Maravi

(HERALD) Zimbabwe: Brown’s scapegoat

Zimbabwe: Brown’s scapegoat
By Stephen T. Maimbodei

Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Wise counsel, which British Prime Minister Gordon Brown should heed in his obsessive attitude towards the Zimbabwean issue. Since May 1, Brown’s Labour Party has been suffering humiliating losses at the polls, which now have a huge bearing on his one-year leadership as "caretaker prime minister".

The figure three is now very significant to Brown’s political life. For the man who has a pathological disdain for President Mugabe and would want him removed by any means possible, took office on June 27, 2007, replacing Tony Blair whose quest for illegal regime change for Zimbabwe had dismally failed.

Then on June 27, Brown’s Labour Party suffered its third consecutive loss in a by-election, since May 1, 2008.

However, the irony is that his June 27 loss coincided with Zimbabwe’s presidential run-off poll, which saw his nemesis President Mugabe romping to victory with a resounding and very convincing victory.

What a way to celebrate a first anniversary in office! Is it a wonder then that Brown is actually using the illegal regime change as a tactic to run away from criticism at home, criticism that is now being talked about openly in his own party, as they now feel that he is a liability.

And, is it not also interesting that when Labour Party members are murmuring loudly about his leadership, it was the exact opposite with President Mugabe. After the March 29 presidential results, Zanu-PF leadership (both Politburo and Central Committee) came out in full support, and declared their total backing when they agreed that he should participate in the run-off election.

While his party backers continue to lose faith in him, Bruce Anderson remarks that Brown cannot even find comfort in his homeland of Scotland as, "The God of the Kirk of Scotland is (also) being equally unkind to Gordon Brown. From a ‘great clunking fist’ to ‘what can go wrong will go wrong’."

And, the difference is that President Mugabe’s resurrected political fortunes have seen him sweeping votes in all of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces, including urban centres that used to be strongholds of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Brown and the Labour Party’s popularity have plummeted to record levels, a reality that was initially witnessed in massive defeats in local government elections on May 1, and subsequently in a key by-election of Crewe and Nantwich where Labour lost a constituency they had controlled since the end of the Second World War.

Even Ken Livingstone, former popular Mayor of London for years, lost to the Conservative Party. This is how serious Brown’s problems are.

Thus he can only find comfort in the Mugabe bashing either in parliament or at any other forum he gets an opportunity to do so. Why a man who is facing a critical test of his political life should concentrate on elections elsewhere, and not fight for his survival is food for thought about Zimbabwe’s net worth. Brown is prepared to sacrifice his leadership and the sacrificial "lamb" is Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

According to media reports, May was a cruel month for Gordon Brown, after he witnessed the most terrible election results in the Labour Party in decades, and opinion polls are also giving him many a sleepless night, as his popularity continues to wane.

Since going into office Brown’s obsession with President Mugabe has been one of the oddities in Britain’s approach to the Zimbabwe question using it now as a scapegoat to conceal their failed domestic policies, and the ever present issue of their military intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. What a travesty of justice!

Brown thinks that even after the dismal showing of his party which translates into his massive defeat and near demise, he can still stand up and talk down President Mugabe, an elected leader.

Maybe his embassy staff in Harare could translate for him one of the dynamic liberation struggle songs that won us the war against British imperialism:

Tinofa tichienda kuZimbabwe

Kudzamara tiyambuke muna Zambezi

Kudzamara tinosvika kuZimbabwe

Brown is the man shouting the loudest in the anti-Mugabe campaign, when there is so much muck in his backyard. Where does he get the moral high ground to preach to President Mugabe and call on African leaders to isolate him and his government, and also call on the UN Security Council to impose punitive measures against the Mugabe "regime"?

Where is the moral decency when in last Friday’s by-election, his Labour Party came a dismal fifth, getting a trouncing even from small parties such as Green Peace and the rightwing British National Party?

AFP remarked: "Although Labour was never expected to win the seat of Henley, southern England, the scale of the loss was a surprise as it trailed behind the Green Party, and even the far-right British National Party."

The issue here is not about Henley being not a Labour stronghold. Politicians go into elections to fight to win, and win convincingly.

They claim to run free and fair elections and that their playing fields are always level, with all democratic principles of conducting elections in place. So, why enter the election if you are going to play second fiddle?

Time and again since taking over from Tony Blair, Brown has unashamedly used the Zimbabwe situation to divert attention from his unpopularity, which started with his utter refusal, to attend the AU-EU Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, because he could not demean himself by sitting in the same room with President Mugabe.

The diplomatic wrangling almost derailed the summit that had failed to take place so many times before because of the racist approach by some EU countries towards the Zimbabwe land issue.

This was going to be the first time for the British government to engage the Zimbabwean leader even on the sidelines of the summit, but Brown’s "blue blood" could not be seen to be tainted by Mugabe’s blood, which translates into African blood.

However, he still wanted African leaders to mediate on his behalf. First, it was with Ugandan President Museveni at the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government meeting in Uganda, where he asked Museveni to intervene on his behalf. And then it was President Mbeki of South Africa.

Of late, the mediation process has roped in a number of African leaders including some in the Sadc region.

Call it vote buying or the carrot and stick method, but the bottom line is that African leaders who have been made to jump into bed with Brown do not in the final analysis cast votes for Brown and his Labour Party.

Just like votes for Tsvangirai did not come from his Western handlers, but from Zimbabweans who also legitimise the process by casting their ballots in a democratic manner. Mediation also does not mean dictating to Zimbabwe what they should do.

It is only meant to counsel and recommend what they think could be the best action for Zimbabwe to take.

The British prime minister cannot face up to the fact that no amount of diversionary tactics will make Zimbabwe lose focus of the critical issues of restoring, rebuilding and transforming itself through the "100 Percent Empowerment and Total Independence" policy.

His resolve is to ensure that African leaders speak with one voice against President Mugabe, condemning his leadership, and rejecting the just-ended June 27 election.

He wants African leaders, especially those in the Sadc, to isolate the Zimbabwean leader.

The rebranded Zanu-PF and President Mugabe, a product that the BBC World Affairs producer John Simpson discovered only recently is too bitter a pill to swallow, and he cannot come to terms with the fact that they have backed the wrong horse.

More than eight years of investment into the opposition MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai will not give them the land back. It will also not reverse the fact that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again. A reality which some people downplay as rhetoric and a Zanu-PF cliché.

They are now clutching at straws as they go back to the drawing boards with military intervention and widespread sanctions by all UN members being the only option left.

An option or solution which is likely to be rejected by other members of the Security Council, notwithstanding that the US will be chairing it in the next month, and notwithstanding that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has threatened that the US will coerce other Council members to rubber-stamp their only solution, a strongly worded UNSC resolution against Zimbabwe, which among other issues will condemn the June 27 election since to them it was a "one-man" race.

Brown’s fingers and those of US President George W. Bush were so visible when they got so agitated by the manner in which results were being announced after the March 29 harmonised poll.

They wanted the presidential result, for this time they believed that their diligence on illegal regime change had worked and their self-appointed candidate Morgan Tsvangirai would be Zimbabwe’s next president.

But, the laws of Zimbabwe, which they now want to disdainfully disregard, had one section in fine print, which talked about figures and their implications and outcomes.

Being a man of figures himself, we would have expected that Brown would for once show respect of Zimbabwe’s laws and see that MDC-T’s figure of 47,9 percent, no matter how impressive would not make Tsvangirai the president.

Cde Mugabe is the only subject that gives energy and life to Gordon Brown, hoping against hope that it might transform his dwindling political fortunes.

Now imagine the embarrassment for Brown, for the man has been beaten home and away four times in a row, three times at home and once in Zimbabwe.

Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, GORDON BROWN

posted by MrK @ 10:29 PM