Mugabe: L’état, c’est moi
December 20, 2008 § Leave a comment
Oy vey. Robert Mugabe. Today’s Globe & Mail reports his latest paranoid dictator declaration: “Zimbabwe is mine.” He goes on to state that not only do other African states lack the will to remove him, but that only Zimbabweans can remove him from power. Funny that. It seems to me that that is exactly what Zimbabweans tried to do back in the spring. But, of course, Morgan Tsvangirai didn’t win an absolute majority in that election, so there was a run-off. Mugabe held onto power in that run-off by having his goonda squads run around beating, imprisoning, and threatening Tsvangirai’s supporters. So, in the end, he maintained power through nefarious means. We all know the result. But the thing that I find most frightening about Mugabe’s most recent outburst is this, taken from the same Globe & Mail article:
He warned: “Now we know you and we are watching you closely.”
Does this mean that Mugabe is going to make like Stalin and engage in purges of people he thinks are disloyal? Paranoia is certainly not out of the question for Mugabe, given his continued pronouncements against the British.
Either way, it is time for Mugabe to go. At this point, it seems that Zimbabweans have suffered too much. More than enough. Mugabe has no interest in looking out for his people, his interest is in looking out for himself.
The question is, then, what is to be done? What is the solution? Will Mugabe’s ouster have to come from within Zimbabwe? Or will other African nations put pressure on him, whether diplomatic or militarily, to resign? Or will that force come from outside of Africa? It seems that the entire world is calling on Mugabe to go.
Matthew Barlow 
Leave a Reply