WITH the 2018 general elections drawing closer each day, the regime change brigade looks determined to seek the attention of the ‘international’ community for possible intervention.
The apparent general consensus by civic organisations at a meeting organised by SAPES Trust last week was the need to draw world attention to the political environment in the country.
It was deemed the prevailing peace in the country was not the ideal condition to draw such attention.
Thus an artificial climate of a crisis situation had to be created so that the so-called international community would question the legitimacy of the incumbent Government.
This entailed violent confrontation with the Government.
Following the opposition’s dismal failure in the 2013 polls, this time a change of tactics was preferred.
Social movements, as opposed to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), were tasked to spearhead this foreign-induced model.
NGOs were considered not so effective for quick and spontaneous action, since they had recognised structures with bureaucratic red tape.
Since they are registered, it was also feared they would be banned if they engaged in open mischief.
On the other hand, social movements do not need any structures and can rapidly influence people into uprising through whatsapp, facebook, twitter or Youtube.
The absence of the need to be accountable makes these channels of communication ideal means of stirring subversive activities.
This is the kind of an anarchic setup these regime change advocates consider suitable in order to thrive.
There is the danger of dismissing the ideas mooted at this meeting as just a talk show.
It cannot be so for this was a gathering sponsored by regime change giants like America’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Britain’s Chatham House and Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.
NED and Chatham House are notorious for interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states.
But even before this, we had alerted our readers about how social media was being used by our own artistes as a means of denigrating our Government.
We would not have minded if this onslaught was a result of the artistes’ genuine concerns.
Regrettably, it’s not.
Instead, they are being used by foreign imperialists whose interest is to install a puppet regime so that they can continue milking our natural resources with impunity.
We have, in our previous editions, shown how characters like Cde Fatso and Silvanos Mudzvova have displayed fearful bravery in their attempts to provoke the Government into action.
They are no different from other rabble-rousers like Promise Mkwananzi and Evan Mawarire and their social movements.
But if the ‘resolutions’ passed at the just ended SAPES conference are anything to go by, then ‘we ain’t seen nothing yet’.
For when this succeeded in the 2011 Arab Springs and Libya, people woke up one day to find their legitimate governments overthrown.
Not only that.
But many lives were lost as well.
And the promised milk and honey that followed were disorder and anarchy instead, as witnessed in Libya today.
Of course the purpose of creating this climate of violence is two-pronged.
In the unlikely event that the puppet opposition wins at the 2018 polls, they will claim that their following is so strong that they have withstood the violence against them.
However, as expected, when they are once again thrashed, we should expect the same old song.
They will claim the elections were either rigged or were not free and fair or both.
The SAPES Trust-organised meeting last week laid the predictable ground for such an eventuality.
But first of all, we have to watch how far our country can be allowed to descend into chaos in the name of ‘democracy’, Western style.