[Yes, I expect nothing less from Mugabe or the ANC… “Democracy” in Southern Africa was a fake from the beginning. Jan]

25th anniversary of rule: Speech before thousands rejects Western democracy

By: Peter Goodspeed

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was in his element yesterday, reliving Africa’s freedom struggle while thumbing his nose at the West, dismissing the Commonwealth as “evil” and proclaiming himself one of Africa’s political saviours. As 40,000 specially invited guests crowded into a Chinese-built sports stadium in Harare and four new Chinese jet fighters screamed low across the sky, Mr. Mugabe strutted onstage to deliver a 35-minute, nationally televised speech celebrating his 25 years in power. School children in the stadium flashed cards on cue, creating a huge portrait of Mr. Mugabe, as flag-waving spectators cheered and dozens of pigeons, symbolizing peace and freedom, were sent fluttering into the air. “To this day we bear the lasting scars of that dark encounter with colonialism often described in the West as civilizing,” Mr. Mugabe declared, while insisting the “contented” people of Zimbabwe have no need of Western-style democracy. “We have turned east, where the sun rises, and given our back to the West, where the sun sets,” he told the crowd. “We proclaim our pan-African spirit, stressing we shall never be a colony again.”

The 81-year-old Mr. Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe’s independence struggle in the 1970s, crowned a seven-year liberation struggle against the white minority regime of what was then called Rhodesia by becoming the first and only leader of black-ruled Zimbabwe in 1980. When he first came to power, Mr. Mugabe was hailed as a statesman. He offered reconciliation to his country’s white minority, in spite of a vicious bush war that left 30,000 dead, and his government stepped up spending on education and social welfare. But over the years, as he struggled to cling to power, Mr. Mugabe ruthlessly endorsed one-party rule and increasingly relied on censorship and intimidation. Last month, Mr. Mugabe was the target of a chorus of condemnation for staging heavily rigged elections that handed his Zanu PF party more than two-thirds of the seats in Zimbabwe’s parliament. Mr. Mugabe is expected to use that parliamentary stranglehold to amend Zimbabwe’s constitution to extend his own period in office as President by a further three years. But yesterday he dismissed his international critics, claiming Zimbabwe doesn’t need to rely on the West. “We made our own democracy and we owe it to no one, least of all the Europeans,” he said. “Let it be forever remembered: it was the bullet that brought the ballot. Our ballots have not needed Anglo-American validation,” he said. “They are validated by fellow Africans and friendly countries from the Third World. That is where we get justice, not from Europe, nor indeed from America.”

Yesterday’s independence celebrations were attended by the leaders of Namibia and Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi and the prime ministers of Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho. South Africa, however was represented by only a Cabinet minister and Mr. Mugabe pointedly refused to mention former South African President Nelson Mandela, who has repeatedly criticized Mr. Mugabe’s human rights record over the past five years. In his anniversary speech yesterday, Mr. Mugabe ignored the obvious signs of discontent and disaster that have turned one of Africa’s most prosperous economies into a basket case. Today, Zimbabwe is plagued by shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange. Agriculture, the mainstay of a country that was once regarded as the breadbasket of southern Africa, has collapsed, and Zimbabwe’s economy has shrunk 50% since 2000. Zimbabwe is also ravaged by an HIV/AIDS epidemic that is killing almost 3,000 people a week. Almost 3.6 million of Zimbabwe’s 15 million people have fled the country, living as economic refugees in South Africa and Britain. Yet yesterday, Mr. Mugabe insisted: “Our people are happy and contented and that is all that matters.”

From The National Post (Canada), 19 April