There has been a lot of opprobrium directed at African leaders for lacking the political will to check (if not end) the tragic lives of Zimbabweans due to the misrule of the aged ex-freedom fighter, President Robert Mugabe. However I do have a different take on the outcome of the recent Sharm El Sheikh Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union. Media reports and public reaction both in Africa and from outside have been highly critical and dismissive. For many, the resolution on this matter was yet another unprincipled fudge by the leaders, many of whom have no better democratic credentials than Uncle Bob’s.

So what would you expect from such a group the cynics ask? As understandable as this position is, it fails to take cognisance of the changing dynamics of intra-African diplomacy. By that failure those holding the view become unwitting allies of President Mugabe, whose tainted and stale reading of Africa convinces him that no African leader can criticise him. He said this much soon after his hurriedly counted one-man race against himself and his even more harried ‘swearing in’ before rushing off to Egypt. He claimed that none of the leaders had cleaner hands than his bloodied dictatorship-saturated fingers. In a sense he was daring those with cleaner hands to cast the first stone at him. It was a desperate bravado from a man who has lost all claims to moral or political integrity. He exonerates himself not by proclaiming his innocence but declaring that he was not the only guilty one. No doubt his fellow riggers and robbers of the people’s mandate felt uncomfortable. However it provided an opportunity for those who are not defensive about their legitimacy to speak out loudly that they no longer wish to be silenced by executive highway robbers of people’s votes like Mugabe. They did not have to be big states to do so.

Where President Yar’ Adua of Nigeria was silent, the newly elected President Koroma of Sierra Leone and President of Liberia, Mrs Sirleaf Johnson did not mince their words in standing up to Mugabe (ironically both countries are enormously grateful for the role that Nigeria and the rest of ECOWAS played in restoring stability and democratisation to their countries). The Vice President of Botswana, unashamed of its long democratic stability and unbowed by the deafeningly ‘quiet diplomacy’ of its equally democratic, potentially more influential, but completely ineffectual neighbour, lame duck Thabo Mbeki’s South Africa, spoke most forcefully and demanded that Mugabe should not be invited to future AU and forthcoming SADC meetings until there is a genuine political negotiation leading to a legitimate political transition. Again Botswana showed that you do not have to be a giant to stand up for democratic principles. Kenya, influenced by its recent election theft controversies was also very open (especially PM Raila Odinga) in demanding that the AU take a robust stance in favour of democracy. Even before the Summit, countries as diverse as Rwanda, Mozambique, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, in spite of their own internal challenges or contradictions, were quite open in drawing attention to the open rigging of the electoral process and campaign of one-sided violence by the ZANU-PF government.

After Mugabe ran off with the votes of Zimbabweans, the Pan African Parliament’s Observer Mission, the normally sanguine SADC group of observers and other African Led observers were unanimous in stating that the MUGAGE RUNNING AGAINST MUGABE ONE MAN TANGO violated all known African protocols of democratic elections, as treacherous as the record of elections are on this continent.

What do all these tell us? It means Africa, Africans and a growing number of African leaders are no longer prepared to be judged by the worst of our political culture but willing to stand up for and defend higher principles and values. A new sense of shame is again beginning to challenge us to do much better by ourselves. It is no longer enough to say others are also guilty. It is not convincing anymore to bemoan the hypocrisy of our leaders or those of the West. Bad behaviour is bad behaviour and it does not matter whether London, Washington and Brussels or Abuja, Pretoria, Nairobi and Kigali are saying it. Even among thieves there must be some rule of procedure - that is why the mafia has the iron law of ‘omerta’.

Zimbabwe and Mugabe has become the weakest link in transforming the way we relate to each other. In 1999 in Algiers, of all places, the OAU leaders decided that enough was enough with military coups, even though some of them had come to power through such coups. Many did not think that it could be enforced, but at Christmas that year, General Gueye in Ivory Coast dared Africa. We know what happened to him and all other ambitious gunmen since then.

Having outlawed coups and stuck by that convention, the next stage is to end the practice of undemocratic leaders who perpetually remain in office through election rigging, unconstitutional manipulations of the political process, and/or subversion of their country’s constitutions.

It does not matter that some current leaders have used similar methods. It is a question of drawing a line, somewhere, that will necessarily be arbitrary and invite all kinds of accusations of why now, why not before. The essence will be to raise the ceiling higher and establish new standards of behaviour. It will be about moving forward, from an imperfect present, not looking back.

Mugabe’s extreme vulnerability makes it an ideal political opportunity to say “NO: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”. If African leaders isolate Mugabe he will have no choice but to agree to a negotiated settlement. Even in Kenya the PNU hawks initially thought that they could ride the storm and even insulted OAU chairperson then, President Kuffour’s initial efforts but they had to bow to negotiations when they saw that both Africa and the rest of the international community was serious.

Zimbabwe has been burning for many years, but it has largely been a one-sided violence perpetrated by the state and its agents. Do we have to wait until a frustrated MDC and other opponents of the Mugabe dictatorship start retaliating with widespread violence, before we compel Mugabe to do the right thing? It is good that no one has recognised him officially apart from that face of Africa’s inglorious past, Omar Bongo (in power for more than four decades!).

Those states and leaders who have been courageous enough to openly criticise Mugabe’s vote grab, should take the next step by refusing to recognise his election. The AU and SADC must decide quickly what to do with Mugabe’s brazen violation of their standards, or no one will take their observer missions seriously again. No person of integrity could serve in such missions in future if those who sent them cannot accept their report. Tax payers, funders and other donors should demand a refund of their money or charge the officials of these organisations with misuse of public funds, if they spend so much money observing elections without any sanctions for defaulters. Finally it is quite clear that Thabo Mbeki is incapable of being an honest broker for genuine negotiations in Zimbabwe. Mugabe has not given him much to go with and it is obvious that the MDC does not trust him. The AU needs to assume leadership of the process, just as it did in Kenya when Museveni as EAC chairperson failed to make any headway due to his perceived bias. Thabo does not even have the full support of his own party let alone the country and even less so the SADC countries.

“Forward ever, backward never”… Kwame Nkrumah (1909 - 1972)

………………DON’T AGONISE!…………………ORGANISE!!……………

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am and is filed under Thursday Postcard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.