“Politics is the art of the possible”. -Morris West in The Salamander
For over two weeks now, the world has waited with concern for the release of Zimbabwe’s election results, yet no word has been heard. Instead all we get is a mounting display of braggadocio and political grandstanding especially by President Mugabe and the ruling Zanu-PF. How much longer are we to wait? weeks? months? That the Zimbabwean High court has rejected the plea by the opposition namely the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to order the release of the election results is not at all encouraging. It is indeed deplorable that things have gone this bad for Zimbabwe.
The world is certainly running out of patient and we do not need a Mr Brown to say so, before we realize it. In any case, that he said it is not unimportant even though he was reminded by Mr Mugabe that he is only a ‘tiny dot’ on the global map and that his name is not co-terminous with the world. One wonders whether Brown would lose any sleep as a result of this gratuitous piece of insult from a man who is presiding over what is arguably the worst economy in the world. I think not. President Mugabe should have by now guessed that his era is gradually entering the twilight of its history. In spite of the tough-taking and fire-breathing mien of this 84 year-old, what is subtly discernible beneath the surface is that the man is at his wits ends. Here is a man who for more than a quarter of a century had bestridden Zimbabwe’s political landscape not just with an air of invincibility but also of omnipotence.
Change, that inevitable reality and universal law that we must all obey, is in the air. Surely, Mr Mugabe does not need to consult a crystal-ball gazer to come to terms with this simple fact. With inflation running sky-high at about 100,000 per cent, 85 per cent of the citizenry spotting the unenviable toga of unemployment, and life expectancy one of the lowest in the world, he must be having a hard time. If that was not enough, the empty super-market shelves should have conveyed the message to him in unmistakable terms, namely that the people are now fed-up. Sadly, people like him, rarely see what is out there, except if they want to see it. One is tempted to believe the opposition that the people must have indeed spoken-out loud and clearly in the last election by unequivocally voting for change in the administration. If that was not the case, why the delay in the release of the poll results more than two weeks after, one asks? We have also now learnt that some districts are going to have their ballot boxes recounted. Any keen student of Zimbabwean politics would immediately discern the manifest jitters of Mugabe and the ruling Zanu- PF that the situation reveals. If things were different, that is if the polls were really in the favour of Mr Mugabe and his ruling party, such recounts and delays would have been difficult to imagine.
Besides, that an 84 year old like Mugabe could be this defiant, stubborn and adamant is a classic case of the inebriating dynamics of power. Here is a grand father (some say great grand), who at his age should revel in the opportunity of regaling his grand children with moon-light tales around the fire place, yet there he is threatening fire and brimstone. At 84, should not a man be more concerned with living out his remaining days in peace and quiet? For ordinary and less accomplished men, no doubt. But also for famous if notorious men like him who have been there, seen it, and done it as the saying goes. At that age, what fresh ideas could a man bring to bear on governance? What innovative in-puts in politics and administration could a man make at 84? Put starkly, the man has overstayed his welcome and it seems that now is the time for him to take the final bow. Have his handlers not yet found an exit strategy for him? They should be about that now. It would not surprise anybody though if they have not even given that a thought. After all, are they not the same cronies and hangers-on who have continued to mislead the man into believing the lie that he is indispensable, just so that they can continue to feed fat from the common till? Indispensible indeed! Is anybody really that?
One is stupefied at the ridiculously asinine comment that was reportedly made by the leader of Zimbabwe’s armed forces that they would neither accept nor salute Morgan Tsvangirai (or anybody else perhaps) should he emerge as the country’s next president. Talk of putting a personal interest before the common good. What is deeply troubling is the deafening silence from other African leaders especially those within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Till date, all they’ve succeeded to do was to issue a lame statement at the end of a Summit in Zambia few days ago. That statement was bland, ineffectual and was neither here nor there.
For President Thabo Mbeki, there are no crises in Zimbabwe, even when Zimbabweans are leaving in droves, wading through the crocodile-infested Zambesi River to neighbouring countries and scaling the barbed wire fences at the border between their county and South Africa on daily basis, in search of menial jobs and the basic necessities of life. Does he really mean that everything in Zimbabwe is in order and that there’s no cause for alarm, or was his comment one of those tongue-in-cheek utterances that politicians regularly hide behind? The Zimbabwean story is in everyway, a sad commentary on the quality of leadership in African. In fact, this ominous silence of the other African Leaders needs to be called by its proper name: cowardice. It is all a continued perpetuation of that perilously expedient philosophy of the three monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. And where does this sort of silent connivance among our so-called leaders leave the continent of African in the long run? What place and position does it afford us on the global village square?
As one hopes the UN would do a bit more to drive home the message that the will of the long-suffering Zimbabweans should be respected, one can not resist the urge to remind African Leaders that the earlier they serve notice to their rank and file, that election riggers, ballot box brigands, plotters of coup d’etat and men and women who are out to hold on to power at all costs, would no longer be welcome at their forums, the nearer the new dawn of Africa. There are no permanent allies in politics. We only have permanent interests as a friend of mine loves to repeat. However, there comes a time when one has to dare to think beyond the narrow limits of personal gains and the so-called demands of elite camaraderie in order to prevent a bigger disaster. In the case of Zimbabwe, such a time is now. Africa can scarcely afford a replay of the Kenyan violence and blood-letting, even as Darfur continues to smoulder.
|
# 
Your Comments
Please make The Square an enjoyable experience for everyone by refraining from gratuitous ad-hominem contributions, defamatory comments and off-topic posting. Such posts will be removed.