Melvin P. Foote — MOST OBSERVERS would agree that the presidential elections held in Zimbabwe last week were greatly flawed and deeply disturbing.
Independent monitors were hampered in their efforts, opposition party members were harassed and systematically intimidated by the Zimbabwe police and the military, and ballot boxes and the vote-counting processes were fully compromised.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of 78-year-old Robert Mugabe's re-election as president, to which he was sworn in Sunday for a new term, is that the people of this great nation can only expect that an already bad situation will get much worse in the months and years ahead. That situation has been marked by punitive economic sanctions from the West, a raging HIV/AIDS pandemic, on top of a decade or more of gross mismanagement of the national economy. There is an African proverb that goes, "When the elephants fight, it is the grass that will suffer." In Zimbabwe, it is the great masses of common people who will bear the brunt of the rapidly deteriorating situation.
The Zimbabwe economy is contracting, with inflation now running at more than 100 percent annually. Hundreds of companies have closed their doors, and more than 10,000 jobs have been lost over the past two years. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and major aid donors have already abandoned the country. There are already reports of food shortages and the breakdown of health systems and infrastructures in the countryside.
Additionally, 40 percent of Zimbabwe's adult population is currently HIV-positive, and hundreds of men, women and children from throughout society are dying daily as a result of the disease. There are now more than 1.5 million children in Zimbabwe who are orphaned as a result of losing parents to AIDS, taxing an already overburdened public infrastructure.
Adding to Zimbabwe's problems, President George W. Bush denounced and expressed righteous indignation about the recent elections. Given what went down in our own 2000 election in Florida, Bush's comments came across as rather odd and outright hypocritical. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Conversely, in view of the obvious fraud and the undemocratic nature of the election process in Zimbabwe, it was also disturbing to see how observer delegations from prominent African countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, as well as from the Organization of African Unity, pronounced the elections free and fair. Many African leaders stepped forward to congratulate Mugabe on the election and on his fifth term as head of Zimbabwe's government. You can only surmise that people living in glass houses must be careful about throwing stones. Democratic government remains very much the exception and not the rule in most African countries.
Africa itself will pay a hefty price for this lack of democratic procedures. There will be no real economic development and movement toward addressing the overwhelming poverty on the continent, or effectively attracting trade and investment to the continent, if African governments continue to make a mockery of the rule of law and the wishes of the people.
In the global economy, Africa is competing with the rest of the world.
Investors will stay away if they fear corruption, political instability or a lawless environment. The endorsement of Mugabe's re-election by other African leaders sends the totally wrong message about African governments to Western governments and to those who direct the global flow of capital resources.
The issue of land reform and redistribution has been largely swept under the carpet by Great Britain and the Western countries. This is really the central issue in Zimbabwe (as well as elsewhere on the continent). Much of the good farm lands remain in the hands of a small group of white commercial farmers. This is a residue from the colonial days. While much of the focus is on the issues of democracy and Mugabe's tyrannical rule, the issue of land is now not being discussed - as if it will go away.
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Unfortunately, the approach the former colonizer, Great Britain, and the United States and other Western countries have taken with Zimbabwe will not solve its problems. Those countries should have been supporting development of civil institutions, voter-education projects, strengthening independent media, and giving greater priority to addressing the AIDS pandemic and other health problems. The current approach will only contribute to the death of a lot of people, add to the suffering of millions more and promote the destabilization of the entire southern Africa region. As we learned here in our own country in 2000, democracy is not a perfect science. It is a work in progress.
Melvin P. Foote is president and CEO of the Constituency for Africa, a Washington-based advocacy group that works to educate Americans on African issues.
