One of the troubles with having a simpleton like Tsvangirai in a position of power and authority is the real danger of getting stuck. Tsvangirai is like a hare caught in the full beam of a car and is transfixed on the spot and since he IS the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe the whole nation is stuck with him.
God knows how many times the whole nation, the whole world has gone through this point that there is need for meaningful democratic reform in Zimbabwe before the targeted economic sanctions can be lifted and full aid restore. But with a simpleton like Tsvangirai, it all goes in one ear and out the other.
Someone told him of the distinction between a process and an event and for some strange reason that did stick. I have lost count of the times Tsvangirai or one of his fellow MDC leaders have used that phase to justify they failures. Why should the scrapping of repressive press laws or the ending of the current lawlessness be a process and not a decisive event? Even if one was to accept that a feeble partner like MDC is completely incapable of making decisive moves; there is no evidence that this “process” has began! All the evidence points to one thing – that ever the nation had under Mugabe has not changed. Indeed Mugabe has been going to great length to underline that very point!
Lately Tsvangirai has started talking of Zimbabwe’s “irreversible” democratic changes. These democratic changes are fictitious, they invisible to everyone else except Tsvangirai. Of course it is nonsense to speak of something that has not happened as being “irreversible”.
“If this government were to collapse because it had failed to raise sufficient resources … what is there to replace it, and what would be the future of Zimbabwe?” Tsvangirai asked of the West. One cringes to hear that!
Zimbabwe is the hell-hole now not because the country did not have “sufficient resources”! Indeed Zimbabwe could do infinitely better than it is, even with the current economic melt down, if the country stopped the criminal waste of its material and human resources. End the seizure of farms and give the seized farms laid to waste to those who will put them back into productive use, for example, and nation will never again have to rely on food aid.
Zimbabwe is in this economic and political hell-hole because of three decades of mismanagement, corruption and political repression. The country must serious address these short coming first if it is ever to get out of the hole. Tsvangirai, like Mugabe, is obsessed about getting the targeted sanction lifted and new foreign aid flowing. As long as the mismanagement, corruption and political repression remain then Zimbabwe will never realise its full economic and political potential. Mugabe and the ruling elite will benefit but not the ordinary people.
Tsvangirai real has a serious problem understanding that meaningful democratic reforms are necessary for Zimbabwe to have any hope of a economic recovery and a life with dignity for its people. As far as he is concerned, Zimbabwe’s future is assured if he can bring back from his begging tour bags and bags of cash. He can not think of anything else. The West and everyone else have tried to explain this but failed.
“What is there to replace it (GNU)?” Tsvangirai asked. Tsvangirai is getting just as big-headed and pig-headed as Mugabe himself. For years Mugabe had created a political system in much there was no alternative leadership other than Zanu PF. Tsvangirai now believes Zimbabwe is stuck with the GNU. Nonsense!
If this GNU fails to raise the foreign aid, which it is, then it will collapse just as surely as Mugabe’s dictatorship was bound to if Tsvangirai had not propped it up. Zimbabwe will have a more competent government led by men and women with more common sense than the likes of Tsvangirai. A government that will address Zimbabwe’s teething problems head-on and one the West can trust with their money.
No comments:
Post a Comment