Robert Mugabe spent 11 years in jail for his role as one of several leaders fighting for independence. The playing field was distinctly uneven and brutal. Yet the nationalists persevered in their quest for freedom. Morgan Tsvangirai has, on moral grounds, pulled out of a watershed election for the same country.
The first point is, while participating in any civic struggle for justice is a personal choice, its abandonment, by those you follow, days before the final hurdle represents a betrayal of those who have suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of the regime one is seeking to replace. We have seen in television clip after television clip, interviews of people lying in extreme pain on their hospital beds vowing that they will still vote for the MDC regardless of what has happened to them. Who will provide them with closure now that their suffering has been rendered “meaningless” by the withdrawal by a leader who used to love “consulting” with the people before taking on any major decision?
The second point is Morgan Tsvangirai has made a moral decision because the people are being battered. I think that Morgan has been battered in to submission and he did not have the courage of his convictions to see this through. Why would he be prepared to negotiate a deal with someone he considers a monster? What deal will they come up with? How will Morgan justify sitting in a government of national unity after this? Could he not have participated in this election under protest?
So while it is understandable, the cold fact is he has handed Robert Mugabe victory on a “technicality” and that, from a legal point of view, still counts as a victory. This means his decision is not excusable. The fight for freedom has always been, at the very bottom of bottom lines, a “give me liberty or death” battle and Morgan and his advisors have failed the nation on this count. I know it is easier to say from behind a keyboard but Morgan’s role is that of a leader and mine is that of a commentator who actually pitched up for the final push on two successive days, ready to die for the country. Do not get me wrong, what has been going on is reprehensible but is the road to freedom, the world over, not littered with corpses and broken limbs?
This article was originally published at Kubatana.net, an online community of Zimbabwean activists.
Hey, pull you pants down and get real.
The gang of armed robbers has stormed in and with gun up manager’s throat tell him to open the safe. For over 24 hours I have heard media people, interviewers etc insinuate that the wealth they walk out with then rightly belongs to them.
Now that your pants are down relieve yourself then come back when you’re reasonable.
The great nations of the world sitting on all their power in the United Nations kindergarten (security council) play with words and politics just like Mugabe does farting sweet essences at each other while human bodies burn. The diagnosis of insanity and crime are multifocal and profound human disgrace befits us all. We have to suffer ownership of the good and the bad before anything will happen.
By what logic does Morgan T’s decision render the suffering and sacfrice of those to date :meaningless”? this is absurd – Tsvangirai has withdrawn from a politically meaningless event that could not even be distinguished by the term ‘formality’ in that atmosphere of madness created by a despot whose megalomania has been galloping unchecked now for years. It is now well past time for the appropriately legitimated representatives of the WORLD to bring more MEANING to all the suffering and to this latest gesture of a courageous leader of a party of sanity. Is southern Africa destined to descend in to a bloodbath whatever course is taken?
I would love to know where James Hall writes from. From what I can gather Tsvangirai has pulled out of the election to try and stave off more violence against the people of Zimbabwe, the shame is not his but those who deliver the violence and those who have the means by which to stop it. Unlike the incumbent Tsvangirai has said time and time again he does not want to take power through the force of a gun. I’d really like an example of the gun paying long-term dividends in any African country. Morgan is doing the right thing, its a pity SADC in particular wouldn’t lend a bit more support
So the ANC leaders who didnt get caught – like Oliver Tambo – were cowards for going into exile, were they? And Ramos-Horta and the other Fretilin who scattered to Mozambique and elsewhere and kept the movement going? De Gaulle who high-tailed it to London. We’ll take your courage at its word, but sounds like Tsvangirai and the MDC made the strategically smart decision to keep the movement together by keeping its visible leader alive, as Mugabe further isolates himself. Oh and ‘give me liberty or give me death’? From the American revolution. The early leaders of that – Sam Adams and John Hancock – started the whole shooting war, and then went into hiding from the British. Thanks, James, but I think we’ll trust Morgan on this one.