Time For Useful Engagement With Incoming Government In Zimbabwe

African Union observer mission leaders meet with President Mugabe who won re-election on July 31, 2013., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Editorial Comment – Election result: Time for useful engagement with incoming Govt

August 6, 2013 Opinion & Analysis
Zimbabwe Herald

Zimbabweans went to the polls last week and spoke emphatically against the West’s regime change agenda that is closely linked with the imposition of sanctions against the country. We have had countless excuses by the British, the European Union, Australia and the United States for maintaining the sanctions against Zimbabwe but they seem to grow weirder each time their anointed presidential aspirant gets more desperate.

Before the recently held elections, many of these Western countries, buoyed by reports from their proxies in Zimbabwe indicating the likelihood of victory by the MDC-T, said that they were ready to work with a Government formed after the elections since all appeared to be in place for the harmonised elections and peace prevailed during the plebiscite.

Needless to say, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, made up of commissioners nominated by the three parties to the Global Political Agreement that constituted the outgoing Government, is the same commission that conducted the referendum on the new Constitution that received a thumbs-up from most of these countries, setting the stage for the harmonised elections.

We believe if these countries were sincere in their pronouncements, it is now time for useful engagement with the incoming Government and the illegal sanctions, whose removal we have always called for, should be scrapped as soon as possible.

Our understanding of democracy is rule by the majority, not this Western adulterated version whereby a minority backed by the Western powers seeks to foist its views on the rest of the population.

Zimbabweans have spoken and we expect all genuine democratic forces to respect that and not be blinded by their hatred of President Mugabe who, however, represent the views of the majority.

Africa and the progressive world sent observers to Zimbabwe for the elections and the tainted Western capitals were not invited due to their partiality and downright hostility towards one of Zimbabwe’s political formations, Zanu-PF, whose officials are on their sanctions list.

The African Union and the Southern African Development Community observers endorsed the conduct and the results of the elections, but the very countries that did not send observers to the polls now claim to have made better observations than organisations that had people on the ground.

The elections met the electoral guidelines of the AU and Sadc and were held according to Zimbabwean laws. We then wonder what yardstick the Westerners are using to judge the outcome.

From the British Government’s expression of “grave concern” over the election outcome, to the EU’s “alleged irregularities and reports of incomplete participation, as well as the identified weaknesses in the electoral process and a lack of transparency” to the alleged “substantial electoral irregularities” parroted by the US that make it “not believe that the results . . . represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people” we find a congruence of cacophony of sore losers.

Zimbabwe shall never be a colony again, we repeat.

As for the local activists masquerading as impartial observers, their bleating over the voters’ roll like one of the losing contestants is quite telling, and the source of their funding exposes the glaring overt ventriloquism.

What pains us, however, is that just as in the case of Iraq where these countries ganged up against Saddam Hussein under the false claim that he had weapons of mass destruction, we see these powers again ganging up against the new Government that seeks to empower the indigenous majority, using false charges and disregarding those that observed the process.

We are aware that the flurry of statements of indignation dispatched so far is an indication of how these countries will deal with the country regarding the lifting of the illegal sanctions that came into being at the instigation of Britain that was bitter over the redistribution of land previously held by a minority of its kith and kin.

The rabid disdain with which these foreigners treat our African processes and institutions is unbelievable.

The EU’s Catherine Ashton has nowhere to hide now, she should simply tell us that according to the 28-nation bloc, a free and fair election in Zimbabwe is an election in which MDC-T’s Morgan Tsvangirai emerges the winner.

The Australians’ call for a re-run is laughable.

Maybe Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr had not had sight of the figures!

We believe the time has come for progressive nations to work with the people of Zimbabwe, who have been under siege from the West for more than a decade.
If the West, especially the US, seeks to impose the version of democracy that they are trying to prescribe in Egypt, where a takeover of power by the army from a democratically elected government is deemed restoration of democracy, then it would not surprise us that they are behind calls for uprisings that are doomed to fail in this country.

Meanwhile, whether the West reviews its sanctions or not, Zimbabwe will carry on with its empowerment agenda. The more you encumber us with your sanctions, the more Zimbabweans will confound you with their resolve to defend their sovereignty.

We continue to look east where the sun rises rather west, where it sets.