Distinguish yourself by ideology, not easy irritation to Jubilee glitz

The Jubilee coalition has been an irritant to many. This is not just the case for those who support the current political opposition.

It is also the case for Jubilee supporters, especially those who voted for the party presidential candidate on the hollow promise of a youthful presidency.

Many are irritated by the failure to deliver on the extravagant promises made in 2013 and have contrasted their flashy style with its lacklustre record in delivering to ordinary people; the spectacle of fund-raising for 47 mobile clinics contrasted with the glitz of 47 classy campaign vehicles.

That the Jubilee administration has been a woeful failure does not surprise me; I did not expect them to perform any better.

What surprises me is that the political opposition isn’t effectively defining its alternative.

Jubilee coalition easily irritates many supporters of the political opposition.

Such is the sense of utter exasperation within the opposition that social media has become the forum to vent against Jubilee coalition.

Jubilee coalition has turned into an art the agenda of periodically irritating the opposition; unleashing otherwise mediocre politicians to say things that simply serve to scorn an already angry opposition.

One can see the Jubilee relish when supporters of Cord respond predictably to such artful teasing.

Meantime, Jubilee continues to steal the show, making claims about its record of accomplishment that are obviously untrue.

Jubilee is a flashy party. Such flashiness is not restricted to the rundown to the merger this week.

In fact, one only needs to look at the launch of The National Alliance in the rundown to the 2013 elections to see where Jubilee coalition has inherited the ostentatiousness.

Although much of the showiness is associated with the youthfulness of the party leadership, it in fact mimics what is inherited from Kanu.

Though a cohort of party functionaries who have amassed incredible wealth over the years support the glitz, such sources of money are not sustainable if they are not supported by corrupt access to state resources.

OMINOUS FUTURE

In the Kanu days, those who bankrolled the party did so on the promise of preferential access to state largesse. I wonder if that logic has changed.

I am interested in this topic because your taxes may be supporting the conspicuous consumption habits of our politics.

But I wonder why the opposition has not incessantly projected this as a central talking point that distinguishes it from Jubilee.

Jubilee’s ostentatiousness is celebrated within the party and will become as legendary as Kanu’s with disastrous consequences for the economy in the long run.

Even the poor who in fact suffer the pain and consequences of a corrupted politics ironically also celebrate it, reflecting a deficit in consciousness.

In contrast, the luminaries of opposition politics in Kenya have a sound basis to identify and project their alternative agenda.

Central to this agenda is frugality and egalitarianism. This agenda should in turn be projected into everything the opposition does so that we head into the elections with two clearly contrasting narratives; the flashy and glitz-ridden Jubilee Party and the frugal and egalitarian-minded Cord.

Just like Jubilee has projected itself unapologetically as deserving a classy party headquarter and a crew powered by high-riding automobiles; Cord should style itself and grow a narrative that contrasts with this; a style that depicts its focus on the ordinary people and that promises that change must be bottom-up, not the usual neo-liberal trickle down myth.

There are of course incipient forms of this thinking within Cord, but where Jubilee wins the war hands-down is that only a few of us newspaper reading, social media savvy Kenyans know what Cord is saying.

Jubilee message is enjoying traction. The Cord alternative must earn that traction. That contrast should put us on a solid campaign agenda devoid of stupid tribal competition.

Godwin R. Murunga is a senior research fellow in the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi. [email protected]