Zimbabweans as a people need
a change of governance for the sake of their very lives. The world is settled
on that fact but has failed to agree on the informing motive. It is clear now, that besides
an economic turn-around for the country, other, less altrustic motives have emerged.
Why is it that everyone feels in themselves activists for humanity while pouring
criticism on President Robert Mugabe, but falls just short of committing to any action?
It is as sad as death itself
when robbers make away with your wheelbarrow after emptying the heap
of bank notes you were transporting and even sadder when you sit on
the notes and mourn the loss of the wheelbarrow.
The world is afraid of Mugabe
who is compared in his land, to a knee bone that even the most ardent of all scavengers, the hyena, finds it difficult to profit from.
The reputation of the bone is not in its hardness but its round and
slippery nature. All it takes is a crack to hook a tooth into and the hyena has dinner, otherwise its slips and keeps slipping away.
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| Nujoma, Machel, Kaunda, Mugabe |
Mugabe's elusive nature is externally
rather than internally generated; first by the African Union and secondly
by the West (EU). Starting with the West, foreign criticism always comes across as lacking in sincerity. Closer inspection only confirms this; Western demonstration of love
for Zimbabweans or their hatred for Mugabe cannot be detached from the strings of vendetta
and selectivity that drip so obtrusively from every report on Zimbabwe.
The EU imposed speedy sanctions
on Mugabe's regime after the 2002 general election in Zimbabwe under
the pretext that these were punitive and brought on by the fact that the Zimbabwean elections had not been free or fair. It was no coincidence
that the choir-master, leading the chorus for the chastisement of Mugabe was Britain; the repossessed land was
after all almost entirely repatriated from white Zimbabweans of British decent.
From then on Mugabe was handed
a straw which he has clutched with all his heart and ten fingers. He
never fails to remind his supporters that the economy has been damaged
by these sanctions and that otherwise, they well know what a capable
leader he is - the years of rapid growth and service delivery after independence remain etched in many minds.
The West mishandled Zimbabwe's
crisis in an approach that gave Mugabe undeserved audience and sympathisers.
By making it personal, in its usual belligerent attitude towards Africa's
crisis, it alienated the inevitable and crucial ally in saving Zimbabwe; The African
Union.
Beyond the vote and a respect for that vote by Mugabe, only the AU possesses a platform through which Mugabe may be removed from power. This far however the AU has appeared indifferent
to a peoples' troubles of hyper-inflation and food shortage, and has not made it clear that it supports progress towards a Mugabe-less Zimbabwe.
The West and Africa seem to
have varying images of suffering in Zimbabwe. What to the West is a
matter of seconds to death is one of aeons to many African heads of state.
The plight of the Zimbabweans appears so immediate and solemn to others,
while the rest take the panicked news reports with a bowlful of salt. The reason for this is that
AU heads of state do not share the West's motive for wanting to remove
Mugabe. When British Premier Gordon Brown issued a high school boycott
threat to the EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon, Portugal in December 2007,
he did it to show his concern for Zimbabweans or so he made it seem.
That he stood alone in protest
even among EU bedfellows only served to ascertain that the boycott's
inspiration was suspect. AU heads of state decided to speak for Mugabe,
not because they are happy with the disorder in Zimbabwe, but because
they were not ready to participate in vengeance disguised as overflowing
concern.
If the AU has been toothless then
a brand new set of teeth has grown, and if the vote does not save Zimbabwe
only AU will. The West could but cannot without AU's cooperation,
which means streamlining the motive behind what most agree is a situation that cries out to humanity action; showing Bob the door. Besides motive disparities
that have so far worked for him, African heads of state have furnished
Mugabe with the extra fuel he needs to keep on ruling; their respect
for him as a colonial liberator. He is indeed, and his contribution to
freedom struggle is greatly admired.
His leadership errors notwithstanding, the laurels that adorn Mugabe's head for
liberating his country from minority white rule will not easily fade away. Many in Africa still
believe that repossessing land from white citizens who enjoyed the use of an inordinately large fraction of Zimbabwe was the very mark of the courage, one that is
to be emulated. Many more still applaud the Zimbabwean leader when he tells off Western critics
and advises them to put their time to better use than railing against Zimbabwe.
However, given persistent outcry
from all over the world regarding Zimbabwe, with its tag as the fastest
economic decline in the world, a forceful intervention seems like the
last of the cards layable, even in the name of a greater good. Mugabe selflessness
in the independence struggle need not hold reason to ransom.
The AU was amazingly sudden
to swim all the way to Comoros and forcefully get involved to flush
out the rebel Mohammed Bacar who had clung to power after an illegal
election in one of the small islands, Anjouan, that make up Comoros.
In spite of the fact that these two scenarios differ, and that it was
easier to obtain unanimity for attacking Comoros than it would for Zimbabwe,
it is nonetheless a hint of what options AU can survey and take a lead
in bringing justice about.
A conflict between Africa and
the West as regards the motive for regime change in Zimbabwe continues
to eclipse the fact that people in this Southern Africa country need
desperate rescue. When a person cites rising
funeral expenses as one of the reasons she is queuing to vote for change
then you know she has seen it all. We all want to be billionaires but
not by default. Not when a man enters a supermarket with a sack of notes
and comes out with a wallet.
Half-awe and half-distaste
for Mugabe has affected the regional and international cooperation that
would give Zimbabwe a return to its economic well-being. Mugabe now looks like
the former president of Togo, Gnassingbe Eyadema who when asked why
he had stayed so long in power, blamed the Togolese saying they had
bewitched him.
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