The Observer (Kampala)
Emmanuel D. Kavuma
16 July 2008
opinion
The British Sunday papers of June 22, 2008 and their sister dailies of June 23, when Zimbabwe's MDC pulled out of farcical elections, were dominated by denunciations of President Mugabe's persecution of rivals.
Although President Museveni is determined to add 'a tough-guy-solution image' to his legacy he, like African leaders, was 'relaxed' about the Zimbabwe tragedy.
Buoyed by their ineptitude, Mugabe promised to challenge anyone criticising his methods at the [all talk and no substance] African Union (AU) summit in Egypt. None dared! He told reporters: "some African countries had done worse things"! When Amin's massacres reached genocidal proportion of today's Zimbabwe, Museveni reviled the world with stiff rebuke for neglecting Uganda.
In 1994, President Museveni upbraided the world and UN observers for being much asleep while Rwanda's killing spree of Tutsi and some Hutu nearly reached a million! Later in the week, Uganda and some African countries belatedly made symbolic gestures of voicing protest against Mugabe's carnage!
Before Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) boycotted the sham polls, Mugabe, while throwing his tantrums against the opposition, pompously vowed never "to accept anything that smells MDC and that the country will never be ruled by puppets" (read opponents). Instead of wasting time and scarce resources on bogus elections, power-crazed Mugabe should have declared himself "life" President. He previously told the Sunday Times of June 22, 2008 that "We are not going to give up our country because of a mere X. How can a ball point fight with a gun?" Since he was determined to cling to power, it would have been suicidally brave for Tsvangirai to participate in the chaotic polls.
Educated analytical opinion insists that Britain's non-intervention in Zimbabwe, proves that the invasion of Iraq was about oil and not human rights or democracy.
It is a lesson to Uganda's leaders that once oil becomes commercially viable, it could trigger their downfall! If they don't slavishly serve super military powers' interests, they will be distant history, like Saddam Hussein.
Apart from having a Zimbabwean passport, Mugabe is a replica of Hussein, former dictator of the oil rich Iraq. Yet America won't topple Mugabe because no one is financially interested in inheriting Zimbabwe's poverty stricken economy with six-figure inflation! There are people incubating trite and archaic perceptions that "no body can replace Mugabe"! Should "liberating" and grabbing of farms for his underlings be licence for bludgeoning Zimbabweans to 'extinction?' It is oddly startling and toxically immoral to condemn Amin for taking over Asians' property while hero-worshipping Mugabe for doing exactly the same! Africa's inconsistence is disgusting. You go to bed in Zaire. You wake up in the Congo! Timothy Kalyegira may go over the top but his litany of magnified sullying of Africans sometimes needs noting. The misguided notion of "no alternative" prevailed in the 1980 elections when UPC "looked around" and couldn't "find" anyone suitable to rule Uganda but Apollo Milton Obote! With UPM's meltdown at the polls, predictions that in five years Museveni would be President for decades would defy logical evidence.
Britain's Tony Blair never held ministerial or managerial office before, a potent weapon by his detractors. He was Prime minister for an unprecedented 10 years of any Labour Premier. Unknown Paul Kagame, like Blair, never had any ministerial or managerial experience before becoming Rwanda's President. He is now Africa's only leader capable of "disciplining" corrupt ministers and "untouchable" cronies - the thieves! Billions can't go "missing" like that in Kigali's City Council (KCC) as in Uganda's cash guzzling KCC where funds disappear with impunity! The intellectually feeble talk of having no "replacement" thrives only in badly rotten political discourse of the Third World.
Last year, Barack Obama meant nothing beyond American Congress. Nobody groomed him. Ugandan peddlers of the fiction are the hypocritical mendacious opportunists targeting Museveni's favours. No area is a monopoly of suppliers of leaders.
It wasn't cowardice, but common sense to minimise electoral genocide, that Tsvangirai withdrew his candidacy. In a fit of bruised egotism Mugabe was a 'wounded lion' after his humiliating defeat at the earlier polling.
In war, to avoid annihilation, skilful strategists tactfully withdraw and resume fighting when conditions are conducive to crushing the enemy. Mugabe is supposedly 84. Like a young focused Museveni waiting from the 60s, much shorter waiting time is on younger Morgan Tsvangirai's side and other champions of the oppressed.
Emmanuel D. Kavuma, The author is a Ugandan who lives in London.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Observer. 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.
