Begging from Beggars
Zvakanaka
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 04 April 2009 18:15
I have very vivid, if sad memories of the 1982-83 agricultural season
in Zimbabwe.
That year, someone decided to lock the gates and run away with the
keys.
Crops failed. Many cattle, matungundu, as they were called, failed to
make it. The dry fields were filled with skeletons of our departed cattle
and the air carried the heavy smell of death.
Villagers who could not let go descended on the carcasses like
vultures.
I remember women and children walking long distances, from village to
village, desperately pleading for help.
Vapemhi, people begged for help. They asked for anything. The trouble
though was that they were begging from those who were also begging. It was
the worst of times.
Today it's my country Zimbabwe on an extensive begging expedition.
Yet, the time could not have been worse.
These are hard economic times for the global community. We are in the
middle of a bitter winter of an economic recession.
And here we are, begging from our SADC colleagues for help. They came
up this week with a statement that is no more than a begging pact.
'SADC approves financial package for Zimbabwe', the headlines
bellowed. But you had to read the small print to see what this actually
meant.
It simply called on member states to pledge support to their
beleaguered neighbour and to increase the begging party to be sent to the
doorsteps of the developed nations.
The trouble is that many of our neighbours are poor and rely on
begging for their own needs. Countries like Malawi and Mozambique, for
example, predominantly depend on external budget support.
Besides, Botswana and South Africa, most SADC member states have to
depend on external help. Even those that have potentially lucrative
resources like Angola and the DRC have been weighed down by years of war
and
chaos.
But even South Africa and Botswana have massive social demands from
their own domestic constituencies that funding their neighbour is no easy
task.
The biggest target therefore, remains the 'developed nations' and SADC
has formed a "Coordination Committee to visit major capitals in Europe,
Asia, and America as well as the major financial institutions to mobilise
support for Zimbabwe's economic recovery programme".
On 1 April 2009, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai wrote a letter
published in The Times, a major British newspaper ahead of the G20
Summit in
London this week.
It was a powerful plea for help. Yet there are reasons why assistance
from the West may still prove hard to come by.
First, the West (and the UK and the US in particular) are experiencing
massive economic challenges not seen since the Great Depression of the
1930s.
The single biggest challenge is how to stem the tide, which is fast
growing into a tsunami that has engulfed these countries in the last couple
of years.
This is what has caused the G20 leaders to meet in London this week.
The rich nations have had to take unprecedented measures to intervene
in the markets to save failing businesses, they are printing money -
'quantitative easing' is the sophisticated term they use, indeed, some are
saying Britain may have to seek an IMF bailout. The result is that West is
presently pre-occupied with this big problem which is now the centre of
attention.
Zimbabwe, which hogged the limelight a year ago is now a small matter
on the international radar. We are on our own.
Second, this crisis means that Western countries now have to focus
more on their own domestic constituencies to cushion them against the
economic challenges.
We are slowly moving away from the era dominated by the ambitious
foreign policy of spreading the word of democracy across the world. The
focus is now firmly on the domestic woes and the local constituencies
demand
it because they are feeling the pinch.
These governments can no longer justify spending abroad whilst the
locals are suffering. Charity begins at home, they will demand. This will
see cuts in development support and foreign investment to developing poor
countries.
The 'Mugabe Factor'
Third, the Mugabe factor still dominates discussions around Zimbabwe
in these parts.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai, Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara and their
respective parties may have found a way of working with President Mugabe
for
what they consider to be the good of the Zimbabwean people but this is
still
to resonate with their Western colleagues who still view Mugabe's shadow
with great scepticism.
Sadc may have good reason to deal with President Mugabe but their
Western counterparts still find it hard to do the same.
This reluctance arises from the domestic sensitivities. It will take a
very brave Brown or Obama to defy that view and be seen to be canoodling
with Mugabe.
Even if the leaders see reason to support Tsvangirai they have a
political constituency to report to. The view of Mugabe in the Western
domain is that of a Hitler-like figure who can and should never be forgiven.
The leader's political fortunes would be undermined if they were seen
to be appeasing a man widely characterised in the media as a dictator.
Fourth, given these impediments and in particular the very negative
view that Mugabe suffers in the West you would have thought that Zimbabwe
government would do everything in its power to re-brand itself.
This means not only stopping those acts that caused it to be so badly
tainted but also demonstrating to the world that it has turned a corner.
Deputy PM Mutambara was candid in his maiden parliamentary speech imploring
the government to cease the 'sanctions' that it has imposed on its people
over the years.
The sad pictures of prisoners languishing in Zimbabwe's death-traps
that pass for jails will do the country no good at all. It has been
said, in
varying terms, that a society's decency is measured by how it treats its
weakest members.
Many in Zimbabwe fall into that category but none more so than
prisoners, who cannot fend for themselves and have to rely on the state.
Those images of skeletal and dying prisoners are like scenes from a
medieval concentration camp and have no place in a country that is seeking
to re-brand itself. Whilst Sadc issued a Communique that praised the
progress on the Inclusive Government, it made no attempt to condemn the
failure to resolve those issues that continue to taint the country's
reputation. If it wants to be taken seriously, it has to be more candid
with
the government.
Enter the Dragon
Ironically, in light of all this, President Mugabe might have the last
laugh.
Given that the West is handicapped and therefore may be unable to
fulfil its promise to help, PM Tsvangirai may have to turn the begging bowl
to Mugabe's old friends - the Chinese. One can picture Mugabe sitting back
smugly declaring, 'I told you so! These Westerners are not your friends'.
Economically, the Chinese are enjoying a place in the sun in these times of
wintry conditions in the West.
At a time when everyone is having so much trouble China is investing
heavily in infrastructure development and trying to keep its unemployed off
the streets through massive training programmes.
Indeed, it may be that Mugabe's 'Look East' policy might just enjoy a
new revival. This will be heightened should the West remain adamant in its
refusal to help a Zimbabwe government that includes President Mugabe.
The West has invested heavily in political reform in the last decade
but it could all fall apart if they abandon Zimbabwe at this stage.
Alex Magaisa is based at, Kent Law School, the University of Kent