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(STICKY) (ZIMPAPERS) 'Tsvangirai’s utterances expose penchant for violence'

COMMENT - Morgan Tsvangirai on Fox News Channel.

'Tsvangirai’s utterances expose penchant for violence'
Tuesday, 01 February 2011 00:31 Top Stories

Statements by MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai condoning the turmoil in Egypt and insinuating that similar chaos is acceptable in Zimbabwe expose his inclination for non-democratic means of resolving disputes, political analysts and ordinary Zimbabweans have said.

In an interview last week with far right wing American broadcaster, Fox News, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Mr Tsvangirai insinuated there was “nothing wrong” with Zimbabweans revolting violently against their Government.

Asked on the possibility of the Egyptian and Tunisian-type uprisings in Zimbabwe, Mr Tsvangirai said: “To me, when people take their rights, and start demanding more rights, there is nothing wrong with that, including in Zimbabwe. That was the whole purpose of our (MDC-T) struggle for the last 10 years.”

However, these sentiments have attracted scorn from quarters that believe Mr Tsvangirai does not “grasp the enormity of his wishes”.

A reader of The Herald, who identified himself as Munyaradzi from Magunje said, “We don’t want political parties who only believe in violence and intimidation.”

Another one, James Makoto of Harare, added: “Does Tsvangirai understand the enormous loss of life and property that comes with such chaos? Does he really expect people to engage in such violence? To what end?”

Political analysts contributed to the debate saying Mr Tsvangirai’s “fascination” with the unrest in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen and his wish for the same to happen in Zimbabwe was a futile attempt to incite violence here.

Professor Jonathan Moyo said, “He is the only politician at his level who has used violence not only to settle political scores in his party but also to divide and split his party.”

Prof Moyo said the citizens of Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen were revolting against puppet governments.

Egypt receives around US$8 billion in aid from the US every year and is the second largest recipient of such funding after Israel.

“The one obvious common thread and very telling thing about what is going on in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen is that the unrest is targeting leaders and Governments that are perceived to be under massive handholding by the US.

“The leadership in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen are perceived by its citizens to be American puppets.

“What is significant about developments in the Middle East is that the protests are essentially anti-American and anti-West and therefore anti-imperialism and anti-neo-colonialism.

“It is the type of popular anger that we would most certainly have here in Zimbabwe should our country suffer the misfortune of falling into the hands of a puppet MDC-T under massive handholding by the US administration as predicted by Christopher Dell in the Wikileaks revelations.”

He said revolts taking place in the Arab world could not happen in countries like Zimbabwe, Cuba or Venezuela.

“Zimbabweans should not forget that over the last 10 years Tsvangirai and his cronies have used any upheaval that has taken place in countries like Indonesia or Ukraine to wish it upon Zimbabwe, including natural calamities like tsunamis,” Prof Moyo said.

He said this reflected MDC-T’s ideological bankruptcy and also explained “why Tsvangirai is unfit to lead the country and will never lead it”.

Another analyst, Mr Godwine Mureriwa, concurred saying a revolution in Zimbabwe would only come against puppet leaders as is going to be demonstrated by the anti-sanctions petition.

“What is happening in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere is that the people of those countries are rising against Western imperialism. They do not want intrusion into their domestic affairs.

“It is a revolution against imperialism. The popular sentiment on the ground is that Africans want economic independence. They do not want Western powers to influence their politics, neither do they want leaders with their allegiance to the West,” he said.

Mr Gabriel Chaibva, an analyst, had no kind words for Mr Tsvangirai, who is Prime Minister in the inclusive Government.

“This is utter confusion you find of the PM. He is leader of Government business in Parliament, chief minister in the Government of Zimbabwe and he is talking of a revolution against himself.

“We all appreciate that he is of limited academia but at least he should have elementary appreciation of the institution of Government and what his role is in that Government,” he said.

Mr Chaibva said the remarks were a direct contravention of the GPA, which calls upon principals to act and conduct themselves in word and deed in a manner that promotes peace, stability and economic development.

He said such utterances demonstrated discord in the inclusive Government and the arrangement should end.

This is not the first time that Mr Tsvangirai has been accused of trying to incite violence. Addressing a rally in Harare about a decade ago, he urged the violent removal of President Mugabe from power.

Labels: MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, TREASON

posted by MrK @ 7:13 PM