If Moses’ demand to Pharaoh had been “Do not whip my people so!” Then, would say the children of Israel better odds of their deliverance from Egypt than I would give the people of Zimbabwe today of their deliverance from repression given Tsvangirai’s feeble demands to the dictator, Mugabe!
The story of Moses and how he led the children of Israel out of bondage and slavery in Egypt is, without doubt, the greatest story on mankind’s fight for life, freedom, liberty, justice and human dignity. It has inspired many similar struggles ever since! It is no surprise then that throughout Africa, the struggle to end colonial rule, oppression and exploitation has been compared again and again to that of the children of Israel and the continent’s leaders compared to Moses. Sadly the comparison has to start and stop with the tragic suffering of the people for none of the African leaders have shown any of Moses’ leadership qualities or vision.
The day Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, every one of them was a free man, woman and child, equal in human dignity and worth before the law and God. In the days ahead they faced the big challenge of crossing the Red Sea, finding their way to the Promised Land, nation building, etc.; challenges they faced and have faired a lot better because of the gift Moses gave them on that historic day – freedom, human dignity and liberty. Moses got all the children of Israel past first base. Something many African leaders, for all their chest pounding self importance, have failed to do.
Whilst the Biblical Moses had core values he such as his abhorrence of slavery and bondage and value of human dignity; Africa’s leaders have shown they have no such inhibitions. They would condemn the same injustices today when they are the victims only to perpetrate the same injustices or worse tomorrow for personal gain. They condemn slavery in one breathe and condone it in the next even to the point of enslaving their own their own kith and kin! And in spite all that, as if to underline the sorry extend of their moral depravity; African leaders like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe still consider themselves national heroes, the Moses of Zimbabwe!
The right to have a meaningful say in the governance of one’s country is, in today’s world considered a key and fundamental human right. Deny anyone that right and the individual will protest and so further measures, denial of more human rights and freedoms, will be necessary to silence them. But when these “necessary additional measure” include the harassment and beating of 250 000 people and the cold blooded murder over a hundred people in four months, as has happened in Zimbabwe, there is cause for serious alarm. During a similar period in the 1980s there were over 20 000, some say 30 000, political motivated murders! That says what kind of leader Mugabe is.
What Mugabe and his fellow Zanu PF leaders cared about is absolute power. He never cared safe guarding the human rights and human dignity of ordinary Zimbabwean. To retain his own strangle hold on power Mugabe has shown that he would stop at nothing not even the sanctity of human life!
So Tsvangirai is cast in the role of the new Moses here to liberate the people of Zimbabwe from the grasp of a repressive and brutality dictatorship of Mugabe. Tsvangirai’s enfeebled demand on Mugabe to end all violence is not exactly the equivalent of Moses’ unequivocal “Let my people go!” A comparable demand by Moses to Pharaoh would be something like “Do not whip my people so!” Of course the children of Israel would have had good reasons to be disappointed with Moses because that would have never brought the deliverance they were seeking. The people of Zimbabwe are disappointed with Tsvangirai for the same reason.
Yes, the Tsvangirai – Mugabe talks are the only show in town. That is so, but that is hardly a reason to expect any good to come out of the talks. Evidence show, this is just another chance to finally get Zimbabwe off first base wasted!
Tsvangirai demanded that all politically motivated violence should stop and all political prisoners must be freed and the frivolous changes brought against them dropped before any talks between him and Mugabe could take place. Mugabe ignored the demands and long behold the talks have since started. Why does Tsvangirai, again and again, make these demands when he does not have the political spine to see them through! The face serving position now is that he should refuse to sign whatever is agreed at the talks until his demands are met. The truth is the demands are so feeble, it really does not matter either way.
So if there was a day, a whole week even, with no reported beating or murder would Tsvangirai then be happy to sign? Mugabe can go further and dismantle all the militia bases, recall the Police, Army and other State Security operatives he deployed throughout the country after the 29 March 2008 election fiasco. That would all mean nothing as long as Mugabe or someone else can turn round and redeploy the militia, Police, etc. as he did before.
So Tsvangirai’s demand to the end of violence should have been one to end violence now and forever. The kind that would guarantee the people of Zimbabwe their fundamental right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country without ever fearing political violence for exercising that right. In other words Tsvangirai should have sought to deal a body blow to the very systems that has made political violence possible.
Tsvangirai should have demanded an independent investigation into all politically motivated violence and murders and that all those found guilty of these heinous crimes must be arrested. Particularly attention would be paid to role played by State Security organs like the Police and Army in these violent acts. The nation has gone to the dogs because there is no law and order, how could there be if those entrusted to police it are themselves the ones breaking the law?!
It is not that as a people we do not know what is right and what is wrong. We do. The problem is the current political culture which has forced good and decent Police Officers, Army officers, etc. to turn their backs on the people and do what they know to be wrong for fear their will lose their job if they did not. We need to free our people of this ominous and contradictory demand on their loyalties! There is only one reason any political leader would not want to address this problem; they, like Mugabe, want to use the system for their selfish gains.
Whilst Tsvangirai has suffered for years under Mugabe’s brutal regime he is still nonetheless reluctant to condemn the political system giving the ruling elite absolute power and nothing to the ruled because he is close to joining that exclusive club of the ruling elite. Of course the whole machinery of state violence is something Mugabe will not willingly give up and Tsvangirai is too weak a leader to demand of him and so will settle for the subordinate role.
Without political power the people will have little chance to force the economic reforms necessary to get the national economy back on track. So their economic hardship will continue.
The talks in South Africa will settle whether it is Mugabe or Tsvangirai who will hold the thick end of the whip. To the whipped, the ordinary Zimbabweans; stuck on first base where their basic human rights and dignities are totally at the mercy of the ruling elite, the talks are a matter of indifference
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