Silence is shameful
Many of you are probably aware of what has been going on in Zimbabwe for the last week. For those of you who are not, the leader of the opposition, and about 50 other protesters were recently taken into custody and badly beaten – the leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to the extent where he was too ill to go to court because he has a fractured skull.
Mugabe is suggesting that all of the detainees were beaten while resisting arrest, and has threatened that further violence awaits those who try to bring down the government. He has also said that the MDC (the opposition party concerned) has publicly threatened to bring down the government through violence. The MDC, however, have always said that they are committed to defeating the government through the correct democratic channels, and deny any involvement in the recent fireboming of the Zimbabwean police’s Harare base.
SWAPO, Namibia’s ruling party, has always been a supporter of Mugabe, and ties continue, as evidenced by his recent three day visit to Namibia, during which Namibia agreed to a US$40,000,000 investment in Zimbabwe, ostensibly to rehabilitate an old power station to help deal with Zimbabwe’s power crisis. During his visit, Mugabe’s grinning face was plastered all over the city.
Yesterday, opposition leaders here tabled a motion in parliament to try to get the Namibian government to at least acknowledge the gross violation of human rights that occurred this week, and SWAPO members threw the motion out without even listening to it, citing it as an embarassment to the Namibian government.
I can see how SWAPO might feel that turning on their ally now would be an unwise thing to do, particularly as they seem not to be particularly averse to Mugabe’s methods. The land reform programme, for example, hasn’t been dealt with in the same violent way, although there have been talks of following Zimbabwe’s example. There is freedom of speech here, but Sam Nujoma has often threatened the press when criticised, and recently sued The Namibian for reporting his possible involvement in a massive corruption scandal. Homosexuality is also illegal here, and there was recently a debate in parliament over whether rape is possible in a secure marriage, which demonstrates a horrifying lack of awareness of women’s rights, within or outside marriage. A member of parliament also said a couple of days ago that girls should take responsibility for their sexual involvement with figures like teachers, saying that they should know better, and should not blame their elders for their own mistakes, regardless of the fact that sex with someone under 16 is statutory rape, and that young girls are vulnerable precisely because the abusers are their elders.
Surely, however, it must be clear that even without taking into consideration the increasingly repressive and violent regime, Mugabe’s days are numbered – he’s in his 80s, for a start, and the situation in Zimbabwe is becoming completely untenable. Inflation is at 1,700%, and people cannot even buy basic foodstuffs. This is why I’m not a fan of economic sanctions – the only people they hurt are the poor.
It shocks me that the government can just sit back and say nothing about what is going on. Surely that’s more of an embarassment than speaking out against the blatant human rights abuses that are going on. How long can Southern Africa sit and bite their tongues when this is happening under their noses? It’s like hearing your neighbour beating his wife to death, shrugging and saying ‘It’s his business.”
The whole thing is shocking, and shameful, and it’s frightening too. I may be naive, but surely something has to give soon, and if it does, it’s not going to be pretty. Is Namibia going to turn its back then, too?
March 15th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Rach- I understand your frustration…: seeing the situation in Zim through Western eyes, we are always going to take a morally different view, than that of a neighbouring African state. Your analogy of the, ‘ Its his business’ chimes very true.. It must be trying oftentimes to live in a place with such massive contradictions. Seeing a 3rd world country through 1st world eyes, I mean….
March 15th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Sure I’m a first world person, and my personal circumstances are very different to people in Nam and Zim. I also have only limited experience of Africa. But … beating up political opponents is wrong, raping young girls is wrong and so many other things Mugabe has done are just as wrong. As a first worlder, what justifiable change in perspective must I make to view the abuse of ordinary Africans in this way as ok?
March 16th, 2007 at 7:54 am
I’m a Namibian who are appaled by what is going on in Zim. It is, in my humble opinion, about losing face. SADC leaders, old and new, have hailed Mugabe as a great African when he took farms from whites and distributed it amongst his cronies. They can’t now start to criticise him. I think it is the end for him as this sort of thing (violence and protests) was a common ocurence in the 1980’s when the apartheid government here and in SA saw its behind. I also think the oposition movement have now greater financial backing and are hell bend on pushing Bob out. He’ll still go on his terms though.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Hi Susy – yes, it’s often confusing trying to sort out how my cultural perceptions colour my view of where I’m living! I agree with Dom though, that in terms of moral views, I think a great many people here see what Mugabe is doing is dreadful, and feel deeply for the people that are suffering under him. I don’t think there can be any other view of what Mugabe is doing to Zimbabwe than to be appalled.
Jack – I think you’re right. It will be on his terms. I hate to think of what might happen.
March 17th, 2007 at 12:35 am
Cultural perceptions stop at the level where our physical bodies revolt at the punishment that it being dealt. At that level, we are all simply human.
March 17th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I agree with everything that has been said. I feel very sad and angry about Zimbabwe under Mugabe. I first went there when it was still Rhodesia and then later when it was doing reasonably well in Mugabe’s early days. I thought it was an extraordinarily beautiful country, particularly Zimbabwe ruins, the game parks and the eastern hills. It also had a legacy of a relatively modern capital city to build on. One of the things that Mugabe has played on is British colonial guilt and that the UK is behind the opposition movement. This has hamstrung our ability to speak out openly. But it is wrong and his behaviour is evil.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:44 am
I am hoping Mugabe’s days are fewer thantheywere last week. Quite how he will be ousted is anybodies guess but I hope that any groundswell form the opposition will convince Bob’s ardent supporters that they have been wrong to support him.
How can they still justify him being in control of a country he has destroyed? They must be blind and deaf to it all and just as meglomaniac as he is to not be concerned for their future.
He is pure evil. Africa’s Hitler. And the sooner he is gone the better for all Zimbabweans and at long last Africa will be rid of the last true communist dinosaur it has left.
The downfall of communism was Bob’s ruin. He lost his financial and political support systems. He must have felt lonely! Do I care? Not!