Even politicians who disagree with the students were quick to assure the public that it was a democratic right to demonstrate. As jobs disappear and the protective network of state benefits is eroded, students and workers demonstrate their anger in public protests. Its their democratic right, we are told.
Its a very different story in Zimbabwe where a magistrate in Karoi warns a man to watch what he says in public or he will die for nothing. As we approach the elections, the climate of fear in the country intensifies. This week we had an extraordinary statement by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Minister of Defence, that showed the real truth behind Zimbabwes claim to be a democracy. You voted the wrong way he told a gathering in Kwekwe. Zanu will rule even if you dont want it. Zimbabwe belongs to Zanu PF. So, why bother with elections at all, what is the point of this charade if the former ruling party has no intention of abiding by the will of the people as expressed in so-called democratic elections? The answer to the question lies in the term managed democracy. Strangely enough it was a term used by the Russian president in a report on the BBC this week when he described the situation inside Russia where elections are held regularly, opposition parties are allowed to operate but the elections are so manipulated that their candidates have no chance of success. It is, the Russian president commented rather surprisingly, a system which has within it the seeds of its own destruction. Obviously, that thought has not occurred to the Zanu PF chefs or if it has they have put it firmly to the back of their minds. Aided and abetted in their delusion by the craven support of SADC, whose president, Rupiah Banda did not even bother to turn up for the recent SADC Summit on Zimbabwe, Mugabe and his cronies arrogantly dismiss the MDC as puppets of the whites. Whites should go back where they came from and stay there for good said an anonymous SMS message published in the Herald this week. No doubt the Herald will claim that its a democratic right to express opinions freely as long as those opinions agree with Zanu PF thinking, of course.
In truth, democracy in Zimbabwe is a meaningless charade, an exercise in futility accompanied by violence against citizens deemed to be opposition supporters. The arrogance of Zanu PF was illustrated by the Attorney General who this week dismissed the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights as a so-called human rights defender when they sought to draw his attention to the massive electoral violence in 2008. Why do they not work with the police and have the cases investigated? Tomana demanded. I can only work on a docket brought to my office by the police. The fact that no-one has been prosecuted for the violence meted out to Zimbabweans in the 2008 elections is precisely the result of a partisan police force as Tomana knows very well.
It was the political commentator, John Makumbe, this week who called on the MDC to stop calling on SADC for help. Experience has shown that no help will come from that quarter. Instead, said Makumbe, the MDC should mobilise the people; by which, one assumes, he means getting the people out on the streets in peaceful direct protest against the dictatorial regime of Robert Mugabe. With soldiers of the Zimbabwe National Army, agents and Green Bombers already present in villages and townships, it is no wonder that the population is in the grip of fear. Mobilisation, such as Mukumbe advocates, would require huge courage, strong leadership and large numbers of very brave citizens prepared to defend their democratic freedoms in peaceful protest. How to overcome the fear and unite for a better future in this managed democracy is the painful dilemma facing Zimbabweans in the months ahead.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle, PH. aka Pauline Henson.
Post published in: Uncategorized