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Zimbabwe: What Are We Saying?
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Fahamu (Oxford)
OPINION
3 July 2008
Posted to the web 4 July 2008
Mukoma Wa Ngugi
After the African Union issued a statement so tepid that it might as well as have come from a high-school student conference, low expectations have further diminished. The African Union can now be seen in the same light as its predecessor - the OAU, a drum that beats hollow when it most counts for the African citizen.
But nevertheless, Mugabe's one-man act has irreversibly damaged his reputation. The extent to which Mugabe has misread the continental and international political climate is shocking.African people, who previously saw Zimbabwe as a metaphor of their own countries where the elite exist at the expense of the poor, are abandoning him en mass. Having lost international legitimacy to George Bush and Tony Blair - a remarkable feat considering the extent to which his two adversaries are hated - the African people became his last defense.
But there has always been the African people and their governments. In regards to the African Union statement, Bishop Desmond Tutu expressed dismay by saying that he was "distressed that (AU leaders) have not thought it was important to declare the illegitimacy of the runoff and the illegitimacy of the Robert Mugabe administration."
The Pan-African Parliament was very clear in its condemnation of the one-man show. Its statement in part reads: "Conditions should be put in place for the holding of free, fair and credible elections as soon as possible in line with the African Union Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections."
But the question is this: Why should we expect the AU to accomplish what it cannot and has not in the past? Meles Zenawi is no more democratic than Cameroon's Biya. The AU is in fact head-quartered in Ethiopia, which is currently occupying Somalia in alliance with the United States. The AU has been ineffective in the Sudan, and in the Congo where over 6 million people have lost their lives since 1996. Why are we then expecting the impossible?
Meanwhile, as if to underline Africa's tragic reliance on the West, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa who is also the chair of SADC was "flown to the French capital, Paris, for specialist medical treatment after suffering a stroke in Egypt" the BBC
reports.
SADC AND MBEKI
The SADC Election Observer Mission in its June 30th statement is clear about what it thinks of the single candidate presidential. SADC is " of the view that the prevailing environment impinged on the credibility of the electoral process. The elections did not represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe."
But SADC as an organization finds its hands tied because the leader (who is also the chief mediator) of its most powerful member state has not taken a proactive stand against Mugabe.
MUGABE: WOLF IN REVOLUTIONARY SKIN?
It has become the norm to begin each analysis of Mugabe with the explanation that he was a revolutionary liberation fighter who has only recently gone rogue, who lost his revolutionary vision somewhere along the way.
But this premise is being reconsidered. Paul Zeleza reminds us that: "The reality is Mugabe lost his anti-imperialist and progressive nationalist credentials a long time ago. As a frequent visitor to Zimbabwe, a country where I was born and where my family lived for many years, the gap between revolutionary rhetoric and voracious acquisitiveness, national liberation and political intolerance was already evident by the mid-1990s."
But others are going even further, to state that Mugabe has always been a die-hard capitalist who slept cozy with the IMF and the World Bank right from the beginning. To understand just how deeply entrenched western capitalism has become under Mugabe's watch, see Trading with Mugabe an article that calls for sanctions but nevertheless is revealing.
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: WOLF IN DEMOCRATIC SKIN?
Will the MDC be able to capitalize on its initial success in isolating Mugabe? First the MDC is hampered by its ties to Western capitalism. For example, it has not been shy to publicly declare that it will invite the World Bank and the IMF to buoy Zimbabwe's badly damaged economy. Because of its perceived ties to the West, African people have been reluctant to give endorse the MDC, even as they seek ways to express solidarity with the Zimbabwean people.
Itayi Garande in Is it time for the MDC to take stock? writes that: "It is shocking that Tsvangirai's staunch(est) supporters are reluctant to see his political infantilism, unfitness for political decision-making and the fluidity of his political moods - qualities that are responsible for his numerous ruptures with political associates in the MDC."
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Garande goes on to say that: "Tsvangirai at the Dutch embassy was the 'spectacle of the Century. Coming out to give a press conference and then going back into 'safety' was laughable."
The AU or OAU, the name means nothing just as the organization stands for th continued repression of the majority of Africans. Is this a club bent on wasting government resources or discussing methods of corruption? We are grateful to those leaders who have come out and not only voiced their concern but also condemned the Mugabe regime. Botswana you have the entire World behind you. Mugabe is doing more than Ian Smith did to the African in the guise he is fighting for the land.
The opposition is powerless in Zimbabwe, and that is why Mugabe is a... [Read Full Text]
Western countries want Mugabe ousted from power for two reasons. First, Mugabe sent his military to DR Congo in the 1990's to halt the invasion and occupation of DR Congo by the armies of Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda. The invasion was financially and militarily sponsored by the United States and England with the aim of effecting a regime change in DR Congo so that western countries would exploit (loot) the natural resources of DR Congo at will. Up until the time of invasion, Mugabe's Zimbabwe had been buying jet fighters for its airforce from England, with an agreement that the... [Read Full Text]
Question What is Mugabe's Zimbabwe denying theAnglo American Axis from having? Howthe West always find and use Unpatriotic Africans against Africa
It is being reported that English and American agents are covertly funding Zimbabweans to repeat the process that they used successfully on Moḥammad Moṣaddeq, Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953 He was removed from power by a coup d'état. These tactics are: Anglo / USA agents entice week Zimbabweans to act as Mugabie supporters . while carrying out acts of oppression against all known members of the opposition... [Read Full Text]
Mugabe seems so blatantly evil in his repression of his own people. I perceive that the moderate respose about his actions from African nations is due to caution about further abuse of the people of Zimbabwe by their irrational "leader".
Just two things: for Mugabe to loose legitimacy to Bush and Blair-Brown is a positive development for him, Zimbabwe and Africa. That mean that Mugabe did or said something unpleasant to the Masters=insubordination, witch is good, the second thing is, MDC needs urgently a new leader with clear political vision and credibility to replace the moron Client of the Dutch Embassy.
easy to condemn tsvangirai while sitting in front of your computer , i am sure you have risked a lot for other people , your inferiority complex can be seen because you call the west "masters".look if all african leaders are so great and not to be condemed then why is africa in such a state .
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