Maravi

(HERALD) Obama, Bush: Two sides of the same coin

Obama, Bush: Two sides of the same coin
By Isdore Guvamombe

UNITED States President Barack Obama has extended by another year illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe despite the country’s new inclusive Government and the demand by the entire African continent to have the sanctions lifted.

It is extremely evil, dictatorial and an abortion of justice for Obama to want to keep sanctions on Zimbabwe when Zimbabweans themselves have agreed on a political settlement.

It is laughable that Obama is behaving like an outsider mourning more than the bereaved.

Obama and his cronies should know that it is sacrosanct to respect the people of Zimbabwe in their broad totality and to respect them for their unity of purpose.

Sadly, Obama who came into power on January 20 and has been widely hailed by many as someone who would usher a new political dispensation that could improve mighty America’s bullish and brutal image, is now slowly slipping into former president George W. Bush’s shoes.

Ironically, Obama claims that some people in the Government of Zimbabwe were continuing to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes.

But Obama has become so myopic and his mind clouded with power too early that he does not want to give the inclusive Government a chance.

Who is interfering with Zimbabwe’s democratic processes then?

Obama’s problem is that he has kept diehard remnants of the Bush administration in strategic offices like the embassy in Harare who are still pushing the old agenda.

If Zimbabweans, through the facilitation of Sadc, have agreed on a path they believe will drive their country to prosperity, who is Obama to lecture to them about democracy?

That the White House issued the notice to extend the sanctions last Wednesday, the same day that Zimbabwe’s former opposition leader and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called for the lifting of sanctions might be coincidence.

But the fact is that it is an outright wrong to seek to prolong the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe.

It is clear that the political deal between veteran President Robert Mugabe and the two MDC leaders Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara has shattered the hopes of many political devils who wish to prolong the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe.

It is now evident that the United States wants Zimbabwe to remain exposed to the cruel politicised NGOs and vampire nations in the European Union who — like vultures looking for prey — have over the decade hovered above Zimbabwe’s political space, chopping, munching and chewing up the humanity of the country’s people, all to line their pockets.

Everyone who sang the song of no rule of law, human rights abuses and Mugabe must go, ended up driving a huge vehicle and stashing foreign currency under his pillow.

The people of Zimbabwe got nothing.

The very few lucky ones got crumbs when their names were used as pawns in a game of perceived human rights abuses, for amassing wealth for other people.

Those who sang about sovereignty and defending the revolution were placed under travel bans.

Their companies were placed under sanctions.

The future of the children of Zimbabwe looked gloom and doomed.

Today it is prudent for sanctions to be removed to allow Zimbabweans to work together for the prosperity of the country.

If America, Britain and their allies are the true democrats they claim to be to the whole world, they should show their respect for Africans by accepting an African solution to an African political scenario.

If Britain, America and their friends are the masters of good governance and accountability, they should account and govern the unconditional removal of sanctions.

Keeping the sanctions in place for whatever reason is extremely evil.

It is a death wish for Zimbabweans and should be seen as a way of condemning innocent Zimbabweans to death. Sanctions should be condemned.

It is fact, not fiction that the British, Americans and their allies should not judge the progress or effectiveness of the inclusive Government unless they remove sanctions and allow the political parties to manouvre freely.

Keeping sanctions and expecting the inclusive Government to function properly is expecting too much.

It is evil.

Sadc, the African Union, Russia, and China among others have always insisted that the sanctions should be removed and those who imposed the sanctions should show their genuineness by removing them.

Zimbabweans should be given the chance to rebuild their country without strings attached.

Only until the sanctions have been removed can anyone judge whether the inclusive Government is effective.

After years of polarisation, swelling emotions, hunger and teething economic hardships, Zimbabweans need a rest and deserve the best from the unity of purpose from their political parties.

It had became common practice for people with little or no knowledge of Zimbabwe to form NGOs and cash in on the crisis while Zimbabweans themselves reeled under hunger and an multifarious array of foreign-orchestrated problems that threatened their real existence.

Gullible pseudo-democrats and human rights activists in Europe and the United States lost millions of dollars championing causes they really never understood.

With sanctions still effective, it will be difficult to measure the level of success of the inclusive Government and it will be difficult for the three political formations to trust each other. Trust is important as the three political formations find each other on the radar of Zimbabwe’s socio-political spectrum.

The sanctions, whichever name they were given — targeted or otherwise — destroy the essence of the existence of the Zimbabwean people regardless of whether they are Zanu-PF, MDC-T or MDC.

Sanctions are a disaster to every Zimbabwean.

The resultant blame game will have consequences too ghastly to contemplate for Zimbabwe.

The people of Zimbabwe are peace-loving and hardworking that without strings attached the country will soon prosper and return to its breadbasket status.

There is now need for a paradigm shift on the thinking and attitude of the international community that should cultivate a culture of knowing that what is good for Zimbabwe might not necessarily be good for Britain in particular and Europe and America in general.

Sadc leaders have proved to world that they are thinkers, masters and shapers of the region’s political destination, despite limited resources.

The Zimbabwean situation exploded and polarised not only Zimbabweans but Africa and world.

Love him or hate him, President Mugabe has proved to the world that he has the political intelligence, maturity, composure and national interest at heart.

This is why he agreed to sit down and negotiate with his political opponent.

Like him or hate him, Prime Minister Tsvangirai has demonstrated his willingness to work with the veteran nationalist President and fiery revolutionary fighter that Cde Mugabe is.

The problem we have is that the Obama administration has not removed the remnants of the Bush administration in Harare and elsewhere so much that it will take time to have them change their attitude and advise their capital correctly.

The problem is that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his team still do not believe that the Zimbabwean politicians finally agreed to a political settlement arrived at without their involvement.

It is this judgmental attitude that Africa cannot do anything good without the help of Europe that has become the biggest stumbling block in world politics.

Labels: BARACK OBAMA, SANCTIONS

posted by MrK @ 1:22 PM