AFRIPOL.ORG IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
ROBERT MUGABE: THE RIGHT MOMENT TO EXIT THE STAGE
By Emeka Chiakwelu, the founder of Afripol Organization. April 05, 2008
The opportunity has come for President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to accept the verdict of the people and gracefully exit the political theater as a man of the people and as a democrat. This is the greatest chance he has to begin to salvage his battered image and destroyed personality. His argument to those that called him a brutal dictator is to use his exit from power to reassure the democratic world that his democratic credentials are not all gone with the wind.
Zimbabwe “once revered as the breadbasket of southern Africa with good education and healthcare, now has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, schooling is a luxury and it is difficult to get even basic food supplies. Inflation has skyrocketed to more than 100,000 percent; food production and agricultural exports have dropped” but Zimbabwe can still come back only when Mugabe is replace with a thoughtful and a visionary leader.
But if President Mugabe refuse to release the result of the election but deploy and manipulate a runoff election to stay in power, then he is calling for one of the greatest disaster in history of Zimbabwe. He will go in shame and without dignity if he chose to dig in and deny the peoples’ verdict. Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition party, the apparent winner of the unreleased election can allow Mugabe to retire in peace if Mugabe exit without rancor and latent disaster. But knowing the history of the great stubborn Mugabe, he will chose to stay put but the winds of change is insurmountable.
© 2008 AFRIPOL.org
ROBERT MUGABE : A MAN WITHOUT VISION -By Emeka Chiakwelu, the founder of Afripol Organization. March 17, 2007
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is the prime example of an African leader that have outlasted his usefulness and have now become an impediment to his country’s progress.
“Robert Mugabe once was hailed as a symbol of the new Africa, but under his rule the health and well-being of his people have dropped dramatically, which is as much an abuse of human rights as arbitrary arrest and torture. According to the World Health Organization, Zimbabwe has the world’s shortest life expectancy—37 years for men and 34 for women. It also has the greatest percentage of orphans (about 25%, says UNICEF) and the worst annual inflation rate (1,281% as of last month). He last allowed an election in 2002 but “won” only after having his leading opponent arrested for treason.”
Dr. Mugabe started with good intention. He championed the struggled for his country’s independent from white minority rule. With his leadership, an undeniable credential as a freedom fighter and with the courage from his people, they were liberated. Rhodesia gained her independence and was renamed Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe became the first democratic elected president of the new independent nation. He had the support of his people and the international community. The nation under his rulership was civil and the economy was healthy. There was a climate of a reasonable decorum, peace and order. That was the good old days, now is a different story.
President Mugabe who has been power since 1982 to present day has evolve from a peace-loving leader to a tyrant. A one time democrat is now a dictator. His mission is to keep and maintain power by all means necessary; by rigging elections through intimidation and violence. Zimbabwe is now a one party state. All the political opponents and rivalries were not given a fair shake in the polity and violence has become the currency of the administration.
Worst of all his country have slipped into pandemonium. The civility have evaporated and Zimbabwe the bread basket of Southern Africa have become the empty basket of the region. There is a hyperinflation and the standard of living has been decimated to a point that African Union have flown food to the starving people of Zimbabwe.
© 2007 AFRIPOL.org
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Opponents Vow to drive Mugabe from office March 17, 2007
By ANGUS SHAW
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s opponents vowed to unite to drive him from office, saying Friday his government already is at “war” with dissidents.
Main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, whom police allegedly beat savagely, went home from a hospital Friday but was suffering dizzy spells, aides said.
Arthur Mutambara, the head of another Movement for Democratic Change faction, said: “If there is going to be any war, this is the time to declare war.
“We are already in a state of war” anyway coming from one direction, said Mutambara, who was arrested Sunday along with Tsvangirai and other party leaders and activists while headed to a prayer meeting called by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, an alliance of opposition, church, student and civic groups.
Mutambara said civil disobedience and protest would continue despite assaults and violence against activists by police and soldiers.
Mugabe’s critics accuse him of repression and corruption and blame him for acute food shortages and the world’s highest inflation. Sunday’s violence heightened growing tensions in urban strongholds of the opposition, and renewed questions about how long the 83 year-old can maintain his tight grip on power.
“Our core business is to drive Mugabe out of town. There is no going back in working together against Robert Mugabe and his surrogates,” Mutambara told reporters and supporters in Harare.
“We are not going to allow to a dictator who is sitting on us to determine the means of confrontation against him. We are not asking his approval to be free. I hope Robert Mugabe, a sick and old man, you are listening. We mean business,” Mutambara said.
He acknowledged the opposition factions had differences but said recent events had united them.
“We are living under a criminal and brutal dictatorship. Mugabe can go to hell and go hang. We are talking about total rebellion and war,” said Mutambara.
Tendai Viti, a ranking MDC official and close colleague of Tsvangirai, told reporters, “The struggle in Zimbabwe is completely about democracy.”
“I can assure Robert Mugabe that this is the end game. We are going to do it by democratic means, by being beaten up and by being arrested - but we are going to do it. We are in the final stage of the final push,” Viti said.
Tsvangirai was treated for severe head wounds allegedly inflicted by police during the unrest. Brain scans and medical tests showed he did not suffer skull fractures, but deep lacerations and swelling of the head. He did not meet supporters Friday as he was suffering dizzy spells, aides said.
“Yes, they brutalized my flesh. But they will never break my spirit. I will soldier on until Zimbabwe is free,” Tsvangirai wrote in an essay that appeared Friday in Britain’s The Independent newspaper.
“Far from killing my spirit, the scars they brutally inflicted on me have re-energized me. I seek no martyrdom. I only seek a new dispensation in my country in which citizens live freely in prosperity and not in fear of their rulers,” he wrote.
Tsvangirai added that he would “soldier on until Zimbabwe is free.” He also urged the international community to maintain pressure on Mugabe’s regime.
Criticism from Western governments led by Britain, the former colonial ruler, and the United States has increased since Sunday’s crackdown.
An angry Mugabe lashed out on Thursday at Western support for what he called violent opposition activists and told his growing number of critics to “go hang.”
Tsvangirai thanked diplomats for attending court to observe appearances for his party members and appealed for continued support form the international community.
“We need the support of the world,” he wrote. “Let the pressure be maintained on the regime.”
Last month, the European Union renewed targeted sanctions including a travel ban and asset freezes on Mugabe and more than 100 of his top associates. The sanctions are designed not to hurt ordinary Zimbabweans. Further sanctions were not necessary, Tsvangirai said on Britain’s Sky News Friday.
While rhetoric against Mugabe from the West has grown harsher, its neighbors, particular regional leader South Africa, have been accused of doing too little to rein him in.
“We Africans should hang our heads in shame,” Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is widely regarded as South Africa’s moral conscience, said in a statement Friday. “How can what is happening in Zimbabwe elicit hardly a word of concern let alone condemnation from us leaders of Africa?” The South African foreign ministry earlier this week urged the Zimbabwean government to ensure laws were respected and work with the opposition toward “a lasting solution to the current challenges faced by the people of Zimbabwe.”
South African President Thabo Mbeki has not commented on the recent violence. Mbeki has consistently said South Africa will not meddle in its neighbor’s affairs and that quiet diplomacy is preferable to public condemnation.
The chairman of the African Union, Ghanaian President John Kufuor, said earlier this week that the organization found the turmoil in Zimbabwe “very embarrassing.” Tanzania’s president traveled to Zimbabwe on Thursday for talks to try to defuse the situation.
Tutu, who once described Mugabe as “a cartoon figure of an archetypical African dictator,” said all leaders in Africa should condemn the Zimbabwe government. –Sapa-AP