Sanctions, MDC-T hoist by own petard

By Prof Jonathan Moyo, MP 04/01/2010

ONE thing that is becoming self-evident across the political divide in our country is that most Zimbabweans are outraged by the fact that, more than a decade since its formation and even though it is now part of the Government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC remains a shameful appendage and instrument of the foreign policy of Western countries to the detriment of Zimbabwe’s national interests.

The outrage has become particularly pronounced following the widely reported January 19 statement in the British House of Commons by the UK’s foreign secretary, David Miliband that the illegal economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Western countries will be partially lifted only and after the MDC-T has given its green light.

This unequivocal statement by Miliband on behalf of Western countries confirmed the MDC-T’s complicity and duplicity in the sanctions saga and the party’s failure to fulfil its binding obligations under Article IV of the GPA. Miliband’s confession also left the MDC-T in total GPA disarray as serious internal divisions emerged within the ideologically bankrupt party on what position to take on the sanctions issue.

No wonder Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his cronies have spent the last two weeks since Miliband’s confession lost in confusion while pussyfooting on what the MDC-T should do about the illegal Western economic sanctions that were imposed at the behest of the party’s influential Rhodie constituency.

The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office, Gorden Moyo, made things worse for his embattled party by claiming in remarks that have been widely covered by the MDC-T’s media hacks that the essence of the message from Miliband was that Tsvangirai is "the voice of reason" to which Western countries must listen before lifting their illegal economic sanctions that have caused untold suffering among ordinary Zimbabweans and which have devastated the business and public sectors.

It would be truly great if the Prime Minister was indeed a voice of reason because our country desperately needs reason. But, with 10 years of treacherous history on behalf of unrepentant Rhodies represented by the likes of Roy Bennett and Eddie Cross, there is nobody who still does not know that Tsvangirai’s voice on the sanctions issue is in fact the voice of Rhodesia. While both "Reason" and "Rhodesia" start with the letter "R", there is nothing else in common between them.

The racist Rhodesia experiment from 1965 to 1980 and its lingering interests today are the antithesis of reason. As such, it is very dangerous for the likes of Gorden Moyo to confuse the voice of Rhodesia with the voice of reason. Zimbabweans know better.

It is now common cause that the British, Americans and Europeans have over the last decade used the MDC as shorthand for Rhodie interests. Indeed, the whole regime of the illegal economic sanctions was spearheaded by well-known Rhodies in the MDC whose preoccupation and reason for participating in politics was the reversal of the historic land reform programme implemented in 2000 as a defining legacy of the liberation struggle.

One important piece of evidence of the Rhodie imprint in the MDC-T is the astonishingly foolish view that is widely held within Tsvangirai’s party that the struggle for democracy, human rights and good governance in Zimbabwe started in 2000 when even nursery school kids know that it started in 1890 when our country was colonised by the British.

The year 2000 is a Rhodie benchmark only because that’s when the land reform programme whose success is now irreversible was implemented. Western countries responded by imposing their illegal economic sanctions. But the same Western countries, which Miliband spoke for two weeks ago, can see that the land reform programme has become an intrinsic part of everyday life of Zimbabweans today and will remain so forever and they understand that some 10 000 hours of continuous land reform since 2000 are now not just difficult and practically impossible to reverse.

It’s only the MDC-T leaders who, trapped by the politics of puppetry, apparently lack the moral authority, ideological capacity and political experience to understand that the illegal economic sanctions have become redundant and are now a failed strategy that sought to reverse land reform by effecting illegal regime change in Zimbabwe. But as the master that have been calling the shots all along, the Western countries that imposed the illegal sanctions clearly appreciate the point not least because the rest of the international community is now fed up with British antics on Zimbabwe.

That is why all indications are that the Western countries now want to move on with a new post-sanctions strategy which is certain to spell doom for the MDC-T whose leading politicians are now entangled in corruption scandals after they mistook the Inclusive Government for "Inclusive Looting".

In any event, it is quite clear that the MDC-T has not kept its eyes on the sanctions ball, which its Western founders and funders are about to drop as a change of strategy but not a change of objectives.

This is why there is pandemonium in the MDC-T, which is at risk of losing its purpose to Western countries that now doubt the party’s relevance and efficacy as an imperial instrument for regime-change in aid of Rhodie interests.

Therefore when Prime Minister Tsvangirai announced last Sunday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos that "some sanctions should be lifted" after some two weeks of pussyfooting on the matter, he was clearly speaking as a Rhodesian voice parroting the position of Western countries that had been publicly announced in the British House of Commons on January 19 by David Miliband.

It should be recalled that after he was challenged in the House of Commons by the Conservative Party’s Henry Bellingham to explain whether Western countries were about to lift their illegal economic sanctions against Zimbabwe, Miliband responded by saying that " . . . I do not think it is right to say that the choice is between lifting all sanctions and lifting none at all."

Miliband’s point was that some sanctions would be lifted while others would remain. Against this backdrop, Tsvangirai’s call last Sunday in Davos for the "lifting of some sanctions" was an unfortunate neo-colonial case of a puppet parroting its puppeteer because all Tsvangirai did was to paraphrase Miliband’s words in what was a hopeless justification of Western foreign policy interests in Zimbabwe.

Otherwise as a Zimbabwean leader, Prime Minister Tsvangirai should understand, as most Zimbabweans now do, that "all" and not just "some" illegal Western sanctions against Zimbabwe must be lifted. It is instructive to note that if, following Miliband, Prime Minister Tsvangirai wants to have a staggered removal of the sanctions in order to leave those that specifically target individuals in Zanu-PF, their spouses, children and business interests, then that means he wants to be Prime Minister of "some" and not "all" Zimbabweans.

Such a stance would not only be contrary to the letter and spirit of the GPA but it would also be contrary to the ongoing efforts by the inclusive Government to promote national healing and reconciliation in the country about which the Prime Minister likes to make a lot of noise. There will be no national healing or reconciliation if any sanctions remain, especially those that are vengefully targeted at individuals because of their political affiliation or association.

If the idea of imposing international no-go areas for Zanu-PF individuals, their spouses and children is a civilised and good practice, then surely no-go areas for MDC-T individuals, their spouses and children can similarly be imposed nationally or by some communities in the country in the spirit that what is good for the goose should also be good for the gander.

Meanwhile, nobody in MDC-T should think even for a moment that any partial or even full lifting of the illegal Western economic sanctions would earn the party any congratulations or praise from Zimbabweans.

That would be tantamount to thanking and praising an arsonist who connives with the Fire Brigade to set your house on fire only to come back with the same Fire Brigade offering to partially or fully douse the fire engulfing your house in a calibrated manner depending on how you behave towards the arsonist and the conniving Fire Brigade.

Arsonists should be thrown in jail, not praised or given phoney awards.

It is for this reason that when the Zanu-PF Politburo announced last week that the Party will not offer any more concessions to MDC-T unless and until all, not some, of the illegal Western sanctions are lifted, the clear message was that Zanu-PF has fulfilled all its obligations and made all the necessary concessions under the GPA while the MDC-T has not.

For Zanu-PF what remains is for the Party to offer political concessions as part of the normal discourse of concession-making which is at the heart of governance. It is these concessions which will not be offered until all sanctions are removed.

Old tactics, such as pathetically displayed yesterday by Tendai Biti — the secretary general of the MDC-T, of responding to these serious issues by childishly peddling morbid claims of "new, violent and escalating invasions of white farms by Zanu-PF" simply won’t work any more.

We all are now too familiar with the fact that when the MDC-T is cornered, as it now is on the sanctions issue, it resorts to Rhodesian Selous Scouts tactics of inventing all sorts of morbid scenarios including escalating false violence against alleged white people and alleged MDC-T activists. Typically, in such situations, the MDC-T scouts mortuaries across the country looking for dead bodies to falsely claim as victims of political violence.

It is a shame that as a lawyer who should know better, Biti wants to hide under morbid falsehoods when what he should do is to put up or shut up on the sanctions issue which is the only matter at hand.