Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Speaker of Parliament needs political re-orientation

Speaker of Parliament needs political re-orientation
Peter Chimutsa – Opinion
Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:28:00 +0000

IT IS true that most of the problems in Africa have been caused by colonisation. It is true that Africans have been a downtrodden lot and have suffered years of brutality and colonisation from the West. It is true that we have never had time to recover from the mental and physical effects of colonization. It is true that we are still a people who are trying to find their true place in history. It is also true that the West continues to dominate us and dictate how we do things in our own countries.

Those of us who have lived in the West and seen how the west has benefited from years of enslaving the African people will tell you a different story. Europe development has meant the under-development of Africa. The cheap labour that built the West was taken from Africa and Africa has never fully recovered.

Where Europe took thousands of years to develop, Africa is expected to take 50 years, half a century. Some of the most brutal, primitive governments were seen in Europe, the mass murders, the greatest dictatorships of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin – to name just a few. The killings of innocent civilians, the ruthless legal systems and political systems on planet earth are recorded in what we call the West today.

Yet Africa is held as the example of dictatorships – dictatorships that were supported and necessitated by some Western governments.

Africans who were not allowed to work in Government or in high positions are now expected to perform miracles in institutions they were never allowed to participate in the first place.

We were taught to hate ourselves and hate everything African including our customs and our cultures and we are now expected to heal from the effects of that ‘teaching’ and mis-education in less than 50 years.

I heard Zimbabwe’s new Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo, say to Gordon Brown at the Labour party’s conference: “You spoke for us. We thank you for that.” He also thanked the unpopular, appointed British PM for his “personal commitment” to Zimbabwe.

“There can be no finer example of what Britain can do in the world than your support for democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe,” he was quoted as saying.

“It is not easy to fight a dictatorship through democratic means. I dare to hope we have prevailed. Zimbabwe's struggle for freedom has been the story of my life,” he continued.

Ironically, Nelson Chamisa, MDC-T spokesman issued a statement yesterday saying state media is being divisive and creating confusion during the time when an all inclusive government is being formed. How hypocritical for him to say this when the Speaker of Parliament, who clearly does not understand his role, is out there ‘speaking’ against the spirit of the unity accord. His impartiality has been compromised and his role in parliament undermined by this statement. He has been used as a divisive element by the British once again. The divide-and-rule tactics, characteristic of the British, are still very much alive and dividing our people!

The Speaker needs some cleansing! He needs to be schooled on the history of the country that he comes from. He needs some serious re-orientation to understand the role of the Brits in Zimbabwe, and the role of the Labour government in the crisis that we face today. He needs to realize that the Labour Party has been at the forefront of reneging on deals made at Lancaster House in 1978-9 under the Conservatives and have been instrumental for the suffering of the people that we experience today.

To hear a Speaker of Parliament, our Parliament, our august body, thank the British for the role they played in the last 15 years in Zimbabwe is not only ridiculous, but ill-advised and the Speaker needs some re-orientation and a history lesson on the struggles of the Zimbabwean people.

Yesterday I felt embarrassed to be Zimbabwean.

Peter Chimutsa

peterchimutsa@yahoo.com

Labels: JONATHAN MOYO

posted by MrK @ 5:12 PM