"Robert Mugabe battling for his life in a Singaporean hospital..." The news wires rang out yesterday morning here in London, the second bout of hopeful (for the citizens of Southern Africa) news to come out of the region in a week (the first being the demise of the Malawian Autocrat, President Bingu wa Mutharika).
I do not celebrate the demise of other human beings, (being a humanist), but when individual's actions have enormously devastating repercussions for other human beings, and when these individuals become entrenched into power through their own subversion of institutions, then often, death is the only release.
What we witnessed in Malawi this week was political institutions, in the wake of the death of the President, wobbling and shaking, but not crumbling; an ultimate test for political stability and openness in a desperately poor nation. However, in a nation such as Zimbabwe, equally ransacked economically and politically, this ransacking has been so much more complete in nature, that the hopes of a legal transition, a constitutional transition after the death of Mugabe seems extremely unlikely. Just as in Malawi, where the President's brother was set to step in, unconstitutionally, in the power vacuum, it seems predetermined that Mugabe's feared security chief will be the next in line to hold the reins of power in Zimbabwe. Thus, if legitimate political transition is to be seen as almost impossible in the political climate of Zimbabwe, what is the other option? I would argue, in this case, rebellion, awakening, a Zimbabwean Spring, is the only answer, the only hope.
As Mugabe walked off the gleaming white private jet back into a nation that he has ruled as a vampire for the last 30 years, a breathe of hope vanished. When will it return?
I do not celebrate the demise of other human beings, (being a humanist), but when individual's actions have enormously devastating repercussions for other human beings, and when these individuals become entrenched into power through their own subversion of institutions, then often, death is the only release.
What we witnessed in Malawi this week was political institutions, in the wake of the death of the President, wobbling and shaking, but not crumbling; an ultimate test for political stability and openness in a desperately poor nation. However, in a nation such as Zimbabwe, equally ransacked economically and politically, this ransacking has been so much more complete in nature, that the hopes of a legal transition, a constitutional transition after the death of Mugabe seems extremely unlikely. Just as in Malawi, where the President's brother was set to step in, unconstitutionally, in the power vacuum, it seems predetermined that Mugabe's feared security chief will be the next in line to hold the reins of power in Zimbabwe. Thus, if legitimate political transition is to be seen as almost impossible in the political climate of Zimbabwe, what is the other option? I would argue, in this case, rebellion, awakening, a Zimbabwean Spring, is the only answer, the only hope.
As Mugabe walked off the gleaming white private jet back into a nation that he has ruled as a vampire for the last 30 years, a breathe of hope vanished. When will it return?
