http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/23/2282851.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/24/2283522.htm

Recently, the eyes of the world have been on Zimbabwe and their elections this year.  Zimbabwe, although democratic in the sense they have elections, the country has not been a free and fair country in my life time.  I first became aware of the country and the state that it’s in when one of my friends at uni was from South Africa.  She had relatives in Zimbabwe, who were white farmers.  It was a sore point for her and her family that they could not come to Australia as refugees, even though their land had been striped from them by Mugabe to be given to the terrorists who had assisted him to get into power.  Essentially the Australian government’s refugee policy at the time, a hang over from the Keating era, was that no one white could possibly be a refugee.

Australia also became aware of Mugabe and who he was when the 2002 CHOM meeting was due to be held in Australia.  People did not want him in the country.

Mugabe’s Presidency of the country has been a reign of terror, characterised by violence, the violation of the rights of the people, including their property rights, and to the detriment of the lives of the people of Zimbabwe.  (If you think we’ve got inflation, have a look at what’s happened there recently).  And in the midst of escalating unrest and dissatisfaction, Morgan Tsvangirai was, as far as I can see, elected President.  He got over 50% of the vote, which in most countries is sufficient to gain power.  However, he was supposed to go to the polls again soon.  During the time between elections the world has heard again and again how Mugabe and his cronies are harassing, intimidating and in some instances killing those who oppose him.  Some of this has been done by the military, which as made me wonder why the MDC has not blocked supply as they should now control the lower house and with another independent party hold equal numbers in the senate.

The thing that has only just occurred to me, now that Morgan Tsvangirai has claimed he will stand down next week (and I’m sure the whole world hopes that he does not) and sought refuge in the Dutch embassy in Zimbabwe, is that we know nothing of the ideologies which drive these leaders.  We just know that Mugabe is a dictator and Tsvangirai is standing up to him.  I was on the verge of being disappointed, finding out that he is actually a socialist.  My suspicions of this were first aroused when I noticed he use to be a trade union leader.  But then when I looked up where Mugabe stands in the political spectrum, it is also to the left of politics.  Which I guess makes sense given the way he has redistributed property and real estate.  He’s just authoritarian rather than liberal.  I don’t doubt that Tsvangirai will be better for the nation, giving people freedom to choose is always better.  The next step will be to get a leader or a party who can enable economic development (someone who is say on the libertarian right of politics).  Tsvangirai, I suspect will be a hero, but will not be in politics for long.  As with all people who agitate change, their end game is often the change, not what happens afterwards.

So like much of the world, I wait with eager anticipation as to what will happen in Zimbabwe, and especially what the outcome of Friday’s election will be, if it is held.