Both Mugabe and Bush undemocratic

By Madibeng Kgwete: posted on 30 March 2007

The concerns that South African commentator Hamilton Wende expresses in his opinion article in The Star newspaper, “It could have been so different” (Opinion & Analysis, 29 March 2007), are concerns that thousands of voiceless people across the world have long been expressing about George W. Bush, the tyrant at the helm down in Washington DC .

Wende aptly describes the Bush administration’s detention-without-trial and abuse of suspected terrorists at Guatanamo Bay as “an unforgivable indictment on the ideals which have made America the oldest constitutional democracy in the world”.

It is a grave pity that, after years of protest against America’s unjustifiable use of violence against antagonists, particularly those in the Arab world, Bush and the yes-men and women surrounding him seem to have renewed their arrogance towards the world as a whole.

It is ironic that Bush and his right-hand men in Britain and Australia, Tony Blair and John Howard respectively, are the same individuals trotting the globe to preach about democracy and human rights in Africa and elsewhere in the world. Their hypocrisy will not take us anywhere.

If Bush truly believes in democracy and respects other people’s right to life (both of which I doubt he does), he could not have invaded Iraq for reasons known only to himself, his dubious spooks and the head-nodding diplomats surrounding him.

The suffering inflicted on the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the detainees at Quatanamo Bay and other US detention camps around the world makes Bush’s regime comparable to the very regimes he so vociferously despises, such as Zimbabwe's.

Bush is in the same league with his Zimbabwean counterpart. Just like President Robert Mugabe, Bush came to power after a controversial election victory. Bush, like Mugabe, disregards critics, condones the use violence in campaigns to advance his interests and does not seem to value human life.

Bush is as undemocratic and authoritarian as his counterpart in Harare . The tone in Bush’s public speeches is similar to that of Mugabe’s. Both use words as unpresidential as “go to hell”. For example, Bush is on record as having said: “I will never relent in defending America - whatever it takes”. Mugabe, on the other hand, recently told his critics to “go hang”.

With the main proponents of democracy – Bush, Blair, Howard, etc – advocating human rights, liberty and peace whilst practicing the opposite, our continent Africa and the rest of the third world need to formulate an independent positions on matters affecting countries such as Zimbabwe.

It is easy to blame African leaders for non-action in Zimbabwe . Africa’s critics – both in and out of the continent – have strongly argued that South Africa abandons its so-called quite diplomacy and that sanctions should be imposed on Mugabe and his supporters.

That may help in pushing Mugabe out of office, but the questions really are: “Are the punitive international protocols only reserved for poor African autocrats and tyrants?” “Is the US , its president and his cronies all above the law?”