Friday, July 25, 2008

One Party Democracy?


Zimbabwe is a mess. Mugabe is ruthlessly purging the country from everybody he doesn’t like while the people struggle with world-record high levels of Inflation and unemployment. (Watch this revealing video from the guardian.) In the wake of these facts, most of the world agrees, that something must be done. But what that is, is not so clear at all. While some call for intervention, for a forceful removal of Mugabe, others would like to see the “Kenyan solution”. In Kenya violence broke out at the end of 2007 after the two main political competitors couldn’t accept the election outcome and accused each other of fraud (though observers largely pointed the finger at President Kibaki).
An all out ethnic war was only defused after long negotiations involving Kofi Anan and a Geneva based NGO (Read this most interesting article for further details). Both parties agreed to share power under a government of national unity.

Recently, South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki has been involved in an attempt to reproduce such a result in Zimbabwe where he has been mediating talks between Mugabes ZanuPF and Tvangirais MDC. Though the outcome is unsure (Tsvangirai and the MDC accuse Mbeki of bias towards Mugabe and repeatedly asked for an other mediator), a government of national unity in Zimbabwe is what many in the southern African cone hope for.

This wish has echoed largely through the international media, and I haven’t heard much criticism of such a potential outcome throughout the news outlets. Also after the two parties in Kenya came to a deal, most media organizations portrayed it as a victory for peace and the people. Now there lie my doubts.

In a democracy the opposition has a clear role. It is supposed to check the governing party, in order to minimize corruption, abuse of power and waste of public money. If there is no opposition, there is a one party state, and nobody to hold the government accountable.

And that is exactly what we have today in Kenya, and that is what so many commentators and politicians hope for in Zimbabwe. Not only are the people of these countries the losers, those who were responsible for atrocities are allowed to stay unharmed in power and live their easy lives. These deals become especially a foul taste, when one considers the commitments made to international accountability and justice in other parts of the world.

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