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(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC-T leaders are weak and ineffectual - former Ambassador Dell

COMMENT - Love the Wikileaks. If they didn't lie, there would be no story. Also check out: Wikileaks: Ncube accuses US of plot to kill him, and Wikileaks has 3,000 files on Zimbabwe

MDC-T leaders are weak and ineffectual: former Ambassador Dell
By: Our reporter
Posted: Monday, November 29, 2010 11:44 am

PRIME MINISTER Morgan Tsvangirai is a weak leader who cannot be relied upon to lead a country like Zimbabwe, according to former United States ambassador Christopher Dell. The shocking revelation was revealed in a leak of three million secret American diplomatic missives obtained by the website WikiLeaks.

"Tsvangirai is ... a flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive and with questionable judgement in selecting those around him," wrote former Ambassador Dell in his 2007 cable from the US embassy in Zimbabwe.

The Cable titled "The End is Nigh" sheds light on the U.S. regime change strategy in Zimbabwe, and its hand in the harmonised elections of 2008.

His advice to the U.S. State Department at the time was: "Stay the course and prepare for change in Zimbabwe".

"Our policy is working and it's helping to drive change here. What is required is simply the grit, determination and focus to see this through. Then, when the changes finally come we must be ready to move quickly to help consolidate the new dispensation."

After considering various regime change scenarios, Mr Dell's cables revealed that fuel and food shortages were to be used as a tool for regime change.

Fuel and food shortages prompted Mr Dell to say "for the first time the president is under intensifying pressure simultaneously on the economic, political and international fronts" and that President Mugabe was "running out of options."

He said it was up to the U.S. "once again, to take the lead, to say and do the hard things."

The MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, repeated the same call for international supervision during his campaign in 2007-8.

The MDC-T Secretary General, Tendai Biti was to declare after the elections of 2008 that: "Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is the new President of the Republic of Zimbabwe".

This pre-empted an announcement by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of the official election results showing that none of the presidential candidates had secured the 50 plus one majority required to form a government, prompting a run-off presidential election.

It has also become clear that the US did not think Mr Tsvangirai would deliver regime change easily; preferring to use former South African President Thabo Mbeki to that end, even though they viewed him as a close ally of President Mugabe.

The US miscalculated Cde Mbeki's role within the regional Sadc setting.

"The Mbeki mediation offers the best, albeit very slim, hope of getting there" wrote Mr Dell in one of the cables.

The US was also not supportive of the inter-party talks that were going on in Zimbabwe at the time and the inclusive Government that was to emerge from those talks, preferring Mr Tsvangirai to take over power although they largely viewed him as a weak and ineffectual leader.

Mr Dell did not believe there were opposition politicians with leadership qualities to take over from President Mugabe.

He called the MDC "far from ideal" and was "convinced that had we [the U.S.] had different partners, we could have achieved more already."

He said the MDC-T leadership would "require massive hand-holding and assistance should they ever come to power."

"Less attractive is the idea of a South African-brokered transitional arrangement or government of national unity.

"He (Mr Tsvangirai) is the indispensable element for (regime change), but possibly an albatross around their necks once in power.

"In short, he is a kind of Lech Wałęsa character: Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities to lead the country's recovery."

Wałęsa is a former Polish president and trade-unionist, who offered to collect this year's Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Mr Tsvangirai was a close "ally" of the U.S. ambassador during his tenure in the country, so this revelation will come as a shock to him and his MDC-T party.

It also gives credence to President Mugabe's statements at the time where he labelled the MDC-T as an unwitting puppet of the West, and its regime change agenda.

The former ambassador was critical of the MDC as a whole, describing the 2005 split in that party as "a totally unnecessary self-inflicted wound".

He said MDC Secretary General, Professor Welshman Ncube had "proven to be a deeply divisive and destructive player in the opposition ranks.

"The sooner he is pushed off the stage, the better," Mr Dell wrote in one of the cables sent to Washington at the time of his tenure.

The US diplomat was also very critical of MDC-T Secretary General Tendai Biti and Spokesman Nelson Chamisa whom he said were "thin below the top ranks" of opposition politics adding that the "The great saving grace of the opposition is likely to be found in the diaspora."

He also described MDC leader Arthur Mutambara as a "light-weight".

"Arthur Mutambara is young and ambitious, attracted to radical, anti-western rhetoric and smart as a whip," Mr Dell wrote.

"But, in many respects he's a light-weight who has spent too much time reading U.S. campaign messaging manuals and too little thinking about the real issues."

He dismissed Britain as "ham-strung by its colonial past and domestic politics", adding: "Letting them set the pace alone merely limits our effectiveness."

The EU, he said, is "divided between the hard north and its soft southern underbelly".

He added: "The Africans are only now beginning to find their voice. Rock solid partners like Australia don’t pack enough punch to step out front and the UN is a non-player. Thus it falls to the United States, once again, to take the lead, to say and do the hard things and to set the agenda."

Mandela, No Darling of The West

Wikileaks also revealed that South African President, Nelson Mandela was not a darling of the West, as the media had portrayed him.

Mr Mandela remained on the US terrorist list until July 2008 when former President George W. Bush, signed a law to remove him.

He and other members of the African National Congress had been on the list because of their fight against South Africa's Apartheid regime, which gave way to majority rule in 1994.

The revelation shows that Mr Mandela and other leaders who are traditionally regarded as America's allies for example, Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, are not held in any higher regard in the U.S. than President Robert Mugabe or Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, who are also named in the cable leaks.

Labels: CHRISTOPHER BELL, MDC, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 6:52 PM