LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA !

Friday 24th August 2007.

Dear Friends.

If there is one message that has come out of the events of the last two weeks for ordinary Zimbabwean people, it is this: You are on your own! There is no one who is going to going to rescue Zimbabwe. Some of us have been saying that for a very long time and now maybe it has finally sunk in. Certainly none of the southern African countries are going to lift a finger; the Americans have their hands full in Iraq and anyway it was Bush who nominated Mbeki as the 'pointman' on Zimbabwe; the EU appears divided and indecisive on the issue and the Brits apart from plans to evacuate their own nationals in the event the situation further deteriorates are unwilling to provoke Mugabe's rage and hysterical sloganeering of 'Zimbabwe will never be a colony again' Ironically, colonial mastery is precisely what the Brits do not want! They cannot yet face up to their colonial past. They're very good at the guilt and wringing of hands but not so good at accepting their moral responsibility to the inhabitants of their former colony.

Even if it is true, as reported in some UK and South African papers this week, that behind the scenes the SADC leaders spoke very sternly to Mugabe about the economic collapse in his country, anyone who still believes - as the MDC appears to - that SADC has done enough to justify our hope for a just solution to the current impasse is, in my view, guilty of dangerous self-delusion. It is dangerous because it is based on the false premise that the other side, ie. Zanu PF and, by extension Thabo Mbeki are sincerely committed to honest negotiation. The likely result of such false and unsubstantiated optimism is that it raises the hopes of millions of Zimbabweans that maybe there is the possibility that their lives will get better. Those hopes are bound to be dashed again on the rock of Mugabe's intransigence and a desperate starving people with nothing else to hope for may resort to violent change which no one can control.

It is naivety that has been the downfall of the opposition parties in Zimbabwe; they continue to believe that they are dealing with a man and a party who can be trusted to keep their word. The problem I believe is that the MDC in calling for democratic change through the ballot box has failed to see that in addition to the ballot box there are other non-violent ways to bring about change. The civic organizations such as WOZA, the NCA and the churches have demonstrated time and again that it is possible to get ordinary men and women out on the street peacefully demonstrating their anger and displeasure at the continuing misery of their lives. Without that public display of disaffection Zimbabwean ministers and their South African counterparts will continue to claim that all is well in the country. There is no evidence they can claim that the mass of Zimbabweans are dissatisfied with their lives under the Mugabe regime because, they say, we do not see the people out on the streets. But Zimbabweans and the leadership of the opposition parties would do well to remember that 'one little brown man in a dhoti' as Churchill described Mahatma Ghandi, brought the entire might of the British empire to a standstill when he led millions of Indians on the great salt march and then on to Indian independence. In America, Martin Luther King got thousands of African Americans out on the streets in the Civil Rights Movement. Nearer to home, the children of Soweto were instrumental in bringing an end to apartheid when they took to the streets in June 16th 1976. In all of these struggles against tyranny it was the people, armed only with their courage and longing for freedom who initiated change.

My question to the opposition parties in Zimbabwe is why have you so little faith in your own people? They have shown that they are capable of courageous resistance but what they desperately need now is leadership, someone who will organize and lead them from the front. Then the whole world will see Zimbabweans in their thousands demonstrate their longing for freedom and a new beginning. I believe that Africa and the west would then be forced to come to the aid of the people, not just with words and gestures but with a UN resolution and action to follow. I can hear the cynics asking, 'What did the UN ever do about Rwanda, Dafur or the DRC?' and their cynicism is justified. My point is that until Zimbabweans stand up and demonstrate publicly how desperately they want change, the rest of the world has every excuse for continuing to turn a blind eye. For surely even the opposition must by now see that the ballot box alone will not bring about change because Mugabe has already rigged the result. MDC can never win while Mugabe sets the rules.

Until the opposition parties in Zimbabwe harness the strength of people's power, Mugabe and his cronies in SADC will continue to claim that all is well in the country and no change is needed. By their continued failure to provide leadership for a genuine people's revolt the opposition makes it possible for Mugabe and his ministers to go on telling their nonsensical lies about the state of the country; they will be believed because there is no evidence to the contrary. The sight of determined people peacefully demonstrating on the streets might waken Africa and the world to the tragedy that is Zimbabwe. To quote Robert Nesta Marley: None but ourselves can free ourselves.

Ndini shamwari yenyu. PH