SADC shouldn't head toward Calvary

SADC shouldn't head toward Calvary
By Editor
Sunday August 10, 2008 [04:00]

THE Council of Churches in Zambia’s call for continued unity, peace and integration in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as Zambia hands over the regional chairmanship to South Africa needs to be echoed by all our people, all our leaders.

Experience has repeatedly shown that a region divided into hostile groups loses focus. Protracted political differences within a region inevitably lead to member states’ concentration on discords. The region becomes distracted from its legitimate struggles and loses its influence in the world.

The unity of all the SADC countries is absolutely necessary. All our countries in SADC are - to varying degrees and in different ways - experiencing enormous difficulties, problems that are often greater than the determination, strength and possibilities our political leaders have for solving them.

Sometimes, our political leaders find themselves in very complex, difficult situations. The approach to the vital questions affecting us and the solutions we seek can and should be shared.

We should rise above the controversies that sometimes threaten to turn us into enemies because of old disputes or intrigues, ambitions or machinations of imperialism. Generally speaking, all are the product of the system of domination and control that subjugated us for centuries. The abolition of conflicts among our countries and our peoples should be a basic law of our states and an integral part of our struggle for universal peace.

We must struggle tenaciously to promote the closest possible unity in SADC and with all African and other Third World countries. We must not allow anybody or anything to divide us.

We must use political formulas and negotiations to solve those problems which make some of our countries and our leaders oppose each other.

Let us form an indestructible battle line of peoples to demand recognition for our noble aspirations, our legitimate interests and our inalienable right to survive, both as SADC countries and as an inseparable part of Africa and of mankind.

We have never been characterised by resigned submission or defeatism in the face of difficulties. We have confronted complex, difficult situations in the past with unity, firmness and determination.

Together we have striven and struggled and together we have scored victories. In this same spirit and with this same determination, we must be ready to wage the most colossal, legitimate, worthy and necessary battle for our peoples’ lives and future.

The events in Zimbabwe are deplorable, but they show the crisis that can be caused by the policy of social confrontation some of our countries have had to endure.

But we shouldn’t forget that we are part of a continent that today represents one of the most important, if not the most important, fields of battle against all forms of exploitation existing in the world, against imperialism and neo-colonialism. There are big possibilities for success, but there are also many dangers.

What we consider to be the greatest danger for our region and our continent is the possibility of divisions among our peoples which appear to be continually rising. We have concrete reasons for fearing this danger.

We have no worthy, honourable, independent alternative to regional unity and integration – if we don’t achieve this, we will have no place in the world of the future.

Our politicians and other leaders should become aware of this and see our problems clearly. Often, the specific conditions of each of our countries limits its manoeuvrability, its capacity to struggle and work for true integration and to further SADC’s interests.

We must choose concrete, realistic and definitive solutions – not take the path of agony. We must choose a clear, intelligent, effective solution – not head toward Calvary.

We think we have been struggling uphill for long enough. We have suffered not only the torment of Calvary but also that of Sisyphus, who had to keep pushing a boulder up a hill and every time he was about to reach the top, it would roll back down and he would have to start all over again.

Our situation is worse than Calvary because Calvary was climbed quickly; we have been climbing our hill for a long time, and we keep on having to start over. Calvary is preferable to Sisyphus’ torment, and if we have had our Calvary, we should also have a resurrection.

What we want to find is a real solution for the problem, but what will happen is that imperialism will try to prevent the implementation of these solutions and divide the people; they will give a little praise and aid here and there so that each will remain with his own Calvary – not even a Calvary, but with the agonising torture of pushing the boulder up a never-ending hill.

But one day the peoples are going to demand, “How much longer do we have to put up with these conditions?”

And then they will find solutions. We prefer an orderly solution; internal and external unity; and a real, definitive solution for the problems we face.

These positions in regard to these matters are principled, they are informed by the history of our region, and their consistent application will lay the basis for a consolidated SADC unity and for contributing to the broader task of SADC in the current conjecture.

Our peoples are perfectly capable of deciding upon their own future and themselves dealing with any dangers which might arise.

We need to exert ourselves that much more and move out of the vicious cycle of being controlled by those who dare to fashion the world in their own image.

Conflict threatens not only the gains we have made but also our collective future. One destabilising conflict in any country of our region is one too many. And as such we should treat the question of peace and stability in our region as a common challenge.
The problems of Zimbabwe should not divide our region.

It should instead bring our countries much closer to each other like problems or bereavements often do in families: they offer an opportunity for family members to come together and a challenge for them to tear each other to pieces. Let’s ensure the difficult political and economic situation our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe are today enduring bring us as a region together.