Democracy in Zimbabwe - a slow pain

Democracy in Zimbabwe still remains a borne of contetion for those in Zimbabwe and many outside. Usually democracy is measured by the level of free and fair political participation through regular elections, rule of law and media freedoms amongst many other acceptable worldwide standards.

Of these Zimbabwe has observed all save for the rule of law and media freedoms. Even on elections, Zimbabwe elections have largely been contested and fiercely disputed in earlier years by the opposition and  interestingly in recent times by the ruling party Zanupf itself.

Zimbabwe is considered a young democracy which is still developing. However its development has not and is not smooth. It's been through loss of human life, pain and suffering as opposing forces such as Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC continue to push for political and economic change in Zimbabwe.

Democracy in Zimbabwe has essentially been very slow and painful to reach maturity because of the widely perceived position of Robert Mugabe's party that they are the ones with the right to rule Zimbabwe because of their liberation struggle credentials. As such many times Mugabe's supporters and party have declared other competting political and economic voices enemies of the people and the state as it were.

As of  December 2009, the media space in Zimbabwe was largely controlled by the state. In turn the state arm responsible for media and information is also firmly in the hands of Zanu PF in the inclusive government. The only widely circulated daily newspaper The Zimbabwe Herald is controlled full time by Zanu PF.

In the course of the last decade 2000 to 2010 Zanu PF has been held responsible for the closure of many privately owned newspapers. Democracy without media freedoms is questionable and fails every modern day body-politic litmus test.

The fierce resistance to change by many top officials in government aligned to Mugabe's party has had a terrible dent on democracy in Zimbabwe. For many the real solution is in the slow yet certain disintegration of Zanu PF due to ongoing internal struggles and the ultimate natural departure of Robert Mugabe.

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