Media Statement.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should heed the UN Security Council’s Resolution of 24 June 2008 and postpone the run-off to the presidential election scheduled for 27 June 2008.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should realize that the Security Council vote was unanimous. Even South Africa, China and Russia who had in the past provided some protection to the Mugabe government in the international arena voted for the Resolution which declared that a free and fair election was impossible because of violence and the restrictions imposed upon the political opposition.
Organized violence— master-minded by elements within the state machinery according to most analysts—- and severe restrictions— crafted by a servile electoral commission— are clearly aimed at crippling the increasingly popular Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai had in fact won the first round of the presidential election on 29 March 2008. This is why Mugabe has become even more repressive and dictatorial. He is determined to perpetuate his power whatever the costs and consequences for his people.
It is not just Mugabe’s political repression and oppression that have hurt a lot of Zimbabweans. A majority of Zimbabwe’s citizens who are already abysmally poor have been further impoverished in recent years by rampant inflation and massive unemployment. Of course, the Mugabe government is not the only source of the nation’s economic woes. Economic sanctions by Britain, the United States and certain other Western governments and the punitive actions of international institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, have exacerbated the situation. Nonetheless, Mugabe should bear a big portion of the blame for the nation’s ruin. The well-being of the ruling elite which allegedly has sunk deep into kleptomania is more important to him than the welfare of the masses.
How does one free Zimbabwe from Mugabe’s grip? Some political leaders in the West have suggested more sanctions. More sanctions will only increase the suffering of the people. Their impact upon the elite is minimal. A more effective approach— proposed by Tsvangirai— is to get the African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) involved, with the backing of the UN. They could manage a transition which will witness the easing out of Mugabe and the emergence of a democratically elected leadership. In this transition, South Africa which has considerable influence over Zimbabwe will have to play a pivotal role. There are signs to indicate that South African President, Thabo Mbeki, is now prepared to assume the mantle.
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar,
President,
International Movement for a Just World (JUST).
Malaysia.
26 June 2008.