[A-List] Zimbabwe: Region shames MDC

[james daly]

http://raceandhistory.com/

Zimbabwe: Region shames MDC
Posted: Monday, April 2, 2007

By Reason Wafawarova
herald.co.zw
Aprol 02, 2007

THE resolutions, on Zimbabwe, at the just-ended Extraordinary Summit of Sadc 
Heads of State and Government did not only expose Western propaganda, but 
also sent a clear message to MDC and any would-be lapdog politicians that 
it's either the African way or the highway to foreign-backed oblivion.

The resolution calling for the scrapping of the ruinous sanctions behind 
economic decline in Zimbabwe is a test for MDC's sincerity in its claim to 
be standing for the interests of ordinary Zimbabweans.

MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai publicly called for the same sanctions 
and the official MDC line is that the sanctions are "targeted", but the 
party's sponsors have since dropped the pretence with Washington recently 
pledging stiffer economic sanctions.

Now MDC has to choose between rallying behind Sadc's call to condemn the 
sanctions and endorsing the region's planned rescue package or continue the 
shameful support for the illegal sanctions along with its masters in London 
and Washington.

The former route will cost MDC as it comes with loss of both regional and 
domestic support while the latter will cost the opposition donor funds as 
well as their only known political weapon, foreign-sponsored campaigns to 
create anarchy and despondency in Zimbabwe.

The two MDCs are likely to register their disappointment with the Sadc 
position and dutifully front Western anger and frustrations.

While this may portray MDC as a resolute pliant party in the eyes of the 
West, it can only help further isolate it from the African cause and 
interest.

Sadc basically sees Tsvangirai the same way it sees Jean-Pierre Bemba, the 
way it saw Afonso Dhlakama and Jonas Savimbi, subversive individuals that 
needed to be tamed and reformed into acceptable Africans.

The clear message from Sadc is that MDC has to abandon its 
externally-induced political positions and start approaching its differences 
with Zanu-PF from the position of a loyal, homegrown political party.

The sanctions really put Tsvangirai and his cohorts between a rock and a 
hard place.

The resolution calling on Britain to honour its obligations to compensate 
white commercial farmers compounds MDC's woes.

The quisling party has to wait for London's response before pronouncing 
itself on the issue.

Open support for the British position can only further expose MDC as a 
sellout political party.

Tendai Biti's overused rhetoric in articulating Western-oriented policies 
will have to be at its tired best to come up with a face-saving position.

The proposal that Sadc should find ways of countering the effects of 
sanctions was probably the worst news Tsvangirai has ever received since 
1999, family bereavements included.

On this he can either choose to fight Sadc and the people, or join Sadc and 
the Government in fighting his masters.

Panyanga dzaMushore chaipo (a real Catch-22 situation).

MDC factions will have to tell their masters that they need to be more 
African to remain relevant lest they go the way of Bishop Abel Muzorewa's 
UANC and Ndabaningi Sithole's Ndonga, the way to oblivion.

The decision to have South African President Thabo Mbeki mediate between MDC 
and Zanu-PF was not good news to Tsvangirai, his colleagues and their 
desperate masters in London and Washington.

This is the same Mbeki who ignored Tsvangirai's mad calls to cut off of 
power supplies to Zimbabwe.

This is the Mbeki who has repeatedly refused to condemn President Mugabe, 
much to the chagrin of Bush and Blair.

This is the Mbeki whose quiet diplomacy has irked the entire bloodthirsty 
Western political set up. This is the Mbeki whose government and ANC 
declared all elections in Zimbabwe free, fair and democratic.

For Tsvangirai, this is the Mbeki he called "a dishonest broker".'

Tsvangirai, Pius Ncube, Lovemore Madhuku and all other money-sniffing 
opposition supporters must really be extremely sad fellows today.

In one fell swoop; Sadc dealt a death blow to puppet politics in the region.

If it can't endorse Sadc's position, MDC may as well go and seek solidarity 
from Iraq's Nouri al Maliki, Israel's Ehud Olmert and Afghanistan's Hamid 
Karzai.

Africa is saying no to puppet politics and treachery and MDC has two options 
to deal with the situation, either to shape up or ship out.

What Sadc has done gives the world an opportunity to scrutinise the Western 
media and choose who to believe between Zimbabwe's neighbours or its distant 
detractors and enemies.

Of all five known styles of conflict management; that is dominating, 
obliging, compromising, integrating and avoiding; MDC seems to be having 
only one viable option and that is to oblige with the dictates of the 
African interest in general and Zimbabwe's national interest in particular.

They have no one to dominate, no room for compromises since they are a 
British outfit, nothing to integrate since their objective is unAfrican and 
they can no longer avoid engagement lest they be dismissed for what they 
are, puppet anarchists and counter-revolutionary Trojan horses.

For MDC, it is either the African way or the highway; there are no two ways 
about it.

Reason Wafawarova is a post-graduate student in International Relations at 
Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

Reprinted from:
www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=17075&cat=10

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