Another resounding success from British Intelligence!

As I mentioned earlier Zimbabwe's opposition MDC have pulled out of Fridays presidential poll. This means that there is now no other option then for the incumbent Robert Mugabe to be lawfully re-elected as the countries legitimate President for another six year term. As Zimbabwe's economy and society are in a state of collapse with inflation running at over 1,000,000% (they stopped counting long ago) and the average life expectancy down to a mere 40 years it is clear this cannot be called a good result.

What needs to be done about Zimbabwe's troubles has long been a cause for much debate with the political right claiming that Mugagbe needs to be deposed so the country can be opened up to a World Bank Economic Structural Adjustment Plan. It has been suggested that this plan focus heavily on turning Zimbabwe's farmland over to white farmers and replacing the countries currency with the US dollar. The left have claimed that the MDC are nothing more then stooges for western government and electing them into power will only make the situation much worse by throwing the country to the world bank wolves.

Personally I think that in this case it is the political right who are correct for three key reasons;

1. If the World Bank will not put money into Zimbabwe then nobody will invest in Zimbabwe. Given the way the world works then if there is no investment then there is no hope for Zimbabwe.
2. Hard as it may be to believe since the street fighting days of Seattle and Genoa the world bank has at least some way to cleaning up it's act. This is the product of the actions of many brave people of whom I cannot count myself as one. The British Government should be more then well aware of these people and these changes for the better because for the last decade it's security services have been falling over themselves trying to put those people in prison.
3. This Autumn's election in the United States will see a black candidate with with an African grandmother going up against a party who's only saving grace over the last eight years is it's record on development in Africa. This unprecedented event would have provided the perfect backdrop to make sure that Zimbabwe's reconstruction would be done as fairly as possible.

In short 2008 represented Zimbabwe's best chance to move away from it's unstable present into a more prosperous future.

It is then an unforgivable shame that in the run-up to the March vote British intelligence's position was to actively campaign for Robert Mugabe. It was this unexpected support which meant that without any serious attempts at vote rigging Mugabe was able to make sure that the MDC did not achieve the majority it needed to remove him from office.

This crass stupidity, with some suicidal American arm twisting, caused the MDC's Secretary General Tendai Biti to falsely announce that his party had won the vote. After this textbook act of treason, which has since landed Mr Biti in jail, it was impossible for the MDC to contest or win an election campaign with any shred of credibility.

With this catalogue of failures already committed there was no other option for removing Mugabe then to coax him in to calling a rapid run-off vote. Inexplicably British Intelligence and the Prime Minister Gordon Brown decided it would be a much better idea to talk tough, bang their drum at the UN and slow the entire process down.

Unsurprisingly this plan did not work and the inevitable run-off vote was finally announced for June 27th giving Mr Mugabe plenty of time to organise a campaign of vote rigging and violence. It was in the face of this violence that the MDC today announced that they would not contest the vote meaning that Mr Mugabe can with more then a hint of credibility call himself the elected President of Zimbabwe. It also meant that hundreds of people have been beaten and tortured for nothing. It means that 85 people have been killed for nothing and it means that Mr Biti is now in jail facing a death penalty he will find it hard to escape for nothing.

I am not yet sure of the best way to move forward from this unfortunate situation but I do know what British Intelligence will approach the problem. Quite simply they're going to do what they always do; try and get tough by ratcheting up sanctions with some already talking about blocking fuel, food and money into the country because nothing helps alleviate poverty like making people poorer. They are no doubt going to call for charges to be brought against Mr Mugabe at the international criminal court and they may also try sending in an African Union force the likes of which have done so much to improve the situations in Somalia and Sudan. Basically as usual they're going to throw their weight about and achieve nothing.

on a side note I would like to take the opportunity to point out to someone on a completely different issue that it's not sadism, it's an issue of practical reality. If you have an alternative solution I would love to hear it.