JO - Robert Mugabe, Douglas Chambers and normalising dysfunction

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

Robert Mugabe, Douglas Chambers and normalising dysfunction

CLAUDE ROBINSON

Sunday, July 06, 2008

So much has been written about the murder of Douglas Chambers, I decided I would forego another commentary on the deed and its devastating consequences for his family and friends, the wider Jamaican community and the state that hired him to do the seemingly undoable.

CLAUDE ROBINSON

Instead, I thought of commenting on the re-installation of Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe, after an election that-by all accounts-failed to meet the most basic standards of democracy.The situation in Zimbabwe is distressing for several reasons. For starters, President Mugabe continues to betray the enviable struggle credentials he earned by leading the long and bloody fight to end white minority rule in the former Rhodesia, and for exposing British hypocrisy and doublespeak.

Read the whole article.

Snippet(s):

"The British had promised to mobilise resources to buy back lands that had been handed to the white minority, thus leaving the black majority landless and excluded from the mainstream of an economy dominated by farming of export crops.

The British promise was not realised, thus frustrating the land reform process and the gains of the political liberation process.

This may explain why Mr Mugabe repossessed some of the white-owned farms. It may also explain why it is easy for Mr Mugabe and the leadership in the ZANU-PF to pin the label of British stooge on anyone who opposes him.

But it cannot explain why he has not proceeded with any real reform.

It does not explain why he has systematically used violence and intimidation against political opponents leaving himself open to the charge that his real desire is for one-party rule, by any name."