Please note that the full document is available on the MDC website
www.mdczimbabwe.org
29 January 2004
Tsvangirai launces RESTART program
Remarks by Morgan Tsvangirai, President of the Movement for Democratic Change, at the launch of the MDC's economic policy, RESTART, at the Harare International Conference Centre.
Mr. Chairman
Members of the National Executive Committee
Shadow Ministers
Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
All Zimbabweans are deeply disturbed by the political, economic and social decay that is evident in our country today. In spite of the much-publicized accusations against imaginary foreign and local economic saboteurs, the real enemies of Zimbabwe are being exposed every day.
Recent events show clearly that the rot is entrenched in a corrupt system of political patronage, nursed by a corrupt dictatorship that seeks to cling on power at the expense of the majority. We are in this mess, not because of lack of resources and an industrious nation. We are in this mess today because of mismanagement, lack of good governance and general misrule.
In launching our economic policy, RESTART, we recognize the serious challenges that lie ahead. We recognize the difficulties that an MDC government will have to face to reconstruct, restore and stabilize our severely battered economy.
With RESTART, we are offering Zimbabweans a new beginning in a new direction we seek to tae the country. RESTART is a holistic programme whose success will depend on a multi-faceted attack on the current political, economic and social ills brought about by tyranny, greed and corruption.
RESTART is product of a consultation process that began early last year. The programme is guided by the values of the MDC: peace, freedom, justice and solidarity. It is a flexible programme that takes into account the sad realities on the ground. It offers a diagnosis and prescription for long term recovery and growth. We are ready to govern.
An MDC government will seek to establish social justice for all Zimbabweans. We are determined to address the issues of democracy, liberty, transparency, justice, equality, growth and equitable distribution of resources.
We are dismayed with the fact that for so long, our political independence has turned out to be a mere elite power transfer process that has failed to transform and uplift the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans. The struggle for social liberation and the quest for social justice we are currently engaged in as the MDC are goals we are determined to achieve.
Our country has experienced continuous negative growth rates for six years. Massive devaluation of commerce and industry and a subjective, chaotic land policy have left millions of people jobless, homeless and hungry.
Any visitor coming into Zimbabwe today would be excused to assume that we are at war. The regime has turned its fight for survival onto the people, creating a social crisis leading to the collapse of transport, education and health delivery systems. The HIV/Aids pandemic rests at the top of this massive humanitarian emergency.
The challenge of social liberation we pursue today must represent a marked departure from years of failed economic experiments which were introduced at Independence and thereafter.
The challenges can only be led by a new movement like the MDC whose traditions are rooted in the ideals of the liberation. The values of that struggle are the driving force in our quest for social justice. Our new economic programme is thus a RESTART after years of decay and economic failure.
The RESTART we unveil today is a process and a goal. It is an ideal and a target in which the potential and capabilities of our people are directed towards achieving a just and equitable society.
The RESTART we present today is underpinned by our values. It can only succeed in a climate where the rule of law is restored and observed resulting in an election of a legitimate government. Any legitimate government must immediately enable the people to effect fundamental changes to our constitutional and legal framework in order to put in place irreversible guarantees to people's freedoms.
Without a people-driven Constitution, it would be impossible for us to harness the creative potential of all our people in this country. As long as some sections of our community feel excluded from key political and economic processes, we are bound to fail. Governments can never function effectively when it is at war with civil society. Governments are bound to fail if they pay lip service to the people's agenda.
Intolerant regimes always cause discomfort to their neighbours and the international community. The world does not have faith in countries where tyranny is celebrated. Zimbabwe will never survive international isolation.
Through RESTART, the MDC is convinced that we are our own liberators. We have to play the major part to pull ourselves out of the current mess. We have to create a society that is able to satisfy people's basic needs. As I said earlier, we are already in a state of governing preparedness.
This is the beginning of a process of popularizing all our policies and programmes after they were debated, revised and adopted by our party structures at our conference last year. We must put people first.
Mr. Chairman, it is my pleasure to lay on the table our new economic policy, RESTART.
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