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(NEWZIMBABWE BLOG) Time to hold MDC to account for sanctions

Time to hold MDC to account for sanctions
By Psychology Maziwisa
Last updated on: January 27, 2011

IN ALL history, it is difficult to think of a time when a country became aware of acts of gross sabotage by anyone in the world, let alone its own citizens, and did nothing about it. No earthly reason exists for abandoning that tradition – especially in Zimbabwe where a whole lot is at stake.

Zimbabwe has been turned upside down by its very own. For forty pieces of silver, the MDC has demonstrated a malevolent determination to harm and a readiness to betray. What began as a gesture of giving effect to multi-party democracy has landed the country in multiple problems.

Although the wisdom of wanting to sue Morgan Tsvangirai for treason is questionable — for it is a legal impossibility and so a waste of precious time — the fact is that WiliLeaks has helped further expose the MDC’s primary and only motive for existence and ought to be thanked for its contribution.

All in all, the MDC has not just let its supporters down, the country down — it has deceived the very founders and proponents of civil liberties whose wish it never was for human rights to be used for deceitful, let alone injurious purposes. Were Martin Luther King to learn of this development, I swear he would regret the many years of sacrifice to the cause of freedom.

Determined to quash the freedom of the many and to protect the vested interests of the privileged few, the MDC campaigned for sanctions whose ruinous effects have turned a country, once the break basket of Africa, into a basket case itself.

The facts speak for themselves. Unable to provide for people’s basic needs, for instance, the government of Zimbabwe resorted to printing more and more money in 2008. Hyper-inflation was inescapable, in fact rising to Weimaresque levels. It was a fiscally irresponsible thing to do, yet contemporaneously, a demonstration of considerable love. And that is all that matters. What else was the government supposed to do — give in to the sanctions and so give up on its people?

It is on record that as a direct corollary of the sanctions, unemployment shot to over 90% in 2008. So much for targeted sanctions! Life expectancy dropped from 60 years in 1980 to about 37 years in 2008. President Mugabe is 87 years this year and he is supposed to be the target?

When the MDC-orchestrated ruin was at its pinnacle, hospitals literally became death traps. For a period, schools were shut down. Supermarket shelves were noticeable only by their emptiness. Starvation was commonplace. Thousands died of cholera — an otherwise preventable disease but one which the government could not anticipate and so avoid.

All of this craziness, all of this suffering, the loss of innocent lives and yet the “target” of these sanctions, President Mugabe, who has private medical experts around him, has hardly ever gone to bed on an empty stomach!

The MDC and its inventors and investors may fool some — but to suppose they can hoodwink a country that boasts of the highest literacy rate in Africa is to hugely miscalculate. Zimbabwe has lurched from disaster to disaster because of the MDC — and that is the end of the matter. As it stands, its officials are doing everything in their wicked power to block the lucrative sale of our diamonds lest we become self-sufficient and their efforts at effecting illegal governmental change are rendered impotent. Of course the human rights abuse mantra is a bloody disguise. Don’t these people ever get tired of making ordinary, innocent people suffer? Have they no shame?

The day Tsvangirai is interdicted from his evil activities, the entire MDC leadership ought to go down with him. The rights of millions of Zimbabweans have been disregarded for far too long. Healthcare, education, shelter and dignity are not animal rights — they are human rights too. These rights have time after time been trampled upon by the MDC. Compared to them, rights to free speech, expression, assembly and association are privileges.

Moreover, human rights are meant to be complementary not contradictory. And although they are by their very nature inalienable, they are not absolute. Rights can be limited if doing so can be shown to be justifiable in a free, democratic and independent society. And if the monstrous torment of innocent citizens is not enough justification, then nothing is!

The very reason for qualifying rights is so that there is recognition and respect for the rights and liberties of others. This is a universally accepted and practiced tenet of constitutional and human rights law. Yet, for over a decade, the MDC has not just failed to recognise and respect our rights, it has taken them away. It has brought forth political and economic turmoil of proportions unprecedented in history. The scale of suffering and hardship occasioned by these blokes is not to be trifled with- it’s been overwhelmingly devastating and it now must stop.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, as the final arbiter on all constitutional and human rights matters, must prohibit the MDC from further carrying out its torturous activities — if not indefinitely then at least for sometime. It is only fair.

Labels: MDC, SANCTIONS, TREASON, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 5:07 PM