Democracy to be Buried in 2004
When the velvet glove comes off, the iron fist remains
"We've got a deficit because we're at war."
“Different faces, but no regime change. We will be standing still and the situation in Zimbabwe will continue to decline.”
John Makumbe | Zimbabwean political commentator
With Bob Mugabe's threats to withdraw a suspended Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth, thereby pitting African states against their Commonwealth fellows, the power of tyranny is showing its hand. Across the Atlantic, George Bush's unashamed use of presidential privilege, taxpayers' money, pre-nomination Democratic Party in-fighting, and others' misfortune for selfish ends shows how easy it is for those who have attained power to cement their positions.
Occupying different sectors of the geopolitical spectrum, Mugabe and Bush might do the world a favour by showing democracy up for the joke it has become. While Bush represents powerful, private U.S. military-industrial interests, Mugabe is a self-made man, running his country as a Mom and Pop store for personal gain. Bush, an executive, has shareholders to whom he must answer. Bob deals with family. Both, however, are in it for the money and, where large sums are involved, people die. It was ever thus.
Now that Western media monopolies have successfully airbrushed Bush's crimes (his rape of the U.S. economy and illegal invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq), he is free to consolidate his beachhead on the Middle-Eastern mainland and his hold on the U.S. political system. As Democrats squabble over who should oppose the GOP death's head late next year, his political axmen are ridding the corridors of political power of all opposition, ensconcing themselves in the belly of a beast displaying a rapacious appetite for excess, deception and deceit.
Mugabe, promising retirement and a retreat from mainstream politics, is steaming ahead with plans to expel white farmers from Zimbabwe, crush his opposition and entrench Zanu-PF's position for decades to come. When the smoke and mirrors are removed, politics becomes a simple exercise in clawing one's way to the top and staying there.
Bush and Bob have much in common.
"We do not kowtow to erstwhile imperialist forces..."
M-Net's Carte Blanche ran a good insert Sunday giving a potted history of Mugabe's likely successors. Each is as loyal to Zanu-PF as the other and all are Mugabe men. Their accession to Mugabe's vacant throne will mark the continuation of Zimbabwe's descent into a spiral of violent self-interest, human rights abuses, hunger, disease and death. Mugabe's personal choice is his Speaker for Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The self-proclaimed Son of God, former Zimbabwean Minister of Justice and State Security, Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) chief and all-purpose, bargain-basement mass murderer has all the credentials needed to continue Mugabe's rein of terror. As Security Minister during the early 80s, he was the hand guiding Colonel Perence Shiri's Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, a skilled assassination unit that slaughtered 20,000 ZAPU supporters throughout Matabeleland. Tens of thousands were tortured and many towns and villages razed. The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference publication, Report on the 1980s Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands, is still available on the Web.
A dab hand at the 'divide and rule' stratagem, George Bush need not send out U.S. special forces operatives to murder millions of Americans in the run up to the 2004 presidential elections. As much as the polarization of American society shows Bush to be hated, it also shows him enjoying more than abundant support. The Guardian's Gary Younge points out that a dearth of political debate in the United States has sent Americans scurrying back to traditional political homes from where they will cast their ballots. The silencing of debate on foreign policy (for which the U.S. is most hated overseas) means voters will not be stirred beyond their normal ether-soaked torpor. As much as the Democrats have stirred up opposition to Bush, the Republicans have countered. The GOP also has time, unlimited resources, and virtually every social instrument on their side.
In the unlikely event Bush should throw away a second term, John Makumbe's words quoted above more than adequately cover any U.S. alternative. Whereas Zimbabwean opposition members face death daily working a democracy seen as Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) best chance to oust Mugabe, American voter apathy in the face of an electoral machine hijacked by the incumbent will see a crooked, vindictive, and small-minded man poisoned by grandiose delusions returned to the White House.
I'm now taking bets on Zanu-PF and Bush being reelected next year, their positions disproportionately strengthened for having seen off limited, wishy-washy opposition forces and strategies, and their suspect victories having been deemed free and fair by international observers intimidated to an unseeing acceptance of flawed democracies not worth the price they charge for participation.
"Democracy is a Conversation"
So are markets...
Resource: Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference Report on the 1980s Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands
