Margaret Wokuri
19 April 2008
opinion
Until the recent past, wife battering in African homes was regarded as a domestic affair; men would beat their wives at will, well knowing that such matters were after all domestic. This was worsened by the perceptions of local culture that emphasised that family issues should not be taken to the public.
For a woman, her fate would be sealed. Today while we are still struggling with the same attitudes, there are international and national measures against domestic violence and somehow spouses who would have mistreated their partners know that they cannot do it with impunity.
But why do the international community and regional bodies still leave people suffering at the hands of their dictatorial presidents calling it an internal issue? What happened in Kenya and now Zimbabwe is just too depressing.
In 2000, during the parliamentary elections, President Mugabe sought out votes by rewarding his supporters with free farm land which had previously belonged to white farmers. People in the opposition were beaten and women were raped. This was not all. They were also threatened that if the ZANU-PF lost, they would face more beatings. On election day, Mugabe deployed his war veterans at polling stations to intimidate and remind the voters what would happen if ZANU-PF lost.
The people on opposition were also denied their food rations and the deputy foreign minister Abednico Ncube is quoted to have told people of Matebele-land that they would only be entitled to food rations if they voted for ZANU-PF. Didymus Mutasa the organising Secretary for ZANU-PF is quoted to have mused that Mugabe's government would be happier with six million people who supported it than the then 12 million some of whom are purportedly pro- colonialism (MDC Party).
How then can Mugabe now convince the world that there was electoral fraud in the said 23 constituencies slated for vote counting today? Where had all his veterans gone this time round? Yet, amidst all this, the opposition and suffering people are expected to keep calm.
One of the principles of democracy is that nothing should ever justify violence as a means of solving a political problem. But I imagine this principle is premised on the basis that those who lose in elections do respect the results and hand over power. It must also be based on the assumption that there are independent institutions where aggrieved parties can seek justice.
But here we are, where all institutions are non-existent and where they exist, they are too timid. The MDC's appeal to the High Court to order the electoral commission to release results hit a dead end when the court ruled in favour of Mugabe's party.
Mugabe is not set to leave power yet the living conditions continue to deteriorate for the common person in this failed state. Now that he knows that all his tactics to legitimise his power through the ballot vote have failed, he is likely to declare himself a life president, then unleash his wrath on the entire population he brands puppets of white rule.
Yet the international and regional bodies continue to look on, handling Mugabe with kid gloves. In a recently held SADC meeting that Mugabe defiantly refused to attend, as usual, there were mild statements calling upon all parties in Zimbabwe to respect the results as if they were unaware of who was defying the truth.
No conditions were also set as a follow up to who ever would defy the instructions. This leaves the population at the mercy of abusive presidents like Mugabe. How long should people suffer under such presidents? How much blood must be shed in Africa just because pseudo-democratic presidents are defying the rules of democracy?
Where is the hope for democracy in Africa when African leaders applaud each other for throttling it?
The writer a civil rights activist
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Would one guess Mugabe's Shona speakers who are an overwhelming majority at 76% have finally tired of his tribal bs ? There is not enough anti-white and anti-colonialism heroism rhetoric in the world to overcome an economy with 10000% inflation, life expectancy of 37 and 34 for men and women respectively, or banal governance. The day before yesterday it was the Ndebele, yesterday it was the whites, to-day is the Shona too. Only fools don't see what Martin Luther King said "injustices anywhere is injustice everywhere". The point being just because injustices aren't happening in your backyard doesn't mean they wont because they will soon or later. The folly with Ugandans is that they don't see beyond Kampala or their little district. So instead of waiting for the world to come to their rescue Ugandans are better of condemning and routing out injustice anywhere in Uganda no matter where it occurs, not just in their backyard, but rather throught the country. There is strength in numbers to overcome tyranny. The dictators unlike some of the citizens know this.