West doesn’t want Govt to succeed

West doesn’t want Govt to succeed
By Alexander Kanengoni

SINCE the signing of the broad-based agreement in September last year and the formation of the inclusive Government in February this year, our politics has entered a dramatic phase.

For the first time in over a decade, Zimbabweans have rallied together thereby exposing the fundamental contradiction with the West — the land issue.

In the past, the West took convenient cover behind allegations of human rights abuses against the opposition and thus imposed sanctions on the country.

This writer remembers the difficulty we had trying to convince others among us that our fight with the West was not over alleged human rights violations but over land.

The inclusive Government has vindicated us.

The West still refuses to lift sanctions even if the opposition, on whose behalf it claimed it had imposed them, says there is no reason to continue with them.

The refusal is increasingly becoming blatant and shameless.

But however, it should serve as a strong indication of the extent to which the West is prepared to go where its interests are concerned; where it perceives its interests are threatened.

It is evident that the West did not want the political agreement and the subsequent inclusive Government it gave birth to, to happen the way it has happened.

Obviously, it wanted a political dispensation that would revisit and probably reverse the Land Reform Programme.

If the opposition had not promised it would deliver back the land, it is clear, as South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said recently, the West would manipulate it to do it.

That is why the West is angry with the opposition, very angry.

It is within this context that the accident that claimed the life of the wife of the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, might be viewed; that Mrs Tsvangirai became an unfortunate victim of an accident whose intended target was the Prime Minister.

It is clear that the West does not want the inclusive Government to succeed.

There is already strong talk they are busy looking for gullible Zimbabweans to bankroll to throw spanners into its wheels.

Where their interests are concerned, they can do anything. That is the reality we should live with.

That is why this writer was disappointed with the case of the poor new farmer outside Chegutu who was left to himself to explain to the media his battle with a former commercial farmer refusing to vacate a farm acquired by Government several years ago.

What disappointed this writer was the general failure to appreciate the political magnitude of the farmer’s case; the fact that it represented the fundamental reason why we are at war with the West.

To make matters worse, it was precisely the battle of that poor man that was being aired on CNN and BBC as an example of a new wave of farm invasions that had gripped the country.

And we left it entirely to the poor man to explain himself out of a case with such huge political implications!

Where were the politicians?

Confronted by the media with the allegation of a new wave of farm invasions, Prime Minister Tsvangirai could only promise he would task the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee to investigate.

The same issue of the invasions popped up again in Mbabane at the Sadc Heads of State meeting to help Zimbabwe out of the economic crisis and Minister of Industry and Commerce Welshman Ncube tried to explain there was nothing new about what was happening, that they were cases of farms that had been acquired a long time ago but you could see he did not have all the details.

Where was the Ministry of Lands when everyone elsewhere was struggling and groping for explanations?

Our strongest weapon to fight the West regarding the land is to tell the truth.

Our country has been ostracised and turned into a pariah State because of the land. But the West does not want to admit that truth.

Instead they keep repeating, through their powerful media, exaggerated claims of human rights violations until people begin to believe it as the truth.

That is why the Minister of Lands should have been at the forefront of the case of the Chegutu farmer, shielding him from the hounds baying for the country’s blood.

We should do that publicly and loudly because it is our strongest and only defence — a genuine defence.

Perhaps it was proper that the issue was left to Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Minister Ncube to explain.

As people coming into the inclusive Government from the other side of the Zimbabwean political divide, they would be the most appropriate to talk about the burning issue.

The angry West wants to know where they exactly stand on the issue.

Those who benefited from the Land Reform Programme also want to know their public position regarding the issue.

It is not that we do not trust Morgan Tsvangirai or Welshman Ncube.

It is because so many things have been said about the land, most of it emanating from London and Washington that you ended up not knowing what to believe.

Everyone wants know their position on the issue, straight from the horse’s mouth as it were.

In my opinion, it is the free movement of people across the political divide that separated Zanu-PF and the opposition that helps the general public and the world at large to understand the meaning of the inclusive Government and to judge whether it is working or not.

The exchange of party wrap-overs between Vice President Joice Mujuru and Deputy Premier Thokozani Khupe at the City Sports Centre on International Women’s Day might have been spontaneous and sub-conscious, done in the heat of the moment.

It was its profound effect on the minds of the people that reverberated to the corners of the country.

Two weeks ago, this writer met some people in Rushinga with no access to television or newspapers who asked me whether it was true that the two women had exchanged party dresses at a political rally in Harare.

When this writer said it was true, they jumped around like little children saying that was how it should be.

Let us not be mistaken, people know what they want. Most times, it’s the politicians who spoil it!

It is against this background that the front page picture of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai talking to Swedish Ambassador, Sten Rylander in last Sunday’s Standard does not leave a lasting and endearing impression on people’s minds as the one in The Herald where President Mugabe was talking to the Norwegian Environment and International Development Minister, Erik Solheim, a few days before.

In the picture in The Standard, no bridge was being crossed because the two leaders have always belonged to same side of the political divide.

Sweden has been an ally of the MDC since the latter’s inception.

Therefore it was a picture that could have been retrieved from the paper’s archives. The fact that Sweden had just given the Prime Minister US$10 million as aid somehow seemed like something he had always been doing.

On a superficial level, there was nothing new about the picture because there was no bridge that was being crossed.

It was the picture of president Mugabe talking to the Norwegian Minister that made a more profound impression on people’s psyches because here, bridges were being crossed. Here, people who did not see eye-to-eye a few months ago were speaking to each other; the once political divide had been scaled.

The same applies to Minister Herbert Murerwa talking to the Danish Minister of International Development.

Here again, a bridge had been crossed.

The principle doesn’t only apply to international relations; it also applies to national affairs.

The Mujuru/Khupe moment at the City Sports Centre was a national affair.

As a follow up to his Short-Term Emergency Recovery Programme, Tendai Biti could go out and meet some of the wheat farmers about his projected 100 million-ton yield for the forthcoming season.

He would obviously use the same opportunity to familiarise himself with the problems the new farmers are facing.

Such a visit would help to allay suspicion and misconceptions and reverberate to the corners of the country.

It was touching to hear Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s son, at the funeral of his mother, confess that he had not known President Mugabe was such an understanding and humane man.

His words and the moment would be engraved on people’s minds for a long time because it represented the crossing of bridges.

It would be remiss not to mention Sadc and the sterling effort they are making to help the country out of the quagmire.

The Zimbabwe case is a classic example of wits and intellect; where people are selling each other dummies whilst keeping the real motives hidden behind their backs but Sadc rose to the occasion and is explaining eloquently the case not only to the African Union, but also to a sometimes un-listening world.

It is difficult to imagine all what was going on in the mind of the poor new farmer near Chegutu as he waved his offer letter to the media to justify his presence.

But this writer thinks he felt abandoned. He shouldn’t have been doing that in the first place. It’s the responsibility of those who put him there to speak on his behalf and defend him.

There was a Lancaster House Conference in 1979 that ended our war for Independence. Now that all the pretences are gone, the British seem to want another Lancaster House conference before they can lift sanctions!

America invaded Iraq for the oil; Obama was bold and honest enough to admit it. Why don’t the British throw away the pretences and make a similar public admission they have placed us under siege because of the land?

Something is worrying me; those elements within both Zanu-PF and the MDC opposed to the inclusive Government.

Driven by greed, selfishness and short-sightedness, these people might ultimately prove to be the inclusive Government’s Achilles heel.

It is from this disaffected cesspool that the West might string together elements to sponsor.

But as Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said, the inclusive Government is the only option that this country has; we cannot afford to have it fail.

The struggle continues.