West Must Respect People’s Will

From: Abdalah Hamis

However, their reactions to Zanu-PF and President Mugabe in particular are so predictable and they have not hidden their disdain and in the process they are crying that they have been robbed.

The same countries take the lead, countries that think that they are masters of the universe when we know that their backyards are smouldering. Why is the West — the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Australia in particular crying foul and also crying more than the bereaved?

It was the MDC-T that lost the July 31 harmonised elections after Zimbabwean voters sat in judgment over them

So, why this hullabaloo about “substantial electoral irregularities” and an impending crisis, which Western media institutions have been peddling the moment they realised that the MDC-T, even with the combined force of smaller political parties did not stand a chance against Zanu-PF?

What is disturbing is that the West created the MDC-T and sponsored it to the hilt to do its dirty work of pitching for illegal regime change here.

It was their institutions that also predicted a resounding victory for Zanu-PF long before Zimbabweans were certain that elections would be held this year.

They also analysed Tsvangirai’s shortcomings and lack of leadership qualities. Their damning assessments are in the public domain. The rebranding of Tsvangirai and the MDC-T through the 2013 manifesto was such a shoddy job, which failed to sell the MDC-T. This is why we are surprised at United States Secretary of State John Kerry who was quoted on Saturday as saying, “In light of substantial electoral irregularities reported by domestic and regional observers, the United States does not believe that the results announced today represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people.”

We wonder which Zimbabweans Kerry was referring to, when the very same people made their choices known to the world on July 31. Not to be outdone, Germany had the temerity to remark that the election “casts a big shadow on the political and economic future of Zimbabwe”

By calling for a “re-run of the elections based on a verified and agreed voters roll”, former British colony Australia demonstrated how far removed the Anglo-Saxon world is from reality on the ground.

This dovetails with Tsvangirai’s calls that the poll result should be considered null and void, a conclusion he arrived at when he realised that his bragging about announcing the election result was not going to be; a conclusion, which he made even before the results had been announced, which later proved that he was singing from his masters’ hymn book.

At the centre of the rigging claims is the voters’ roll. As observers pointed out, no country, even the United States and/or Britain can claim to have a clean and perfect voters’ roll. Observers highlighted some of the challenges to Zimbabwe’s voters’ roll, but instead of allowing Zimbabweans to look at the recommendations from the continental observers, the West has decided to stick to recommendations made by local observers such as ZESN, which they heavily fund.

By relying so heavily on the MDC-T’s parallel structures, which they have been sponsoring, the West never realised how the MDC-T was soon going to be history.

Why do they also want to give a false impression that the people that were turned away were MDC-T supporters only? If ZESN and its partners had the interests of Zimbabwe at heart, they would have told their sponsors the truth, that even Zanu-PF supporters were turned away?

However, the West seems bent on using the MDC-T’s demise to create a collision course with Africa. The West has decided to spurn the different African observer missions that declared the elections peaceful, free, fair and credible.

Even the facilitator to the Global Political Agreement, Sadc facilitator President Jacob Zuma congratulated President Mugabe for taking 61 percent of the votes.

But the West still thinks that it can play big brother and display their holier than thou attitude. When the violence motif failed, the best way they could reject President Mugabe’s thunderous victory was to find flimsy reasons of extending the illegal sanctions. We hope that Africa sees through the West’s hypocrisy and double standards.

However, when all is said and done, Zimbabweans have spoken. They do not need minders to tell them what their choices imply. So, the West must back off. If they are not prepared to accept the people’s choice and deal with the Zimbabwean leadership as equal partners, they should realise that there are other countries that are willing to work with Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe will also not brook any threats against the democratic choices it makes. We are masters of our destiny, and we are charting our destiny. The West and their proxies should never fool themselves that what worked in other parts of the world at their instigation, will work in Zimbabwe. We fought hard to attain independence, and we will safeguard it jealously.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201308051306.html?viewall=1

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