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Blair a troubled man Tony Blair is a troubled man. When he goes to sleep, he leaves a baggage of problems on his doorsteps only to start dreaming of more problems. When he wakes up he finds more problems waiting for him. It is pointless to quote that racist playwright, Shakespeare, about troubles and tribulations coming in battalions. Recent events about the circumstances of Dr David Kelly�s death left a lot of political questions unanswered. Dr Kelly is said to have been one of Britain�s most brilliant scientists, an expert in biological warfare who made enormous contributions to the safety of this planet. Contrary to this highly inflammatory and dangerous line of thinking, Dr Kelly was one individual who carried the burden of his dangerous scientific adventure to his deathbed. Kelly, a product of the so-called new world order that is dominated by imperialism and globalisation, was at the heart of global arms race and nuclear development programmes that polarised the East and the West during the cold war. He was part of the process of imperialism that reconstructed scientific domination as superpowers seek to re-colonise and re-arrange the world. He prepared a strong base for this process. To the New Labour and Europe, he was part of the inner master slave cylinder that furiously powered the machine of scientific inquiry into Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programmes. To be precise, he was a special boy who had been tasked to monitor, inspect and guard the West�s nuclear technological programmes that had been exported to Iraq by the West, especially Britain. It is like he kept the keys to the sensitive, yet profit-spinning treasure, notwithstanding the brutal awakening that Saddam turned out to be their enemy in the end. Yet, the dichotomy of Dr David Kelly�s personality and the circumstances in which he died recently provides a tempestuous atmosphere in which the Labour Party has lost credibility with its own MPs and electorate across the United Kingdom. Four political stalwarts, namely, Tony Blair, the British Premier; Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary; Alastair Campbell, the Director of Communications and Strategy in Downing Street; and Geoffrey Hoon, the Defence Secretary all stand in the line of fire for their obnoxious role in sanctioning the illegal Iraq invasion in May. They have been singly and collectively accused by the British public of having perpetuated an insidious culture by being economical and stingy with the truth. Dr Kelly is now being portrayed as a revered scientist, a man of high integrity and perspicacity, who was shy of publicity. According to British political circles used to the whispering campaigns, if Kelly was intensely a private person doing his normal business as a weapons inspector, then hauling him before a Foreign Affairs Select Committee recently was intrusive and repugnant. But nobody is telling the world that dragging him into the public domain partly to account for his misdeeds was not an option but inevitable given the nature of his very public profile as someone who sanctioned, by constructive default, the attack against the Iraqi people. But the truth of the matter is that the above powerful men lined up to scapegoat Dr Kelly as part of their self-serving tricks. This is widely viewed by critics as a faceless ploy to absolve the embittered Labour government that is stuck in the quagmire of faking documents which Blair and company used to sanction the wanton US-led invasion of Iraq. Dr Kelly was inadvertently named as the oily and leaking valve through which the government-controlled British Broadcasting Corporation�s Andrew Gilligan extracted transgressions of "sexing up" the dossier � to make it more appealing, juicy and acceptable to the British public. The other dimension that makes Dr Kelly a sacrificial lamb is that he is vilified as a mere scientist caught up in another war of words between Downing Street and the BBC. This brings us to fundamental questions on the role and "independence" of the media. If Downing Street�s Alastair Campbell, with Tony Blair�s blessings, is primed to bring the BBC under Number 10�s effective control in terms of censorship and functional operations, why should the Zimbabwean Government be told by Western imperialism to "democratise" broadcasting through "privatisation"? Secondly, if the BBC remains one of many mouthpieces of the British government (So as CNN to the US), why should these political savages preach to us on how we should cast on our Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation news? It is high time we append the words "government-controlled" each time we refer to the BBC! It remains unequivocal that Dr Kelly was a victim of his own conscience that had built up in him in a dirty biological warfare profession spanning for more than twenty years. After obtaining a PhD at Oxford, he worked in Britain�s top chemical and biological laboratories doing what he was exceptionally good at � developing weapons of mass destruction and exporting technological advances in anthrax and nerve gas to other nations including Iraq. He chaired panels that quizzed defectors from Iraq and he had wide access to a great deal of intelligence material. He worked under United Nations, co-ordinating intelligence and comparing notes with the CIA. Yet under the patina of these great achievements, the West, for advancing the causes of imperialism, held Dr Kelly in deep respect. His only dramatic failure was that he allowed himself to be the fall-out guy who was incompetent to deal with publicity and limelight. He tragically paid a heavy price for this. A very sad story indeed. In defining the images of the barbaric Iraq invasion, the opposition and anti-war movements in Britain have highlighted the question of establishing sources and authenticity of the "doggy dossier" as a side road show which has been "manufactured" to divert attention from wider political issues. The critical issue is that Britain participated in the Iraq invasion on false and exaggerated pretences. Middle England, the Labour Party�s power base, has been quick to notice this "pillow fight" that is threatening to sink the Labour Party to new depths of uncharted waters through "spin". It has been suggested that the big four named culprits who are now as far removed from reality and the people as the Labour Party itself is must be brought down crushing to earth. Besides this catch twenty-two situation of dealing with post Iraq invasion problems, Middle England has borne the brunt of poverty, crime, prostitution and unemployment. The manufacturing industry is in a meltdown state due to Britain�s self damaging "splendid isolation" policy and its refusal to adopt the euro. The service industry has literally gone down the drain. Unions have deserted the Labour Party as the government continues to threaten and repress industrial democracy within workplaces. Critics in UK have compared the National Health Service of one of the so-called first world G7 countries to that of the Third World. Reforms in the judiciary have been haphazard as Blair and his cronies dictate them without making wider consultations. The government is increasingly finding it hard to uphold the rule of law as they seek to contain racial tensions in deprived inner city areas. Their jails are bursting to the seams with dangerous criminals. In this part of the world, the question of integrity forms the umbilical cord with one�s personality. To lie is to be dishonourable and despicable. To frame somebody for political mileage and patronage is in itself a suicidal act that the government ill-affords. Unfortunately, the Labour government�s top leadership continues to be named and shamed in the tug of war over Iraq. The situation is pathetic to the extent that for the so-called 18 standing ovations that Blair received in the US Congress last week, he would receive 18 curses the moment he opens his mouth to address his own parliament! It must be pointed out that his own inner circle has pointed out Blair�s dictatorial tendencies in government. Maniacs like Claire Short, Peter Mandleson, Mo Mowlan, Ken Livingstone, Glenda Jackson and Gordon Brown are "dark horses and vultures" playing games all the time in the matrices of power struggles. Blair has made a unilateral refusal to set up a judicial inquiry to investigate the British involvement in the Iraq invasion. His wife is known to personally telephone MPs to pressurise them into supporting doggy government Bills in parliament � and this is "real democracy". Blair has been accused of constantly overshadowing his Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, on matters of foreign policy. In short, Tony Blair has operated above his own party, parliament and electorate with impunity. They think he is untouchable and way above the law but at one stage President Robert Mugabe had to remind Blair that he (Blair) is an armature in politics. If at all, Blair is in total blackout, having failed to kick start this generator of political regeneration. His days at number 10 are certainly numbered! l Mwana wa-Mujere Mararike is a farmer based in Buhera. The
Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
