Maravi

(HERALD) West’s mind games exposed

West’s mind games exposed
By Tichaona Zindoga

A COUPLE of weeks ago, this writer noted the significance of the historic State visit to Zimbabwe by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad during which he officially opened the 57th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair and partook of a number of his country’s bilateral concerns with Zimbabwe.

It was, however, regrettable that MDC-T had decided to snub the visiting leader, on the apparent basis of their Western allies’ palpable dislike of the Iranian leader and the revolutionary country he leads.

The MDC-T badmouthed President Ahmedinejad and called him names, despite the fact that over the years Iran has expressed willingness to work with Zimbabwe in a number of areas, which the MDC-T has even recognised by granting an Iranian diplomat the freedom of the MDC-T run town of Bindura.

By contrast, MDC-T’s allies in the West have been fighting tooth and nail against Zimbabwe via a number of machinations and actions, declared and undeclared.

Iran’s revolutionary background, headlined by its anti-imperial Western stance, its Non-Aligned Movement affiliation and identification with equally revolutionary Zimbabwe underlined the significance of President Ahmedinejad’s visit.

Predictably, placing into context of the significance of the Iranian leader’s visit earned the derision of a local Western-sponsored newspaper columnist.

The columnist insinuated that anti-imperial Western views were outdated and anything between the defunct Soviet and the Jurassic eras.

Coming from the very mouth of a Western functionary, this attempt at dismissing the historic movement from the tentacles of the West, can be read in the following context:

The West does not want the coming together of international revolutionary movements, as they are capable of creating a buffer against imperialist onslaught.

This coming together, especially expressed in the Non-Aligned Movement and the Frontline States, led to the defeat of colonialism beginning in the 1950s until 1994 when South Africa finally shook off colonialism.

In the present day, apart from their camaraderie at international forums such as the United Nations, the same revolutionary movements represent a revolving future world economy from which the West is in danger of exclusion.

The idea then is not only to strangulate individual states like Zimbabwe and Iran, but also prevent them from coming together, and if they do, dismiss the alliance as one of rogues and outdated misfits.

After conquering colonialism, but at real risk of losing the grip in the face of American-championed neo-colonialism, regional liberation movements had better understand the localised attempts to reverse the gains of the earlier era.

One of the primary hurdles of reversing this tragic end is to understand the psychological nature of the neo-colonial war, which is today anchored on the "global" media.

Labelling the revolutionary spirit and movements as outdated and belonging to a barbaric era is one of the tricks.

The other one is the description of liberation movements as corrupt and greedy.

While the liberation movements — including Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe and ANC in South Africa — have been humanly fallible, the fixation with these parties’ alleged corruption and greed masks the inherent nature of Western corruption and greed in wanting the entire world for itself.

It even ignores the fact that the West has supported not only corrupt and greedy regimes but also undemocratic and tyrannical ones.

The West just cannot let go of ill-gotten colonial gains and when there has been an attempt to heroically defend these gains through a sustained and determined leadership, as has been the case with Zimbabwe, the West accuses the respective leaders of "clinging to power".

It will be noted that while governments might change in the West, rarely do their foreign policy goal to exploit other people’s resources.

By contrast, changes in government here — mainly premised on Western regime change agendas — often result in unfortunate changes in foreign policy goals as would be the case were the West to have their way.

The other psychological front against African liberators is the criminalisation of the just acts of economic reform by delivering to people life-changing and strategic assets and opportunities.

Following Zanu-PF’s championing of the historic land reform programme at the turn of the millennium, which benefited hundreds of thousands of families previously marginalised by colonialists, land reform has been portrayed as criminal and backward.

"South Africa risks to be another Zimbabwe," warn self-serving Western interests in the face of a South Africa groaning under the weight of injustice in land tenure.

Land reform has been anything but perfect in Zimbabwe.

However, the impression created by this warning is that land reform is solely responsible for the economic decline over the past years when, in fact, sanctions were imposed to not only scuttle the programme but also to "make the economy scream" and "separate the people from the Government".

The West has used sanctions and the so-called (Western) investor confidence as a repressive psychological tool against governments from embarking on the long overdue reform.

In the face of calls for the indigenisation of economies to benefit the majority, which Zimbabwe again spearheads, a certain stigma has been attached to "nationalisation" of mines and industry.

This evokes pictures of fallen Soviet-era programmes, which are loud in populism, but without a place in the so-called global economy.

It is this fear of "populist" policies that led to an early inadmissibility of South African President Jacob Zuma in some Western quarters, and the current fear that ANC youth president Julius Malema will one day nationalise the economy.

Apart from generously sponsoring opposition and neo-colonial media, and making glossy, trendy and "credible" outfits out of them, Western psychological warfare has also taken to the legal and judicial systems.

This latter part forms the basis of what one analyst observed recently. At a time when legal and judicial systems are either dominated by settler remnants, or are Western-fed as with the case with the likes of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, as some have noted, white minority interests are trying to "harness post-struggle governments for the enforcement of settler rights, against impoverished African masses".

The trick is to use the likes of the discredited Sadc Tribunal.

"The idea is to send a clear message to African governments — principally those of South Africa and Namibia that (if) you dare tamper with settler-derived white "rights" and privileges you are in for a long frenetic haul, at home and abroad," the analysts observed.

They added: "The idea is to confront the liberation ethos through a broad regional front . . ."

In the light of the foregoing evidence of psychological war, in which Zimbabwe has played a gallant role, liberation movements should brace themselves for a gruesome battle, but one that can be won.

Unity among the liberators is key and the recent meeting of six political parties of liberation movements in Tanzania was a step in the right direction given the subversive activities the West has directed at the region over the years.

The liberation movements were meeting for the third time, having met previously in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

This will not only create a political front, but also an economic bloc founded on the need to safeguard and utilise rich resources in the region as well as cushion individual countries from economic aggression such as sanctions.

In essence what liberation movements are to create is a proud, indivisible and progressive front against imperialism, including in the area of laws and justice, as the West just cannot stop at anything.

There is also need to realise that the task of liberation is only capped by the reclamation of the economy without which political independence is hollow.

Battle-hardened Zimbabwe provides the key to this exercise.

Labels: G15, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, NEOCOLONIALISM, NEOLIBERALISM

posted by MrK @ 5:53 AM