In 1980 Mugabe went to the Lancaster Talks holding all the trump cards- he was winning the civil on the ground and he had the rural electorate firmly under his control. So it was what he wanted that mattered and he wanted absolute power- a one party state in which the one party was Zanu PF.
Ian Smith and the white represented the defeated army. The nation’s economy was still firmly in the whites but they knew Mugabe was itching to take all that away from them and he did. Still in 1980 this gave them so political muscle allowing them to get some important and significant concession such as the reserved all-white parliamentary seats for the first ten years and a multi-party constitution.
As for the ordinary people, they wanted freedom, liberty, economic prosperity, etc. but they knew well enough that neither Mugabe nor Smith care much about what they wanted. Neither ever consulted them. The white routinely called blacks “Boy” or “Girl” and treated them in much the way- a child who could not be trusted with weighty responsibility of electing some one to govern.
Mugabe and his fellow black nationalist had used the “One man, one vote!” call to rally the people before independence it was clear they really never ever meant that literally. As far as they were concerned the black populous would have a directed vote – in which the electorate are literally told were to put their X and they do as there are told or they are punished!
The ordinary people in 1980 knew where they stood politically- at the bottom of the heap- and knew there was no one representing them and fighting for their political aspirations. They did not expect the talks to come out with anything for them and long behold they got nothing. On the political front the people put their X where they were instructed to and have been doing so ever since and hoped Mugabe would be contend and leave them alone. On the economic front they lived in the hope that Mugabe and the new ruling elite would cream-off the nation’s wealth- they was absolutely nothing they could do to stop that- but would have the common sense not to destroy it!
Nearly thirty years of Mugabe rule and the national economy is totally destroyed and the people are absolutely destitute!
The on-going Zanu PF and MDC political talks are in many ways similar to the 1980 talks. The national economy may be look like a rat sewer but that has not stopped Mugabe flexing his political muscle- after three months of unrelenting violence, beatings and murder he has managed to get the whole country cowed down into submission. Last week he had a whole fleet on new Mercedes Benzes issued to high ranking Magistrates who constitute part of the country’s ruling elite.
The economic chasm has opened between the ruling elite and the rest. The Magistrates receiving new Benzes were allowed to buy their old one at give away prices, many of them were given farms and many other perks over and above their huge salary. In contrast, their junior lawyer in the next office’s monthly salary is just enough to buy one kg of meat given Zimbabwe’s run-away inflation!
Mugabe’s vision of Zimbabwe is clear enough the ruling elite are absolutely loaded whilst the majority live in abject poverty. The ruling elite can see just how far they would have to fall if they should- God forbid- be forced to give their ill got wealth. Is it an wonder that so many have done all they could to keep their patron and chief benefactor, Robert Mugabe, at all costs by breaking the law and some have even committed murder.
Tsvangirai’s greatest weakness was his failure to present an alternative vision to that Mugabe gave. The rank and file Police Office are destitute like the rest of the people and yet they have been collared into joining their Commanding Officers- who are considered part of the ruling elite and therefore are filthy rich- in the reign of terror that has swept the country since April. They joined not because their do not know what is right from wrong. They joined because in Mugabe’s vision of the Police Force, all Police Officers are expected to join in or they will lose their job!
Of course, no nation can ever hope to have peace, justice, the rule of law, etc. if those tasked with the responsibility of upholding the peace and the law are themselves at the forefront of breaking peace and the law. Any Police Officer convicted of such an outrageous crime will not only the punished like a common criminal they are but will forfeit all their public service benefits and will never be allowed to hold a position of trust. Given a clearly well articulated alternative vision, a common sense vision, the rank and file Police Office would have grabbed it without a moment’s hesitation.
By giving the rank and file Police Office a way out of the totally untenable position Mugabe had forced them into Tsvangirai would have not only ended the violence but ended it for good. Not only would the rank and file Police Officers refused to carryout the acts of violence they would be arresting those who dared to break the law.
Similarly a call by Tsvangirai for freedom of expression and a truly free press would have free the country’s media practitioners from saving the narrow Mugabe agenda to save a national one. That would have been better than the call for the public media to stop calling him a puppet and other disparaging names.
There is one thing the talks must deliver the right of every Zimbabwean to have a meaningful say in the governance of the country and the right to life! For thirty years the people of Zimbabwe have waited and waited in damn anguish and frustration for these rights. The country’s economic nightmare would not have happened if only the people had a free vote; they would have stopped Mugabe from destroying the country a long time ago.
Now with the national economy in ruins and hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost in Mugabe’s fight to cling on to political power the one thing the Zanu PF and MDC talks must deliver in the ordinary Zimbabwean’s right to free and fair election without the threat of death! If the talks should fail to deliver anything else but delivers that then they were a resounding success because with that everything will follow.
If the talks deliver everything else but do not deliver the democratic right of the ordinary person then they were a total failure because unless the electorate can hold the leaders to account all their promises are nothing but hot air, as Mugabe has shown in the last three decades!
The 1980 Lancaster House talks failed to deliver of the people’s most basic political needs and aspirations because the two main parties at the talks lacked vision. After nearly thirty years in power Mugabe’s political vision his got even worse. As for Tsvangirai, he has eyes yes and that is all one can say. The 2008 Zanu PF and MDC will once again fail the people of Zimbabwe for the same reason as in 1980- lack of vision!
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