There is nothing wrong with using peaceful and none violence to achieve democratic change. That is exactly what people like Ghandi in India and Dr Martin Luther King in USA did. Tsvangirai is NOT, I repeat NOT, the Ghandi or Dr King of Zimbabwe.
“Without the firing of a bullet, we did it,” Tsvangirai said. I do not know exactly what it is it he has done beside letting down the people of Zimbabwe with his blundering and betraying them allowing the dictator so much rope.
Ghandi and Dr King had clearly defined objectives they stood and fought for; independence of India for Ghandi and basic democratic rights and human dignity for blacks for Dr King. Tsvangirai would claim that he has been fighting for democracy and to end human right violations. The fundamental difference between Ghandi and Dr King on the one hand and Tsvangirai on the other is that to Ghandi the independence of India was not negotiable and similarly the blacks’ rights for Dr King. With Tsvangirai everything including the very lives of hundreds or thousands of Zimbabweans was offered for negotiations.
Mugabe being a ruthless and heartless dictator, he grabbed everything offered him and gave nothing back. Tsvangirai has accepted that Mugabe can return his dictatorial powers to arrest and abduct innocent people and detain them at will, commit serious human rights violation including murder and not be brought to book, etc., etc. And on the economic front, the dictator was allowed to keep all he and his cronies have looted from the country, including keep resources like land vital for economic recovery. Now he is trying to unpick the agreement and curtail Mugabe’s powers. Of course, Mugabe will not allow that to happen.
“Don’t ever fool yourselves. We are not going to be naïve to believe that it’s going to be smooth,“ Tsvangirai told guest in a Harare Hotel recently. “This is a transition and there are transitional obstacles that you need to overcome. And overcome we will. Step by step we will make those incremental gains.”
What nonsense; what incremental gains has he achieved so far? Either the people have their democratic right to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country, for example, or they do not. At present, they do not.
If MDC had stood firm and said the basic human rights of Zimbabweans were not negotiable, this issue would have been settled by now. Even if Mugabe had refused to restore the people’s rights, at least the nation with have its eyes firmly fixed on the ball. Instead the nation is this pathetic position of having to negotiate with the dictator at every turn!
Tsvangirai is in fact no different from Abel Muzorewa. Muzorewa’s internal settlement of 1978/9 was too achieved “without the firing of a bullet” and it was the Rhodesia Front in everything but name just as the present GNU is a Zanu PF regime in all but name.
Thursday 19 February 2009
Saturday 7 February 2009
ZIMBABWE'S GNU: A MARRIAGE MADE IN HELL - "ABANDON HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE!"
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" that, according to Dante in Divine Comedy is the inscription on the gate into Hell.
Since March 2008 Zimbabwe has loitered outside the gates of Hell fearfully to enter. We read the grime warning at the gate, peeped at the darkness beyond and heard the blood cuddling screaming in the distance and would not follow Robert Mugabe shrill commands to enter.
On Wednesday 11 February 2009 Morgan Tsvangirai will be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister together with his two deputies. Two days later the ministers, governors, etc will too take their oath of office. Zimbabwe’s GNU will be dually constituted. The marriage made in Hell will be dually consummated and Tsvangirai, the blushing bride, will become just another one of Mugabe’s many concubines. His main task is to make sure that we all follow him through the gates!
History will acknowledge that Zimbabweans voted for Tsvangirai and MDC in March 2008 out of desperation – any one else other than Mugabe and Zanu PF! We were painful aware of his poor leadership qualities and lack of vision but were so desperate for change we voted for him. So he had the nation’s electoral mandate, although the GNU was never in MDC’s election manifesto, and sadly he is now abusing that mandate.
Zimbabweans have suffered a great deal and many lives have been lost needlessly many at the hands of Mugabe’s political thugs, the Police, CIO and Army. The journey to the gates of Hell has been a hard grind. What the nation has been yarning for is the light of freedom, liberty and economic prosperity. What Tsvangirai is doing, taking them through the gate of Hell and beyond is NOT what the people wanted to do.
We are now through the gates of Hell and the tour is set to last another fours years. Our challenge is:
1) to make sure that the GNU does not last that long,
2) make sure we do our best to reduce impact of the suffering and misery that lies ahead and to save as many Zimbabwean lives as we can and
3) Prepare ourselves for the difficult task of not just getting out of Hell but to rebuild the free, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe we all want.
There next few months Zimbabweans will be tried and tested like never before and if we are going to pull then we must have hope, courage and the iron will to fight on.
As the nation pass through the gate into Hell take a fresh pair of sandals – the path will be rough and hot –, take all the food and drink you have – you will need it and commit to memory these wise words from Lord Alfred Tennyson (from Ulysses) if you can:
. . . . Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Since March 2008 Zimbabwe has loitered outside the gates of Hell fearfully to enter. We read the grime warning at the gate, peeped at the darkness beyond and heard the blood cuddling screaming in the distance and would not follow Robert Mugabe shrill commands to enter.
On Wednesday 11 February 2009 Morgan Tsvangirai will be sworn in as Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister together with his two deputies. Two days later the ministers, governors, etc will too take their oath of office. Zimbabwe’s GNU will be dually constituted. The marriage made in Hell will be dually consummated and Tsvangirai, the blushing bride, will become just another one of Mugabe’s many concubines. His main task is to make sure that we all follow him through the gates!
History will acknowledge that Zimbabweans voted for Tsvangirai and MDC in March 2008 out of desperation – any one else other than Mugabe and Zanu PF! We were painful aware of his poor leadership qualities and lack of vision but were so desperate for change we voted for him. So he had the nation’s electoral mandate, although the GNU was never in MDC’s election manifesto, and sadly he is now abusing that mandate.
Zimbabweans have suffered a great deal and many lives have been lost needlessly many at the hands of Mugabe’s political thugs, the Police, CIO and Army. The journey to the gates of Hell has been a hard grind. What the nation has been yarning for is the light of freedom, liberty and economic prosperity. What Tsvangirai is doing, taking them through the gate of Hell and beyond is NOT what the people wanted to do.
We are now through the gates of Hell and the tour is set to last another fours years. Our challenge is:
1) to make sure that the GNU does not last that long,
2) make sure we do our best to reduce impact of the suffering and misery that lies ahead and to save as many Zimbabwean lives as we can and
3) Prepare ourselves for the difficult task of not just getting out of Hell but to rebuild the free, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe we all want.
There next few months Zimbabweans will be tried and tested like never before and if we are going to pull then we must have hope, courage and the iron will to fight on.
As the nation pass through the gate into Hell take a fresh pair of sandals – the path will be rough and hot –, take all the food and drink you have – you will need it and commit to memory these wise words from Lord Alfred Tennyson (from Ulysses) if you can:
. . . . Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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