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Pre-conditions for a new constitution.
What it takes to produce a blueprint for our future.

‘The clash between two groups of utterly selfish, greedy and power-hungry people is not likely to create a just and compassionate society’
By Fr Oskar Wermter SJ

When people concerned about good governance discuss a new constitution for Zimbabwe they immediately go into details: should we have an executive president or a prime minister? Should we have a lower and an upper house, two chambers, or just one?
But before we go into these details we need to look at something much more fundamental.
What are the preconditions for a new constitution? With what kind of mental attitude must we approach the making of a new constitution?
After all, Africa is littered with ineffective constitutions that were not worth the paper they were written on.
If a constitution is framed mainly for the purpose of keeping the ruling party in power it is not a proper constitution at all, and there is no constitutional government.
The essence of a constitution is that it creates permanent structures for non-permanent, changing governments. A written constitution is taming power; it says: power is temporary and limited, relative, not absolute. Politicians operating under constitutional law accept that politics is a game: one time you win, another time you lose. That makes them statesmen. Which “ruling party” politicians are not.
Democracy has been likened to a boxing ring. The opponents hit each other hard, but they do not destroy each other. The battle for power does not become destructive violence. A certain balance of power is established. That is already quite an achievement. But it is not good enough.
Marx thought that the class struggle would produce the ideal society, destruction would lead to construction, conflict to universal harmony. But we know: the destruction of the present regime does not necessarily lead to a better, more acceptable form of government. The clash between two groups of utterly selfish, greedy and power-hungry people is not likely to create a just and compassionate society. It may just exchange one autocrat for another.
Those who pursue mere sectional interests do not improve the country as a whole.
We need to work as a nation for the common good even if we disagree about how to achieve this. We may disagree about the means, but not about the end.
People need to have a sense of ownership and citizenship. They must identify with the whole country and accept all inhabitants all fellow citizens. As citizens they must feel responsible for the whole country. If they submit out of fear to the notion that only the current leaders own the country then they are not citizens but slaves and unable to frame a constitution. That is the fundamental defect of the ruling class that they see themselves who share a common revolutionary past as the sole owners of the country and therefore fail to build a house (=constitutional state) for all to live in, even for those not of their class and background.
They must have a sense of the worth and dignity of all citizens individually and of the citizenry as a whole. If only a minority see themselves as owners and full citizens they cannot frame a constitution for all. Only free men and women who recognize the claim to freedom of all can express their common vision and their common values in a constitution. If they have no common values and do not respect each other as equal citizens, they will not be able to build a constitutional state, but will continue as feudal serfs under chiefs and crave favours from autocrats.
The bill of rights, which is contained in the preamble of most constitutions, must live in the hearts of citizens long before it is formulated in a written text. Respect for the rights of others, acceptance of one’s own duties towards them, as well as a common desire for justice must drive people when framing a constitution. If these moral and spiritual convictions and habits are not there any constitution written in such a vacuum will be mere paper.