"Qu'ils mangent
de la brioche!" (Let them eat cake!) is what Queen Marie Antoinette is
said to have said on learning that the peasants had no bread. USA Congresswoman
Karen Bass’ callous indifference to the tragic situation in Zimbabwe reminded
of Queen Antoinette!
“The courts have
ruled, that is the process, and so to not recognize him (Emmerson Mnangagwa) as
president, I don’t know what that means,” the US Congresswoman Karen Bass. She
was arguing Zimbabweans to accept the results of the recent elections and the
Con-Court ruling on the matter.
“I don’t like our current president (Donald Trump)
and we had a very messy process here in the United States and many people
questioned the legitimacy.”
What every thinking Zimbabwean
would very disappointing here is that Congresswoman Bass should even want to
compare the elections in America with those in Zimbabwe. Our modern day Queen
Antoinette, has just been in Zimbabwe to observe the elections there and thus had
seen with her own eyes the political reality of how Zanu PF had blatantly
rigged the elections! How anyone can still compare what happened in Zimbabwe to
USA beggars belief?
There was no free
public media in Zimbabwe; as an American used to a free press and freedom of
expression, one would have expected her to pick that straight away.
She should have quickly
learnt that 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote for
no better reason other than that Zanu PF feared most of them would not vote for
it. Congresswoman would have known that this was one of the demands Zimbabwe
was asked to meet for the targeted sanctions imposed on some Zanu PF leaders to
be lifted.
“My key findings was
that the process appeared to be very well organized, it was peaceful. I will
tell you that I was envious of an 85% turnout in an election which I certainly
have not seen in the United States,” she commented.
Congresswoman Bass
must have known that Zimbabwe had gone into the elections with no clean and
verified voters’ roll although this is a legal requirement in the country. An
analysis of the election results shows there was multiple voting. It is near
impossible to prove this or an of the other vote rigging schemes with no voters’
roll, the smoking gun, which is why the authorities did not want one produced.
Zanu PF has been
rigging elections for the last 38 years with tragic economic and political
consequences there for all to see. Unemployment has soared to dizzying height
of 90% and ¾ of our people now live on US$1.00 or less a day. The regime has
murdered over 30 000 innocent Zimbabweans to establish and retain the de facto
one-party dictatorship the country is under today. By blatantly rigging these
elections President Mnangagwa and his junta have just confirmed there will be
no meaningful political and economic change. And USA Congresswoman Karen Bass expect
the people of Zimbabwe to accept the rigged elections as fait accompli, after
all she has accepted President Donald Trump!
Oh by the way, the
America government and people are leaving not even one stone unturned in their resolve
to find out if the Russians helped
President Trump win the 2016 elections
and thus interfered in American democratic process. Three cheers to a healthy
and functional democracy!
In Zimbabwe we KNOW
Zanu PF blatantly rigged these elections and has been doing so for donkeys
years. Zanu PF is a party of corrupt and tyrannical vote rigging thugs; Queen
cum Congresswoman Bass want us Zimbabweans to just roll over and accept another
blatantly rigged elections and all the economic and political misery that follow.
It is hard enough to
have to bear the economic hardship and the political oppression but add to it
the patronising indifference of these Queen Marie Antoinette ruling elite and
it is easy to see why she and her kind inflamed the French peasants!
Hear, hear!
ReplyDeleteHow civilised or otherwise a society can easily be judge by how much it has moved from the primitive might is right to the more cultured position where reason rules the roost!
@Ngulube
ReplyDelete"We can't blame the opposition for the collapsing of Zimbabwe economy, Chamisa didn't waste tax payers money on ED billboards that were all over Zimbabwe. He didn't buy expensive cars for chiefs Warvets and Zanupf Candidates worthy millions of foreign currency."
Yes what you have said is true but Chamisa and his MDC friends are to blame for failing to implement the democratic reforms that would have ended Zanu PF's autocratic rule by stopping the thugs rigging elections. The MDC leaders had five years to implement the reforms during the GNU and failed to get even one reform implemented.
Zanu PF rigged these elections and denying the 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote was one of the many way it rigged the elections. The biggest mistake we, the people of Zimbabwe have made in the past was to allow Zanu PF to get away with vote rigging. We must NOT make the same mistake this time. After 38 years of rigged elections the rot must stop right here and right now!
ReplyDeleteGiven Congresswoman Karen Bass is African-American one would have thought she would know what it means to be down trodden and denied a meaningful say in the governance of one's country. She must have met blacks with first hand experience of being denied a vote. Why then was it so difficult for her to understand that our rural voters are no more than serfs, share-croppers to use a more familiar name, beholden to Zanu PF's carrot and stick. They did not dare vote for the opposition because they would be denied food aid and worse, have their huts burnt down, beaten, raped or even killed.
ReplyDeleteIt is annoying to have to lecture Mnangagwa and his brain dead apologist on what constitute free, fair and credible elections. They fought to end white colonial oppression only to become the next oppressors themselves - such is our curse. But to have to lecture someone from America or any of the other democratic nation is infuriating to say the least.
Zimbabwe is stuck in this economic and political hell-on-earth because we have failed to hold free, fair and credible elections - a pre-requisite for competent and accountable government. Zanu PF has just blatantly rigged the elections yet again and the last thing we want is some self-anointed Queen Marie Antoinette telling us the elections were free, fair and credible! Middle finger to you Congresswoman Karen Bass!
Zimbabwe has enough home-grown tyrants and idiots of her own without having to bring in more from outside to swell their ranks!
THE prices of basic commodities have risen sharply since elections held on July 30 to levels that are too high for a dollarised economy.
ReplyDeleteThe bout of inflation is blamed on excessive government spending and a critical shortage of foreign currency to procure imports and to stabilise bond notes, which have since been devalued by up to 80% on the parallel market.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is in China for the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (Focac), is seeking a $2 billion bailout to ease the crisis of foreign currency liquidity and cash.
The shortage of bond notes also appears to have worsened on the formal market, despite new, crisp notes being found on the parallel one.
Yesterday, stakeholders blamed the crisis on Mnangagwa's failure to address "legitimacy" issues and non-appointment of a Cabinet, thus leaving the country on auto-pilot.
Sadly, this is all true! President Mnangagwa has been spending money as if there is no tomorrow buying cars for Chiefs, Zanu PF candidates in the elections, party officials, rogue war veterans plus all the hundreds of millions spend on other election campaign activities. This was money that should have been used to buy medicines and other essentials.
Government has allocated only half the money required to import medicine to spend the money on new cars to buy political loyalty! How foolish is that!
The government's greatest challenge has to be one of legitimacy. No one with eyes to see and a brain to comprehend would ever be fooled into believing these elections were free, fair and credible. No one!
President Mnangagwa and his junta have demonstrated again and again just how naïve they are. When then Lieutenant General now Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sibusiso Moyo announced the 15 November 2017 military coup as "a military assisted transition" the junta expected everyone to believe this was not a coup. The junta has just blatantly rigged these elections and, surprise, surprise, the junta expects everyone to believe this was a free, fair and credible election!
By failing to hold free, fair and credible elections Zanu PF has just confirmed Zimbabwe is still a pariah state ruled by vote-rigging thugs. No investor in their right mind would ever want to set shop in a pariah state!
Even if the Chinese were to give Mnangagwa the $2 billion bailout; how will he pay it back since the money will be squandered on more new cars and other luxuries. He will be going back to China, not to repay the debt but to ask for more, like Oliver Twist!
The only way out of this mess is for Zimbabwe to grasp the nettle and say no to rigged elections. The sooner the country appoints an interim administration to implement the reforms and hold fresh free, fair and credible elections the soon the country can start the difficult task of climbing out of the hell-hole!
There is nothing to be accomplished by burying our heads in the sand and hope that some good will ever come out of this illegitimate, corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime. Nothing good will ever come out of it! Nothing.
@ Hwirisha
ReplyDeleteIt was not MDC who were buying new cars for Chiefs, Zanu PF candidates, etc.; money that should have been used to buy medicine. It was not MDC who blatantly rigged the elections to confirm Zimbabwe is still a pariah state. No one will want to invest in a pariah state whose next regime change is another military assisted transition or widespread street protests! You can try to blame MDC for the country's problems but that will not make the problem go away!