According to former SA President, Thambo Mbeki, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted to use military force to remove Mugabe from power; with hindsight, was this a good idea?
“But given subsequent events, it is worth asking – if only in the interests of counter-factual history – whether it would really have been such a bad idea?” asks Ian Birrell.
If his analysis had started at the beginning, before independence, and not in the post-independence era; then he would not have called Mugabe a “war hero” or suggested there was any merit in a military action to remove Mugabe and Zanu PF by the British or anyone else.
Zimbabwe was not the first country to tackle the problem of how to end white colonial exploitation and oppression. The whole of Africa and many other countries the world over had had to deal with the same problem. Mugabe and his fellow nationalist decide to use arms to force the white colonialist to give up power. It achieved the set objective of forcing Ian Smith’s Rhodesia Front to give up power, yes; but at what cost!
All the nation succeeded in doing is remove an oppressive white regime with an even more oppressive and corrupt black regime.
The national aspiration before independence was for freedom, liberty and a fair share in the nation’s wealth and riches. Aspirations Mugabe and his cronies have shown they did not care about.
The nation considered Mugabe a national hero only because they believed Mugabe’s rhetoric that he the whites so that all blacks could enjoy all the human rights and live in dignity. The reality of Mugabe’s rule has dispelled all that showing Mugabe is nothing but a corrupt and ruthless tyrant. How can anyone call a ruthless tyrant who has murdered over 30 000 innocent civilians for his own selfish political gains a national hero? That is nonsense!
Mahatma Gandhi dismissed the use of force to end British rule of India for one good reason- “What kind of leaders would the armed struggle throw up?” he asked. He knew the answer to that one and so does the people of Zimbabwe. “Are those the kind of men and women I would want to rule India?” Gandhi concluded. Zimbabwe’s armed struggle throw up the worst kind of leaders and we have 33 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, an all-out looting spree in the last 13 years, vote rigging and over 30 000 political murders victims to prove it!
A violent overthrow of Mugabe and Zanu PF, regardless of whether it is inspired or led by the British, can never be a good idea because it too fails to answer the fundamental question; what kind of leaders will it throw up? The fact that anyone should have thought of a military solution shows they have learnt nothing from history.
6 comments:
Philip Chiyangwa is the latest Zanu PF’s filthy rich to have their loot paraded in public. His wife wants to divorce him and is asking for $83 000 per month and 85% of the loot.
Chiyangwa’s loot includes over 100 properties and farms countrywide, 40 businesses, a Rolls Royce, a Bentley, a fleet of Mercedes and several other top of the range luxury cars and a huge mansion.
People like Chiyangwa made their fortune at the time the Zimbabwe economy was shrinking. The Zimbabwe economy shrunk a world record 84% in the six year period 2002 to 2008 alone. It is either these Zanu PF individuals are really clever and shrewd business people or they are unbelievably corrupt. Some day when there is regime change in Zimbabwe; people like Chiyangwa must help us settle this question once and for all!
@ Majoni
You should take some of the advise you give so readily; you did talk about the ICC.
How can nearly a million voters who had made all the effort to register to vote then be denied that right because their name now appeared in another constituency? How can voters bussed in from another area and clearly did not live in the areas be allowed to vote? Why is Mugabe refusing to release the voters roll if there is nothing to hide? All these and many more unanswered questions point to one thing and one thing only - the vote was rigged.
The whole world saw the bussed in voters who did not belong to the area. If the Zimbabwe authorities were serious about holding free and fair elections then one expected the Police to arrest all hose involved. Mugabe and his cronies are above the law and hence the Police did not even investigate anyone. It seems you are not aware of this political reality otherwise you would not be talking such nonsense as "lets refrain from just throwing accusations!"
You have chosen to be hoodwinked by Mugabe, the tyrant has bamboozled many others including the breathtakingly incompetent Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. It does not take much to hoodwink and bamboozle some people. What you must realize is that the tyrant has no bamboozled everyone!
Whilst Zimbabwe has insulted and enraged all would be investors from the west with Mugabe's thinly disguised looting agenda and then forced to look East for help. China has not only been looking West and taking all the low-tech jobs from the US and Europe but has also looked to Africa and other spots in the world to sell them her low-tech cheap goods forcing the local producer out of business. In other words China has looked West to steal low-tech jobs from the West and looked to impoverished nations to steal the few jobs they have!
There reports of chaos reigning in Zanu PF’s on-going seven provincional elections. The first three were “won” by the Mujuru faction in the middle of vote rigging allegations by the losing Mnangagwa faction. Whichever faction has overall control of the provinces will go on take the crown from Mugabe. No one can say that for certain given that this is a political party that re-spects no rules!
“We are making the necessary arrangements so that everyone who has a right to vote will do so,” Midzi, a candidate in the Harare Province elections, commented following reports of a shortage of ballot papers in that election.
Well that was not Mugabe and Zanu PF's position when the nation held the elections in July. Nearly one million Zimbabweans who had the right to vote were denied the vote. Meanwhile a handful of Zanu PF loyalists were bussed from one polling station to the next to vote and each time they were given 10 to 20 additional ballots, according to an MDC report.
There reports of chaos reigning in Zanu PF’s on-going seven provincional elections. The first three were “won” by the Mujuru faction in the middle of vote rigging allegations by the losing Mnangagwa faction. Whichever faction has overall control of the provinces will go on take the crown from Mugabe. No one can say that for certain given that this is a political party that re-spects no rules!
“We are making the necessary arrangements so that everyone who has a right to vote will do so,” Midzi, a candidate in the Harare Province elections, commented following reports of a shortage of ballot papers in that election.
Well that was not Mugabe and Zanu PF's position when the nation held the elections in July. Nearly one million Zimbabweans who had the right to vote were denied the vote. Meanwhile a handful of Zanu PF loyalists were bussed from one polling station to the next to vote and each time they were given 10 to 20 additional ballots, according to an MDC report.
Tendai missed the important point that the Zanu PF dictatorship and the army top brass are two sides of the same coin. So the threat by Tony Blair to invade Zimbabwe could not have driven the army back into Mugabe's arms because the two are one and the same thing.
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