The road to economic prosperity, peace, freedom and human dignity is a tough and long. Or as we would say in Shona “Rendo rurefu runoda manyatere!” It looks like this is something the protesters in Egypt understand.
Egyptians protesters say they will not leave Tahrir Square until they are certain the country’s democratic path is set in stone. Egypt has lost billions of dollars in lost production and damaged properties, thousands were injured and 300 killed during the 18 days of street protests; to say nothing of the fortunes, the miseries and bottled up anguish the nation has lost over the decades of successive dictatorial rule. It is tempting for the protesters to bag the achievement of getting Mubarak to finally resign and pack their make-shift tents and vacate Tahrir Square.
It would have been foolish to trust Mubarak to preside over the important task of charting a democratic future for Egypt – Mubarak a tyrant to champion freedom, justice and liberty; a tail order. So getting Mubarak to resign was a necessary and critical first step but a first step of a thousand mile journey.
There is a second and equally important second step the protesters are asking the Military, to who Mubarak handed over power, to take before they would leave Tahrir Square. The Military must lift the country’s State of Emergency (the embodiment of the past’s lawlessness and repression), dissolve the Mubarak Parliament born of rigged elections and state a clear road map of how power will be transferred back to civilian hands. The Military’s last statement is silent on the first two requirements and too vague on the third. The statement merely promises to hand over power to the civilians. It does not say when or who else besides the Military would be involved in writing the new constitution, preparing for fresh elections, etc.
The people of Egypt are right to be suspicious of the Military. Whilst it is true that the army could have step in to drive the protester off the streets of Egypt when the regime’s first two lines of brutal repression – the much hated Police and party thugs - failed to do. Still it can not be deny that the Army has been an integral part of the Mubarak regime, Mubarak himself was an Army Officer in a civilian position, and was one of the chief beneficiaries of the corrupt practises rampant in Egypt under this dictatorship. Besides there is something inherently rot with the arrangement of handing over power to the Military – none of them are democratically accountable to the people.
The street protests were a cry by the people for a meaningful say in the governance of the country and handing over power from a tyrant to a military junta is not exactly what the people had hoped for. By refusing to leave Tahrir Square the Egyptian public are reminding the Military that their main wish is yet to be fulfilled. It is the public’s only way of holding their new democratically unaccountable rulers accountable!
Zimbabweans have themselves greatly suffered for thirty years under a corrupt and ruthless dictatorship of Robert Mugabe will be wondering whether they too can topple Mugabe. The simple answer to that is, yes they too can rid themselves of Mugabe. What is doubtful is whether or not the nation will finally be on course for the calm waters of peace, liberty and human dignity.
Zimbabweans, unlike the Egyptians of Tahrir Square, are interested in the here and now. We are concerned about today; tomorrow is another day and we should not concern ourselves about it. We had our first chance to chart a democratic path for the nation in 1980. Professor Jonathan Moyo was right to say the 1980 elections were a vote “to end the civil war”. Good governance, justice, liberty, etc. were not important. In 2008 we had our second bite of the cherry, but again failed to make it count. In 2008 the nation voted to get rid of Mugabe and paid no attention to the man the nation was voting to replace him. So at great risk to limp and life Zimbabweans voted for regime change in 2008 only for Tsvangirai to bring back the dictator through the back door! End the civil war in 1980 and getting rid of Mugabe in 2008 were but the first step in a thousand mile journey it is little wonder then that we did not get very far each time.
Getting rid of Mugabe still remains the nation’s principle objective but, sadly, it seems the only objective. Even with hindsight of what a flawed character Tsvangirai is the nation still has not started the search for a more competent leader.
Whatever peace “at all cost” we thought we bought in 1980 did not last long given the mass murder of the Gukurahundi years and the political murders that have now become a permanent feature of Zimbabwe politics. Tsvangirai keeps talking of the shops full of goods as if that was a price worth paying for his betrayal in signing the GPA with Mugabe. Whilst that was a welcome development the nation has since realised that without restoring law and order and the economic mismanagement and corruption – things MDC was powerless to do because the party had failed to secure good governance on which they revolve – the national economy would never recover. So without good governance what ever gains the nation has made they have proved to be shorted lived.
Good governance is the magic lamp in Aladdin and The Magic Lamp, the Holy Grail, without all the other political and economic gains will turn to dust as the rest of the treasure in the Cave of wonders! The Egyptian protesters have so far shown an iron determination to get the magic lamp and not to be side tracked. Zimbabweans, on the other hand are like the monkey, we find the treasure irresistible!
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