In the Movie “Ransom” the main character acted by Mel Gibson repeatedly gives the two fingers to the “bad guy” even when the later has a gun pointing at his head! To me that was a measure of real character. The average person out there, myself included, would have given the “bad guy” whatever he asked for and, no doubt, shot immediately thereafter! Many of know that the “bad guy” would almost all ways “waste” you as soon as he/she gets what they were after.
We all know Robert Mugabe is a “bad guy” – so bad that Hell itself would probably want to spit him out – and Finance Minister Tendai Biti, of all people, should know that. Mugabe must have had a 300 mm Cannon of Minister Biti to go over the top in his praise of the dictator.
“When you meet him,” Biti told an interviewer, “it’s hard to believe that this is the man the MDC has been fighting for so long, with his beautiful British manners, just like a Victorian gentleman.
“He deserves a knighthood,” Biti concluded.
I was speechless after reading that. One requires a double take and still one can not believe. Not only has MDC fought Mugabe in the past, they are still fighting the dictator to this day. If MDC thought after signing the GPA and the formation of the GNU they will work with Mugabe as an equal partner; the reality of the last three months should have dispelled that foolish motion. Mugabe has been as arrogant and belligerent as ever.
For a nation desperate to move out of this hell-hole Mugabe landed us, the lack of real progress has been most frustrating. One would have thought MDC is equally frustrated, particularly someone like Minister Biti.
It is tempting to think that Minister Biti was being sarcastic or was trying to charm the dictator using flattery. The Minister should have known better, flattery does not work with Mugabe. It was the Knighthood from the British and all the other honours showered on him that made the moron so big-head; he thinks he is special. In any case everything that MDC has done to date (forget the empty posturing) shows everyone in MDC worships Mugabe – out of fear or heart felt regard (which presumably Minister Biti was showing) or both.
Minister Biti is not the only MDC leader who has been singing Mugabe’s praise, even in the face of overwhelming evidence pointing to the contrary. PM Morgan Tsvangirai himself never tires of that. Even when Mugabe has just kicked him in the teeth he still stood up and said “the period of acrimony is over”.
Mugabe did not have a 300 mm Cannon pointing at Minister Biti, PM Tsvangirai and all the other MDC leaders to force them to sign his praise. He gave the MDC members something more potent- power. Power is the strongest hallucinogenic drug known to man. By virtue of their position as Finance Minister and Prime Minister, Tendai Biti and Morgan Tsvangirai, were now members of the select few allowed to drink “power”. To be drinking it in the company of President Robert Mugabe – the very fact that he is a ruthless dictator has had no effect, they simply worship him – has them hallucinating.
If some one has a gun to you head, I do not expect our political leaders to show the strength of character like the Mel Gibson character. I expect them to turn yellow like you and me. However, I expect any leader, especially national leaders not to lose their head the first time they taste power. Zimbabwe is in the pickle because when Mugabe tasted power in 1980, he loved it so much he immediately abandoned all the values and principles of freedom, liberty and human dignity the nation had fought for in pursuit of power. Indeed Mugabe is so drunk with this hallucinogenic drug he has dragged the country into the worst economic mess in human history and murdered hundred of thousands of innocent lives in pursuit of power and, here is the thing, he does not believe he has done anything wrong.
Now after three month in power people like Minister Biti are themselves seeing Mugabe as a “Victorian gentleman!” who should be knighted!
Power should come with a health warning “Not to be taken by those with a soft head and prone to hallucinating. People like Robert Mugabe, Tendai Biti, Morgan Tsvangirai, etc. It will blind and nabs the mind to reality and in extreme cases turn one into a heartless dictators!”
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