Denialism is always a convenient tool for most if not all dictatorships throughout the history of mankind.Even if Adolf Hitler was alive today,he
will vehemently deny that his expansionist and fascist policies in Europe
were a direct cause of the Second World War.
If Idi Amin was alive today,he
will give you a wide grin and declare that he is the best thing to ever
happen to Uganda.Students of history and political science are quite
accustomed to the denialist tendencies of all dictatorships and thus; they
are not at all surprised when ZANU-PF religiously blames Zimbabwe’s economic
stagnation and general socio-political trepidation on so-called ”illegal”
sanctions imposed on the country by Britain and her western allies.
ZANU-PF
zealots and propagandists will not tell you about the autocratic and
klepocratic style of governance that their party has perfected over the
years.They will be conveniently silent about the complete disaster that has
been the hallmark of their brand of land ” reform”.In equal measure,they
will not explain to you why the so-called Look East policy has been such an
unmitigated disaster.Talk about ”regime change” and these same ZANU-PF
apologists and sycophants will go into a trance and shout their voices
hoarse; declaring that they are a ” revolutionary” party that should rule
Zimbabwe until thy Kingdom come!
But what they will not tell you is why
their ” friends” in the East never seem to take them seriously. They will
also not tell you what they mean,exactly, by the term ” regime change”.
Regime change is a perfectly lawful,legitimate and democratic aspiration of
any mass political party in any country.
Political parties basically compete
for political power and thus; there is absolutely nothing wrong for any
political party in Zimbabwe or anywhere else for that matter,to seek to form
the next government through peacefull,lawfull,democratic and constitutional
means. If a political party doesnot aspire for regime change then it is not
a serious and ambitious political organisation.Put simply,therefore,there is
nothing criminal and/or treasonous for a political party to seek to change
the incumbent government through democratic and constitutional means.That is
regime change.
In recent weeks, the issue of sanctions has been very topical
again.Infact,this particular issue is literally threatening to tear the
inclusive government into pieces.We have heard ZANU-PF vehemently declaring
that, as a political party,they have since fully complied with all their
obligations in terms of the global political agreement that was solemnised
on September 15,2008 in Harare.This political party is,instead,blaming the
MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for failing to play ball by not
calling for the lifting of so-called illegal sanctions imposed on the
country by Britain,the US and their allies.
In my humble opinion,this is what
I call errant nonsense.I have repeatedly argued that Morgan Tsvangirai does
not run Britain; neither does he run the United States nor Australia.For any
sane person to, therefore, expect Morgan Tsvangirai to instruct these
countries to lift the restrictive personal measures that they imposed on
certain ZANU-PF personalities simply boggles the mind.
If some people opt to
conduct their political affairs like warlords and die-hard fascists then who
is Tsvangirai to help these kind of people to have their cake and eat it? If
the same group of people seeks to derail the democratisation process by
deliberately delaying the constitution-making process,then why should they
demand to be treated as royalty when their very actions are the exact
antithesis of the democratisation agenda? If it takes more than
two months to consider the names of individuals selected to sit on the
Zimbabwe Media Commission before setting up the said Commission,then
who,exactly, has imposed sanctions on the innocent and suffering people of
Zimbabwe?
So much has also been said and written about the Zimbabwe Democracy and
Economic Recovery Act ( ZIDERA) that was passed by the US Congress in
December 2001.What surprises some of us is that no attempt has ever been
made by the ZANU-PF propagandists to clarify,chapter and verse,how exactly
ZIDERA has caused Zimbabwe’s economy to collapse and its agriculture
industry to plumet to such humi\liating levels where we have to import 400 000 tonnes of maize this season
from a tiny country called Malawi.With or without ZIDERA these propagandists
should be told that Zimbabwe has accumulated more than US$5 billion in both
domestic and foreign debt.
They should also be advised that Zimbabwe’s voting
rights in the IMF were suspended because of her failure to service her debt
and clear her arrears.And how does ZIDERA impact on Zimbabwe’s failure to
service her indebtness?
How did this indebtedness arise in the first place?
Where is the money? Who used it and for what purpose(s)? When Zimbabwe
chose to waste her hard-earned financial and material resources in the DRC
during the so-called Operation Sovereign Legitimacy,how did ZIDERA
influence this absurd military escapade?
Furthermore,what tangible
benefits,if any, did Zimbabwe derive from her military adventurism in the
Congo? It is misguided military adventurism such as the Congo operation and
not the so-called ” illegal” sanctions, that accelerated Zimbabwe’s
economic meltdown.We have heard that a certain man who heads the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe boasts of being a ” sanctions” buster.Really; if this
gentleman has managed to be a successfull sanctions buster why is that the
Zimbabwe economy literally imploded during his tenure at the Reserve Bank?
There are surely more questions than answers.
ZANU-PF’s stubborn refusal to agree to the swearing in of Roy Bennett as a
deputy minister is hardly anything to surprise anyone who has studied the
modus operandi of this party.Similarly,the refusal to share the
gubernatorial posts is typical of this party; always indicating left and
then suddenly turning right.The real reason why ZANU-PF is unreasonably
refusing to fully consummate the GPA is mainly because they realise that the
MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, is becoming so immensely popular each and
every day that ZANU-PF has got a snowball’s chance in hell of ever winning a
free and fair election in Zimbabwe.The reluctance by ZANU-PF to fully
consumate this clearly loveless and almost forced marriage is informed by
the desire for self-preservation.ZANU-PF is properly advised that their
continued
stay in power can only be sustained by holding back the train of
democratisation.But then they have to learn from the lessons of
history.Surely,the former ruling party can fool some of the people some of
the time but they will never manage to fool all the people all of the
time.The day of reckoning is nigh.
For as long as the GPA is not fully consumated ZANU-PF can be assured that
the rest of the world will always view the new political dispensation with
extreme caution and circumspection.Surely,if a die-hard hardcore and violent
criminal tells you that he is fully rehabilitated it would be folly to take
his word on the face of it.
You will have to wait and observe that the
hardcore criminal has genuinely reformed and that he has abandoned his
nefarious ways.To date,ZANU-PF has hardly managed to convince the doubting
world that it has become a rehabilitated political party that can be trusted
with pursuing a democratisation agenda; in keeping with the letter and
spirit of the GPA.
No matter how much they will talk about the so-called ”
illegal” sanctions,if they fail to honestly and in utmost good faith,fully
consumate the GPA, then the status quo shall prevail.
Those characters who
are prohibited from travelling to New York,London,Paris,Sydney and some
other western cities will only see those cities on television and /or in
their dreams.This is the cold hard fact that they should learn to live
with.Indeed,poor governance and rampant corruption and not the so-called ”
illegal” sanctions are the main and direct cause of Zimbabwe’s economic
malaise and a generalised democratic deficit.
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