The ManicaPost
Susan Chipanga Post Correspondent—
THERE is an old-fashioned saying: “what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander”, in simpler terms what one person is allowed to do in a particular way, another person must be allowed to do in that particular way too.Revisiting an old saying is always a prelude to correcting a wrong or a misconception and in the process exposing nauseating western hypocrisy which decrees “democratic systems” which they themselves have no heart to follow through.
Noises have reached the high heavens that African leaders stifle development because of their affinity to go beyond two terms and the term “dictator” is quickly used with abundant zest to cower those who would have committed this mortal sin of ever thinking that way.
There was furore at the African Union Assembly of Heads of State in South Africa in 2015 when President Mugabe said: “We (in Africa) put a rope around our own neck and say leaders must only have two terms, It is a democracy, if people want a leader to continue, let him continue.”
President Mugabe was stating a fact which was quickly viewed as trying to perpetuate his rule. But, really, Africans must seriously consider what works for them as our dear friends in the West can do what their want with impunity and the deafening silence that ensures smacks of duplicity of the highest order.
German chancellor, Angela Merkel recently made her intentions known after months of speculation whether she wanted to extend her rule or not. She made it known that she would be standing for a fourth term. Talk of Western hypocrisy.
Notwithstanding that the German constitution is an open cheque on term limits, Helmut Kohl was chancellor for more than 16 years, 1982 to 1998. Konrad Adenauer was chancellor for more than 14 years from 1949 to 1963 and the current chancellor Angela Merkel has just completed 10 years in office.
For our dear sister, it is widely accepted and justified that there simply isn’t another realistic candidate for the job and one broadcaster simply put it “Angela Merkel — the indispensable”.
This is the very thing the West abhorred in African constitutions that “democracy” was practically forced down their throats, hence today we have constitutional crises in Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and others countries as leaders try to change constitutions to serve more terms.
It has become apparent that this “form of democracy” is a prescription from these champions of democracy who are imposing ideals that they themselves shun.
Prescription of ideals has been Africa’s downfall to achieve development and it will continue to be so until we can eke out our own path. We desperately need Cde Thabo Mbeki’s African renaissance.
Africa has been bullied and shamed for the way its leaders who by the way still enjoy majority support from their masses are made to adopt “western democracy” as it is the only way acceptable for them to continue getting funding.
Western leaders are hypocrites who try to hide behind a finger when in actual fact all their want is to remain in power until the cows come home. Some are frustrated by constitutions, but have the desire to continue if there was a way to circumvent this huddle. Outgoing USA President Obama during a speech in Ethiopia in 2015 said: “I actually think I am a pretty good President. I think if I ran, I could win. But I can’t.
“There is a lot that I would like to do to keep America moving.
But the law is the law, and no person is above the law, not even the president.”
These are sentiments that can only be espoused by someone who is still angling for continued rule, but the odds were against him, there was no tempering with the American constitution.
Some manipulate the system in the case of President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
After serving two mandated terms from 2000 to 2008, he was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008 and came back as Prime Minister to President Dmitry Medvedev and after presidential terms were extended from four to six years, President Putin announced he would seek a third term as president.
He won the March 2012 presidential election with 64 percent of the vote.
Recently, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy harboured re-election presidential ambitions and only lost his bid for another term after coming third in the primaries of his centre-right party Les Républicains. What is apparent from all these examples is that, it is not only African leaders who harbour continued rule ambitions, its human nature and no-one should be chastised for expressing these ambitions and if the electorate finds no anomaly in this development why should Africa listen to outside voices.
Africa and less-economically-strong-countries have been mistreated by the supposedly mighty nations and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte recently slammed the West for “bullying” and “hypocrisy”. He was quoted saying “And of late, I see a lot of these western nations bullying small nations. And not only that, they are into so much hypocrisy”.
Maybe, it is high time that we create our own systems that work for us as Africans, so that we don’t have to rely on the funding of these countries which gives them the latitude to meddle in our affairs.
This is why the statesman, President Mugabe has been calling for African economic emancipation.
Western hypocrisy is a reality that we are powerless to wish away as long as we continue to rely on them to fund our governments. Africa needs to chart its own path to development as western countries’ path to development is proving impossible for African countries.
