Posted on 08/04/2002 6:32:31 AM PDT by Clive
IN the wake of what' s happening in this country, Zimbabweans are wondering how it all began and why it has been allowed to reach this disastrous stage.
We created a monster 15 years ago when the executive presidency was established by changes to the constitution.
Centralisation of power in the presidency was at the heart of this constitutional amendment, including the power to declare war. With all this, the powers of parliament were severely eroded-and the institution of cult leadership was born.
Untrammelled power is dangerous, no matter how good and heroic a person once was. It is equally dangerous to reduce genuine national struggles to the heroism of a single national leader.
President Mugabe was not the struggle for Zimbabwe's independence-he was merely a part of it - and its success did not depend on him, no matter how inspiring he may have been at the time.
Indeed, for over 100 years, this country benefited from the work of priests, brothers and sisters, teachers, nurses, social workers and even the occasional enlightened civil servant.
That means it is blinkered arrogance for the current crop of leaders to assume everything began with the war veterans.
Our mistake as Zimbabweans was to forgive bad governance while the economy was on even keel and while political mischief affected only a few.
With the economy now crumbling, we've all become victims of the nightmare that Zimbabwe has become. Our lack of involvement is coming back to bite us where it hurts most and now we're all affected as our country faces its worst ever crisis.
What was a problem for minorities facing discrimination, subtle or brutal, is now a problem for everyone. It is no longer a problem just for the Ndebele, for the Ndau and for whites - all equally Zimbabwean - but for the entire country. Authoritarianism has triumphed. Our political landscape is now characterised by political, racial and tribal intolerance. There is administrative incompetence, corruption and a staggering arrogance of power at every turn, all of which is forcing Zimbabwe into regression and into the dark ages.
As if that were not enough, there are no checks and balances in Zimbabwe's governance. How else can one explain the dictatorial if not monarchical statement by the president: "We will defy judges' sentences if they are not objective."
Whose objectivity and for whom? In an environment where the courts are independent of government control, no person can lay claim to the final word.
History will judge such a person harshly-but more to the point, so will the people.
Actually, the president's statement could prove a double-edged sword. If he can defy the courts, so can others in the future - in ways that will work not only to his detriment but to that of his courtiers as well.
As someone famous once said, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We are now paying a preposterous price for our shortsightedness and docility since 1980. Unemployment has hit 70% and people are so hungry that they are foraging in garbage dumps and the bush for food. The country is reaping a bitter and tragic harvest due to the lack of a strong and vibrant civil society from the very beginning of this sad experiment in liberation governance.
Even now, civil society remains divided and all too often motivated by personal glory. Protests, absurdly planned for city centres, never succeed. That no one, no organisation, has looked to South Africa for examples of successful protest is extraordinary - and they never even left the townships!
Zimbabwe is now a shocking image of innocence and impotence, of tyranny and madness. The progression became evident in the first decade or so of our well-won independence.
One of the critical tests of the solidity of mass support for any political party is its ability to conduct open self-criticism. If it is not afraid of its constituents, it can afford to admit its mistakes, explain the errors that produced untenable positions and suggest how a new course can be taken. Occupying high political office in the land means that you are the servant of the people, and not their master. The peaceful lesson of all this terrible and unnecessary suffering is that never again must Zimbabweans give so much power to one man - never again can we create an all-powerful presidency.
More than anything, Zimbabwe needs to limit the presidency to two terms in the post-Mugabe era. And there will be one, because tyranny never survives for ever.
We need to establish a culture of smooth transition of leaders, much as most western nations have done. And despite the absurd protestations of Zanu PF's creaking propaganda machine, just because something is western does not mean it is evil and 'unAfrican'. There are some things that are universally true, and governance is one of them.
There is nothing European about freedom and openess. Truth is truth whether you are in Europe or Africa. Zimbabweans deeply care about freedom and democracy just like anyone else.
There is an enormous amount of work facing Zimbabweans in the post-Mugabe era. Not least of which will be the purging of politically-motivated government departments, the establishment of a non-partisan police force, the reestablishment of a defence force that is above politics - and the people's full involvement to prevent the resurgence of dictatorship and tyranny.
All this can be achieved - and whoever governs next needs to know now that the sort of behaviour that Zimbabweans have allowed in the past, culminating in what is known worldwide as 'The Zimbabwe Crisis' will never be allowed again.
In the future, Zimbabweans will refuse to be accountable to their government, but demand, quite rightly, that their government is accountable to them.
Yes, Zimbabwe needs to learn the art of "necklacing" from the ANC.
That will help tremendously.
Does the name Clinton leap to mind here?
We created a monster 15 years ago when the executive presidency was established by changes to the constitution
Rule by executive order; fast track authority; declaring war and prosecuting it through the security council as opposed to congress; health powers emergency act (I know--it's the governor here, but who is pulling the strings?)
there are no checks and balances in Zimbabwe's governance. How else can one explain the dictatorial if not monarchical statement by the president: "We will defy judges' sentences if they are not objective."
"Terrorist" is undefined in the Patriot Act.
Won't it be grand when Hillary gets to decide who is a terrorist and what's fair?
No, you aren't the only one who sees that they can't get there from here without a lot of suffering. What's worse, Mugabe's friends and thugs are more likely to get there than the people who might live co-operatively in a normal society, because they'll have first dibs on food and weapons. Its going to be very bad, and its going to last a long time.
I was simply commenting on the fact that this reporter, or anyone else who speaks rationally about the situation and disparagingly of the government, is not someone I'd write an insurance policy for.
The author of this piece is more in touch with concepts of the US Constitution than anyone in our own media. Simply astounding.
And despite the absurd protestations of Zanu PF's creaking propaganda machine, just because something is western does not mean it is evil and 'unAfrican'. There are some things that are universally true, and governance is one of them.
Read it and weep multiculturalists.
There is nothing European about freedom and openess. Truth is truth whether you are in Europe or Africa.
This is also true, however, I have serious doubts that freedom and openess can be possible in Africa when the fact that several steps in the social evolutionary process were skipped when Africa tried to jump directly from a hunter-gatherer society to that of a modern nation state is taken into consideration. This was the biggest mistake made by the European colonialists, IMO.
My thought exactly.
Who will rescue the white Zimbabweans from the coming Holocaust? Isn't that what we should be worrying about?
See post 20.
Let's pray for Zimbawbweans and pray we don't become like them.
If you do not have the physical means or legal right to defend yourself, then you must leave.
Oh really. Ibrahim Bah, Leonid Minin and Belgium diamond merchants have nothing to do with it. Just a bunch of ignorant Africans fighting in the bush.
So where do these savages get all that Russian military equipment?
Yes, white farmers are being killed in Zimbabwe; so are blacks, who don't support Mugabe. Neither group has much left and no money. WITH WHAT MONIES, WITH NO VISAS, AND NO NEEDED SKILLS , ARE ANY OF THEM TO LEAVE ?
If and when the opposition decides to pursue an armed confrontation with the government in Zimbabwe, then the examples of Liberia and Sierra Leone will be applicable. So far the opposition is not effectively challenging the government, and there is no outside agent willing to arm them.
If the Ndebeles suffer again as they did in the 1980s, perhaps their brothers, the Zulus in South Africa, will pressure their government to intervene. Right now, the opposition in Zimbabwe have no effective allies in the world and appear to be headed for slow starvation with the world mute and indifferent as it was and is to the slaughter of the Tutsi and the Southern Sudanese Christians.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.