allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: No Greater Defeat Than Blood-Soaked Victory (Page 1 of 1)

I bear old scars from being ambushed and bitten by my younger sister when we were children zillions of years ago.

At that time I was about seven years old and she was two years younger. We were regularly at each other's throats over the usual things kids fight about at that age and invariably my younger sibling would lose. It was after losing one more fight that she threw out all the rules of fair sibling combat and decided to "defeat" me by pouncing on me when I was not looking.

After this ambush when she took advantage of an uneven playing filed, she pranced around declaring that she had beaten me at last. When I appealed to my parents for redress for the injustice of being sprung upon when I was not looking, they winked at me in a knowing way that said my sister's move was cowardly but, for the sake of peace, I should allow her to believe she was the victor. Needless to say, it was a bitter pill to swallow for a seven-year old.

My parents were however, to use the same philosophy when I was in my teens. This time, my siblings and I were urged to turn a "blind eye" and let my paternal great-grandmother, who was temporarily living with us, have her way each time she threw a tantrum. She must have been in her nineties and although still quite lucid and entertaining, there were bad days when she withdrew into her own world. When this happened, she became paranoid and saw "conspiracies" against her in the family's every move. On such occasions she could accuse my father of plotting to kill her; my mother of denying her food and me and my siblings of conniving with the other children in the neighbourhood to harm her.

These early experiences taught me life-long lessons about the few circumstances when unreasonableness can be tolerated, that is, when dealing with very young children and very old people within the family environment. Being bitten by my sister when I was not looking also taught me neither to aspire to nor be proud of pyrrhic victories gained at too a great a cost to myself and my opponent.

I have sadly found myself harking back to these experiences from my adolescence because the Zimbabwean political landscape is currently characterized by behaviour that should only be limited to small children or very senile adults. It includes the preparedness of ZANU-PF to embrace a blood-soaked pyrrhic victory in the presidential run-off through not only ambushing the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) but the very people who must vote freely and safely in these polls.

Despite having played by the rules and believing itself to have won the presidential poll fairly in the first round, the opposition party is now being forced on to a blatantly skewed playing field. Those who supported the MDC candidate in the first round are being terrorised, abducted, attacked and killed allegedly by state agents and ZANU-PF militias.

This is clear from the fact that post-election atrocities have been perpetrated in provinces where the MDC won overwhelmingly in the March 29 polls. The lame attempts being made to attribute the barbaric acts to the winning party only serve to make it crystal clear who the culprits are. The losers are behaving like my little sister all those years ago who thought suddenly springing upon me to bite me was a smart move. But she was an illegitimate victor who was only allowed to delude herself to keep the peace and because she was a child.

But national politics should neither be a child-like nor senile pursuit. Politics should be a game for rational, humane, fair-minded people of integrity, capable of taking the rough and tumble of the game in their magnanimous stride without resorting to vindictive sadism. What difference is there between violent rapists, robbers, extortionists and fraudsters who seize what is not freely given and politicians who resort to brute force in the hope of gaining political support that is not genuinely and freely offered?

Nothing highlights the perversity and depravity of this approach more painfully than the on-going retributive violence which targets the very people who are supposed to be enjoying the freedom, liberty, progress, safety, security and human dignity that are supposed to be the guiding principles of any candidate worth voting for. Elections would have lost their intended purpose if the electorate is to be bludgeoned against its will, to vote for a candidate it does not support. Zimbabwe does not deserve leaders who are prepared to accept "victory" under these circumstances.

Many pictures have been published in the press showing the horrific injuries inflicted upon innocent Zimbabweans by ZANU-PF thugs on the rampage in the countryside. But none of these images are more heart-rending than when innocent children are victims of this retributive orgy. The question to ask is how sweet is power for it to cost the dignity, safety, security and lives of others? I asked this question this week after seeing a picture of 10-year old Francis Zondo of Mudzi North in the May 4 issue of the South African newspaper, The Sunday Times . The paper reported that Francis and his aunt, Esther Dewe were assaulted by suspected ZANU PF supporters. They are said to be part of a large group from Mudzi who have been given refuge at a safe house in Harare

Peering with swollen eyes from under a blood-soaked bandage around his head, little Francis seems to be asking every adult in this country: What have I done to deserve this brutal punishment ? Who will answer him? Jesus said: "Suffer little children to come unto me." How tragic that political leaders can say: attack, maim, burn or kill innocent children so that we can win an election.

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