A letter from the diaspora
Friday July 22nd 2011.
Watching Rupert Murdoch give evidence before a parliamentary committee in London this week reminded me of Robert Mugabe and it was not just because of the similarity in their ages. It was more to do with the nature of the power they wield. Both men have been at the head of their respective ‘empires’ for a very long time. One of the problems of being at the top of a powerful organization is that your underlings have their own reasons for not telling you what’s going on. For the long-time boss too, a kind of selective blindness sets in. He chooses not to see or not to ask questions while those lower down are either too afraid or too reverential to reveal what is really happening. That is the reality of how power works.
If anyone should know about that, it is Robert Mugabe. After thirty years in power, there are some in his party who are even prepared to deify him. “The second son of God” one over-enthusiastic Zanu PF loyalist declared not so long ago. The result of this idolization is that Mugabe can say just about anything, however illogical or factually incorrect, and his followers will cheer him to the rafters. This is particularly true when he talks about the Liberation Struggle. Thirty years on and Mugabe still relies on the Liberation Struggle to ignite the spark of pro-Zanu PF enthusiasm in his audience. Speaking at a Zanu PF Central committee meeting last Saturday he attacked the MDC for advocating reform of the security sector. A brave MDC MP had introduced the motion in the Lower House and Mugabe’s response was a predictable rant. “Parliament cannot be the commander in chief of the security forces. Never.” he fumed, having first reminded everyone – as if we needed reminding - that he, Mugabe, is the Commander in Chief. No one could teach these “fine” war veterans anything about freedom and democracy, he maintained. “They fought for it. It is their product. Teach the lesson of freedom and democracy to persons who liberated them when they were on the other side, even refusing to participate in the struggle.” As always it’s the same old argument: if you aren’t with us (Zanu PF) then you must be against us and if you are against Zanu PF then it follows according to Zanu PF thinking that you are unpatriotic. It’s a strangely twisted argument at a time when Zanu PF operatives are attacking the MDC on every side. They are being arrested and charged with everything from treason to public order offences. Journalists are arrested for daring to take photographs of things that the police don’t want the public to see. A policeman is dismissed from the Force for having an MDC ring tone on his mobile phone. And, at the same time, these ‘fine’ war veterans are terrorising villagers who dare to wear MDC regalia and threatening them with death if they vote – or ever have voted- for MDC. Freedom and democracy: Zanu PF style!
As Ibbo Mandaza pointed out this week Zanu PF has lost sight of the ideals of the Liberation Struggle: “He (Mugabe) killed the principles of Zanu PF. There is no relationship with the Zanu PF of the Liberation Struggle and the current Zanu PF.” Mugabe’s lecture to the MDC on freedom and democracy was nothing but rank hypocrisy, when we recall how his party has rigged elections. Unlike his fellow octogenarian, Rupert Murdoch at least apologised publicly for criminal acts committed by journalists at his newspapers. Crocodile tears they may have been but compare that to Robert Mugabe’s silence for past crimes. Neither he nor his party have apologised for the estimated 20.000 deaths of Ndebele people in the Gukuruhundi massacres. Only this week Emmerson Mnangagwa, long believed to be the master-mind behind Gukuruhundi, described it as “a closed chapter…a healed wound. If we try to open it we will be undermining the Unity Accord.” (signed in 1987) The brutal insensitivity of that remark is a clear reminder to Zimbabweans that Mugabe and his party are ready to turn a blind eye to any misdeeds committed by Zanu PF. By not ‘opening healed wounds’ we leave them to fester and infect all our futures.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH. aka Pauline Henson, author of the Dube detective stories set in Zimbabwe and available from Lulu .com
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