Maravi

(ZIMPAPERS) Zimbabweans must fiercely guard their sovereignty

SUNDAY MAIL EDITORIAL COMMENT: Zimbabweans must fiercely guard their sovereignty
Sunday, 06 February 2011 00:04 Opinion

The British government’s hardline stance on the Zimbabwe sanctions has become untenable, as countries all over the world continue questioning the logic behind this evil embargo.

Today we carry a story revealing the French government’s attitude to the sanctions, showing just how these sanctions have become extremely unpopular across the world.
The French government, according to the latest American diplomatic dispatches published by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, is pushing for the lifting of the sanctions and has told the British that London should take a lead in kickstarting processes that will lead to the scrapping of the embargo. The French are even warning that if the British do not take the initiative, Paris will move ahead and take the bull by the horns.

The revelation is vital in that it gives us — perhaps for the first time since the formation of Zimbabwe’s coalition government — clear denunciation of the sanctions by a major European power. Following this massive expose, Mr David Cameron’s government can not peddle the lie that there is consensus in the European Union on the sanctions issue.

Professor Stephen Chan, who teaches international relations at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, last month wrote a fascinating article that has rattled the pro-sanctions lobby.

What has startled the proponents of the racist sanctions is Prof Chan’s observation that the European states will soon be compelled by pragmatic reasoning to seriously consider normalising economic relations with Zimbabwe — whether the British like it or not. How blunt can you get? The message is clear for all to see: the ground has shifted and nobody is willing to blindly kowtow to Britain’s discredited policy on Zimbabwe.

No matter how rich and powerful they are, the countries of Europe and North America can not defy the laws of economics. Pragmatism teaches us that Western political rhetoric on “democracy and human rights” is only useful to the powerful governments when it serves their strategic and economic objectives. British politicians can badmouth Zimbabwe all they want, but the French and many other countries in Europe are refusing to join in the racist chorus.

European and North American nations have a huge appetite for raw materials. Zimbabwe has those materials in abundance. In this situation, who do you think will blink first? Certainly not Zimbabwe, particularly when China is shrewdly investing billions of dollars in this country’s economy.

Some have wrongly attributed the shifting perceptions on the sanctions issue solely to pragmatism. Although this is a useful way of seeing this matter, it is not an entirely correct reading of what is happening.

The word pragmatism itself would connote that the European and North American governments are influenced more by expediency than principle. This may be so, but we should remember, too, that the Western sanctions are not only illegal but also evil. Sooner or later, the Westerners are bound to realise that the indiscriminate suffering unleashed upon innocent Zimbabweans by the sanctions are both politically unjust and morally wrong. They have lost the battle for the hearts and minds of ordinary Zimbabweans.

But this takes us to another level in the sanctions debate. Every Zimbabwean must now ask the question: as the Western sanctions inevitably crumble, how is Zimbabwe hoping to maximise benefit?

As Zimbabweans, do we know what it means to build and run what Professor Arthur Mutambara calls a “globally competitive” economy? Do we know what it takes and are we willing to borrow winning ideas from other countries that have experienced conditions similar to what we are currently going through?

Even our relationship with China should not leave us in a position of weakness. The idea, surely, is not to replace one group of exploitative foreigners with another equally plunderous one. The objective is to embrace foreign investors in the progressive spirit of mutual respect and enlightened self-interest.

All over the world, nations are driven by self-interest. The Americans, for all their faults, are pastmasters at this doctrine.

Let’s look at the ongoing upheaval in Egypt and see what exactly it means. The US government has been making tactical shifts in its utterances on the protests. Almost on a daily basis, depending on who seems to have the upper hand between President Mubarak and the demonstrators, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have issued statements clearly showing that the US is driven predominently by self-interest.

You must not for a moment delude yourself into assuming that the US government genuinely cares about the welfare of the Egyptian people. America is not led by philanthropists. Obama and Clinton are looking out for US interests. And, as Professor Noam Chomsky has rightly pointed out, you must not think that the biggest worry for the US government is the prospect of a bunch of radical Islamists rising to power in Cairo. What President Obama is really worried about is the possibility that the US may lose direct control and influence in that country. In other words, the Americans’ worst nightmare is a free, sovereign and truly independent Egypt.

Stunned by the massive show of people power, President Obama now lamely says “the future of Egypt is now in the hands of the Egyptians”. But why can’t Mr Obama say the same of Zimbabwe? Why cant he say “the future of Zimbabwe is in the hands of the Zimbabwean people”? Why the double standards? What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander.

The abiding lesson for everyone in Africa, Asia and Latin America is that the marginalised countries of the world must fiercely guard their sovereignty. For Zimbabwe, in particular, our foreign policy should be strongly influenced by our economic relations as we defiantly assert our sovereignty in this brave new era of sanctions busting.-The Sunday Mail Editor

Labels: SANCTIONS, ZDERA

posted by MrK @ 6:26 AM