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Welcome to USAGOLD's "Gilded
Opinion" pages.
We invite you to browse our index
of outstanding gold-based commentary.
(Back to Holger Jensen Index)
While we find Mr. Jensen's columns particularly informative with respect to foreign affairs, his opinions do not necessarily represent those of Centennial Precious Metals, USAGOLD, its management and clientele.
INSIDE FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Africa suffers still from
non-retiring despots
by Holger Jensen, International Editor
Democracy in Africa is still an iffy proposition. Since shaking off the shackles of colonial rule, the continent has had far too many presidents trying to get "for life" tagged onto their titles.
Zambia is a good example. It was ruled for 27 years by President Kenneth Kaunda, leader of the nation's independence movement against Britain, who went on to dominate a one-party state until he finally allowed elections in 1991.
His successor, Frederick Chiluba, was a born-again Christian but he too grew thirsty for power. After all, he had only to look around him; seven of Zambia's eight neighbors, including Zimbabwe, had at one time or another suffered presidents with a distinct distaste for term limits.
Last year Chiluba tried to change Zambia's constitution so he could seek a third term. Six of his Cabinet ministers were beaten up for objecting. And members of Parliament who didn't vote for the constitutional amendment were thrown out of his Movement for Multiparty Democracy, a misnomer if there ever was one.
But popular opposition to a third term for Chiluba mounted and in the end many of the president's aides, some aspirants for the office themselves, deserted him. He backed down in May after his own party turned against him and donor nations threatened to cut off aid.
While Zambia is stable by the standards of neighboring Zimbabwe, it remains a basket case. None of the prosperity and democracy that Chiluba promised 10 years ago has materialized. Income per person is just $231 a year and 83 percent of its 10 million people live below the poverty line, according to a recent report by the World Food Program.
Transparency International also rates Zambia as one of the world's most corrupt countries, in the company of Nigeria, Pakistan and Russia. And vote buying was rampant during the Dec. 29 presidential election.
Thus it was no surprise when Levy Mwanawasa, a lawyer who had been Chiluba's first vice president and hand-picked successor to lead the governing party, was proclaimed the winner. Certainly the MMD was in no position to win. Weakened by the earlier exodus of MPs and Cabinet members, it faced strong opposition from at least 10 other parties that immediately cried foul.
A European Union monitoring mission agreed, citing "clear, glaring irregularities." But State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said opposition claims of ballot stuffing and other fraud could not be confirmed. "We think opposition groups need to be more specific in their allegations," he said.
Mwanawasa was sworn in Wednesday a few hours after a Zambian judge cleared the way for his inauguration by rejecting an opposition petition to force a recount. And the new president immediately warned his critics to call off street protests or "face the full force of the law."
The most interested spectator of all this was Robert Mugabe, the only president Zimbabwe has ever had in its 21 years of independence. The aging despot, who turns 78 next month, has done everything he can to cow his opponents but faces a strong electoral challenge in March from Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change.
The MDC only narrowly lost parliamentary elections in June 2000, despite a massive campaign of intimidation by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, and its support has grown because of Mugabe's misrule.
Inflation is 100 percent and rising, interest rates are above 70 percent and unemployment is estimated at 60 to 80 percent. Investor confidence in Zimbabwe is nil and foreign aid has dried up because of Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks. What he calls "land reform" has caused severe shortfalls in food production and export crops. Crippled by a lack of fuel and foreign exchange, Zimbabwe now faces famine.
Unfazed by this looming disaster, Mugabe launched his bid for re-election by declaring "real war" on his opponents. This translated into rising political violence against the predominantly black MDC, stepped up farm seizures and a host of new laws suppressing freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and even freedom to vote.
Above all, Mugabe does not want his election monitored by Europeans. As his tame mouthpiece, the Herald newspaper, put it, Zambia's election "revealed the obnoxious interference of the European Union in African affairs."
January 5, 2002
Send your questions to international editor Holger Jensen, who will answer one each day. E-mail: hjens@aol.com
Copyright © 2001 The E.W. Scripps Co. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted by USAGOLD with permission of Mr. Jensen. No further reproduction without permission.
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