NOT ANOTHER SELLOUT

a failed state is such that time is of the essence, and the various negotiating teams seem to be adequately aware of this truth. Sadly, some of the details of what seems to have been agreed provide ground for genuine fear that the MDC may be blindly walking into a serious political trap designed by the master of deception himself, Robert Mugabe.
For example, it is alleged that the dictator has finally agreed to relinquish some of his executive powers, and that an executive Prime Minister will now exercise these powers. The dictator will, however, remain President but with ceremonial powers only. Herein lies the first strand of the political trap. This means that Mugabe will retain presidential immunity and will not be prosecuted for the numerous crimes against humanity that he has committed in the past 27 years. This cannot be acceptable to the generality of the people of this bleeding country.
The second strand of the trap is also located in this allegedly agreed provision. The MDC should be fully aware that no developed, democratic country would agree to resume support of any kind to Zimbabwe while Robert Mugabe is the President. It is generally assumed that the MDC elements that will have been included in the interim cabinet would actively sell Mugabe as some repentant, born again dictator turned democrat. This will not wash with any of the developed countries. In other words, no development assistance will be made available to Zimbabwe for as long as Mugabe is still in power. MDC delegates at the Mbeki talks should not sell the people of Zimbabwe down the river in this manner.
Perhaps the worst element of whatever has so far been agreed is the Constitutional Amendment Number 18. Defenders of the progress made so far indicate that all the4 desired constitutional changes could now be included in the revised Number 18. The bottom line is, however, that the people will no longer be part of the constitutional process since the proposed Number 18 will simply be passed by Parliament. This is an unfortunate betrayal of what the people of this country have been fighting for all these years.
One of the numerous provisions of the revised Number 18 is that Parliament will elect the president should the incumbent one vacate office for any reason mid-term. The president so elected will have the right to govern this country for up to four years; that is until fresh elections are called. Needless to state that this is a disastrous negation of democratic principles. It befuddles the mind what the MDC delegates were smoking during these talks to agree to these numerous strands of the dictator’s political trap.
But there is still time for the MDC to review some of these aspects of what they seem to have agreed to at the Mbeki talks. None of these aspects are written in stone, nor are they laws of the Medes and Persian that cannot be changed. It is incumbent upon those of us that sometimes have the ear of influential elements within the MDC to actively seek to redirect the thinking in that party in the manner that will put an end to all the suffering that we are sadly getting used to already. A loo by any other name still stinks the same.