Basildon Peta: No, Tsvangirai was not right to pull out
Mugabe could not have won even a rigged election
Monday, 23 June 2008
Of all the victims of Robert Mugabe's reign of terror I had spoken to recently, none told me that the vile dictator had brutalised them into loving him or voting for him. Mr Mugabe had, in fact, done a lot to campaign for Morgan Tsvangirai. An elderly woman whose nephew was murdered by Mr Mugabe's thugs two weeks ago told me she was determined to support the opposition in his honour.
It might sound a bit naive. But Mr Mugabe could not have won even a rigged election. The economy has worsened since the last election on 29 March which emboldened them. It proved Mr Mugabe could be beaten.
Even when opposition officials began acknowledging the growing sentiment in the party to pull out, I had never thought it would happen. "We will contest even if we are killed in the polling booths," one of the officials had told me. I thought that was right.
I am aware of the thousands of rural displaced and disenfranchised people. But that figure would have been swallowed into the MDC's strong urban support base. Polling day was going to further amplify Mr Mugabe's chicanery. I am told that, in some areas, polling booths were going to be located on properties handed to the so-called war veterans. Images of opposition supporters and even election observers being beaten at these places would have travelled the globe.
If Mr Tsvangirai's certain victory was going to be blocked by the crude tactics we have seen, Mr Mugabe would have emerged from the 27 June run-off more illegitimate. And if he had made good his threat to declare war after losing the vote, I believe that would have hastened his demise.
Mr Tsvangirai's reasons are not necessarily invalid but whatever the outcome of the run-off, I believe Mr Mugabe would have come off worse. The question now is what next? I hope it won't be another long round of Thabo Mbeki's timid mediation while Zimbabwe continues burning. The MDC must now do what it should do to rid Zimbabwe of this shameless criminal. The opposition party knows what that is, though I can't print it here.
The author is a Zimbabwean living in exile and is The Independent's southern Africa correspondent
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Comments
13 Comments
What Morgan Tsvangirai did is right . Considering the fact that Mugabe has become a player/referee of the match, announcing that any score by the opposition team shall not be counted and the results if in favour of the opposing team have no standing in the league, then why bother entering the competition. You choose to enter, you do so at your own peril. Remember in African politics there is nothing like winning the game of politics after the election no matter how glaring the unfaireness was, it does not matter. Some states presidents are ready with their congragulations messages for Mugabe as we are discussing the way forward. Once the results are out, its over. You lodge a complain with the Electoral Court, who is there to here you, the same state machinery comprised of ZANU PF apologiser!? I slaute Morgan, he qualifies for a medal for saving the nation from brutality and mascare.
Posted by zvinorwaradza | 24.06.08, 07:19 GMT
"The author is a Zimbabwean living in exile and is The Independent's southern Africa correspondent"
"The author is a Zimbabwean living in exile..."
"...living in exile..."
Living in exile.
God what a horrible awful state of affairs. As frustrating as this whole situation is the courage of the MDC and it's base to have made it this far is truly humbling.
"Images of opposition supporters and even election observers being beaten at these places would have travelled the globe."
My God man this has already happened. "The Globe" has done exactly nothing except perhaps deny Mugabe a place setting in Rome a little while back.
I understand the frustration but you should either rethink your position here or else rethink your exile status.
Posted by kiln | 24.06.08, 00:32 GMT
I remember the 1998,2003 and 2005 bloodsheds following elections as violence was unleashed against the population in Togo. In 1998, Olympio the main opposition contestant was almost killed by gunshots on the campaign trail and his deputy had to stand in for him. It did not achieve the demise of the regime after the voting was rigged.
Gruesome use of violence to silence dissent cannot be won over without significant pressure on the security forces major players leading them to bail out. And as far as pressure is concerned apart from weak posturing from the West and the timid and divided SADEC protest there is none to speak of.
How can the MDC keep on campaigning in the face of such intimidation tactics? What you are asking the MDC to do is to sent people in harms way for no foreseeable gain. You are a concerned citizen with family ties in Zimbabwe but the very fact your are in exile tells me you failed with the strategy you're now recommending.
Posted by Yoye | 23.06.08, 22:56 GMT
"Images of opposition supporters and even election observers being beaten at these places would have travelled the globe."
There is something inherently distasteful in an individual, living in safe exile, suggesting that others should run the risks that he (understandably) chose to escape. This is made worse by his tone implying that their suffering is an irrelevance, and the publicity all that matters. It seems beatings only hurt when they happen to him - the masses should be cannon fodder.
Posted by Olivia | 23.06.08, 13:53 GMT
It clear that you have no idea of how the election process works. If people are displaced from their village they would need to re-register for elections as you can only vote in your regidtered area. Tell me that it whatever the outcome of the runoff so if a thousand lives are lost its okay. I do not see you volounteering to get yourself beaten up or killed, your mother raped and tortured. Do no tell us what to do when you are leaving in your cushy exile. You have no idea what will happen to these people. so please I suggest you man up and come down kumusha and stand with us. Its people like you who give Mugabe the opportunity to rig the elections in the first place. If you had been there to vote in the first place we would have one more vote.
Posted by shingi | 23.06.08, 12:16 GMT
Does Tsvangirayi think that pulling out of the race make him a hero in the eyes of us Zimbabweans? He is a coward. I cant imagine if he was the one put in detention for years by the Ian Smith regime? Whats next, move to Johannesburg and live a posh life with his family? Where is the sacrifice? How about the family members of those murdered, where is their respite?
Posted by emzim | 23.06.08, 12:06 GMT
Sadly African leaders, in particular Mbeki must shoulder a lot of the blame. So too those European countries who so vigorously who acted against the apartheid regime in South Africa during the 70s and 80s. The total lack of intent to act against an undemocratic butcher on their part is bizarre!
I remember people referring to the democratic election in Zimbabwe as "one man, one vote, one election, once"
They weren't far wrong
Posted by Justin | 23.06.08, 11:24 GMT
'If Tsvangirai hadn't flaffed around whether to participate in every election over the last few years he would have one the first round convincingly'...
By 'flaffed around' do you mean bullied, beaten and intimidated? Your words seem awfully harsh. Everything would suggest that he DID win the first round convincingly, and even if he had continued into this vote, it never wouldn't have amounted to anything.
Posted by Stevie Dee | 23.06.08, 08:23 GMT
I wish I could agree with Basildon Peta and I partly agree.
But ( to continue my posting) :
It is easier for me (and Basildon?) to say that Zimbabweans should take part in a sham election and brave and endure the violence of MUGABE'S murderous cronies (only almost certainly to see Mugabe remain in power through an election that he can claim as free and fair and which the SADC countries will certainly legitimise through their denial and their desperation to see the emperor's new clothes and the rest of the rest of the world through its inaction), sitting safely 8,000 miles away than it would be if I were in Zimbabwe myself, afraid for my life and the lives of the people I love.
Posted by gary | 23.06.08, 05:20 GMT
I wish I could agree with Basildon Peta and I partly do.
As some have said, perhaps Zimbabweans will have to win true democracy themselves with their own blood as others have done. But looking around at the rest of Africa, it is difficult to see how this will result in anything else but an endless bloody cycle of violence - unless the passive nonviolent resistance of millions of Zimbabweans shames the SADC countries, the whole of the international community and ordinary people around the world to engage in a coordinated and sustained movement to bring an end to Mugabe's evil regime.
Posted by gary | 23.06.08, 05:11 GMT
13 Comments