Maravi

(ZIMPAPERS) 27 FEBRUARY SM EDITORIAL COMMENT: Lets united against sanctions

27 FEBRUARY SM EDITORIAL COMMENT: Lets united against sanctions
Sunday, 27 February 2011 10:48 Opinion

Zimbabwe is set to launch a robust anti-sanctions campaign this week and every citizen has a responsibility to defend our hard-won nationhood.

When we say every citizen, we include the turncoats and sell-outs who have carved out a lucrative career in politics by inviting the West to impose the illegal sanctions.
The people of Zimbabwe are waiting to see what will happen when the sanctions petition lands on the desks of the sell-outs. Will the Western stooges sign the petition? The people are watching. The world is watching.

Every Zimbabwean must take a stand. You are either for the sanctions or against the sanctions. There are no maybes or buts.

And when it comes to the court of public opinion, politicians will be judged on their actions and not on their empty words. Those who think they can get away with this treacherous game of posturing to “denounce” the evil sanctions by day while campaigning for the sanctions at night are in for the shock of their lives.

Sanctions are not just a political game anymore. They are a question of national survival, a matter of life and death. Sanctions are meant to harm, ruin and destroy Zimbabweans.

At the core of the illegal Western sanctions is a futile belief that the hardships wrought by the evil embargo will incite a popular revolt, tighten the screws on Zanu-PF and propel Mr Morgan Tsvangirai to State House.

The people of Zimbabwe are being held hostage for defiantly taking back land that was violently stolen from their ancestors by European settlers. Sanctions are an instrument of indiscriminate punishment, a gross violation of human rights. Contrary to the cheap propaganda peddled by megaphones of racist aggression, these are not “targeted” sanctions. They harm the average citizen more than they affect Zanu-PF leaders. And here we mean all citizens regardless of political affiliation.

So, who is fooling who on the sanctions issue? This is treachery writ large.
When WikiLeaks is revealing that MDC-T officials are still telling the American and British governments the names of Zimbabwean companies and individuals who must be put under sanctions, you begin to wonder whether all political parties in this country are working in the national interest. By jostling so vigorously to out-Tshombe each other, these politicians are perfecting the art of selling out on a scale that has never been witnessed in Africa before.

And when Minister of Finance Tendai Biti — who has been outed as a sanctions linchpin — starts talking of “auditing” the very institutions that Zimbabweans are using to bust the evil sanctions, what are we to make of this trickery?

Mr Biti owes the people of Zimbabwe an explanation. He must tell us why he wants to investigate our sanctions-busting institutions in such a clumsy and vocal manner yet he remains silent on his role in the sanctions saga. Let him tell his American handlers that the people of Zimbabwe are unanimous in their condemnation of the illegal sanctions.

American and British meddling in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs has reached ridiculous levels and our people are not amused at all.

Right now the MDC-T officials are locked in a war of words with UK-based Zimbabwean writer and researcher Mr Blessing-Miles Tendi, whose only sin was to repeat what we already knew: that MDC-T leader Mr Tsvangirai broke off crucial GPA talks in 2008 to consult the former United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr James McGee.

Speaking at the Frontline Club in London last week, Mr Tendi said former South African president and Sadc mediator Mr Thabo Mbeki told him Mr Tsvangirai would ask to be excused, then go to a phone at the Rainbow Towers hotel in Harare and call the US embassy.

The revelations are devastating to the MDC-T because they confirm what Zimbabwean patriots have always said about Mr Tsvangirai’s over-dependence on Western instructions. It is a monumental scandal. If you claim to be a home-grown political party, why do you take direct instructions from the US government? And why dance to the tune of the same people who have imposed unjust sanctions on Zimbabwe?

Mr Tendi summed it up:

“Mugabe’s narrative all along has been that the MDC is a stooge of the West. What is that then? And people are surprised when Sadc leaders don’t take the side of MDC, it’s things like that, that mediocrity. It’s really pathetic that a leader would call the US embassy and ask for advice”.

Instead of engaging Mr Tendi in constructive discourse, the MDC-T officials have chosen to dismiss him as “a Zanu-PF apologist”. Their knee-jerk response is as laughable as it is ludicrous. Do you have to be “a Zanu-PF apologist” to see the treachery of political leaders who invite sanctions upon their own nation?

The tragedy for Britain, the United States and their Anglo-Saxon cabal is that world opinion is now totally against the sanctions.

Their hardline stance on the sanctions has become untenable, as the wider international community continues questioning this evil embargo.

Even in the European Union, most members of the bloc are ashamed to be associated with these clearly racist measures.

They will not openly say so, but their actions on the economic front point to that conclusion. That is why, despite the sanctions, many European countries are actively exploring and enjoying investment opportunities in Zimbabwe.

The illegal sanctions are past their sell-by date.

Zimbabwe will prosper. -The Sunday Mail

Labels: SANCTIONS, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 2:05 PM