Commonwealth right to exclude Zimbabwe

THE EDITOR: The Comm-onwealth made the right decision at its biennial summit last week in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, to continue the suspension of Zimbabwe from the grouping of former British colonies. A clear message needs to be sent to Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s dictator, that his thuggery and authoritarian rule will not be tolerated in this new age of democracy. Dictators in the past, neighbouring Guyana’s Forbes Burnham included, got away with their misrule because Commonwealth nations, invoking he UN charter, refused to intervene in the internal affairs of other sovereign states. But that rule does not apply today because of globalisation and the end of the cold war, among other factors; leaders of the free world are taking an active interest (and in many cases sending troops) in forcing nations to democratise.

I recently returned from South Africa where I met with pro-demo-cracy activists from Zimbabwe; South Africa is home to tens of thousands of Zimbabwean “refugees” who are doing odds and ends to eke out a living. In listening to their moving stories, memories hark back to Guyana. Zimbabwe is today where Guyana was in the 1980s. Its economy is near collapse. It is a parish among African nations in much the same way that Guyana was among CARICOM. Its people are crossing over into neighbouring countries much the same way Guyanese sought refuge in Trinidad. As was the case with Guyanese, Zimbabweans are voting with their feet; they are losing hope in their country in much the same way that Guyanese lost hope in theirs. As in Guyana, Zimbabwe has had a history of electoral fraud and the people struggle for democracy and free and fair elections mirror those of Guyanese.

Mugabe is a thug in the same mould as Forbes Burnham. There is little doubt that Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since its independence from white rule in 1980, has disappointed his country folks and foreigners (like myself) who long admired him for his role as a guerrilla freedom fighter. He was once in the pantheon of African liberation heroes along with South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. But he has degenerated into an authoritarian stereotype that typified much of Africa. He has suppressed Zimbabwe’s democratic opposition and the independent press. Mugabe also failed the challenge of land reform by distributing appropriated land from Whites to party faithful (who know nothing about agriculture) rather than to the landless and the people who want to farm — rings a bell in Guyana. This has pushed agriculture to the edge of the precipice much in the same way as Guyana when starvation set in during the 1980s.

Trinidadians are familiar with the thuggery and brutal authoritarian rule of Burnham. They can relate to the abuses faced by pro-democracy peace loving people of Zimbabwe. As such we should express our solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle for the restoration of democracy. Prime Minister Patrick Manning and the other Caribbean rulers made the right decision to extend the expulsion of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth as a punishment to Mugabe for his election rigging and abuse of peoples rights. As occurred in Guyana, several people are risking their lives and careers to fight for democracy and defend the victims of human rights violations carried out by security forces. As in Guyana, the political opposition is displaying courage to fight for freedom of expression in an environment that is hostile to the rule of law. The Mugabe government brutalises those who it sees as a thorn on the side of the Government. This is a government that encourages the beating of opposition politicians; some even disappear or are killed reminiscent of the killings of Dr Rodney and Father Darke in Guyana by the Burnham government.

And as in Guyana, people of integrity are risking their personal safety by supporting the opposition and standing up for what they believe in. As in Guyana, the free media in Zimbabwe is harassed. As was the case in Guyana, journalists  are frequently beaten and locked up in various conspiracies. Even foreign media correspondents are beaten. Recently, a London Guardian correspondent in Harare was roughed up and put on trial by the Zimbabwean Government for “publishing falsehood” (that is anything critical of Mugabe). Burnham and his cronies got away with their ill-treatment of Guyanese from the 1960s thru the 1980s and today Guyana is in terrible shape perhaps never to recover from the abuses of Burnhamism. That is an important lesson that should never be allowed to repeat itself in any nation. It would have been a sad indictment of the Commonwealth leaders to close their eyes on Mugabe who has failed to meet international standards of good governance and democracy. But what is sad is that only the so called White countries — Australia, New Zealand, England and Canada — took the lead in pushing for the continued exclusion of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth at the Abuja summit.

One would have expected the African and Caribbean countries would have been more vocal against the lion of Zimbabwe. But I suppose since they were quiet to Burnham’s abuses, they did not want to be accused for being duplicitous. Thus, they chose to remain quiet on Mugabe’s abuses and misrule and let the bigger nations do the talking. The “White” nations should be applauded for taking the position that Zimbabwe should remain suspended until there is concrete evidence of a return to democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law. Expulsion from the Commonwealth can help to moderate the behaviour of states. Fiji restored democracy on each occasion when it was twice expelled from the Commonwealth after military coups. Pakistan restored democracy when it was expelled from the Commonwealth in the 1980s.

Pakistan was expelled again in 1999 following the military coup but efforts are under way to restore its membership in the Commonwealth because of steps General Musharraf has been taking to restore democratic rule. Mugabe is feeling the pressure and it is just a matter of time before he steps down and restores freedom to his people. Zimbabwe will then be re-accepted into the Commonwealth.

VISHNU BISRAM
Port-of-Spain