By Reason Wafawarova in SYDNEY, Australia (13/03/08)

THE harmonised elections approach, invoking excitement rivalled only by the build-up to the first democratic general election of March 1980.

The prevailing socio-economic hardships are obviously the major driving factor behind the heightened political interest in the hearts of the ordinary Zimbabwean today. It would not be surprising if even the apolitical Jehovah’s Witnesses contemplate a temporary waiver of their beliefs just to be part of this very exciting process.

The excitement has obviously led to some bizarre and weird happenings as many people, mainly urbanites, are trying to justify their flip-flop political positions with every assertion imaginable. At a time like this, under-achieving and mediocre soldiers like Retired Major Kudzai Mbudzi can afford to pretend to be masterminds of political think-tanks and a sizeable group of admirers is still assured.

This is a time when over-ambitious and delusional characters like Simba Makoni can promise people that they can form a government from thin air and still find admirers and followers. Makoni can at this time afford to fake a CV on his website and his followers do not really care.

This writer found the part that chronicles Makoni’s stay at the Ministry of Energy, at the then Sadcc and at Zimpapers reminiscent of a funeral eulogy where there is basically no point in highlighting the failures of the departed. Of course, Makoni is not yet departed although he is departing from politics on March 29. Nevertheless, his followers will read his CV as is and will expect the whole nation to emulate their foolishness.

These are, indeed, exciting times.

These are times when humiliated, defeated and sidelined politicians like Dumiso Dabengwa can afford to walk up to the stage of an auditorium pretending to be political heavyweights, even when their constituencies long rejected them, and still get an applauding from the crowd.

This is a time when people like Ibboston Day Joseph aka Mandaza can afford to pretend to be in the process of gunning down political giants and still manage to fool a sizeable crowd with their puerile antics.

This is a time when the likes of Morgan Richard Tsvangirai can, for the first time, begin to see the reality of our democratic Zimbabwe by campaigning peacefully without squeaking and squealing about non-existent intimidation and imaginary militias. Even the zealous Nelson Chamisa appears to have stopped affixing an MDC tag to every dead person in Zimbabwe, never mind the cause of the death.

Tsvangirai believes these times present a ripe opportunity to go back to the people and remind them that his promise that the people would "go lacking for sure" has now been fulfilled through the sanctions he so passionately mobilised and he has the temerity and audacity to go around Zimbabwe dangling a US$10 billion "rescue package" in exchange for votes.

What cheek!

These are times when Arthur Guseni Oliver Mutambara reconnects with his true student politician-self and runs for Zengeza West cover shouting that he is supporter number one for the highly delusional Makoni, who promptly refuses to associate with him.

How hilarious!

Even this comic show by King Arthur does seem to have found a sizeable group of admirers in these exciting times.

When Dabengwa captains people like Fay Chung, Margaret Dongo, Wilson Kumbula, Kindness Paradza and Cyril Ndebele in a line-up meant to showcase political heavyweights, the normal expected reaction from Zimbabweans would be explosion into raucous laughter.

However, these are exciting times and there is this desperate group of urbanites that is in no mood for laughter and would even endorse this writer as the only brother of Jesus Christ if only he came up saying there is none like unto Makoni!

These are times when the EU, the US and the Commonwealth can afford to blissfully overlook their own travel bans and sanctions on Zimbabwe and its Government officials and can afford to consider such barbaric measures benign and, in that vein, expect an invitation to observe the March elections from the very people they have ruthlessly made to suffer over the past eight years.

The mere fact that the West expected an invitation from the Government is an absolute absurdity. The fact that the realisation that the West has not been invited is seen as surprising and unfair by the Westerners and their lackeys in the MDC just goes to show the intensity and depth of the superiority complex in the minds of those in Brusssels, the White House and Whitehall along with the inferiority complex in sections of the African population that idolises them.

Indeed, these are exciting times where even enemies are expecting not only to dine with their foes, but also to abuse their foes’ hospitality by creating chaos at the dining table. The desperate group of urbanites will blissfully argue for the invitation of Westerners while they will continue to see nothing wrong with the sanctions imposed on their own country by the very people they would want to observe the coming election.

Indeed, these are exciting times and even traditional political clowns like Job Sikhala have been sidelined to the spectator role by new revelations like Big, sorry, Major Mbudzi and Ibbotson Joseph.

In all this, who is the centre of attraction? Who is the powerful force that makes even delusional rookie politicians like Makoni gain recognition even after entering the political arena with only 59 days before the fixture date?

This force is none other the revolutionary masses of Zimbabwe under the able leadership of President Robert Mugabe.

This is a force that has triumphed against all odds, leaving in its trail the likes of Tony Blair, John Howard and very soon George W. Bush. It is a revolutionary force that has withstood the austerity of sanctions and attempted isolation. It is a force whose drive is an aspiration for self-determination and total emancipation for the masses of Zimbabwe.

This revolutionary force of Zimbabwe is so much similar to that of Cuba. When Fidel Castro made an announcement on February 19 that he would not stand in the election by Cuba’s National Assembly (AN) for the position of president, the Western media coverage has ranged from grudging acknowledgement of Cuba’s social gains in the face of 50 years of US aggression, to outrageous claims of the end of a "dictatorship" and US government plans for a "transition to democracy".

The media coverage has also been full of speculation that a new president could open the restoration of capitalism in Cuba, often presented as "bringing democracy", via a series of "reforms".

The March 29 election for Zimbabwe has received a reaction from the West — a reaction far too similar to the one seen in Cuba’s AN election. The Western media have grudgingly acknowledged President Mugabe’s popular support base — all in the face of eight years of British-coordinated aggression and a slanderous negative media campaign. The outrageous claims of a "dictatorship" in Zimbabwe have not ceased and Western plans for a "transition" in Zimbabwe have been highlighted directly and via the insidious mouths of Makoni and Tsvangirai.

Just like with Cuba, the Western media coverage of Zimbabwe has been full of speculation that a new president could open the path for capitalist domination in the country and, of course, the catchphrases for that are "re-engagement", one of Makoni’s favourites; "restoration of the rule of law", Tsvangirai’s favourite; and terms like "bringing democracy", "land audit" and "respecting property rights".

With all the speculation on Cuba about a US-led "transition to democracy", the 614-member AN elected Raul Castro to the position of Cuban President, taking over from his more illustrious brother whose image as the quintessential bearded guerilla came to symbolise Cuba’s revolution since the popular overthrow of US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

This move by the AN to elect Raul as the new leader on February 24 was a big blow to Western expectations of a young and reformist successor to Fidel. Since 2006, when Castro went down with intestinal surgery, the West has been circling over Cuba like vultures and they have portrayed the Cuban revolution as a one-man show, with the people of Cuba passive spectators or long suffering victims.

This is exactly what we have seen with Zimbabwe’s agrarian revolution. The whole revolution has been reduced to "Mugabe’s unsound policies", with Zimbabwean people reduced to passive spectators or long-suffering victims. The role of suffering victims has been played with outstanding excellence by the economic refugees masquerading as victims of political persecution and torture in Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

They prefer to call themselves asylum seekers or failed asylum seekers and the love of money has hardened these unpatriotic people into unrepentant liars.

The Western view on both Cuba and Zimbabwe totally ignores the actual history of the two countries’ respective revolutions. For Cuba, it is a history made and maintained despite bitter hostility and an economic strangulation imposed by the world’s most powerful nation just 90 miles away. According to Cuban statistics, the strangulation has cost the country US$89 billion.

The UN General Assembly has voted every year for the last 15 years for the US to end its blockade but, of course, the US believes there is no such thing as the UN, as John Bolton would put it.

The Western view disregards the actual demographic process taking place in Cuba, and is a continuation of the propaganda war of the US and corporate interests against the island.

The Cuban revolution, however, remains an inspiration to millions of people in the developing world for its anti-imperialist struggle and social gains, both of which Cuba has sought to extend globally.

The Western view on Zimbabwe has ignored the history made and maintained despite bitter British hostility and a well-coordinated economic strangulation imposed by the EU, the Commonwealth and the US all put together. They reckon the eight-year onslaught on the small Southern African country has had a benign effect on the economy — blaming every ill on the person of President Mugabe.

They ignore the Government’s outstanding fight against HIV and Aids prevalence with committed abandon. The West will never acknowledge the number of former landless families now settled on productive land and all that the world is told is these families comprise "unskilled" people who have "killed" agriculture. There is obviously a world of difference between having no skills and having no inputs, but the West will maintain that failure to secure adequate inputs is exactly one and the same thing as having no farming skills.

Like the Cuban revolution, Zimbabwe’s land revolution is an inspiration to millions of people in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. It is this global influence that makes imperialism fight back with an undying resolve.

Cuba has sent tens of thousands of volunteer doctors to provide free health care in dozens of countries just like Zimbabwe has provided thousands of health professionals to Western countries like Australia, New Zealand and Britain. Cuba’s volunteer doctors are currently operating in 68 countries and Cuba has offered free education for thousands of students from poor backgrounds globally, including from Zimbabwe and, believe it or not, from the US as well.

Cuba made world history when the Castro government sent troops to partner Angolan troops in fighting off mercenaries and invading apartheid South African forces in the 1970s and 80s.

Nelson Mandela — just after being freed from Robben Island, and before being nurtured into a successful candidate for a statue at Britain’s Trafalgar Square — was in Havana in July 1991 and he called the Cuban victory over South African forces in Angola a "milestone in the history of the struggle for the Southern African liberation".

He explained: "The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom and justice unparalleled for its principled and selfless character. We in Africa are used to being victims of countries wanting to carve up our territory or subvert our sovereignty. It is in unparalleled in African history to have another people rise to the defence of one of us."

Zimbabwe, to a lesser extent but much like Cuba, was also in the thick of the forests of Angola in the early nineties as they helped end the menace brought on Angolan civilians by the US-sponsored murderous Jonas Savimbi. Zimbabwe was also in Mozambique in the eighties and they helped end the barbaric killings of civilians by Alfonso Dhlakama’s US-sponsored Renamo.

In 1998, Zimbabwe, with allies Angola and Namibia, took on the US-sponsored rebels in the DRC and literally saved the Laurent Kabila government from imminent collapse. All the West will peddle about this war is the unfounded and unsubstantiated claims that army generals enriched themselves through corrupt conduct involving Congo’s minerals. They will not tell the world that their regime change adventure to install a puppet government in place of Laurent Kabila resulted in the death of tens of thousands of innocent civilians.

Cuba has learnt over the years to progress in the context of brutal aggression from the US. Zimbabwe has a lot of lessons to learn from the Cuban experience.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s main trading partner, was sweet music to the US as they ensured that the economic crisis of Cuba escalated. From 1991, Cuba went through an acute economic crisis, exacerbated by a tightened blockade from the US. This period was known in Cuban circles as the "Special Period" and it is a period very similar to the conditions under which Zimbabwe has found herself from the dawn of the 21st century. It is a period that has brought back the ills of the pre-independence era — the return of inequality, prostitution, poverty, inadequate medical provisions and so on and so forth.

For Cuba, a well-coordinated resistance to the pressure from the US tamed the "Special Period", and Cuba survived without surrendering some of its important social gains. The depths of that crisis are behind Cuba now, with its economy growing 7,5 percent in 2007, well above the Latin American average.

Zimbabwe has an opportunity to copy the Cuban experience and stir out of this economic crisis to be a shining example for Africa or chose to give the country back to imperialist domination through such willing agents as Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai.

Cuba’s revolutionary economic growth has largely been a result of a development of an organic, environmentally sustainable agricultural system, which now constitutes 95 percent of its output. According to the figures released by the World Wildlife Fund for the 2007 Living Planet report, only one country — Cuba — met the requirements for sustainable development.

This is a lesson from which Zimbabweans can learn before the March 29 poll. It is a lesson for the majority of the masses with a determination to make the agrarian reform programme a resounding success. It is a lesson only achievable through an election victory for the revolution. The March election is a war against counter-revolutionary forces. It is a war against the sponsored reactionaries within the midst of Zimbabwe’s population. It is a war against the circling Western vultures waiting for a Mugabe exit with a bitter and cruel goal of re-establishing the pre-2000 imperialist set-up, especially in the agricultural sector.

This election for many might mean voting on an empty stomach with a working brain and a well-motivated aspiration for a better future. Those who in their youth proved to be young and clever by joining the armed struggle have now developed into wise old men and women while those who proved to be young and foolish by absconding the struggle have now grown to be unwise old men and women, teaming up with a section of a confused youth to take back the country into the hands of the former oppressors. Surely such people cannot be allowed to carry the day on March 29. Indeed, such a disservice to the nation will not be allowed to happen.

Ours is a seething anti-imperialist and anti-domination struggle and in this war defeat is not an option.

It’s homeland or death, children of Zimbabwe. Together we shall overcome.