoned. Why? Who betrayed the men and women, those who selflessly paid for our yet-to-be-fulfilled liberty with their blood, sweat and tears if not the same people to whom Mutambara is now trying to curry favour for self-aggrandizement?

In another myth, Arthur tells us that the liberation struggle succeeded because of tactics not strategy. AGO being AGO, it takes him five hundred and sixty two words to say it. This assertion is wholly without merit. Strategy and tactics are not mutually exclusive. If anything, there is a synergistic link between them. Tactical success or failure is a derivative of the quality of the strategy. A good tactician will fail if asked to implement a bad plan. Planners can learn and improve based on tactical failures. I will cite two examples that Arthur should know. During the American Civil War, the Confederacy had a good tactician, General Lee. However, he was taking his orders from inept strategists in Jefferson Davis, his commander in chief, and Judah Benjamin, his Secretary of War. Lee was defeated at Appomattox and surrendered without bothering to consult his civilian leaders. On the other hand, the Union had a good strategist in Abraham Lincoln. At the beginning of the war, the inept tactician, General McClellan, was leading the Union army to a series of defeats. Lincoln fired the hapless McClellan and replaced him with the drink-soaked General Grant. The Union won the war.

In another example that exposes Mutambara’s flawed observation, the Zimbabwe liberation war was stalling in the early 1970s. Once there was solid leadership following the release of Mugabe, Tekere, Zvobgo, et cetera by Smith, the struggle gathered momentum culminating in Smith conceding defeat. Mugabe admitted he had never fired a gun but that never negated his leadership and strategic importance on the War Council – Dare reChimurenga. There is a reason successful democracies subordinate the military to civilian leadership. It works.

Mutambara tells us, “If there had been a feasibility study carried out before the decision to wage the armed struggle in the 1960’s there would have been no liberation war. If Nelson Mandela had done a cost benefit analysis and a net present value assessment before joining the ANC or launching MK, the African icon we celebrate today would not have existed.” In light of the fact that Arthur is incessantly touted as a former NASA scientist, I find this statement startling. It is another canard. At NASA, everything is planned meticulously. At NASA, terrestrial-based feasibility studies are mandatory before anything is taken to space! Every possible risk is analyzed and weighed against other possible risks. NASA has risk matrices. I personally was involved in such risk analysis involving a 26-by-26 risk-analysis matrix for a task that had to be carried out on the International Space Station. Each of the 676 boxes had to have a tick. A cross in one box would have lead to a reevaluation of the entire task or abandonment. For NASA operations, there is no room for error. A slight oversight can prove fatal. The disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia over the skies of central Texas is a glaring example of that. Apparently Mutambara did not learn any of this from his days at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Is it possible he is suffering from selective amnesia? I would not be surprised if he had no access to the intimate details of some of NASA’ secretive activities that require risk analysis. NASA has very strict export control measures. NASA has an astounding record of space exploration and planning has everything to do with it. Mutambara, the celebrated rocket scientist, ought to know that.

Mutambara arrogantly imputes the patriotism of Zimbabweans. He writes; “As the best of our generation pursue business, corporate, academic and other private interests within and outside the country, what lessons are they drawing from Chitepo and Parirenyatwa? Are we suggesting we have better options and more important things to do than these two heroes had?” Arthur should speak for himself! He is making a veiled imputation of the patriotism of Zimbabweans. By what authority is he calling Zimbabweans unpatriotic? Mutambara comes across as a scoundrel. Like Samuel Johnson said, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Typical of a scalawag, Arthur is trying to conflate patriotism with unstinting support for Mugabe. It is another myth, a figmentation of his imagination. Zimbabwe is a republic not a monarchy! Besides, patriotism is like charity, it begins at home or, as we would say it in Shona, kubaya tange hama kuti vatorwa vakutye! If a person has not even dug a borehole for his village, how is he going to do grand things for the nation when vested with the powers of a premiership? Arthur needs to realize a number of self-evident truths, viz.: (i) not everyone can leave the diaspora and be offered the presidency of a political party without breaking a sweat; (ii) not everyone will treacherously sidle his or her way into the good graces of a tyrannical gang for blatant self gain and; (iii) not everyone is shameless enough to seek the patronage of an evil dictatorship! Zimbabweans prefer to earn their living the old-fashioned way, through honesty and hard work.

Here is a forewarning on the potential danger this man poses: “What do we need to do, both as a polity and a society, to make public service attractive to our young and able people?” he blithely asks. It sounds like he wants a government-mandated indoctrination of our children and compulsory reeducation akin to Mao’s fatal Cultural Revolution. Values that lead to selfless service for the greater common good are instilled by one’s family not imposed by political fiat. Zimbabweans are, by nature, a fiercely independent lot. Arthur must let us know what person or group of persons who will have the absolute authority to enforce his youth indoctrination policy. Is he advocating a Zimbabwean version of NAZI Germany’s Hitler Youth? We all know the calamity that befell Germany thereafter. What other mischief is in store for the country once this rapscallion has real power in his hands? There is palpable danger he will force people in the diaspora to renounce their Zimbabwean citizenship if they do not exhibit Mutambara’s brand of patriotism. If we do not watch this man and keep his unbridled quest for power in check, we are headed for more trouble than we are currently facing.

In questioning the west’s moral authority to point an accusatory finger at Zimbabwe, the robotics professor says; “Where are the Western democratic demands to Egypt, Angola, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Israel, Pakistan, and Kuwait? In effect, we are being told not to have higher aspirations. Zimbabweans should be contented with wallowing in a dictatorship, not even a benevolent one but a repressive one. The heroes of the war of liberation did not die so a tiny group of people would monopolize power. Like Mugabe himself said in 1979; “It is absolutely wrong to allow a set of individuals to acquire the ownership and possession of resources which are God-given. They are not man-made; the land, the water, the forests, the animals, the fish in the rivers and the minerals. These are given us by nature and it is wrong in principle for anyone man to claim ownership of such resources which should belong to the people as a whole.”

Further, Mutambara wants to know; “Who took out Patrice Lumumba, Salvador Allende and Kwame Nkrumah? This rhetorical question has no bearing to the crisis in Zimbabwe. It would be more relevant to know who was behind the murder of Chitepo, Tongogara, Moven Mahachi, Ndangana, war hero Lookout Masuku, Sydney Malunga, Nleya, Duri and Chris Ushewokunze. Cui bono? Who gained from these acts? Perhaps, if we had known, the thousands who perished in Matebeleland and Midlands during the diabolical Gukurahundi would not have lost their lives at the hands of men but at the calling of their creator, God. Mutambara is, reportedly, now close to the ZANU-PF nexus of power. He should not ask us; “Who created and nursed Mobutu Sese Seko, Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, Jonas Savimbi and Osama Bin Laden?” Instead, he should ask his newly found friends in ZANU-PF, who “created and nursed” Joseph Chinotimba, Perrence Shiri, Constantine Chiwenga, Paradzai Zimondi, Kasukuwere, Mnangagwa, Chiyangwa, Gideon Gono and Jabulani Sibanda? That is what matters to Zimbabwe. Had we known the culpable parties, a tiny clique wielding power disproportionate to its size would possibly not hold our country political and economic hostage today. If we had known who poisoned Timothy Stamps, Josiah Tungamirai and Edgar Tekere, the people of Mashonaland and Manicaland would have been spared drinking lethal Chinese-made herbicides, burnt with Napalm and whipped until their flesh was terribly raw! It is very callous of Mutambara to attempt to excuse these acts on the basis that other countries are just as guilty and brutal. An evil act in a far-flung country does not nullify an evil act at home.

By accusing the west of hypocrisy, Mutambara is prone to the very same charge. Some would say he is a snivelling hypocrite who speaks from both sides of his mouth and brazenly lie through both, too. He attended Oxford University under the sponsorship of the Rhodes Scholarship fund. The money endowed by the very man in whose honour colonial Zimbabwe was named helped Mutambara go to school. If Mutambara loathes the west as he proclaims, he should publicly burn his British and American degrees and professorships. While he is at it, let him renounce his American residence. Perhaps he could publicly burn that plastic Green Card along with all the diplomas he acquired while domiciled in the west. Mutambara was an associate professor, a purely American title for a university senior lecturer. Now that he is in Zimbabwe, why does he keep on calling himself a professor when he knows he is in effect not one? Let him get rid of his American title. Let him show us how much he despises the west. Up until he stops touting his western-acquired education and scientific credentials, his pseudo-patriotic utterances will have no credibility.

In conclusion, verbal bromides from Mutambara meme will suffice to characterize the current state of the man himself. Based on his grandiloquent op-ed, he seems to suffer from mental “paralysis by analysis.” In his ideological delirium, he conjures up half-truths and twists facts as he grovel before the Mugabe regime. Like the America cited by Kissinger, it could be said Mutambara has no permanent political principles, only principles that are in Mutambara’s interests. Legendary musician, Zexie Manatsa saw this brand of character coming a long time ago; vamwe varume ihwenya kwese mimba yebere, apa neapa havambonyara – some men have no shame they will say and do anything to promote themselves. Last year he was barking, “We don’t recognize POSA! We don’t recognize Robert Mugabe!” He even wrote an op-ed flatly stating that he would not be part of a government that includes murderers. Now he is singing a different tune. Mudhara Mandebvu had it right; Mutambara ihwenya kwese mimba yebere.