Neo-colonialist stooge Morgan Tsvangirai seeks refuge from defeat

[XXPANTHAXX]

By Caesar Zvayi

WE have all seen it at the playground; when a little boy finds the going tough or loses a fight, he scampers home to the relative safety of mummy’s skirts either to report the bruiser or simply get away from it all.

Zimbabwean superstar Oliver Mtukudzi captured this behaviour in his smash hit, Dande, that tells the tale of a man who finds the going tough in the world and has to retrace steps to his roots to recharge his batteries.

This is exactly what Morgan Richard Tsvangirai — the man who fled the liberation struggle after spending no more than 24 hours in a training camp — did on Monday, leaving the comfort of his wife Susan’s arms in this wintry weather to spend the night on a cold couch at the Dutch embassy, claiming he fears for his life.

What immediately raised eyebrows was that Tsvangirai had announced 24 hours earlier that he was withdrawing from the presidential run-off campaign which left many wondering how a man who had withdrawn from the campaign could fear for his life as if he was not hitting the road.

So much has been written about Tsvangirai’s boycott announcement that it will be pointless to repeat it here, but the biggest reading that has to be made from Tsvangirai’s sojourn to the Royal Netherlands embassy in Highlands is that he has, once again, revealed his real parentage.

The Dutch embassy is his Dande; he was simply going to his roots, which is why yesterday he went back immediately after holding a Press conference at his house in Strathaven.

One wonders why, if Tsvangirai was in such mortal danger, he had the luxury of leaving the ‘‘safety’’ of the embassy to drive all the way to Strathaven just to hold a Press conference and back again to Highlands.

Wouldn’t it have been ‘‘safer’’ to hold the conference on Dutch soil?

Those who are familiar with Harare know that Strathaven, home to Tsvangirai’s house, is in Avondale West and the Dutch embassy is in Highlands. Between Highlands and Avondale we find Belgravia, home to the diplomatic community and numerous African embassies, any of which would have gladly welcomed Tsvangirai had he been in real danger.

Two readings can be made from the fact that Tsvangirai drove past all these embassies to distant Highlands and back.

Firstly, as said before, his choice of refuge reveals MDC-T’s parentage. The party’s launch on September 11 1999 was masterminded by London and the Nordic countries which is why a mere week after the launch, Tsvangirai, in his capacity as secretary-general of the interim executive, went on a six-nation tour of Europe beginning with the Netherlands, proceeding to Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Finland and Britain ‘‘to drum up support’’.

This was the time he was supposed to be visiting various parts of Zimbabwe to sell the MDC to the electorate since elections were only nine months away. Analysts, however, contended that Tsvangirai was on a debriefing mission to his real constituency since these countries had mooted and bankrolled the MDC launch.

Tsvangirai was to tour the same countries again in 2004 when he embarked on a whirlwind tour of Europe to fundraise for the 2005 general elections.

It, thus, comes as no surprise that the Netherlands embassy was his first stop at a time he should have been in Mabvuku or Makokoba explaining his strange announcement to boycott the run-off, just five days shy of D-Day. A bird, as they say, always sings the same song.

Tsvangirai’s failing was acknowledged by British establishment journalist Peta Thornycroft in a November 13 2007 interview on the pirate radio station, Short Wave Radio Africa, where she said, among other things: ‘‘When the MDC started in 2000, what a pity that they were addressing people in Sandton, mostly white people in Sandton north of Johannesburg, instead of being in Dar es Salaam or Ghana or Abuja. They failed to make contact with Africa for so long, they were in London, We’ve just seen it again, and Morgan Tsvangirai’s just been in America. Why isn’t he in Cairo? Maybe he needs financial support and he can’t get it outside of America or the UK and the same would go for Mutambara. They have not done enough in Africa.’’

Any wonder he is in a European, and not an African, embassy?

The second reading is that Tsvangirai was not in real danger since he had the luxury of driving across town to Highlands instead of any of the African embassies in Belgravia that are a stone’s throw away from his house in Avondale or offices at Harvest House.

We all know that the instinct of self-preservation bids a man in real danger to go for the nearest refuge.

The question is: if Tsvangirai was not in danger, as indeed the police have since assured him, the nation and the world, why did he make a beeline for the Dutch embassy?

Going by precedent, the most obvious reason is that the man was grandstanding for the foreign gallery given that the African Union heads of state and government summit begins in Cairo, Egypt, next Monday and the European Union met in Brussels, Belgium, this week.

What is more, the Security Council was meeting in New York under the chairmanship of the British, his godfathers. The conditions couldn’t have been riper to cry wolf, particularly as his handlers desperately wanted to stop the run-off as all indications point to a resounding victory for President Mugabe.

Indeed, on Monday, we saw the British speak through the Security Council in trying to get the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to scrap the poll amid feverish attempts to effect a virtual coup by declaring Tsvangirai the ‘‘legitimate president of Zimbabwe’’ yet we were just five days shy of the election that would determine that question.

What is interesting about this whole charade is that only a few days back, Tsvangirai was touring Zimbabwe in his ‘‘victory buses’’ proclaiming the poll was a mere formality saying he was ready to bury President Mugabe.

Only last week he was quoted as saying: ‘‘No amount of violence or intimidation would stop the opposition from romping to victory," adding that he did not need to campaign since voters had already made up their minds.

Probably the reason why he wasted six crucial weeks traipsing the world on a purported diplomatic offensive that all but snowballed in his face instead of touching base with his supporters countrywide.

As Tsvangirai went about his tomfoolery in Western capitals, Zanu-PF was busy campaigning and consolidating on the popular vote it amassed on March 29. Today Zimbabwe is awash with the ‘‘100 percent Independence, Total Empowerment’’ theme and wherever one turns one encounters the powerful messages.

This and the shocking realisation that March 29 is not replicable accounts for Tsvangirai’s strange behaviour.

The man who spent the post-March 29 period pretending to enjoy popular support knows very well the bubble is about to burst come Friday, and he would rather save his pot-holed face by hiding behind a boycott than see his bluff called.

Even the BBC’s John Simpson, the man who has all along been crowing about Tsvangira’s alleged popularity, was forced to eat humble pie on Tuesday when he all but virtually wrote the eulogy for Tsvangirai and MDC-T saying, among other things: ‘‘Western powers will be openly angry about the eclipse of Morgan Tsvangirai and the sweeping victory of Robert Mugabe on Friday. Many African governments will be just as angry, but will be more discreet about it.

‘‘Some countries, China in particular, will continue to help Mr Mugabe quietly and give him what diplomatic protection they can. It all adds up to a remarkable sweeping victory for a man who only three months ago seemed to be on the ropes.

‘‘The moral is clear: Never underestimate Robert Mugabe’s ferocious determination to stay in power, nor the ability of his political opponents to destroy their own case.’’

Which is exactly what Tsvangirai is doing by showing he is a childish, shameless Western stooge.

If there was a crisis in Zimbabwe, would there be any need for all this play-acting?