Happy birthday to an unfinished revolution

Happy birthday to an unfinished revolution

• No cheer as Zim turns 24

• Independence war mass graves found

• Mugabe calls on exiles to return

By Grace Kwinjeh

"RIDICULOUS, rigged and rubbish", responded an angry opposition to a 100 percent election victory by incumbent President Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, in the horn of Africa, after the just ended General Election.

Francophone and Arab League observers commended the ‘improved’ operations at polling stations, as well as the peaceful environment during voting days, as compared to previous elections. The opposition was forced to shun this election on the grounds that the electoral playing field was uneven. Not even pre-election demonstrations could force the government to reform.

Sounds familiar?

Further down South in Zimbabwe, ‘President’ Robert Mugabe ‘won’ himself a two thirds majority in an election again lauded by his friends as having been free and fair. We are told by the South African Observer Mission, the rest of Africa can ‘learn’ from the Zimbabwe experience.

Learning they are!

In Zanzibar, the main opposition candidate, Seif Shariff Hamad, does not qualify to contest in the next election, set for October. He is disqualified because he has not stayed in his constituency for more than three years, as stipulated in a recently passed law. Hah!

The opposition is miffed.

Who cares? After all we are a continent ‘celebrating’ so many years of independence and self determination. Why should the continental leadership give in to neo-liberal or conservative demands on democracy and human rights, forces determined to reverse the gains of independence? No Africa has to do it her way!

Her way? Just recently in Zimbabwe, Nelson Chamisa, an opposition Member of Parliament and National Youth Chairman for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), spent four nights in police custody on trumped up charges. The youngest MP in Zimbabwe was abused mentally and also forced to walk barefooted and in leg irons at one stage when he was being transferred by police to another prison. His crime? The police suspected that he may have been involved in post election demonstrations in the centre of Harare. The MDC has just released a damning report “STOLEN,” on how that election was rigged.

Ethiopia has elections too next May. Is the story any different? No. We can almost go over the above situation with eyes closed. Already there are reports of harassment, imprisonment and victimisation of the opposition.

Surprised? Why worry, these are just few countries still lagging behind, the continent is moving on. What with the reformed African Union, the adoption of the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development and its peer review mechanism. Both promise prosperity democracy and more human rights for us struggling citizens. The African leadership is keen to steer the continent towards the path of development and democracy. Well only if problems of resources and capacity can be overcome.

"I despair. Happy birthday Zimbabwe. To a very unfinished revolution"

GRACE KWINJEH

Be happy. Peace is on the horizon in the Ivory Coast after President Thabo Mbeki successfully brokered a truce between government and rebel forces, that will see an end to two years of conflict and holding of a ‘peaceful election’ in October this year. Well hopefully the main opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara, will be able to prove both his parents are Ivorian, failure of which he cannot stand.

Be happy. The Democratic Republic of Congo will soon be holding the first elections, in 40 years. Have you read Adam Hochschild’s, King Leopold’s Ghost? You will be revolted. But be happy all that is behind us.

Surely Morgan Tsvangirai the leader of the MDC must understand that in Africa, the way to the state house is through prison. Can he not learn from others? Abdoulaye Wade had to wait a good 27 years of detention and exile before getting there. Others, Ghanaian John Kufour of Ghana, eventually got there.

Oh good, Gilchrist Olympio, Togo’s main opposition leader of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC) party, is back after over a decade in exile. He is about to get there. Only that he can not represent his party in next week's election, he has been away for too long.

Oh but even if they do get there look at Kenya in the end they got rid of Moi, ah - but where is she now? The new democratic government has not lived up to its election promises; alas no new constitution in the horizon and corruption – well just the way Moi left it. Only recently a member of parliament, Reuben Ndolo was detained for ridiculing President Mwai Kibaki. Who needs a change of Government if nothing will change?

Stuff the imperialists, we are told, why should the world be worrying about Zimbabwe? After all only four hundred people have died in political violence in just four years, what of Darfur where hundreds can die in a day? You want figures? How many died in Rwanda? Ah – Rwanda look at the whole Great Lakes region if you WANT a real ‘African’ crisis.

After all the AU has increased its capacity in mediation and conflict resolution. Look at its efforts in Burundi, DRC and the Ivory Coast. More recently the regional body ECOWAS took a principled stance on Togo, stopping a military coup d'etat there and demanding fresh elections. Well Sierra Leone is on the road to peace and prosperity. Applaud.

Come off it, they say, you talk of Zimbabwean women being raped? In South Africa every other hour a woman is being raped. Have you even seen the figures from Darfur?

Arbitrary arrests and detentions, in Zimbabwe? Have you visited the prisons, of Togo, Gabon and the rest?

Zimbabwe simply deserves a big applause for transferring land from minority whites to majority blacks. The biggest land transfer programme on the continent should be celebrated. Ah, well the opposition in the country is just a neo -colonial response to Mugabe’s good policies. He has snubbed international finance institutions and European imperialistic governments.

Two million faced with starvation in Zimbabwe? They ask. Have you been to Ethiopia and Somalia? The rest of the SADC region?

High unemployment, malformed education and health systems, corruption- are some of the normal characteristics of the post colonial Africa state. Results of which are a restive population, leading to conflict in some cases. What with the adverse effects of Structural Adjustment Programmes forced on many of the Governments by International Finance Institutions. Watch out conservative Paul Wolfowitz, has just been appointed President of the World Bank.

What of the Millennium Development Goals? Yeah but what of the never ending debt crisis? Debt trap. How much goes to debt servicing for every dollar earned on the continent? Unfair trading regimes? HIV/AIDS threatening to wipe out the whole continent. No way forget those.

What of the Moral leadership? International community? No.

If the Americans and the Europeans are not getting it right why should Africa?

The Republicans rig elections, who does what to them? As for the Europeans first they colonised us, now they want to teach us about human rights and democracy? Force values they do not even adhere to down our throats. Look at their drive at free market economies.

What moral leadership can come from the Americans when they refuse to ratify the International Criminal Court Treaty? What of the fate of USA prisoners at Guantanamo Camp? Or unilateral decisions to go to war? Iraq?

If they cannot respect United Nations rules why should any African Government be forced to?

So why should anyone worry if Mugabe has decided to give himself another ten or more years in power?

You can cry! Watch Hotel Rwanda. Or laugh. Read Amadou Kourouma’s ‘Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote’.

I despair. Happy birthday Zimbabwe. To a very unfinished revolution.
Grace Kwinjeh is a journalist and a regular columnist on New Zimbabwe.com. She writes from Belgium
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