Zimbabwe's small minded rulers

Zimbabwe's small minded rulers

• Mugabe cornered by events out of his control

SO ROBERT Mugabe’s minister of justice Patrick Chinamasa presumes to define “patriotism” for the rest of us, does he now? He has been triumphantly crowing at the recent enactment of a law to withdraw travel “privileges” from Zimbabweans the Mugabe regime feels threatened by.

The general reaction to this new law has been outrage and shock. Why there is shock is a mystery to me. By the standard of repressive measures that have been taken by the regime of Mugabe against the people of Zimbabwe, this one is minor and mild. Withdrawing the passports of critics may be backward, but it should hardly shock us and is nothing compared to the hunger, discouragement, economic collapse and political oppression that Mugabe’s regime has visited on Zimbabwe.

One good thing this new law has done is disabuse Zimbabweans abroad of the idea that they are safe and removed from the events in their tortured country. Some Zimbabweans in the Diaspora look down at us and sniff, “why don’t those of you suffering at home do this or that?” Some feel safe and superior from their hiding places in Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. Even those who now only have a Zimbabwean passport to link them to their homeland have been woken out of their complacency by the risk of those passports being withdrawn if they don’t toe the line as defined by the likes of Chinamasa.

"This latest trick so savoured by Chinamasa will not make an ugly regime look any prettier. This is just one more of many depredations we must endure on the road to a new Zimbabwe"

CHIDO MAKUNIKE

These are the actions of a government that no longer has confidence in itself. They kicked out foreign correspondents unceremoniously, flagrantly flouting their own laws in their panicked rush to do so. The regime’s reputation did not get any better. Mugabe’s regime rented the wicked Jonathan Moyo for five years to destroy the state media and much of the private media and try to recreate both in its image. During Moyo’s evil tenure as chief Mugabe propagandist any hint of professionalism, balance or criticism of the regime was equated with treason. The media and intellectual space definitely shrunk but the regime’s reputation did not improve, in fact it sank further. Chief Constable Tafataona Mahoso of the Media & Thought Police has valiantly played his part along with Moyo of trying to intimidate and silence opponents with pan-Africanist mumbo-jumbo and “you are controlled by the whites” to any who see through his and the regime’s nation-destroying claptrap. That has neither helped the country’s image nor that of the regime that continues to destroy it. Ditto for the efforts to jam radio stations broadcasting into Zimbabwe or otherwise contain the avalanche of deserved bad press the regime gets from all over the world 24/7.

This latest trick so savoured by Chinamasa will not make an ugly regime look any prettier. Chinamasa has reveled in the panicked reaction of many in the media and opposition circles. This is just one more of many depredations we must endure on the road to a new Zimbabwe. Let us not whine about it.
Actually it provides new opportunities to lay bare the bankruptcy of the regime that is destroying Zimbabwe. The pretext of this latest effort to rein in increasing dissent and rebellion against the Mugabe regime is that critics are “tarnishing the image of the revolutionary government abroad,” mainly in Western capitals. Minister, we could ask, what are your son/daughter/wife and many other relatives doing in these capitals if these countries are bent on doing Zimbabwe harm as you claim? Smoking out the many close family members of regime officials who benefit from nation-destroying patronage at home while also enjoying the benefits of life in countries they claim are at war with us would be one small part of showing the utter cynicism of the small-minded officials we are dealing with. “Revolutionary patriotism” my bloody ass! From the mouth of Chinamasa of all people? Purrleeze!

The most “patriotic” contribution that any Zimbabwean can be engaged in at this sad, critical time in our nation’s short, painful history is to fight the oppression and decline it is experiencing under the ruinous, bloody regime of Mugabe. We should be outraged by silly efforts to prescribe patriotism for us by brutal, unpatriotic failures whose only concern is to pick off the few remaining pieces of flesh from the carcass of our beloved, formerly great Zimbabwe that they have murdered.

Chinamasa identified Zimbabweans abroad as a group disproportionately responsible for the Mugabe government’s awful reputation, hence the passing of the new law. But true to his reputation as one of the shallowest and most intellectually challenged people to occupy a lofty position in the Mugabe regime, Chinamasa failed to go where his premise would logically lead.

Is the alienation from the Mugabe government of so many Zimbabweans at home and in the Diaspora a cause of the government’s present image woes, or an effect of them? Why has the Mugabe government failed to harness the millions of Zimbabweans abroad into a national asset in terms of hard currency remittance, skills transfer and international goodwill for the country? If Zimbabweans abroad suddenly lose their sense of judgment and easily fall prey to claimed efforts by Western countries to turn them against their government, why are so many members of the regime from the “presidium” to its lowest echelons so eager to retain their many ties to the West? And why has the “revolutionary people’s government” failed so dismally to make disaffected Zimbabweans believe the regime’s propaganda over that of those the regime claims are enemies of the country?

Is it realistic to hope that the fear of losing passports is going to be significant enough to silence critics against the regime’s destruction of their country? Does the regime-stinging fire of Pius Ncube, Morgan Tsvangirai or many others depend on whether it is delivered in Bulawayo, Harare or London? The truth of their lament of Zimbabwe’s destruction by the demolition derby of Mugabe, Chinamasa & Co will resonate with most Zimbabweans and much of the world regardless of where it is delivered. Previous cheap efforts to insinuate treason against these and many other critics have backfired spectacularly on the Mugabe regime and the threat of passport withdrawal has even more potential to do so. In any case, the ways in which Zimbabwe under Mugabe is one big disaster area are now so obvious that they do not even require Zimbabweans going out of their country for the whole world to see!

Many have probably rightly said this measure is a tit for tat against senior regime members and sympathizers being banned from many Western capitals. But isn’t it interesting that the “tat” by the regime is not against those Western nations or their citizens wishing to visit Zimbabwe, but against its own citizens wishing to leave Zimbabwe?! Is this desperate, small minded and crazy or what?! Which is the regime’s worst enemy, its critics or itself?!

The regime is fighting on levels that it simply cannot win. It is one thing to beat up, intimidate, imprison and murder your critics and opponents. This is not difficult to do-any old bully with a military machine and enough ruthlessness can do this. But on an economic, image and many other levels you must have the support of a majority of your people to fight off threats to your ruler ship. The Mugabe government no longer enjoys such support. Many of its increasingly shrill and desperate measures to forestall the whirlwind of opposition that it continues to cultivate and reap will only make it sink deeper in the mire of international opprobrium and isolation.

An individual in Harare who does not even possess a passport can just as effectively tell the world about the Mugabe regime’s war against the people as a Zimbabwean in Sydney, Johannesburg or New York. Actually in the modern age the person in Harare without a passport may be even more equipped to do so than the Zimbabwean in a foreign capital! I am shocked that the Mugabe regime’s lawmakers do not seem to realize this. They are trying to lock the stable door after the horse has already bolted out of their control.

Zimbabweans, let us not be chickenly. The battle to save our country from those who would destroy it will inevitably become more vicious, requiring us to be ever more innovative to resist the increasingly desperate flailing of a regime that has failed on all counts. Zimbabweans are dying of hunger and lack of hope and confidence in their country’s prospects and yet a few of us get uptight and intimidated, whining about the fear of having our passports withdrawn!

Let us get real about the task at hand. Are we in a struggle for the very soul of our country against a brutal, vicious regime or are we on a Sunday picnic? I have said before and I repeat: the new struggle for Zimbabwe is being fought on a much more sophisticated level than the brutal, simplistic, physical ways the Mugabe regime is accustomed to and so good at. Mugabe, Chinamasa, Moyo and their laws have done and will continue to do incalculable harm to Zimbabwe but they are a passing phase. As has been proven by how virtually all of the regime’s efforts to fight off opposition that it has earned for itself have sunk it deeper into the mire, it is a regime that is embattled on so many fronts, with so few options to get out that it lashes out without thinking.

Chinamasa is right to say that the regime of which he is a member is besieged but as usual fatally wrong about the reasons why. It is therefore not surprising that in that latest panicked reaction to the growing opposition towards it at home and abroad, it shows the growing gap between it and those it oppresses.
As used to be said by those fighting for a better dispensation for their country during the second chimurenga before it was eventually usurped by gangsters, aluta continua!
Chido Makunike is a social commentator and a New Zimbabwe.com columnist based in Harare. He also has a weekly column in the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper
CONTACT CHIDO: chidomakunike@yahoo.com
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