Rule of Law Can't Be Matter of Opinion 


The Herald (Harare)

OPINION

18 October 2007

Posted to the web 18 October 2007 

By Reason Wafawarova

Harare 

In the modern world that we live in - one that the USA purports to be leading with God-ordained civility - the rule of law has been reduced to a matter of opinion and so has the concept of democracy. 

The result has been tragic, to say the least and the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Guatemala, Grenada and Vietnam, just to name but a few have been direct victims of this tragedy. 

     
The question which has not been answered is where are the weaker peoples supposed to appeal when the so-called world leaders and international powers flout the law with impunity and openly finance and promote criminality in the name of democracy and international law? 

There is no way, even in the kingdom of darkness, absolutely no way the assassination of other nations' leaders can ever be legal; and regime change by external forces can only be described by one word and no more, no less -- it is criminal. 

It is against this background of western engagement that the MDC's romance with western powers should be analysed. When the MDC contested election 2000 and won 57 out of the 120 contested seats they did so on the backdrop of a solid urban protest vote, a vote that was more of an expression of protest against the Zanu-PF than recognition of merit in the opposition. 

One voter from Highfield in Harare was quoted as saying even if a dead tree stump had been fielded against Zanu-PF it would still have won an urban seat for the MDC, indeed many human dead tree stumps bereft of any policy, were elected on behalf of the MDC. 

If the likes of Fidelis Mhashu are not the equivalent of dead tree stumps in politics then even Marisecha, the naked madman from my rural Bikita, can be the councillor for our own Ward 12. 

Many people largely misread this protest vote, not least the MDC leadership who became so hopeful with envisaged change that they convinced themselves that a bit of protests would propel Morgan Tsvangirai to power come 2002, the year presidential elections were to be held. 

The opposition received western interference with the loyalty of religious converts at the coming of a messiah. To them the illegal sanctions, Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth and the drafting of the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act were all signs of the coming of "western salvation" through this messiah called the US-led western alliance. 

MDC leaders told their supporters that this first coming would bring Zanu-PF to its knees and all people had to do was march triumphantly to Zimbabwe House blowing whistles and flashing red cards with Tsvangirai on their shoulders. They preached with what looked like innocent that this phase would be followed by the second coming where the US-led alliance would pour a lot of aid and financial support, together with massive investment and everyone would then live happily ever after. 

The naïveté in such hopes would be funny if only the first coming was not as tragic as has already become public knowledge. 

The MDC's external support from the western alliance has not been attractive to the African eye, not least to the Caribbean and the rest of the world outside Western Europe. This is largely because those in the MDC, in the absence of any meaningful policies chose to mask themselves as a democratic movement at a time many people across the world were closely scrutinising the democratic credentials of the MDC's Western backers and friends. 

The same Western alliance emotionally crying for democracy in Zimbabwe stands solidly behind Israel in the dispossession and massacring of Palestinians while their media goes into overdrive over the dispossession of a few selfish white farmers in Zimbabwe's land reclamation programme. The repossession of land by indigenous Zimbabweans, whose land was stolen from them 117 years ago is condemned as brainless barbarism while Israel is given the nod for taking away Palestinian land on the basis of pronouncements made by Biblical prophets 5000 years ago. 

Ariel Sharon never gets punished for the Sabra and Shatila massacres and Belgium gets a threat of withdrawal of NATO headquarters from Donald Rumsfeild for offering extra-territorial judicial powers for the trial of Sharon. 

Israel attacks South Lebanon with brutal precision in mid-2006 and the Western alliance shamelessly cites the self-defence rhetoric. The world watches this in dismay and the MDC goes right into the armpits of the Western alliance and poses as crusaders for democracy in Zimbabwe and the world simply cannot accept it. 

They (MDC) shout that they are the victims of a dictatorship and their western supporters express their uttermost hatred for dictators but the world knows that there is no evidence that the Western alliance hates dictators. Everyone knows how much of a dictator Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan is and its common knowledge that he came to power through a military coup, much as he stands as the West's best and strongest ally in the Far East. 

And the MDC's Western friends have no qualms over the state of democracy in Saudi Arabia while they have the commitment to deploy 175 000 troops in Iraq all in the name of democratising it. 

Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is elected democratically winning 80 percent of the vote and the 'most democratic' USA expresses shameless support for a short lived 11 April, 2002 coup against Chavez by one Pedro Carmona, in the process becoming the only government in the world to recognise the three-day government of Carmona, probably the shortest to have existed in history. 

When the people of Venezuela took to the streets in millions to bring back Chavez, they succeeded and Condoleezza Rice publicly showed her chagrin as she warned Chavez to "take note and change his ways." 

Equally Hamas is democratically elected in Palestine and the Western alliance congratulates them by listing them on the terrorist list and declaring non-recognition. 

They slap them with sanctions as a direct response for winning an election against the expectations of Israel and the US. And in Zimbabwe, the MDC blissfully clings to the comfort of big brother America's massive arms, all the while grinning sheepishly in the hope that they are Zimbabwe's government in waiting. 

Africa and the rest of the world simply cannot comprehend what the MDC is made f and they rightly begin to express their concerns with Sadc and the AU speaking loudest. 

Tsvangirai announced on television that he was prepared to take power through violence and the West nodded in approval while vigorously opposing the charges that were preferred against him for his utterances. There is no way any sane African government could be expected to support a party such as the MDC lest one such party would pop out in their own backyard. British television footage showed Tsvangirai's supporters beating up a young man outside Rufaro Stadium; Harare, for failure to produce the opposition's red card at the same time Tsvangirai was declaring his intention to remove Mugabe "violently". The beating attracted a comment to the effect that it showed the growing strength of the new party! 

The US cannot deny statistics that it kills more of its black population through the death row than it does the white population. They cannot deny that their prisons have a disturbing over representation of blacks as well as that the so-called black on black violence is a result of their racist legacy. 

And talking of prisons and the judicial system the BBC and CNN have the temerity to point at Zimbabwe as the country where the Chief Justice and judges are appointed politically by the government and the expectation is that the world must look down and groan, "what a shame". But wait a moment; is it not the British government of the day that appoints the Lord Chancellor who then appoints the Attorney General and the judges? Or is it not the US President who appoints the Attorney General and the Supreme Court judges in the US? 

Didn't John F. Kennedy appoint Robert Kennedy, his own brother as the Attorney General because, in his own words he "was the best man around." One wonders what would have happened in the western media if Justice Chidyausiku were President Mugabe's brother. 

Now the West is convinced that they are the best qualified to observe and judge elections across the world and the MDC chants Amen! The AU, Sadc, African Caribbean and Pacific countries are all deemed unqualified when it comes to Zimbabwe's elections and the West expects all these people to accept this view with the humility of natives. 

If the West believed in international monitoring of elections the world could have easily been spared the George W. Bush madness because no international observer would ever bless the Florida follies that brought Bush to power at the expense of Al Gore. 

The US is the only country ever to detonate an atomic bomb on other people but they have the audacity to tell the world how best not to have that happen, in the process persecuting and torturing weaker countries for covert causes and interests totally unrelated to the development of nuclear bombs; all in the name of stopping them from developing nuclear weapons. Ironically the same weapons that give the US the arrogance to think they can lord it over anyone in the world. 

The US has openly disregarded UN resolutions on Palestine, Iraq and on many other occasions and yet it tells the world to observe international law. International law must be the law when it comes to Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Soweto massacres, Congo and the mercenaries in the sixties as well as Palestine. Put simply, international law must protect the weak from the strong and not empower the strong to plunder with impunity through illegal acts. 

Now the West stands shamelessly expressing uncharacteristic concern for Africa through their new-found passion for the so-called plight of ordinary Zimbabweans. It must be put on record that not a square centimetre of Africa was won back with an iota of help from the West. When Africa was fighting for political independence the West was known for its active support for anti-liberation movements like Mozambique's Renamo, Angola's Unita, Zimbabwe's UANC, South Africa's Inkhata Freedom Party, Congo's Moise Tshombe and his mercenaries, Joseph Mobutu of the same Congo, Idi Amin of Uganda just to mention a few. 

The West holds the answers to the assassinations of Patrice Lumumba, Samora Machel, Thomas Sankara, Dedan Kimathi and many other Africans killed for fighting for their independence. One would easily understand if Russia or China express concern for Africa today because they showed the concern during Africa's hour of need, albeit for their own motivations. 

Now this is the context of the global political order when Tsvangirai finds it prudent to globe-trot hunting for Western so called pro-democracy forces when he is not dining and wining with the Western rulers themselves - all in search for what he believes to be democracy for Zimbabwe. If the West expects Africa to take them seriously then they are best advised to abandon the strategy of pliant stooge regimes and start acting on principles of honest leadership and consistency in behaviour. As it is international law and democracy have become a matter of opinion and the blame for that lies squarely on the US-led Western alliance. 

As for Zimbabweans, it is time to ensure that any future engagement with the West is based on mutual benefit for both parties and not maximum profit for Western capital. There are indeed many other people in Africa who need to open up their eyes when dealing with the West. All Africa needs is an honest and fair relationship with the West and this is a time when all manipulation games must be rested for fair play, especially when it comes to Africa's natural resources. 

All those attending the EU-Africa summit must be reminded that a day is coming when all that oil will be gone, when all that will be left of those minerals will be deep holes and when all those forests will be gone. That day African posterity will demand to know who benefited from those hollow holes and cleared forests. A lot of that has already helped build cities and infrastructures in western countries and that which remains must build Africa; otherwise let all that is underground remain there for generations with a better resolve to make good use of it. 

This is the only attitude that will make such forums as the coming summit meaningful and if any of our African leaders are dreaming of clinching aid deals then they have no business attending that summit. This writer hopes Zimbabweans will complete the revolution of empowering indigenous people with the justice and equity it deserves. 

Anything short of a people's revolution will not work and it is important for our leadership to put the people ahead of the revolution, otherwise as is usual with any revolution the people will put themselves where they belong. Together we will overcome. 



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