What You Do Comes Back To You

As the presidential runoff in Zimbabwe nears, one is surprised by how little the race resembles an election. ZANU-PF's campaign looks more like a low-intensity war than a bid to secure the larger coalition of voters.

ZANU-PF's tactics are war-like because, many experts argue, they have never finished fighting the war of liberation that granted Zimbabwe its independence in 1980. Two organizations, ZANU and ZAPU were responsible for delivering the country from white rule. Robert Mugabe and his party won the 1980 election, handily defeating ZAPU, led by Joshua Nkomo. Over the next 7 years, Mugabe treated ZAPU and its allies as enemies of the state. The result was genocide. The state-sponsored Fifth Brigade swept through the Matabelelands. Shona massacred Ndebele. Nkomo was threatened and humiliated.

ZAPU was finally forced to merge with Mugabe's party in 1987. No serious opposition surfaced until the MDC in 2000, although some small parties prevented ZANU-PF from turning Zimbabwe into a one-party state. Regardless of the lack of threat these small opposition parties presented, Mugabe always ordered pre-election violence to destroy his challengers.

This puts into context some of Mugabe's seemingly absurd charges: 1) The MDC wants to restore re-colonize Zimbabwe, 2) The MDC are enemies of Zimbabwe, 3) The MDC are the ones committing the violence. All are lies. Mugabe vows the MDC will never rule Zimbabwe. The war still goes on in his mind.

It is essential for the MDC to quest for power through legitimate means. Easier said than done. The way a group comes to power will dictate how they rule the country. In Kyrgyzstan, people revolted against a corrupt parliamentary election in 2005. An unintended consequence of their Tulip Revolution was the overthrow of President Askar Akayev. The two most popular politicians formed a coalition and became the President (Kurmanbek Bakiyev) and Prime Minister (Felix Kulov) but their rise to power was technically illegal. They held a presidential election 4 months later, but the results of the parliamentary election, the true impetus for the revolution, weren't thrown out. Only a few contested seats were rerun. As a result, Kyrgyzstan has had a difficult time throwing off the corrupt legacy of Akayev. One illegal action, no matter how noble, begets another and another.