When hope dies

Hope has all but totally died out in Zimbabwe. That is the essence of what is happening in the country today. As I write, a run-off vote is taking place, many weeks after initial presidential elections took place, but the results of which were delayed because President (and incumbent) Robert Mugabe's followers were caught with their pants down after it came to light that they had come second-place.

Veteran BBC correspondent John Simpson, in this melancholy report, writes that the violence, intimidation, killings and arbitrary arrests and imprisonments, stem from this humiliation. It is as if Mugabe, the grand old man of Zimbabwean politics, and the architect of its very collapse, has told his citizenry that this would be the price for resistance, even to obvious electoral shams.

MDC candidate, and official contender for the Presidency, Morgan Tsvangirai, is now hiding in the Dutch embassy, where he is fearing for his life. Mobs of pro-Mugabe vigilantes are scouring the country, checking citizenry if they have voted for Mugabe, while the President himself is assured of a victory, since Tsvangirai officially pulled out of the election. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, without surprise, says it came too late to remove his name from the ballots, presenting two challenges: easier means to identify those casting protest votes against Mugabe, and more window-dressing legitimacy for the unchallenged incumbent.

What comes out of these past weeks, a topic worth examination in itself, is the conduct of South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, who has maintained a platform of "quiet diplomacy," which really amounts to silence in the wake of Mugabe's conduct. Mbeki's conduct has precedent, and goes back to the beginnings of his administration. This New York Review of Books article gives a primer into South Africa's role. Nelson Mandela has come out to criticize Mugabe, but a tad-bit too late, it seems.

This development is becoming far more ridiculous as times goes on. It must show just to what low levels Mugabe's government has dropped, to be engaging in such insults to democracy and ordinary intelligence. Were it not so tragic and impact-ridden, I would wage that Mugabe would be the subject of a really bad comedy. As things look now, it seems we will be dealing with the Zimbabwean President for yet another five-year term...unless, of course, something happens to him personally, but which is a different subject in and of itself.