COMMENT: Is Zimbabwe the ‘One Last Hurdle’?

THE Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland yesterday and is due to address the 55th Congress of Liberal International (LI) this morning.

Conference organiser Lord Alderdice said: “We are honoured that Mr Tsvangirai [has] chosen to attend our Congress in Belfast. It is a city often seen as an example that conflict can be overcome when people choose peace and democracy over violence and tyranny."

The leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, David Ford, and LI President, John, Lord Alderdice will welcome the MDC-T leader.

Lord Alderdice said, “Mr. Tsvangirai has the full support of the Liberal International.”

David Ford, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland said, “We offer him (Tsvangirai) our full support and hope that he is allowed to take up his rightful position as President of Zimbabwe as soon as possible.”

Tsvangirai will address liberal party members who come from over 60 countries worldwide.

The presentation seems to have been organised by Tsvangirai’s supporters from the African region including the South Africa’s Democratic Alliance party, led by Helen Zille, who are full time members of LI.

Raila Odinga, the newly appointed Kenyan Prime Minister’s forerunner party, the Liberal Democratic Party, is also an observer member of the organisation having joined in 2006.

An interesting partner organisation of the LI group is Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a German-based organisation that funds (funded) the MDC and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) of Zimbabwe led by Dr. Lovemore Madhuku.

The Africa Liberal Network (ALN), headquartered in London, is also a partner organisation of LI.

The Africa Liberation Network

ALN is made up of 17 parties from 15 African countries. Some of the parties in this group include the MDC-T (Zimbabwe), the Democratic Alliance party (South Africa), the PDD party (formed in 2003 by five Mozambican MPs who were previously members of Renamo), and the United Democratic Front (UDF) of Bakili Muluzi, former leader of Malawi.

The General Assembly of the Africa Liberal Network in May 2007 passed a resolution on Zimbabwe saying they had noted a “rapidly deteriorating political situation” in the country at a time when talks between the two parties were starting in South Africa.

Such a resolution would have hampered the chances of a successful outcome as other forces were pulling the other way; and probably did.

Interestingly enough, Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF party was described as “one big hurdle” that stood in the way of opposition political parties in Africa—not Zimbabwe, but Africa.

In the May 2008 issue, Imen Trabelsi, the Africa Network Officer of ALN says: “The road to democracy has many obstacles. Opposition parties in Africa [our emphasis] have made progress in contesting elections, even if conditions remain far from equal. But even when opposition parties can win elections, one big hurdle remains.”

Trabelsi further states, “We can all see the problem in Zimbabwe. Even if the Movement for Democratic Change can claim, convincingly, that it has won the elections, the ruling power just refuses to allow a peaceful transition. We all witnessed the situation in Kenya and the violence that ensued following the manipulation of election results, which ultimately allowed the ruling party to cling on to the lion's share of power.”

We can see where the comparisons between Zimbabwe and Kenya are being germinated from. Analysts often questioned why comparisons between Zimbabwe and Kenya were being drawn.

Yaya Fanta Kaba Fofana, from Cote D'Ivoire, and also a member of ALN, goes further and coins the phrase, “The Kenya/Zimbabwe Syndrome,” to test whether “Cote D'Ivoire could be spared the fate of Kenya and Zimbabwe” at the presidential elections on the 30th of November this year.

While there’s clear divisions in Cote D'Ivoire—the Government-controlled south and the rebel Forces Nouvelles-held north—Zimbabwe still remains a homogenous country. Kenya had problems with relations between the Kikuyus and the Luo. So a repeat of the violence scenario has to be induced, or manipulated by other means.

Fofayana’s statement has the ability to undermine last year's Ouagadougou Peace Agreement which paved the way for an end to the conflict and included a provision calling for free and fair elections to be held in Cote D’Ivore.

Back to the LI

Some interesting members of LI include:

1. Tanzania’s opposition Civic United Front, who have been very critical of Zimbabwe and attempted a forced comparison between Zimbabwe's and Zanzibar's 2000 elections.

2. Doctor Bakili Muluzi, the former president of Malawi and currently the National Chairman of the United Democratic Front (UDF), who has recently sharply criticised the Zimbabwe government.

3. Democratic Alliance Party of South Africa — fervent critics of the Zimbabwe government.

4. National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (Washington, DC) which called on President Mugabe to ‘accept defeat’ and who fund Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN).

5. Swedish MP Birgitta Ohlsson from Svenskpartiet Liberalerna, who urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to force Zimbabwe to release the election results. Ohlsson also appealed to the UN to intervene in the Zimbabwean situation—a move followed by the MDC-T.

The MDC-T needs to come up with a more internally-engineered programme, that addresses the issues at home and not foreign engineered programmes that appease funders and create some supranational government that creates templates for superimposition onto the Zimbabwean political, economic and social landscape.

The Party needs to actively engage stakeholders at home, and stop appeasing these imagined friendships that use the might of the ‘dollar’ to effect change. The idea of 'One Last Hurdle' is self-defeating and counterproductive.

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