Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Reason Wafawarova
24 June 2008
opinion
Sydney — The frisky announcement made by Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday, June 22 was not made on behalf of people who support MDC-T and most certainly not on behalf of the generality of Zimbabweans.
It is obvious that the euphoria that came with Tsvangirai's lead in the first round of the presidential election has turned into hypochondria and the calamitous state of the opposition has meant that MDC-T has had to be seen to be doing something to avert Tsvangirai's melancholy that has come with the revival of Zanu-PF's fortunes.
That "something to be done" is now coming under the guise of a concern for the "suffering people" of Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai's announcement of his intended withdrawal from the run-off set for Friday is dressed in altruism and an omnifarious assortment of pretences designed at creating the impression of popularity and humanitarianism as part of Tsvangirai's political personality.
The world is meant to see in Tsvangirai's efforts to topple President Mugabe, the equivalent of Fidel Castro on the outskirts of Havana in the historic revolutionary ousting of Batista in 1959. The irony that those who backed Batista back Tsvangirai and his intended victim is the equivalent of Castro is conveniently shelved in favour of the politically expedient doctrine of dictatorships and despotism.
This is the doctrine that says the man who called for the total isolation of Zimbabwe and its economic strangulation can turn out to be the messiah and redeemer of the same people whose suffering is a direct result of his retrogressive campaign.
The man who has stood firm against this economic aggression has been angrily labelled a "ruthless dictator". Those who today are involved in political violence are by all means petulant social misfits whose behaviour borders on perversity. There is simply no politician worth dying for and every person has a right to their life, despite their political wisdom or lack of it. There is consensus that violence of any form is intolerable and there is absolutely no middling when it comes to people who lack respect for life.
Killers have to be condemned the same way we condemn James D. McGee for his part in the killing of innocent Vietnamese and the same way we condemn the British and the Americans for taking away the lives of Iraqis with impunity.
It is the reckless and hasty conclusion that the political goons involved in the violence reported across Zimbabwe are a State-sponsored lot that needs interrogation. This assertion is meant to portray the Government as the anti-people monster bent on abusing the very people for whom those in Government sacrificed life and limb in a war for popular liberation some 28 years ago.
At the same time, Tsvangirai, the anti-people sanctions evangelist is portrayed as the altruistic leader of an enfranchising political party so worried about the people that they can afford to forego a "coming election victory" if only to save people from "the brutality of the regime".
And who pays the piper?
Washington and London continue to shamelessly stand on the bodies of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans with their hands endlessly dripping with the blood of innocent civilians -- they stand shouting endless truisms for the people of Zimbabwe.
What rank hypocrisy!
The US is taking Zimbabwe to the UN Security Council in the name of humanitarianism.
This is when the people make good politics.
If you come from a country such as Zimbabwe, where the concept of people makes good politics, then your passport becomes an automatic qualification for asylum visas.
Your country has no struggles making world headlines from the Western media and your country makes it ahead of the poorest of the poor at the UN meetings.
Zimbabwe has retaliated to the Western sanctions by banning the West from any involvement in the country's affairs and imperialism cannot stand such defiance.
They have simply ordered Tsvangirai to assume a posture of a man of the people and to ensure that he gives the impression that the people are desperately crying to the West for redemption.
This is the context in which the announcement of withdrawal from Tsvangirai is structured.
Now that the announcement has come, what is coming next is Western commercial propaganda.
Zimbabwe will be portrayed as a country facing genocide.
People across the world can be frightened by massive propaganda and the West is well aware of that. That is not a surprise.
Take a classic example, Germany.
It was the most civilised country in the world, the leader in the sciences, the arts -- the Weimar Republic.
Within two or three years it had been turned into a country of raving maniacs by extensive propaganda from the Anglo-American machinery. It worked.
It is meant to work for Zimbabwe today.
The propaganda frightened the Germans and many thought they were defending themselves against the Jews and the Bolsheviks.
The rest is history.
The US held about 120 000 American citizens of Japanese descent on the basis of this same propaganda.
Today, one needs to check the media and see how often it is mentioned that before Zimbabwe embarked on the land reform programme, over 75 percent of its arable land was in the hands of 4 000 white farmers.
How many times is it mentioned that Zimbabwe embarked on the land reform programme after Britain reneged on its 1979 commitments to the land question, namely to provide funding for land redistribution?
Equally, one needs to check how often it has been mentioned that when Iran began enriching uranium again, it was after the Europeans had rejected their side of the bargain, namely to provide firm guarantees on security issues.
These guarantees are no trivial matter for they were meant to ensure that Iran would not be attacked.
When one side backs down, one expects the other side to back down as well.
That is what happened with Iran and Zimbabwe.
When one side is sanctioned and economically strangulated, one expects that side to counter the pressure by whatever means within their capacity.
This is why Western media and election observers are banned from Zimbabwe.
This is why MDC-T is labelled a treacherous party behind the sabotaging of the Zimbabwean economy.
It is because indeed they are.
All this has not been mentioned once in the Western media.
It is not that the Western Press does not know this.
They know, but it is not the kind of reporting consistent with Western imperialism.
The Western Press will not report that Iran is virtually surrounded by US military forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and the Persian Gulf.
If they do, it's because the US is defending itself against terrorists not because it is part of the grand strategy to control Middle East oil resources.
Let it be known that the US foreign policy, just like all of Western foreign policy; is not designed for the benefit of the population, local or foreign.
It is designed for the benefit of power sectors.
To these power sectors, it is useful to dominate the world, by force if necessary.
To this end, the 40 million US citizens that cannot afford to buy food are no priority when the US spends on its military misadventures in Iraq and its sponsorship of rebel civic groups in Zimbabwe.
Even Australia can afford US$18 million towards MDC-T ahead of its appallingly poor Aboriginal communities.
If one were an idealist holding the view that the country is its population, then the extravagant expenditure in Iraq is unacceptable.
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Ko iko kutukirira kuno kupeiko. No need to be vulgar and abusive...mukoma woye.
Ko iko kutukirira kuno kupeiko. No need to be vulgar and abusive...mukoma woye.
Ko iko kutukirira kuno kupeiko. No need to be vulgar and abusive...mukoma woye.
Ko iko kutukirira kuno kupeiko. No need to be vulgar and abusive...mukoma woye.
Tsvangirai cannot and will never make his own decisions. You then start wonder how someone like that would be able to run a country. No leadership qualities at all. Zimbabweans shouldn't worry about the statement that UN has passed. Besides war, every action that can be taken againist Zimbabwe has already been taken. UN might only legalize the previously imposed illegal sanctions but that will not change the nature and effects of the sanctions in which we have been living in.
So someone told him to pull out of the election? You've been reading the herald too long I'm afraid.
well done Norman..very soon President Morgan T will be in power kicking some serious butts...including the skinny butt of that geriatric using up the country's supply of ARVs!! Oh yes..we know all about that too...he is infected with the deadly hence his hatred of gays!!!
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What are you trying to say here traito? Can you not write simple english which is straight to the point. Which world are you living in? Muchaitonga yasara mapfupa chete nekaitiro kamunoita nana Matibili aka! Mugabe imhata!