The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Sam Akaki
9 July 2008
opinion
First, he denounced ANC leader Jacob Zuma, then South African President Thabo Mbeki, and his predecessor, Nelson Mandela, and is now calling for the armed invasion of Zimbabwe to remove President Robert Mugabe. What else will former Anglican Archbishop of Johannesburg Desmond Tutu call for? The reinstatement of the Apartheid system?
In the BBC's Panorama Programme, 'No More Mandelas' screened on February 11, Archbishop Tutu told the programme maker, Mr Fergal Keane: "I do not want our country to be ruled by someone (Mr Zuma) we would be ashamed of." He was referring to Mr Zuma's acquittal on charges of raping an HIV-positive woman.
In his recent interview with the BBC's Sunday programme, Mr Tutu criticised President Mbeki for not imposing a complete blockade of Zimbabwe to bring Mr Mugabe to his knees. He also said that former President Mandela was wrong not to explicitly condemn Mr Mugabe. In the same programme, he also called on the "international" community to seriously consider removing Mr Mugabe through an armed invasion. The Ugandan-born UK Anglican Bishop John Sentamu supported him
As expected, Mr Tutu's call for the invasion of Zimbabwe prompted the British Minister for Africa, Lord Malloch-Brown, to comment that it is best if leading African voices makes these calls, lest it is claimed that it is the former colonial masters who are planning to invade Africa!
Mr Tutu either suffers from selective memory, or through old age, his memory may have become very short.
Just six months ago in Kenya, President Mwai Kibaki, who had lost the election, changed the presidential poll figures, leading to the worst violence since the Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s. Some 1,500 men, women and children were slaughtered and more than 400,000 others displaced!
Mr Kibaki, who won just 46 seats in Parliament, is today the executive President, while his rival, Mr Raila Odinga, who won more than 100 seats, is a mere prime minister!
In April last year, the then outgoing Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said the election would be a matter of life and death, and rigged it in favour of his chosen successor, Mr Umaru Yar'Adua. Former Vice-President and leading opposition leader Atiku Abubakar has disappeared into oblivion.
In October 2006, in Democratic Republic of Congo, the result of the presidential election re-run was finally decided in bloody gun battles between the forces controlled by President Joseph Kabila and those of his rival, Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba.
In November 2005, three months before the elections in Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni arrested his most formidable opponent, Dr Kizza Besigye, and charged him with rape, terrorism and treason. Dr Besigye was nominated as a presidential candidate while in prison. Three years on, Dr Besigye is still on trial for treason, punishable by death.
And during the May 2005 elections in Ethiopia, government forces shot and killed 140 opposition politicians and their supporters, and later locked up scores of journalists, students and at least 100 members of Parliament, who had refused to take up their seats in protests against the rigged elections.
The broadsheet press forgets all these recent crises for now, at least. But the countries mentioned are sitting on timed bombs waiting to go off at their next parliamentary and presidential elections, which will inevitably result in bloodshed far worse than what is happening in Zimbabwe today.
Rather than responding after every politically motivated crisis in Africa with condemnation, the UK needs to develop a long-term strategy of putting Africa on the road to real democracy, lasting peace and sustainable development.
The first step is to recognise that liberal democracy, which they are enjoying in the UK today, did not happen over-night, but it took centuries, during which King Charles was beheaded. Therefore, it is totally unrealistic to expect Africa, which is only 50 years, and Zimbabwe, which is just 28 years old, to practise perfect Western liberal democracy.
Secondly, it should be recognised that democracy cannot take root or flourish anywhere without effective democratic institutions. For that reason, the UK should put less emphasis on exporting Western liberal democracy and focus on helping African countries to develop independent judiciaries, state security forces and civil services, and most of all, an electoral commission.
The call by Archbishop Tutu and Dr Sentamu for the invasion of Zimbabwe is totally ill-informed and unfortunate. If the invasion of African countries that rig elections were to be taken to its logical conclusion, we would soon see not only the re-occupation of the entire continent but also the return of the Apartheid.
And Mr Zuma would not take over as State President even after his resounding victory as ANC leader at the party national conference in Polokwane last December.
Mr Akaki is the executive director of Democratic Institutions for Poverty Reduction in Africa (Dipra).
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 The Citizen. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
I think that this article is very poorly written. Frankly even if you get past how poorly it's written it still makes no sense. Sam A., please read more before you write more. Expressing your personal anger at so many people at ones accomplishes nothing when it comes to informing you reader.
The bottom line is that making mistakes in not addressing electoral irregularities and outright fraud in other countries is no excuse in abandoning the current situation. And, while you may be correct on the dubious position on making emphasis on Mugabe over the others who did the same things to stay in power. There is still a lot to be said for drawing a line in the sand. I think most people will agree that the humanitarian nightmare under Mugabe cannot be addressed by anyone until he is gone. Frankly, much of African leadership for years has been so careful not to tread on skeletons in other people's skeletons (lest they disturb their own), that the only person who can speak out maybe Tutu. Bashing him for saying what should be said is pointless, and defending Mugabe is monstrous.
In the end this episode is exactly what we've come to expect of this continent. Until there is a united front to internal strife and external influences, Africa will be cursed with one crisis after another never taking it's rightful place of leadership in the world.
There is a great cartoon from the American revolution where a broken snake is shown as the several states, and the caption reads, "Unite or Die."
And Dr.Woland's point is? He does not address any of the central issues Sam A raised, namely, Desmond Tutu, at best has a myopic view of the issue of dealing with the glaring lack of transparency by African political leaders on electoral issues, that none of the western counties became paragons of democracy overnight, and that resorting to armed invasion by external powers to establish "democracy" on any one country may call for a similar response in other situations, which could logically lead to a recolonization of the continent. Before one start advocating for such measures wouldn't it be prudent to reference Iraq and learn from that insanity? Instead of addressing these and such associated issues raised by Sam A, what does Woland do? He accuses Sam of being a "poor" writer, whatever that means. Maybe Sam may not write like Shakespeare or Woland, but he does address the issues we should think about.
Dr Woodland this is a very poorly written response take the following quote for example "Expressing your personal anger at so many people at ones accomplishes nothing when it comes to informing you reader". Maybe you should listen to your own advice
It appears from this summation that Western Style democracy does not work in Africa.
No, what Sam is saying is that the process to attaining Western Style democracy takes time and effort. Neither Britain or the US became democratic overnight, and there are questions about whether Western countries have fully attained true democracy yet. Think Florida 2000. It took the judiciary to step in to interpret what the value of the vote was. America did not become a killing field essentially because they had a judiciary system in place that they respected regardless of individual dissatisfaction with its decisions. This is why Sam says it is better to work to ensure that such systems are in place instead of advocating for the Iraqi solution. After all how long does Mugabe have to be with us?
Mr. Akaki article lacks substance in fact, truth, and reality. His attack on Tutu's opinion in regard to Mbeki and Mandela is a show of how he lacks the touch with the common citizenry. Mr. Mandela's is a respected nationalism and a critical world voice. In this capacity, his failure to take leadership and condemn Mugabe early in the crisis left so much to be desired. Mbeki has angered the Zimbabwean people for saying on record that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe. Mandela and Mbeki's failure to act betrays their position and expections of the world citizenry, Tutu included.
About Kenya, I would urge you to get facts first. Kibake did not lose the election. Get the facts right on this issue Mr. Akaki. Mr. Kibaki never got any votes beyond 100% of the registered voters. The highest Kikaki got was 79% in Juja constituency. Mr. Odinga had more that 5 constituencies with more that 100% votes cast in his strongholds. It is a delusion to try and draw conclusion that because Odinga had 100 parliamentarians compared to Kibaki's 46, that Raila had won. Just consider that there wete many parties fielding on the Parliament Candidate but supported Mr. Kibaki. Kasarani Constituency is a good example. An ODM candidate won the seat but Mr Odinga got 48000 votes against Mr. Kibaki's 64000.
I would urge you Mr. Akaki to research your information properly before you write stuff. It reflects badly on your organization when you write innacurate stuff while you work with an organization that ought to have the best data n the african affairs.
I am Ed from "the west" and this is my view:
Zimbabwe (Zim) and the other African nations rejected the past western imposition and the creation of modernized economies, modern education and health care, and a working government. The west "forced" mechanized farming and as a result Zim was able to feed the "multitudes" of Africans. The Zim dollar was traded 1 to 1 with the US dollar at one point. Zim education and health care were the finest in Africa. Yet this has all been rejected by the whole of Africa!
The whole of Africa is comfortable with a dictator in Zim, massive migration, 1 million % inflation, and the bulk of the starving population eating from food trucks from the west. They are not moved that farming has been destroyed, along with any hope or working government in Zim.
I say the west should abandon the "hell-hole" Mugabe has created with the support of the other African states. Let them continue to brutalize and starve themselves back to the stone age.The west should immediately stop all food and humanitarian aid to these "Animals". In say, 20 years, Zim and the rest of Africa may see that they should have acted against Mugabe and will be quick to act if a similar situation arises.
Africa's actions are producing consequences. Poor decisions yield poor results. Let the west sit back and enjoy the African circus.
Ed
See all comments (14).
I believe that Archbishop Tutu and Bishop Sentamu are in despair of ever making Africans aware of one thing: the ZANU party has got to stop attacking, killing, raping and maiming the citizens of Zimbabwe.
This is what the world objects to: being told that it is stupid and understands nothing when the videos are there, the evidence exists, that the ZANU thugs have not stopped, and have no intention of stopping their attacks on fellow Zimbabweans. They even treat MDC supporters as a sub-species of human.
Just stop the killing and the attacks on MDC supporters, and the world will shut up and leave Zimbabwe to its own devices. Keep on doing this senseless slaughter, and the world will not shut up - there will be sanctions and boycotts and protests, just like over Darfur.
All these references back to colonialism is just so much rubbish. Britain never ran Rhodesia as a colony - it was run by private white contractors on business lines, then by a maverick white man called Smith, who was a thorn in the side to everybody with his "unilateral independence".
Mugabe alone is responsible for all the unrest and economic ruin since 1980. He can carry on devastating this once-beautiful country if that is what African nations want, but he has got to stop acting like Saddam Hussein by exterminating whole tribes of his own people.