Joice Mujuru
That man and his backers might not fool us, but that “international community†represented by jet-setting politicians, ex-politicians posing as experts and their tame journalistic mouthpieces are easier to fool. For one thing, they don’t have time to do detailed studies; a quick overview is easier to base decisive action on.
Don’t let them kid you; the Evil West are on the list of our chefs’ possible saviours. The senior Vice President has been openly courting the West and during last year British officials, financiers and political analysts and the Belgian diamond merchants indicated that he was their preferred choice to succeed our present Dear Leader. They are serious; I know someone who, visiting Britain, was invited to talk to “military intelligence†who wanted information on Zimbabwe’s infrastructure. (He declined of course, but they’re probably still searching.)
These backers seem to have realised that their choice was unworkable, so they now apparently back Joice Mujuru. You might think that is an improvement, but is it enough of an improvement? Is it what we want? Their thinking, in as far as they spell it out, is that they would prefer people in any new government who have government experience. ZANU(PF) have been in power, or in a position to block anyone else from governing effectively, for 36 years, so where else will the Brits find people with experience? That may sound like a plausible argument until we ask what is our experience of ZANU rule. Has it brought us freedom? Made us richer? Made us healthier? Made us happy? Made our country respected in the world? We have to conclude that those in power in the West aren’t really interested in those issues. They may mean well, as they may have done in Iraq, but they haven’t asked themselves the questions we ask.
Even if they sincerely believe there is no candidate who is free from connections with ZANU(PF), why have they overlooked Simba Makoni? He has experience of different kinds of governance from ZANU’s. He is intelligent and respected outside the country. And he didn’t leave ZANU(PF) over an issue of his personal position, but because he disagreed with their disastrous economic policy, or rather their disastrous lack of any policy beyond looting.
I’m not campaigning for anyone, but these questions need answering. If we ask them, we will realise that we have a number of other able people I’ve not named. Many of them are doing responsible jobs in other countries for the benefit of those countries. Some of them can be found in opposition parties at home.
My point is that the West, while making some sympathetic noises about our human rights, our impending famine and our economic meltdown, are really more interested in what they can make out of our diamonds, gold, platinum and other exports or from contracts to rebuild Zimbabwe to their design. They are not philanthropists; they are business people and politicians with their own business and political interests.
I don’t suppose I need to remind anyone that the Chinese government, the Indian diamond merchants and other Eastern “friends†of our Dear Leader share those business and political interests, but don’t waste much time covering them with a veneer of humanitarian hypocrisy.
We do have real friends out there, but they’re rarely in government or big business. They are the sort of people who stood by Aung San Suu Kyi until even their governments had to accept democratic change in Myanmar.
Post published in: Featured
Thank you Mandebvu for yet another thought provoking article.
I agree that the West put their business interests above our national interests and so too do the Chinese, Indians, Israelis and all the other nations who have been working very closely with our Dear Leader for all these years. Many countries in the West feel they have lost out on the business front over the years because they allowed themselves to be sentimental and consider human rights issues; they are now keen to change that.
I think we, ordinary Zimbabweans, are partly to blame if the West should put human rights on the back burner and go all out to promote their business interest at the expense of human rights and justice because:
a) We have failed to effect meaningful democratic change even when we had the golden opportunity to do so. The GNU years were wasted!
b) We have not been good at articulating what we want as a nation. There is absolutely no excuse why the next elec-tions should be marred by violence and vote rigging. After 36 years of independence and we still do not know what we need to do to ensure free and fair elections!
We are an independent country whether we were ready for the responsibility of self-government back in 1980 or not the gene is out of the bottle, there is no putting it back. If we cannot stop Zanu PF rigging elections then we will have yet another corrupt and incompetent regime and will suffer the consequences! We are on our own on this one and rightly so too!