(HERALD) West’s filthy lucre and the politics of divide and rule
West’s filthy lucre and the politics of divide and ruleBy Witness Taruvinga
Ignorance, stupidity and arrogance go together. They usually move hand in hand. They find each other in the darkest of nights.
This reminds me of an embarrassing conversation I had with a friend some time in 1991 while waiting for transport to get into the city.
Zupco had just introduced commuter omnibuses in Mutare and they immediately became popular with commuters for their speed and reliability.
Unfortunately, computers also made their debut at the same time. Both commuters and computers were words on the mouths of people. This confused my friend as he thought the computer was the omnibus.
I politely corrected him but he got angry and vehemently declared he was right. It was computer omnibus. Needless to say, I ignored him. It is important to consider the motive and behaviour of the Anglo Americans in Zimbabwe at this point in our history.
Their actions are both strategic and tactical in nature. They never do things which are not long term. They never pay money to anyone without a sure knowledge of a handsome return.
The recent revelation that Simba Makoni was allegedly paid US$3 million for his spectacularly unsuccessful presidential campaign by Sweden makes clear my point.
The handsome donation is now the subject of bitter wrangling within the party. These same donations also caused a permanent rift in the MDC as factions fought for control of the money.
The donors break our laws with impunity as they do in any African country. Our law forbids political parties from accepting funding from foreign governments. The entry of Simba Makoni into the presidential race was designed to split Zanu-PF membership and hand over a landslide victory to the MDC.
And this almost happened.
Simba Makoni belatedly understood the agenda of the West and refused to endorse Morgan Tsvangirai for the re-run. It was not the belief in the viability of Simba Makoni which prompted the external funding but the belief in the viability of the Zanu-PF candidate.
The West believed Mugabe would win against Tsvangirai. To avoid offending the nationalists, Simba Makoni decided to act neutral. This, nevertheless, offended the Western donors hence the current drive to reclaim their money. The divide and rule strategy has been devised and consistently used by the West.
Apart from funding political parties, certain individuals have recently been beneficiaries of such filthy lucre. That explains the weird behaviour and words of otherwise good and honourable Zimbabweans.
Western funding comes with obligations. Parties and individuals need to speak the Anglo-American language and push the Western agenda to justify continued funding. Any deviation may lead to cancellation of further funding, refund claims or death by sniper fire. It may just be a matter of "a genuine accident".
Prominent and respectable members of our community are poached to head NGOs or posted abroad on unbelievably handsome packages just to get them out of the way. NGOs are set up and headed by journalists, politicians or church leaders with the specific objective to destabilise society and cause disunity.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr Gideon Gono almost got hired as one attempt to speed up the collapse of the Zimbabwe Government. These are the individuals used to demonise Government and its leaders. The competition amongst this group of Zimbabweans for Western funding is fierce. Western media and their greedy governments encourage our citizens to behave in ways they would not tolerate in their own countries.
We investigated problems in Umguza in 2003/2004 and reported unacceptable activities of certain individuals there. The least we got from these individuals was a very recent acknowledgment of the problem in a Western-funded online paper but we got no apology or no one accepted accountability. That is the height of arrogance and stupidity.
The simple souls in Umguza shall demand some form of payment in the fullness of time. The destabilisation of social order and cohesion has been going on since Chief Svosve’s attempt to reclaim his land in 1999.
The globally corrupt Western media has been fully deployed and dedicated to Zimbabwe during this period. The constant reference to the Government of Zimbabwe as "the regime" or the "Mugabe regime" is a case in point. When political criminals are arrested in Zimbabwe the Western media claims the individuals were "abducted". When local anti-Zimbabwe groups are brought to book and forced to account for their actions the Western media claims there is "lack of space" for pro-democracy forces.
These pro-Anglo American forces are packaged and sold as "pro-democracy forces". When we acquire land to resettle millions of landless Zimbabweans the West falsely describes the process as "land seizure". We see British farmers on our land as "land occupiers" the Western media describes the same group of people as "land owners".
There is a difference between an occupier of land and the owner of the land in Zimbabwe. The British know that. And the Americans know that too. They pretend not to know the clear difference so as to confuse the naïve and gullible among us. It is a waste of time to explain this principle to a Zimbabwean who is also a recipient of Western filthy lucre.
While I give my friend in Mutare the benefit of the doubt, I cannot say the same about recipients of Anglo American funds. They are not genuine. It is a waste of time to engage in any sensible debate with this lot on current or historical issues. I simply ignore them.
In the meantime, I am waiting for those who previously travelled the world calling for economic sanctions against me to follow the same routes but with a different clarion call. Even if the crippling economic sanctions are not lifted by the imperialists, the clarion call will take away the West’s current deceptive moral high ground.
Blair/Bush/Brown/Obama cannot hide behind any Zimbabwean. They will be on their own. They will be exposed for what they are. Shameless imperialists even in 2009.
l The writer, Witness Taruvinga, can be contacted on w_taruvinga@yahoo.com
Labels: MDC, NEOCOLONIALISM
posted by MrK @ 5:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home