(HERALD) Let’s not bow to Zim’s former colonial masters
Let’s not bow to Zim’s former colonial mastersBy Peter Mavunga
IN this week’s piece, I call for a time for reflection. Wherever you may be, son or daughter of Zimbabwe, give some thought as to the real motives of "our friends", the British ruling elite. These guys say they love Zimbabweans so much they will do all they can to free us from a dictatorship.
Pafunge, mwana wevhu, that you are inundated with sweet words of wisdom and advice from your former colonial masters who say they know better just what you need to live happily ever after. It may well be they really love you and who am I to gainsay that if they really love you? But all I do is ask you to make up your own mind having regard to all the facts.
Enter Mark Malloch-Brown, British Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN. The former Deputy Secretary-General of the UN spoke out on your behalf because he was irritated by President Robert Mugabe’s visit to Rome for the UN world food summit.
"This is like Pol Pot going to a human rights conference," said Lord Malloch-Brown. He went on: "Zimbabwe is one of the few countries whose food crisis is not due to climate change or global prices, but due to the disastrous policies pursued by Mugabe. One can only read his presence with a huge dose of scepticism.’
The death of Pol Pot in April 1998 heralded the end of the brutal career in Cambodia of a man responsible for overseeing one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. Between 1975 and 1979, his regime claimed the lives of more than one million people — through execution, starvation and disease — as the Khmer Rouge tried to turn Cambodia back to the middle ages.
This is the parallel Lord Malloch-Brown wanted to make with the leader of Zimbabwe today. He wanted to conjure up in your mind’s eye that you, mwana wevhu, should rise up and reject the leader of "this regime".
Remember these words were said on your behalf and for your benefit. They were meant to remind you that the ruling elite in the UK is on your side; that the rulers of this country do not want you to be subjected to the human rights abuses the Cambodians suffered under Pol Pot which you will suffer under President Mugabe’s continued rule.
In other words, you were being reminded, mwana wevhu, that President Mugabe is as "despotic" as Pol Pot who killed a million people in Cambodia. The message to you is that you must turn your back on President Mugabe who is as unwelcome in Rome as he should be unwelcome in Zimbabwe.
Now think about it, mwana wevhu, that on the same day his Lordship was making this statement on your behalf, the Zimbabwe Association was hopping mad that its efforts on behalf of Zimbabweans seeking asylum in the UK were being frustrated by the government of which Lord Malloch-Brown is a prominent member.
The Zimbabwe Association is a voluntary organisation that dedicates its efforts to helping Zimbabweans seeking asylum in the UK. They come with stories about being beaten up "by the regime". They tell the Zimbabwe Association that they are targeted because they are members of the opposition. They beg for support from the association to stay in the UK as a return to Zimbabwe would mean they would be tortured and killed.
The Zimbabwe Association, itself funded by the British government, takes up their case. Though they do not give advice, they will put the applicant in touch with lawyers who will help them avoid being sent back "to the brutal regime".
What baffled the Zimbabwe Association, though, was that just as Lord Malloch-Brown was conjuring up the image of a brutal dictator in your mind’s eye, the Zimbabwe Association was being told that 500 Zimbabweans were being sent back to Zimbabwe. Their applications for asylum had failed because in the view of the ruling elite here, they were not in danger of persecution if they returned home.
Pafunge, mwana wevhu, (reflect on it) that you are supposed to swallow this nonsense from your former colonial masters. You are supposed to understand from it that they love you dearly and they want you to follow their advice to get rid of the elected leader of your country just like the Americans got rid of the democratically elected leader of Chile, Salvador Allende, in favour of the military ruler, General Augusto Pinochet, whom they supported.
Think about it that they think Mugabe is as despotic as Pol Pot who killed a million people yet they are prepared to send 500 of your brothers and sisters back to the regime that kills.
Think about it that they really want to spare your skin from the man they say has no right to attend the food conference because, they say, he has caused food shortage in Zimbabwe. And yet they have no compunction about sending your brothers and sisters in large numbers back to "to the regime" that "starves its own people".
These are people who really believe in human rights. The Malloch-Browns, the Gordon Browns and the Archbishop Sentamus of this world are the people who take it upon themselves to set standards for the world to follow.
Yet when they speak against election violence that did not happen in Zimbabwe, their silence is deafening when South Africa burns in xenophobic attacks.
Pafunge, mwana wevhu!
And when I refer to the ruling elite, I mean the ruling elite. It is not members of Gordon Brown’s government alone who are campaigning against your President.
It is, as I say, the ruling elite. They represent all shades of political opinion and will say whatever comes into their heads and will say so in your name, mwana wevhu.
Nick Clegg is the leader of the third political party in Britain, the Liberal Democrats. Last week he felt he had to make his penny’s worth contribution on Zimbabwe. And like all members of the ruling elite in the UK, he did it on behalf of you, mwana wevhu, because he loves you so much.
His contribution was in the form of urging the British government to block all foreign currency remittances to Zimbabwe unless minimum standards for free and fair elections are met immediately.
He said: "We must make clear to the Mugabe regime now that unless they agree to minimum standards for the June 27 presidential election, we will act to cut off supplies of foreign currency which help prop up their regime.
Of course (wait for it), this will have an effect on some ordinary Zimbabweans while the measures are in place. But we have a choice between taking tough action now or watching the long lingering death of the country.
"Health services have collapsed, the people face starvation and the life expectancy of Zimbabwean people — at 36 — is now the lowest in the world. Criticism, however strongly expressed, has not changed the situation. It is time to take action.’
What this member of the British ruling elite is saying is that the measures to run Zimbabwe down they have taken so far have not gone far enough. Now is time to go for the jugular vein, to finish off "the regime".
If proof was needed to show that the ruling elite is responsible for running down the Zimbabwean economy, here it is.
And as for the effect of his medicine on ordinary people? Clegg says, of course, this will have an effect on you, mwana wevhu, but it is a sacrifice worth making as long as the end result is the removal of your President. The end justifies the means when it comes to matters African.
So whose agenda is this, mwana wevhu? The illegal sanctions have caused untold misery in Zimbabwe.
If it was not for the sanctions, the economy of Zimbabwe would have been as buoyant as it was in the past. Jobs would have been plentiful. Remember the same man the same ruling elite knighted in 1994 is the same man they now liken to General Pinochet.
The difference between then and now is that a stand was taken to give mwana wevhu the land the British ruling elite is so keen on.
So when they tell you they love you so much, they want you to turn against your elected President. All I do is ask you to think about it.
Pafunge, mwana wevhu.
Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, SANCTIONS
posted by MrK @ 2:55 AM
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