ZIMBABWE - LETTER FROM THE DIASPORA !

4th January 2008

Dear FriendS,

Kenya has overtaken Pakistan at the top of the foreign news this week with comment from all sides of the political spectrum about the state of African democracy. Comment ranges from the usual Eurocentric tut-tuttery about Africa's alleged inability to govern itself democratically right through to the politically correct post-colonial guilt that sees the whole problem as a consequence of Europe's colonial history in Africa.

Listening to the British Foreign Secretary's remarks about Kenya broadcast on the BBC, I was struck by one particular comment. Mr Milliband remarked that events in Kenya would have a profound effect on forthcoming elections in Africa this year. He mentioned Malawi and Angola where elections are due but interestingly made no mention of Zimbabwe. The omission was surely no accident. Perhaps Gordon Brown's non-attendance at the AU/EU Summit in Lisbon last year was a signal that the UK is not prepared to do anything publicly about the Zimbabwean problem? Whether that is the case or not, the fact is that there has been no mention at ministerial level or in the British media of the absolute chaos in Zimbabwe's banking sector over the past few weeks or of the forthcoming elections and the impossibility of those elections being free and fair in the current climate in Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, the level of suffering amongst ordinary people rises in direct proportion to the callous incompetence of the Zanu PF regime, yet the British government and the British media remain silent.

There had been repeated phonecalls, Mr Milliband revealed in his BBC interview, to President Kibaki and the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, urging the two men to respect democracy and get together and talk about the way forward. It's hard to see what that way forward might be when the election in Kenya was so clearly stolen as the figures in at least two constituencies show. The fact that no African state has congratulated Kibaki on his victory would seem to suggest that even the AU is unhappy with the result; indeed they have already announced the dispatch of an AU delegation to Nairobi to see for themselves the reality on the ground. Meanwhile, there is continuing violence on the streets and the western media, always ready to label unrest in Africa as 'tribal', is making comparisons with Ruanda and suggesting that this is the start of ethnic cleansing on genocidal lines. I do not believe that to be the case. Yes, Kenyan politicians from all sides are probably inciting the violence for their own ends but the truth is that if the people did not feel so strongly that the election had been stolen from them they would not be in such an angry and volatile mood. Stolen elections are bound to produce this result; it all sounds very familiar to Zimbabweans, accustomed as we are to rigged elections and police clampdowns on all forms of democratic expression.

Writing in The Guardian this week Simon Jenkins, a respected journalist with a left-wing perspective argues that the state of Britain's own democracy is too flawed for it to 'lecture' the developing world about democracy. With the examples of Pakistan and Kenya very much in mind, Jenkins contends that democracy is in a sad state in this New Year but as he remarks, 'it depends what you mean by democracy'. Elections every five or six years are not the only requirement for a functioning democracy, supporting structures and institutions need to be in place for a democracy to be considered as the valid expression of the people's will. There are, as Jenkins points out local cultural and historical influences that will affect the way democracy operates in different parts of the world but students of politics are taught that there are certain key tests that can be applied to determine whether a democracy is in a healthy state:
* Are there free and fair elections.
* Can the franchise turn a regime out of office
* Are there supporting institutions such as an open parliament, security of public assembly, elected local government, a free media, the rule of law?

The whole thrust of Simon Jenkins' article is that Britain has no right to 'lecture' less-developed states about the health or otherwise of their democracy since Britain itself has in many instance set up the very conditions of aid and trade together with support for tyrants which make the practice of democracy difficult if not impossible.

Simon Jenkins is right when he says that Britain has no right to 'lecture' the rest of the world about democracy when British democracy itself is so flawed but, and it is a very big but, what alternative does he offer? Should Britain remain silent as it has done very largely about the Zimbabwean problem? The silence and lack of action from Britain on the Zimbabwean question, is, I would argue, a denial of its moral responsibility for the former colony. Having exploited Zimbabwe and its resources, natural and human, for close on a century of colonial rule should not the British government now take a more positive role in assisting the Zimbabwean people in their passionate desire for democracy? Silence, after all, implies consent.
Will Britain and the rest of the world wait in paralysed inaction – as they did with Ruanda – until there is blood running in the streets of Harare and a million lives are lost? Whatever Britain and the west may say, however objectionable their hectoring tone may be, the undeniable truth remains that African people themselves yearn to participate in the democratic process. It is corrupt and power-hungry African leaders, too often kept in power by western governments, who overturn the results and deny the people their rightful place in the democratic process. Whatever definition of democracy we use, it surely must not exclude the will of the people?
Yours in the struggle. PH