A British online magazine Spiked says despite its protestations about Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front leader Robert Mugabe’s victory at the weekend, the West has toned down its vitriol on the Zimbabwean leader.
“What is remarkable about this election victory is not the further evidence it supplied of Mugabe’s indefatigability – although it’s worth remembering his peers in the African liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s have long since departed the scene.
“No, what is remarkable about it is just how muted the international response has been. There have been a few mournful editorials in Western newspapers, a few politicians decrying the result, but there has been no venting of righteous spleen, no wall-to-wall outpourings of anger and pity,” the magazine says.
The article goes to explain why there has been this change. “One reason for this is that the elevation of Mugabe into an all-purpose hate figure in the West could not be sustained interminably. Since 2008, other tin-pot dictators have assumed Mugabe’s mantle, from Colonel Gadaffi in Libya to the rather more powerful Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
“Mugabe, the long-time bête noir of Bush and Blair, has been replaced in Western leaders’ disaffections by other Really Bad Guys, Doing Really Bad Things. New stages have been found for the kind of shallow good-vs-evil posturing so beloved of contemporary political leaders.
“More importantly perhaps, changes within Zimbabwe itself have rendered it an unsuitable stage for striking moral poses. The illusion of a black-and-white struggle has become tainted by the greys of reality over the course of the past five years. For a start, Tsvangirai and the faction-ridden MDC were not boosted by having a seat at the top table after 2008; they were compromised by it.
“The MDC became part of the problem. For instance, taking responsibility for health and education, MDC ministers were criticised within Zimbabwe for their failure to deliver on their promises. As one observer wrote earlier this year, ‘Today the party [MDC] is more dysfunctional and commands less authority and support than ever before, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise when it loses, even in a free and fair election.’
“Tsvangirai himself has suffered something of a fall from grace, too, no doubt helped on the way down by Mugabe and his cohorts. Stories of love affairs, and illegitimate children, not to mention his lavish lifestyle, have filled the pages of Zimbabwe’s popular press. Tsvangirai’s problem wasn’t public sanctimony about his behaviour; it was an increasing public scepticism about his judgment.
“As the Zimbabwe Independent put it in September 2012: ‘This argument [that Mugabe set Tsvangirai up] is not sustainable because it wholly ignores the issue of Tsvangirai’s character and judgement. It also presupposes he was not an active participant in all these affairs. Yet it is clear he has been involved by choice.’ As ZANU-PF’s Jonathan Moyo said, Tsvangirai approaches every issue with a shut mind, and every woman with an open zip.”
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