Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Reason Wafawarova
28 August 2008
opinion
Sydney — There is an embarrassing and flagitious brother-kill-brother campaign by Zimbabweans who have perfected a disconcerted habit of targeting fellow countrymen in insidious campaigns that are often disguised as a quest for liberation and freedom.
The baseness, stupidity and subversion driving some of these slanderous people are remarkably astounding. It is a baseness and stupidity that says criticising Western policy is synonymous with making President Mugabe one's own god. It is a baseness that says vilifying Zanu-PF and President Mugabe is the same thing as fighting for freedom and liberty while criticising the West and Morgan Tsvangirai is synonymous with upholding exploitation, rape, murder, and all manner of criminal conduct.
For those Zimbabweans currently residing in Western countries, there is an awkward view that says the glitter of Western capitals is too good for criticism. In fact some have adopted the illogical assertion that it is hypocritical for someone residing in the West to criticise the political processes in their host countries in particular and Western foreign policy in general.
To this end, Western media and political leadership have been incited to take punitive measures on certain people like this writer on the basis that such people are advocates of the anti-West rhetoric. This is the same as saying those Westerners, who have differences with the political leadership of Zimbabwe, are actually anti-Zimbabwe, an assertion that is readily dismissed as Zanu-PF propaganda.
The question that begs a speedy answer is this. Why is it that our hope as a people is based on the aspiration for the punitive downfall of fellow countrymen? Secondly, what manner of liberation is in this dream that glorifies external meddling in the affairs of one's country as some form of sophisticated international relations?
Now that the opposition MDC-T is being invited to take an active part in the running of Zimbabwe it is important to look at the revolutionary expectations on the part of those who fought for our liberation. Zimbabwe was not born out of an evolution but a highly pricey revolution and it is important to revisit the expectations of that revolution whenever we pursue any of the aspirations of our day.
There is a close relationship between independence and the concrete demands of the liberation legacy, especially with regard to alliances and the kind of support we receive.
The experiences of the colonial struggles of peoples throughout the world demonstrated clearly that independence could be achieved in full, even if the liberation movements, by necessity, did receive heavy backing from powerful states.
To achieve full independence there is need to be armed with an ideology whose political line is consistent and fundamentally correct in its respect for the sovereign right of a liberated people.
The liberation legacy has always been a three-dimensional concept. The first dimension was the anti-colonial dimension and for Zimbabwe this was achieved through the attrition of a bloody, armed struggle. From this phase, many former colonies have moved into the anti-imperialist dimension and this is a battle of policy that often deteriorates into economic warfare. The third dimension is class struggle and this is a war of the exploited against the privileged few lording it over all others. For purposes of space this last dimension will be dealt with at a later date.
The struggle against colonialism was largely won by a unified resistance to racial domination. Independence became a reality in Zimbabwe and elsewhere on the full understanding that there was a subsequent battle to be waged against neo-colonialism and imperialism. This battle has not been won and the determination on our part to win it is not encouraging.
This battle is premised on the indisputable reality that the world is divided into two antagonistic camps: The camp of the exploiters and the camp of the exploited.
In principle, every national liberation movement -- as a movement in the interests of the people -- forms part of the camp of the exploited. On the other hand, every state pushing for the unfettered flow of imperial capital -- as a way of accumulating profits -- forms part of the camp of exploiters.
Alliances are naturally and automatically established on each side of this divide. For the camp of the exploited these alliances have not been and are not sufficient to protect countries from economic aggression and new forms of bondage.
For the camp of exploiters alliances such as the EU, NATO, and ANZUS have helped to obtain the triumph of military and economic supremacy in the perpetuation of the exploitation of weaker nation states.
Now we have a Zimbabwe that seems to be hoping that a collective Government embracing politicians from the three major political parties will necessarily bring economic relief to the suffering masses. It would be naive to assume that this hope is based on the knowledge that an all-encompassing Government would automatically ensure high productivity and a restoration of normal supply and demand.
It is safer to pin this hope on the assumption that we will end up with a Government team more cautious of the invincibility of imperialism and in their own rational way, becoming 21st century compliant -- submitting to the hand that giveth.
Clearly, our hope as a nation is based on the understanding that we need an externally-induced jumpstart to the economy, essentially some handout from sources the politicians are not at liberty to publicly talk about, perhaps silenced by the power of conscience.
Indeed Zimbabwe needs help in order to halt the sanctions-induced suffering that has seen the country literally stalling all progress, much as the country needs a breed of politicians with an understanding that it is possible to receive help without becoming subjugated.
There must be an understanding that Zimbabwe can forge alliances and at the same time remain independent and even non-aligned. It is possible for Zimbabwe to proclaim herself part of the same school of thought as others while preserving her autonomy. This must be the deep conviction underlying the political career of every one of Zimbabwe's politicians.
This writer writes to bring the feelings of the oppressed of this world, the exploited and the wretched of this planet. The writing is an expression of the thinking of many African people living the third and maybe fourth decade of their lives.
These are people who, in their childhood, heard about the Non-Aligned Movement, socialism and self-determination. These are people who, in their adolescence, proclaimed fanatically that the Non-Aligned Movement and the Frontline States were a force with which colonialism; neo-colonialism, imperialism and racism could be confronted.
To these people the struggle for liberation was a rumbling force akin to a volcano that was bound to set the earth onfire and to create a new international order, and that is how the colonial empires fell.
It is now 2008 and the Front Line States has evolved into Sadc, the NAM is subdued at the age of 47. Today, Zimbabwe opens its Seventh Parliament and a feeling rather of disappointment, failure and frustration has displaced the certainty, the enthusiastic promise of victory and hopeful satisfaction. It is a time we look at a House of Assembly divided into two halves, one morally and materially linked to the West and another standing sanctioned and embargoed by the same Western powers.
The sad image of some celebrating the sanctioning of others while others envy the puppetry support of others is most telling.
Perhaps this is called realism and reality. How sad reality can be.
This writer's preference is the dream. For this was the dream that made possible the most insane boldness of the liberation era -- the madness that enabled men and women to rise up against the barbarism of colonialism, to believe in victory, and to triumph in pride.
Fundamentally, the multifaceted struggle that resulted in independence was nothing other than applying the principles of social justice and equality of mankind. The struggle against imperialism is a morally just and scientifically logical undertaking whose cause is like a burning fire running through the bones of this writer. It is a fire that makes it impossible to be silent.
In the anti-imperialist struggle there are varied perceptions and lines of thought. It is a struggle that takes in the utopia of some and combines it with the pragmatism of others in order to produce beneficial results for the camp of the exploited.
This is the only way the struggle can be strengthened and the struggle is not anti-West but a fight for an order through which economic relations will cease to be always unfavourable to our indigenous populations.
The bold dream this writer prefers is neither the eternal rule of one political party in Zimbabwe nor the protection of any one politician's political office. Rather the dream is that seething anti-imperialist, anti-domination and anti-racial supremacy fervour that seeks to create a happy world where there are no countries stuck in traffic jams caused by excess wealth stolen from weaker nations.
The fight is against the same racial fascism that was in apartheid South Africa, the same that is in apartheid Israel today, the same racial fascism currently institutionalised by the USA in the Middle East to the misfortune of the Iraqis and the Israeli-persecuted Palestinians.
Zimbabwe today represents an awakening that tells of a refusal to the perpetuation of colonial injustices. In its economic weakness and battering, Zimbabwe has remained a force imperialist powers have been obliged to respect and to take into account. Zimbabwe bleeds as a gallant fighter standing for the recovery of the lost dignity of former colonies.
It is a bleeding the opposition may celebrate as an opportunity to exploit avenues to echelons of power but to the revolutionaries standing on the shoulders of the heroes of our independence this is a bleeding of pride, honour and dignity.
It is hoped that the Seventh Parliament will bring relief and joy to the masses of Zimbabwe but this parliament must be guided by the revolutionary expectations that brought it into existence and not by the political whims of selfish politicians.
Most certainly, this Parliament must neither be guided nor driven by external forces themselves driven by the imperial desire to loot the country's resources.
It is homeland or death and Zimbabwe we are one. Together we will overcome.
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This author is as much a lunatic as criminal Mugabe. An illetitimate grabber of power has no other place than jail for treason! How dare they speak about talks and revolutionary demands? Was the colonial pomp put up by Mugabe at the opening of parliament a revolutionary act? Or was his riding on a Rolls Royce while the country is on famine a revolutionary act?
Talking about revolutionary demands while making quick bucks on the back of the population through corrupt practices!! What a circus show! Should the show go on??
Typical Herald rubbish. Zim government propaganda not worth the paper it is printed on.