MDC-T Turns On Western Countries

So awed is the MDC-T by Mugabe that Tendai Biti (seen beaming here at his swearing into office by Mugabe in February) told the UK Guardian last week that the dictator is cool, calm and collected and is a man "who never gets flustered by anything" He also said in the same interview that Mugabe is an "English gentleman". Now that this is sorted out, the MDC has now turned against the West, who they see as the real evil. What else can we expect from the MDC-PF?


I recall telling you on March 20 this year, on this very blog, that within a couple of months, we would start hearing the MDC-T, Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti shouting insults at the West in frustration.

A couple of weeks before that, I had told you that the frustration levels within the Tsvangirai MDC at their failure to correct the economy would soon explode and that their rage would be at the West and would be misdirected.

Right on cue, Tendai Biti has now come out with guns blazing, calling the attitude of the West towards the Unity Thingy (or Coalition Thingamajig) "unscientific and ahistorical". The State newspaper, The Herald, duly put him on their front page and reproduced his diatribe against the West.

Biti says "we can not move" as long as ZIDERA (The American Act of Congress called the Zimbabwe Democracy and Recovery Act) is in place.

In other words, for the fourth time in two months, the MDC Secretary General is saying these sanctions will hamper efforts to develop Zimbabwe. His interview (with a South African paper, apparently), betrays the frustration.

But the MDC-T is only doing its Master's bidding (the master being "one Robert Mugabe" in the words of Raila Odinga). Mugabe wants sanctions gone and they have to oblidge. No matter what.

Yet, the MDC-T fails to understand that the problem is not ZIDERA or sanctions or the West.

The problem is that, now that they have places at the feeding trough, the MDC-T think that all is alright and the world should stampede into Zimbabwe to offer assistance and help rebuild the country, regardless of anything else, including the West's own principles (which they mistakenly thought Tsvangirai and the MDC-T shared all along).

This will not happen for the following reasons:

Rule of law is still absent. Tsvangirai may think it "fantastic" that his supporters are being arrested, harassed and jailed, he may see nothing wrong with the persecution of Roy Bennett, with the farm invasions ("so-called farm invasions", he called them last week in a public interview published by the Zimbabwe Independent), he may think it "process" when his supporters, who were thrown out of their Mbare council homes in March last year, are arrested for trying to claim those homes back from ZANU PF supporters, he may see nothing amiss in Mugabe continuing to enjoy his full priviledges, power and authority in this Exclusive Government, but he should not expect the West to do the same.

The West is guided by universal principles on this. Simply because Tsvangirai thinks the persecution and jailing of MDC-T supporters is a non-issue does not mean that the world should do the same.

Just because Tsvangirai thinks there are limits to democracy does not mean that the world should lower its bar for rights abuses.

Just because Tsvangirai is happy to be a non-Prime Minister with a Prime Ministerial title does not mean the world should accept this and throw its money at his Mugabe's government.

And most importantly, just because Tsvangirai has sold the votes of the people to Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, does not mean the West should also sell its own principles to the same man.

Like I said more than two montsh ago, the West can see that Tsvangirai has given up and sold out. They will keep their money in their pockets, their aid in their pockets and refuse to help Tsvangirai in his quest to burnish and polish Mugabe's image.

Of course, as Geoff Nyarota pointed out in his Zimbabwe Times, there are people who are seeking to construct a personality cult around Tsvangirai such as the one that was around Mugabe in the 1980s and 1990s.

They should be resisted by anyone who has even half a brain. They would have us led off the face of a cliff simply because "Save" is "Save" and must not be questioned.

They have every right to be sheep, but we must not be forced to think we have no choice.

As for solutions: Tsvangirai must simply accept that the job of liberating Zimbabwe from the clutches of Mugabe and his cronies is beyond him. He should accept that he made a mistake by signing that flawed agreement which gave Mugabe legitimacy and gave him back ALL the presidential powers he enjoys today.

Once he has accepted that, the next move would be for him to step aside from the leadership of the MDC-T because at this rate, ten years from now, we will still be "looking for a solution".

He does not have it within him and should give somebody else the chance to take on the dictator.

In 2004, Tsvangirai told the Guardian of the United Kingdom in an interview, "I know I am not the best person for the job, but no one else will even try."

Things have changed a lot since then.

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