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Opposition media reports carried on the front page last Wednesday by Strive Masiyiwa�s Daily News claiming that the Bush government in America had demanded the release of Morgan Tsvangirai from lawful custody pending the legal resolution of lawful charges before a competent court of law, made interesting reading about the current schizophrenic state of the opposition Press and the double-talk of the Bush government on matters of law. Did you notice that Masiyiwa�s media mouthpiece gleefully claimed that the Bush government had "demanded" Tsvangirai�s release? But that was just the now too familiar use, in fact, abuse of a headline by Strive Masiyiwa�s blue-eyed paper to peddle an outright falsehood. There was a difference of night and day between the story and the headline because no demand was made anywhere in the story. In other words, the Daily News headline that the Bush government had demanded Tsvangirai�s release was a blue lie. Those who might wonder why the Daily News peddled the falsehood about an American demand that never was need not go any further because it�s all very simple. Remember that the reckless political hands behind the Daily News tried to incite the public to take to the streets demanding Tsvangirai�s release from lawful custody. That did not work. Then the same dirty hands hoped for a demand and ultimatum from Tony Blair. But nothing became of that because that little fellow is too busy defending himself from mounting charges and growing evidence that he used lies and deception to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq which left a trail of as yet untold destruction of property and infrastructure not to mention mass killings of innocent civilians. So when Richard Boucher made himself available for comment on Tsvangirai�s lawful custody at a Press briefing that had nothing to do with Zimbabwe, the editors of the Daily News fell on each other, rushing for their Econet Buddies to tell their Uncle Tom the blue lie that a demand for Tsvangirai�s release had been finally made by Uncle Sam. But, of course, the whole thing was false as is clear from the transcript of Boucher�s Press briefing. The true position not reported by the Daily News is that Boucher, the spokesman at the State Department of the Bush government, made some gratuitous remarks and insults � in response to a planted question by some embedded journalist at a State Department Press briefing � complaining about Tsvangirai�s arrest and claiming that the charges against Tsvangirai were "spurious" and even arrogantly asserting that holding Tsvangirai in lawful custody was "indefensible". It is instructive to note that Boucher did not use the word "demand" because he knew better that using that word would open a can of worms from Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bush government has one of the worst international records of cruel and unusual punishment of people through illegal detentions, especially of foreign nationals since September 11 2001 and the widespread ill-treatment of and use of excessive force on inmates � including the use of chemical and electro-shock devices catalogued by Amnesty International, which has been demanding the release of tens of thousands of people who are under illegal detention in America. All this is detailed in Amnesty International�s 2003 report on pages 264 to 268. Now, why in the name of God would a country with an appalling record of institutionalised illegal detentions make a demand for the release of one person in lawful custody and with a transparent case before an open court of law? Please give us a break. When people are in lawful custody, have legal representation through a lawyer of their choice and are before a competent court of law, you cannot demand their release outside the legal process unless there is something very wrong with you. While it is public knowledge that there is something wrong with the Daily News, some remaining doubting Thomases were still willing to extend more doubt but now even these are beginning to have enough. Daily lies on Sunday The shocking and unacceptable defiance by the MDC of the High Court order that declared illegal the street marches that had been planned by an assortment of hooligans, terrorists, Rhodesian Selous Scouts and economic saboteurs earlier this month, has created big time confusion in opposition circles, especially those in the media. Last Sunday, Bill Saidi�s directionless "The Daily News on Sunday" � whatever such a name really means beyond daily blue lies with some pink on Sunday when many folks are going to church �published a pathetic lead story claiming that some Zanu-PF members of Parliament are "defying High Court orders" by remaining in Parliament when they had lost election petition challenges against them in the High Court. As usual with the blue lies that have come to typify Strive Masiyiwa�s newspapers, the false headline was the story. Ask anybody who knows anything about the rule of law, about which Masiyiwa and his company make a lot of noise, what happens when an appeal is noted with the Supreme Court against a High Court judgement and you will be told without any need to consult a library or an expert that the noting of an appeal in a civil matter has the effect of suspending the execution of the judgment unless the right to execute is sought and granted by the Court. This is basic stuff and that is the law. If Saidi does not know this then he is an ignoramus not fit to be editor of any serious and self-respecting paper that purports to be national. Meanwhile, next time the opposition Press pontificates about the need to restore the rule of law remember they are ignorant of the law and thus have no clue on what they are talking about beyond mimicking Tony Blair and George Bush who have distinguished themselves as the great outlaws of this century whose skills start and end with lies and deception about other countries they do not like. A phoney survey Overseas, especially in America, there is a survey syndrome occasioned by the manipulative desire of scheming politicians and business interests to use statistics to tell true lies. Lying with statistics is actually big business there. In fact, there is a famous book entitled "How to Lie with Statistics" by a famous author who made lots of money from the sales of the book when it was made required reading for all undergraduate students across the disciplines in American colleges and universities. It appears one of the graduated readers of this book found employment with the World Economic Forum, that neo-liberal surrogate NGO formed for the specific purpose of spreading the lopsided ideology of globalisation in order to expand American hegemony in a unipolar world. Last week, this Forum published a survey with statistics and all claiming that Zimbabwe ranks among the worst governed and corrupt countries with an under performing economy. The usual sections of the media that wish all sorts of ills upon Zimbabwe jumped on the survey and made it front page material to which they added the agricultural lie that there are food shortages in the country because of alleged disruptions of farming by the land reform programme which was recklessly and falsely described as often violent. What is notable about the abuse of statistics in the survey is that there is no acknowledgement that the forces behind the World Economic Forum have imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe; that powerful British companies in Zimbabwe have used their position to sabotage the economy; that the British government has used its High Commissioner in Harare, Brian Donnelly, to work with other embassies to form and organise NGOs like Amani Trust, NCA, MDC and the so-called Crisis Committee to sponsor chaos and social breakdown in the hope of rendering the country ungovernable. After all this, they have the cheek to let loose the World Economic Forum to do a silly survey to find out whether their diabolic schemes are working and the Forum simply obliges without shame. Evidence of a resilient economy was ignored, as was that of a looming agricultural boom thanks to the land reforms. Specifically, evidence of increasing volumes of trade between Zimbabwe and its major trading partners such as South Africa �which grew by some 15 percent over the last three years � and Australia was ignored. There is even evidence indicating that the Zimbabwean economy is doing much better than a number of economies in the region which have not had the problems said to be in Zimbabwe. No wonder this Forum is rapidly losing credibility and prestige with fewer and fewer serious minded people attending its useless talk shops around the world. Covering up for Nicole Somebody with a line to Brian Donnelly should use their influence to advise Iden Wetherell to be a bit nuanced and subtle in his defence of crude white interests. Some touch of class is desperately needed at the Zimbabwe Independent. Many black Zimbabweans in the middle class ranks are now getting sick and tired of Iden Wetherell�s constant attack and abuse of black judges, black lawyers and black journalists who refuse to be used to push a racist agenda on behalf of British and Rhodesian interests that are championed by Wetherell through the pages of the Zimbabwe Independent. When Andrew Meldrum, that American journalist who can�t get a job in his own country, was deported for compromising national security, Wetherell jumped all over the place in defence of the indefensible just because Meldrum is white like Wetherell. The mindless defence was in sharp contrast to how Bornwell Chakaodza, who belongs to the same troubled stable with Wetherell, handled the Meldrum saga with editorial balance. Readers of that hopeless newspaper have by now noticed that Wetherell sees as good guys only whites and blacks who are subservient to whites and that�s it. Any black person who stands up for his rights is good only if he is standing up against the Government or Zanu-PF and not against any white person or interests thereof or against the British government or the American government. That is why Wetherell has no shame covering up for Vernon Nicole who is not only in clear, blatant and racist violation of the Land Acquisition Amendment Act but also in contempt of Court by continuing to cling onto Lot 1 of Gwina Farm in Mashonaland West when that farm was long acquired by the State in terms of the law. Nicole�s stay there is therefore illegal and Wetherell knows that and yet he has the temerity to distort and misrepresent the issue for the sole purpose of tarnishing Justice Hlatshwayo�s image when the Judge has the right to be at that plot in terms of the law. The reason Hlatshwayo is being smeared is because of the High Court order that declared the MDC marches illegal. When Hlatshwayo extended voting days during the presidential election last year, Wetherell celebrated him as a hero. Why? Because that judgement favoured Wetherell�s racists interests. The game that the rule of law is there for white people with British and Rhodesian roots has gone too far and Zimbabweans are no longer prepared to take it anymore. Rhodesian racism must be removed from the law once and for all. Who�s afraid of national debate? What a pity that last week in the Sunday Mirror the Scrutator chose to hide behind words when he had started what was promising to be an interesting and useful national debate. It seems the Scrutator, because of his pre-occupation with succession politics, would rather have national dialogue without national debate and that is very unfortunate because debate is what academics are expected to do. So is the Scrutator afraid of national debate? It looks like he is actually terrified of it. Otherwise, why invoke service in the liberation struggle as if that alone would add value to anybody�s qualities in a debate? The Scrutator must be aware that there are some members of the so-called Liberator�s Platform who were in the liberation struggle, not as briefcase carriers or fly by night policy advisers, but as real fighters yet they are selling out today at the expense of their heroic contributions. In any event, the need for open national debate without some academics hiding either behind the words or invoking their service in the liberation struggle is dramatised and made necessary by the fact that the uhuru children who were born on April 18 1980 are now 23 years old and will be 25 years old before the next general election. That is food for thought because the uhuru kids must certainly be part of the national debate, including the succession question because they constitute a growing majority particularly among voters who were neither in Maputo nor Lusaka. - [EMAIL PROTECTED] The
Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
