Events in Egypt have renewed Zimbabweans' optimism; everyone now thinks that removing Mugabe will usher in freedom, peace, economic prosperity, etc. There was the same euphoria in 1980 and then in 2008 but of course that did not happen. Instead we had the dictatorship after 1980 and after 2008 we had the GNU which was in fact the same dictatorship in all but name. Until we have a serious no-holds-barred look at why we failed dismally in delivering the democratic Zimbabwe we had all hope for we are likely to fail again and again.
Mugabe had no democratic credentials and Zimbabweans knew he would not stop the civil war if he lost the elections. In 1980 Zimbabweans voted for Zanu PF to end the civil war; period! At the time the all important first step was ending white colonial rule and having achieved that Zimbabweans expected everything else to fall in place. Surprise, surprise we got the worst nightmare.
Tsvangirai is a “flawed and indecisive figure” said former US Ambassador, Chris Dell; even after repeated blunders, it seems Zimbabweans still can not see it. In 2008 Zimbabweans risked life and limp voting for Tsvangirai only for him to bring the dictator back into government through the back door.
Zimbabweans are now looking at staging Egyptian style public protests to drive Mugabe out of office. And who do we have waiting in the wings to be President – Tsvangirai?! Removing Mugabe would be the first step, the first step in a thousand mile journey. But having a flawed man to lead the nation from there on is recklessly irresponsible. It seems we have learnt nothing from the failures of the past!
No comments:
Post a Comment