Friday 24 June 2016

British vote to "LEAVE" EU was wise because EU is a dysfunctional union. By Wilbert Mukori


For the record, the British vote to leave the EU was a wise decision for the British people and for the rest of the world including developing countries like Zimbabwe and even the rest of the EU. Why?

 

You have heard a multitude of reasons both for and against leaving the EU, forget them all except one – the EU was not working.

 

The EU started as an economic union but, with time, has become an economic (trade in goods and services), monetary and political union – the latter by stealth with disastrous consequences. To make the economic and even more so the monetary union work the member country found that they had to work to the same laws and regulations and hence the need for the European Parliament.

 

However the idea of the United States of Europe on the same lines as the United State of America with Federal Government making all the key decision affecting all Americans and each State government handling local matters, the super duper local council if you like, never took off. Most EU member states still wanted their national parliament to retain real power hence the reason why national parliamentary elections were considered more important that elections to the European Parliament.

 

Still, the European Parliament started chaining more and more laws and regulations dictating to the national parliaments of the individual countries. Worse still, key decisions in the European Union are made by European Commissioners, unelected but rather individual appointed by respective national governments.

 

For a country like Britain with a healthy and functional democracy the last thing the British people wanted was to be hamstrung by the bureaucratic and, sometime indecisive, EU parliament which many considered superfluous to their own London parliamentary system.

 

On the other hand those national governments whose democratic system was not working as well as it should, countries like Greece, they would have been better off letting the EU dictate to the local government. The EU put its foot down with Greece after the got into serious economic trouble after the 2008 financial crush; after the horse had bolted, some would say.

 

Since 2008 the Greek people have again and again voted for an anti-hostility national government but only for the EU, to force the new government to follow the same hostility policies dictated by the EU or the EU rescue package would be withdrawn.  

 

Greece is not yet out of the financial woods and will need more financial help in the future; the more prosperous EU member state will have to dig deeper to bail it out.

 

For the EU to work and avoid another Greek economic meltdown in a member state, then there have to be more political union. The United State of Europe is a choice but a survival necessity if the EU is to survive into the future; something everyone in the EU seems to loath, having existed as independent nations.

 

An EU without the federal state powers, complete with its democratic deficit, will not produce an economically and politically strong Europe; at least there will be many members countries who will feel they are being held back by the others, Britain will be one such country. A politically and economically enfeebled Britain will not be in the world’s interest.

 

There not one voter who was refused the right to vote, there were no bussed voters casting multiple votes, no NIKUV to tamper with the voters roll, etc. The British electorate heard the arguments for remaining and leaving the EU and made their free and democratic choice. Sadly the same cannot be said about Zimbabwe; we are in the 21st century on paper but in reality we are the dark ages.

 

Over 33 million Britain voters cast their vote on 23 June 2016 and nearly 52% of them voted to leave the EU; time will tell if it was a wise decision but what can never ever be doubted is that the whole electoral process was free, fair and credible from start to finish!

 

One day, Zimbabwe too will hold free, fair and credible elections, all we need to do is to implement all the 2008 GPA democratic reforms. That will be Zimbabwe’s independence day; the 18 April 1980 independence day was stolen from them!

2 comments:

  1. “There was not one voter who was refused the right to vote, there were no bussed voters casting multiple votes, no NIKUV to tamper with the voters roll, etc. The British electorate heard the argu-ments for remaining and leaving the EU and made their free and democratic choice. Sadly the same cannot be said about Zimbabwe; we are in the 21st century on paper but in reality we are the dark ages,” you said.

    Very interesting that you picked that difference because I would bet you not many other Zimbabweans out there pick this. They would have seen the peaceful campaigning, the public debates, etc. but nothing would have registered in their brains just as the vote rigging shenanigans of Zanu PF have never registered.

    We have millions of Zimbabweans in SA, USA, Europe and many others countries where there are free, fair and credible elections and the same people have first-hand experience of how Zanu PF has rigged elections back here in Zimbabwe. Is it too much to expect these people in the diaspora to be leading from the front in condemning this government's failure to hold free and fair elections?

    One would expect the many people in Zimbabwe who have had little contact with the outside world, especially those in the rural areas, to accept Zanu PF's vote rigging as a matter of cause but not those who have seen better and know better. What else do these people in the diaspora need to finally open their eyes?

    The people in the diaspora should be the ones leading from the front the demands for free, fair and credible elections and pushing our otherwise useless opposition parties to do everything to ensure the next elections are free and fair. If anything it is those in the diaspora who have pushed hard for the nation and the world at large to accept Zanu PF’s as legitimate regardless of the fact the party rigged the last elections.

    Nations get the government they deserve; we cannot deny that we deserve this Zanu PF dictatorship complete with the whole galaxy of corrupt and incompetent opposition parties who follow it. It is heart breaking that those in the diaspora have playing their part in landing the nation into this mess!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Dhlamini

    Yes Tendai Biti did indeed say that diamond revenue was being looted and Mugabe in March this year has confirmed that $15 billion of diamond revenue was looted in the six year period 2010 to 2015. The im-portant question here is what did Tendai Biti and the MDC do to stop the looting?

    Morgan Tsvangirai was the most senior government official who was allowed to visit Marange in 2012 to investigate what was going on. He came back and gave the operations there a thumbs-up! There was wholesale looting and plunder going on here, a lot more than the official $ 15 billion, and Tsvangirai failed to see any of it!

    A few weeks later Tsvangirai was on an all-expense-paid sea cruise in the Seychelles which he certainly could not afford on his official Prime Minister's wages. No price for guessing where he got the idea of the trip from and, more significantly, who paid the bill.

    We are in this hell-hole because we were naïve and gullible in granting Mugabe dictatorial powers and we are certainly not going to get out of this hell by granting corrupt and incompetent opposition leaders, even those who have already proven beyond doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent, our blind loyalty too!

    There are many in SADC, notably President Ian Khama of Botswana, and in the international community who wish us well and would like to see Zimbabwe out of this political and economic hell. We have made it impossible for these people to help us because by burying our heads in the sand and sheepishly follow failed leaders we have shown the world that we are not serious about wanting to get out of the hell-hole. It is not for the world to drag us of the hell-hole against our will because even if they did, in our naivety, we will elect another corrupt and incompetent government and be back in the hell-hole!

    It is me and not you who should be asking “What is wrong with you?” MDC leaders have already proven beyond all doubt that they are corrupt and incompetent and there is a mountain of evidence to see for yourself and yet here you still bury your head in the sand and follow them like sheep to the slaughter!

    ReplyDelete