Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabwe is a failed state but Mashiri's proposed UN Transition Authority is not the answer!
20 Jul 2015 at 23:13hrs | Views
Zimbabwe is a failed state and Clifford Mashiri argues that a UN Transition Authority should take over the running of the country.
"While there is a consensus that Zimbabwe is now a failed state, the government of Zimbabwe rejects that assertion arguing that it's made by agents of regime change," wrote Clifford. "But not much has been suggested as the way out, other than the individual or family decision to migrate into the Diaspora. Many writers are also very frustrated that there has not been a violent uprising in Zimbabwe but don't say who should face the riot police on their behalf after nearly all protests have been violently crushed. "But for a change, this opinion piece argues that a UN Transitional Government for Zimbabwe could be a viable option to a violent uprising. Using two case studies of Cambodia and Namibia the author argues that all that it takes is for Zimbabwe to eat the humble pie and be saved from catastrophe."
I agree with you, Clifford, Zimbabwe is indeed a failed state but I do not believe asking the UN to step in will solve our problems in the long run.
I do not see any of Zimbabwe's political players ever accepting your proposed UN Transition Authority, especially if they are being asked to play a subservient role to this body. Zimbabweans have failed to govern the country but that has done nothing to their humongous egos; both Mugabe and Tsvangirai still want the whole world to view them as the good Lord's gift to not just Zimbabwe but to humanity!
A UN Transitional Authority supervising a Government of National Unity (GNU) will not achieve anything more significant than the SADC and AU sponsored GNU of 2008 to 2013, especially when, as things stand, we will have the same key players from the old and failed GNU playing the same key roles in the new GNU.
The solution to Zimbabwe's political and economic mess is for the people themselves to wake up to the reality that the country is in a mess and search for themselves for the reasons why. The reasons why we are in a mess are not hard to find and so too are the solutions, they are obvious. To appreciate and value the solution, the people have to undertake the search for themselves and not given the solution in a silver platter.
Zimbabweans have been clamouring for democracy and free and fair elections parrot style without appreciating what is it they were asking for. Now that they are in a real mess, they will be forced to think through what is wrong with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, what democracy offers them and so what are the democratic reforms the nation needs to transform the tyrannical dictatorship into a healthy and functional democracy. This is a mental journey that each and every one has to undertake and complete.
When the Children of Israel left Egypt for the Promised Land, a direct route would have taken them a few months; instead the Lord took them on long circuitous route through deserts and wilderness with little food and water lasting forty years and having to fight for their very survival all the way. The trials and tribulations of those years made the Jews appreciate and cherish their price, the Promise Land, when they crossed the River Jordan!
Zimbabweans do not have the physical distance to travel to their Promised Land - free, just and prosperous Zimbabwe out of this hell-on-earth Mugabe and Zanu PF has dragged them into. The mental search for what has gone wrong these last 35 years is invaluable for character building; they will appreciate and cherish their freedom, their freedom of expression, their right to a meaningful vote and the right to life!
Even if we were to have the UN Transition Authority, if at the end of its mandate we still have a naïve and gullible electorate who more likely to vote for a failed and incompetent leader than for a competent one. So it will not take long before the country drifts right back into the chaotic state we are in right now.
Give a man fish and give him a meal; teach him to fish and you give him a livelihood. Those are important short and medium term goals but for the long term goal of building a free, democratic and prosperous nation that will thrive and prosper to the end of time, we have to teach each man, woman and child to think for themselves. A nation of people who can think will survive and thrive anywhere for each will follow their talent not all be forced to be fishermen.
Zimbabwe is a failed state; there is nothing we can do to turn back the clock, the best we can do is to learn from the tragic events of last 35 years. A nation that will appreciate the value of freedom and life will not so easily enslaved or oppressed; that is the life value lesson Zimbabweans have lacked and they must now learn.
"While there is a consensus that Zimbabwe is now a failed state, the government of Zimbabwe rejects that assertion arguing that it's made by agents of regime change," wrote Clifford. "But not much has been suggested as the way out, other than the individual or family decision to migrate into the Diaspora. Many writers are also very frustrated that there has not been a violent uprising in Zimbabwe but don't say who should face the riot police on their behalf after nearly all protests have been violently crushed. "But for a change, this opinion piece argues that a UN Transitional Government for Zimbabwe could be a viable option to a violent uprising. Using two case studies of Cambodia and Namibia the author argues that all that it takes is for Zimbabwe to eat the humble pie and be saved from catastrophe."
I agree with you, Clifford, Zimbabwe is indeed a failed state but I do not believe asking the UN to step in will solve our problems in the long run.
I do not see any of Zimbabwe's political players ever accepting your proposed UN Transition Authority, especially if they are being asked to play a subservient role to this body. Zimbabweans have failed to govern the country but that has done nothing to their humongous egos; both Mugabe and Tsvangirai still want the whole world to view them as the good Lord's gift to not just Zimbabwe but to humanity!
A UN Transitional Authority supervising a Government of National Unity (GNU) will not achieve anything more significant than the SADC and AU sponsored GNU of 2008 to 2013, especially when, as things stand, we will have the same key players from the old and failed GNU playing the same key roles in the new GNU.
The solution to Zimbabwe's political and economic mess is for the people themselves to wake up to the reality that the country is in a mess and search for themselves for the reasons why. The reasons why we are in a mess are not hard to find and so too are the solutions, they are obvious. To appreciate and value the solution, the people have to undertake the search for themselves and not given the solution in a silver platter.
Zimbabweans have been clamouring for democracy and free and fair elections parrot style without appreciating what is it they were asking for. Now that they are in a real mess, they will be forced to think through what is wrong with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship, what democracy offers them and so what are the democratic reforms the nation needs to transform the tyrannical dictatorship into a healthy and functional democracy. This is a mental journey that each and every one has to undertake and complete.
When the Children of Israel left Egypt for the Promised Land, a direct route would have taken them a few months; instead the Lord took them on long circuitous route through deserts and wilderness with little food and water lasting forty years and having to fight for their very survival all the way. The trials and tribulations of those years made the Jews appreciate and cherish their price, the Promise Land, when they crossed the River Jordan!
Zimbabweans do not have the physical distance to travel to their Promised Land - free, just and prosperous Zimbabwe out of this hell-on-earth Mugabe and Zanu PF has dragged them into. The mental search for what has gone wrong these last 35 years is invaluable for character building; they will appreciate and cherish their freedom, their freedom of expression, their right to a meaningful vote and the right to life!
Even if we were to have the UN Transition Authority, if at the end of its mandate we still have a naïve and gullible electorate who more likely to vote for a failed and incompetent leader than for a competent one. So it will not take long before the country drifts right back into the chaotic state we are in right now.
Give a man fish and give him a meal; teach him to fish and you give him a livelihood. Those are important short and medium term goals but for the long term goal of building a free, democratic and prosperous nation that will thrive and prosper to the end of time, we have to teach each man, woman and child to think for themselves. A nation of people who can think will survive and thrive anywhere for each will follow their talent not all be forced to be fishermen.
Zimbabwe is a failed state; there is nothing we can do to turn back the clock, the best we can do is to learn from the tragic events of last 35 years. A nation that will appreciate the value of freedom and life will not so easily enslaved or oppressed; that is the life value lesson Zimbabweans have lacked and they must now learn.
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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