Maravi

(HERALD) STERP key to stability

STERP key to stability
By Tichaona Zindoga

ZIMBABWE’S Finance Minister Tendai Biti on Wednesday told visiting Norwegian Environment and International Development Minister Erik Solheim that the international community should give Zimbabwe some breathing space so that Government could deal with pressing issues.

He challenged the West to remove the benchmarks for aid extended to Zimbabwe as they stood in the way of Zimbabwe’s development.

Zimbabwe, which has been ravaged by a serious economic decline attributed to both internal and extraneous factors, requires, according to Hon Biti, up to US$8 billion for reconstruction and developmental purposes.

But European Union countries and America, which had been presumed ready to assist Zimbabwe in the wake of a new government in Zimbabwe have been literally tying strings to their re-engagement with Zimbabwe after they severed ties with the country early this decade.

Norway, which had appeared to follow suit in isolating Zimbabwe, has however shown willingness to close ranks with Zimbabwe, becoming the second European country after Denmark recently announced its willingness to engage Zimbabwe, to show an urge to work with this nation.

In effect, Hon Biti’s challenge to Norway was an attempt to disabuse the West of the Robert Cooper idea that discourages the developed world from engaging developing world countries on an equal, sensitive and co-operative basis, that has been applied, but not exclusively to Zimbabwe by the West.

In 2002 Cooper, chief policy advisor of then British prime minister Tony Blair wrote an essay that drew intense criticism for his perception of developing world countries in the advent of "new liberal imperialism".

As a senior British diplomat, Cooper also helped to shape Blair’s calls for a new internationalism and a new doctrine of humanitarian intervention which would place limits on state sovereignty.

In an essay, he challenged the "post-modern" states to get used to the idea of double standards.

"Among ourselves, we operate on the basis of laws and open co-operative security," he wrote.

"But when dealing with more old-fashioned kinds of states outside the post-modern continent of Europe, we need to revert to the rougher methods of an earlier era — force, pre-emptive attack, deception, whatever is necessary to deal with those who still live in the 19th century world of every state for itself.

"Among ourselves, we keep the law but when we are operating in the jungle, we must also use the laws of the jungle."

Britain has since 2000 tried to internationalise its differences with Zimbabwe over the latter’s resolve to repossess land that British colonists stole from the indigenous peoples.

This has led to the European Union bloc, the US and Canada — which Cooper describes as post-modern states — to try to isolate Zimbabwe.

Japan, named as another post-modern state, also bought into Britain’s agenda and issued travel warnings against Zimbabwe, which prejudiced the country of millions of dollars in tourist revenue.

Thankfully, these have just recently been lifted.

The isolation of Zimbabwe, which has been coupled with economic sanctions against the country, has led to an unprecedented strain on the ordinary man, woman and child.

Despite growing pressure from Sadc right up to United Nations Security Council permanent members China and Russia, who have called for an end to Zimbabwe’s isolation, no significant change has been registered in this regard.

Although pledging to give humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe, the European Union and the United States have not ventured to help Zimbabwe with developmental aid, which move has been perceived to have set the wrong vibes for the Bretton Woods institutions’ hoped-for re-engagement with Zimbabwe.

The IMF and the World Bank froze budgetary support and credit lines to Zimbabwe a few years ago and there have been recent efforts, epitomised in the recent visit by a delegation from the organisation, to weigh options for resumption of relations with Zimbabwe.

But the institutions’ insistence on conditions for re-admission of Zimbabwe does nothing to dispel fears that they are also Cooper-bound on Zimbabwe.

In the essay Cooper opines that post-modern imperialism takes two forms.

"First, there is the voluntary imperialism of the global economy. This is usually operated by an international consortium through international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank — it is characteristic of the new imperialism that it is multilateral.

"These institutions provide help to states wishing to find their way back into the global economy and into the virtuous circle of investment and prosperity.

"In return they make demands which, they hope, address the political and economic failures that have contributed to the original need for assistance. Aid theology today increasingly emphasises governance.

"If states wish to benefit, they must open themselves up to the interference of international organisations and foreign states."

And it would seem the minister has finally acquainted himself with this doctrine and is prepared to challenge it through calling for the removal of these "walls" of imperialistic conditions.

But it is not just this area in this regard that he has acquainted himself with.

When he recently reviewed the expenditure proposals of the National Budget announced by then Acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, and tabled the new economic blueprint Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan, he finally put to rest largely unrealistic expectations that new players in Government would conjure up an inexhaustible stash of funds.

This was mainly due to the presumption that "the international community" was waiting by the door with lofty alms to help Zimbabwe rebuild after a decade of economic decline.

The expectations appeared confirmed when, shortly after taking office, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai announced to the world the Chinamasa-proposed measure to award civil servants US$100 allowances.

But Biti chopped a massive US$900 million of the proposed $1,7 billion expenditure and immediately announced the launch of the Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan the Government would pursue until the end of the year.

The economy, he said, was going to operate on a "We eat what we gather basis" with Government expenditure being determined by its revenue receipts.

For the month of February and part of March, he noted, such receipts were only US$25 million and US$30 million respectively, against a projected US$140 million and this was not even enough to review upwards the "modest" US$100 allowances for the civil service.

On the other hand, fiscal demands were "high and limitless" and this was not helped by the existence, he said, of perennial vehicles of fiscal drainage such as Air Zimbabwe, which required vast amounts from the fiscus.

And because of the economic downturn that has resulted in the world nose-diving into a recession unmatched in the last seven decades, aid has not been coming Zimbabwe’s way.

In apparent reference to the Western donor community that had been assumed would take the leading role in mobilising funds for Zimbabwe, Hon Biti said that "where financial linkages to the affected countries are stronger" the impacts of the downturn "have been more pronounced".

But there has been a glimmer of light, though, with the Southern African Development Community, led by South Africa, working on a rescue package for Zimbabwe.

South Africa has pledged a US$2 billion package to Zimbabwe and has taken the lead in encouraging the West to re-engage Zimbabwe and extend not only humanitarian but also developmental support to Zimbabwe.

In the review, Biti hinted that the Government would dispose of its "family silverware", with reference to selling off some of its parastatals such as NetOne, a mobile telephone provider.

And this was just about the confirmation that with the inclusive Government Zimbabwe might be even moving into a macrobiotic lifestyle, after all.

Macrobiotics, found in early classical writings of the likes of Herodotus, Aristotle, Galen and Hippocrates, is more than an eating regimen but a way of life characterised by the desire for longevity and nourishment.

It is about a simple diet of food that is found and processed locally.

It seeks to avoid the consumption of too much and over-processed foods.

It is a philosophy that emphasises on watching what one eats as this has a bearing on health.

And with no indications of a deluge of Western money and aid, Hon Biti seems to have set the country on a path of macrobiotics.

STERP, which he calls a capacity-based rehabilitation programme, meaning basically operating on what the Government can fund and achieve, is set to lay a foundation for future Government programmes to stabilise the economy.

Labels: SANCTIONS, STERP

posted by MrK @ 4:56 AM